First some news blips. As if Putin's desperate gambles (supported by fellow autocracies) weren't enough: "Russia is ramping up malign disinformation campaigns against France, French President Emmanuel Macron, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), aiming to disrupt or discredit this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris."
As for President Biden's semi clamp-down at the U.S. border: he should accompany this with a warning to the leaders of Nicaragua, Guatemala, Venezuela etc.
"You are waging war against your own people, making them refugees and hurling them at us. You assume that crime will then turn us into paranoid fascists. The experiment worked a bit, when Putin did it to Eastern Europe. And it's already worked on some U.S. citizens. So here's the deal. We must clamp down a bit on our deep American nature of welcoming kindness... just a bit and for a while. Only meanwhile, YOU cruel tyrants had better watch it. Waging war on your own people, you are also waging war on us."
(BTW any leftists raging against this ought to go talk to U.S. Latino & Latina citizens, who have wanted this border action for a long time. Then talk to liberals in Poland, Hungary etc. about the success Putin had with this tactic, transforming European politics. If you want good things (continuing the massive progress of the 2021-22 Pelosi bills) then you need power. And that entails prioritizing.)
This and much else can be found in Polemical Judo.
== How to win ==
Alas, four years after I published it, to help in the 2020 election, there's not a single chapter or page of my book about political tactics that is obsolete. Roughly 100 proposed methods that would likely be useful right now, at this critical time...
...and not one of those proposed tactics has been taken up or used. Not by any blue politicians or leaders. Not one of the 'generals' on the blue, Union side in this desperate phase of the recurring, 240 year US Civil War. As appalling as the confederate side's treasonous madness is the blue/union/democracy side's utter ineptitude at polemics... and dullard refusal to consider any fresh ideas.
I'll offer my book again, online. I can promise it'll be entertaining and eye-opening! Take a look at... Polemical Judo: Memes for Our Political Knife-fight.
== One potential disaster … averted? ==
Remember in May when Earth got slammed by a Solar Coronal Mass Ejection… or sun-storm of ions hurled our way, in one of the largest such events recorded? Millions got to see aurorae as far south as Florida or as far north as Brisbane. And yet, there appeared to be none of the predicted fizzling and popping of power systems and fried computers. Oh, we’re not completely out of the woods… and this is no guarantee that a sharply pulsed and localized EMP event, triggered by some desperate Earthly foe, won’t knock us back on our heels. But it does seem – tentatively – that desperate tyrants have to write off one of their ‘mad-gamble-weapons’. Which brings up a longstanding topic of mine…
A fundamental trait of any society is resilience: Never was it more relevant to discuss what we should have done by now... and can still do... to help our nations, civilization and families be more robust against the batterings of fate. Especially in a year when desperate foes might EMP us, or AI hallucinations run wild, or electricity nets fail, or...
In this "interview I recently did on resiliency", come see where I dissect a dozen areas we should be doing more, while prepper lords build refuge redoubts to ride out some coming 'Event.'
== More mundane… and terrifying political crises ==
Ever more, it seems that the United States Supreme Court has been (the majority) suborned into an instrument of enemies of the Republic.
Justice Breyer Says SCOTUS Risks Creating “A Constitution That No One Wants.”
(* Just as Roger Taney's top job was to protect the Fugitive Slave Act. History will rank them together.)
It seems like no week passes without more evidence of rabid partisanship or outright corruption by at least four of the six blatant right wingers on this court.
But time passes. And they know that the 2024 election may affect even them. And as far as the oligarchy is concerned, keeping copntrol over the Supreme Court is even more important than Congress or the Presidency.
I wrote the preceeding paragraphs before the RNC and the choice as running mate - by ol' Two Scoops - of JD Vance, who is now self-immolating almost every day. And certainly we must gird ourselves for when/if Trump tells Kant Dance to ease himself out, on any excuse...
...and/or when/if the oligarchs say the same thing to Donald Trump.
Which is why I am daring to offer wagers (of course I must be given odds) that Donald Trump will no longer be the GOP nominee, by November. Amid his brownshirt/MAGA ravings, some of them (the few with actual knowledge) can recall how the Prussian aristocracy lost control of their Nazi tools, in 1934. They are desperate to set up a Bush-type tool and Nikki Haley is the Bush-in-waiting. But that means she must suck up to MAGA now, in calibrated ways.
This Great White Hope is why the Romney wing has made no move quite yet, risking all our lives, in this scheme to set up Bush III. Though I will mention one more name you haven't heard in a while, because the Crown Prince of Bushism has been biding his time.
Paul Ryan. Look for either of these names to come up, if JD (kant dance) Vance continues to self-immolate.
Of course, never forget that we got Bush II because the fripper-flakes on the left flounced off to Kremlin agent Nader ... and then they flounced to the KGB's Jill Stein and gave us Trump. In both cases, their betrayal of the only coalition that can save civilization, was indefensible. But now?
Well, Kamala appears to have staunched that self-destructive lefty-flake reflex, as Obama did. Still, you freepers be on notice. Do it again and we will remember you. This time, we won’t forget.
== Is body shaming a legit tactic? No… but PARENTAL failures are! ==
Why fall for the trap of body shaming? Late-night comics are always making personal appearance cheap shots. (The fact that Donald Trump turns himself into a glowing pumpkin is what's important, not any of the fat jokes. Didn't make-up-wearing males used to draw ridivule from macho-ists?)
Anyway, there's something far more devastating based on the biblical passage "By their fruits you shall know them." And sure, economic outcomes are always better from Democratic administrations, and they get <1% as many indicted appointees. (I do not exaggerate. Step up with wager stakes!)
But no, I mean something closer to that passage.
Why does no one tabulate the lives of the children of those who lecture to us about family values? From Palin to Boebert to Green to Trump to so many others, GOP officials and lawmakers' 'fruits' appear to average as stunning examples of failed parenting.
Is that why they so frantically attack poor Hunter? Without ever even naming a crime? Sure, a black sheep. Though when your brother was a spectacularly great American like Beau Biden, the average 'fruit' quality was still pretty damn high... Anyway I'd compare HB's entire life to any random month of any of the Trump boys.
And anyway... that part... the Hunter part... is over now.
Never mind that. Let's just see a statistical outcomes comparison of fruits! And wager me what'll be the outcome? Like rates that GOP pols' kids have trouble with the law or out-of-wedlock children. Or the fact that blue state sex education inarguably results in lower rates of STDs, teen pregnancy and abortion... and even rates of teen sex... than the puritanical finger-wag "sex ed" offered in red states!
Red States (except Utah) where rates of nearly every turpitude average higher than the averages in Blue States!
(Bets? First, look up the word 'turpitudes.' And include net tax-parasitism on the rest of the nation. Then recite aloud the Seven Deadly Sins... and TRY not to think of Donald Trump in every case?)
Our delusional neighbors use assertions as fact-canceling incantations. But I find that one phrase - "Let's bet $$!" - often rocks them back. They blink, suddenly remembering that facts and assertions are very different things. And - despite their macho - they run.
== Again, it’s TACTICS, stupid ==
Referring to testimony by former Trump confidant and lawyer Michael Cohen, Jim Wright on his Stonekettle posting says: "You know, I've had bad days. But it was never sitting in court listening as they read your name into the historical record forever as "Vonshitzinpants" bad."
Go ahead and giggle. But while giggling, alas, no one seems capable of using such things tactically!
The best thing The Lincoln Project could do is not just list all the former Trumpists who now denounce him. Sure, it numbers over a hundred. But next tabulate them… and finally punch it with:
"Trump has been 'betrayed' by more appointees who he formerly called "great guys!!" than all other U.S. presidents... combined. You can make up stories about that all you like, but one fact is indisputable.
"Donald Trump is a crappy judge of character."
That’s the sort of jiu-jitsu tactic that I offer in Polemical Judo.
Moreover, if you can get anyone on any Democratic campaign - even the assistant staffer on a race for city council - to ask me, I'll send a PDF for free. But I'll not put in the same kind of effort as I did in 2019 and 2020. The book is utterly pertinent as ever. I do have more to add...
...but why should I bother?
== Finally... ==
Finally, might this be your most-influential political act?
Right now Democratic Party mavens are measuring how many new, individual donors each of the VP front runners are bringing in. Thus you can influence Kamala Harris's choice, simply by being a $5 New Donor for any of the top candidates.
Just sayin'
229 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 229 of 229Nice, Dave. So now in addition to poo and my mother, you've brought rape into the picture. All for daring to suggest the shocking, shocking! possibility that the proven liars who lied us into all manner of atrocity could've possibly done so yet another time. You're really showing the world that you are a class act whose reputation for fearless following the truth wherever it may lead with utmost intellectual honesty is very well-earned.
Nothing I have asserted here is contrary to verifiable fact. It really strains my credulity that the hypothesis that I'm some sort of paid operative is still seriously being considered, but I guess I'm a hopeless optimist in human reasonability.
Alright, so what's next on the agenda? Does anybody want to call me a kiddie fiddler?
"...only thing I could think of involves ensuring they all get laid. Often. Very often...."
"Sir, our tests show you have exceeded 2.5 on the Levenson Self-Report. Congratulations! Your very own Marilyn Monrobot will be shipped to you as soon as you provide the specifications...."
Pappenheimer
Oh, I see our fearless leader has been deleting my comments as well. Rather anodyne and lighthearted ones, at that. Sad. Alright, if that's how this is gonna go then I'll stop wasting my time on you deadenders. Just try to put up a bit more of a stink as we are hornswoggled into marching unblinkingly into WWIII, eh?
Him: Ukraine never wanted this war.
Me: I heard Zelenskyy refuse the offer of asylum and instead ask for the means to fight back.
Him: See? That shows I was right. It's all America's fault.
Me: ? That reminds me of something...
* * *
From the 1986 "Dark Knight" revival of the Batman mythos:
"Yes, Merv. I am convinced of Harvey's innocence. However, I won't go so far as to say I'm sure he didn't commit the crime.
"I know that sounds confusing. These things often do to the layman. But I'll try to explain without getting overly technical. You see, it all gets down to this Batman fellow.
"Batman's psychotic/sublimative/psych-erotic behavior pattern is like a net. Weak-egoed neurotics like Harvey are drawn into corresponding, intersticing patterns.
"You might say Batman commits the crimes using his so-called villains as narcissistic proxies."
Heh. Don't anyone tell him about the new comments page after 200.
Him: Ukraine never wanted this war.
Me: I heard Zelenskyy refuse the offer of asylum and instead ask for the means to fight back.
Him: See? That shows I was right. It's all America's fault.
Me: ? That reminds me of something...
* * *
From the 1986 "Dark Knight" revival of the Batman mythos:
"Yes, Merv. I am convinced of Harvey's innocence. However, I won't go so far as to say I'm sure he didn't commit the crime.
"I know that sounds confusing. These things often do to the layman. But I'll try to explain without getting overly technical. You see, it all gets down to this Batman fellow.
"Batman's psychotic/sublimative/psych-erotic behavior pattern is like a net. Weak-egoed neurotics like Harvey are drawn into corresponding, intersticing patterns.
"You might say Batman commits the crimes using his so-called villains as narcissistic proxies."
Him: Ukraine never wanted this war.
Me: I heard Zelenskyy refuse the offer of asylum and instead ask for the means to fight back.
Him: See? That shows I was right. It's all America's fault.
Me: ? That reminds me of something...
From the 1986 "Dark Knight" revival of the Batman mythos:
"Yes, Merv. I am convinced of Harvey's innocence. However, I won't go so far as to say I'm sure he didn't commit the crime.
"I know that sounds confusing. These things often do to the layman. But I'll try to explain without getting overly technical. You see, it all gets down to this Batman fellow.
"Batman's psychotic/sublimative/psych-erotic behavior pattern is like a net. Weak-egoed neurotics like Harvey are drawn into corresponding, intersticing patterns.
"You might say Batman commits the crimes using his so-called villains as narcissistic proxies."
And for some reason, Blogger won't let me post the "Dark Knight" excerpt it reminds me of.
Oh, well. The punchline was: "You might say Batman commits the crimes using his so-called villains as narcissistic proxies."
I suspect some of his posts that he blames our host for deleting are also vanishing into the Blogger ether.
Ah, thank you Larry for alerting me to page 2. If dear leader tells us he didn't delete my comment praising Alan's funny KGB pun then I'll believe him, but it's my going assumption for now.
You’re almost certainly not competent enough to be a paid operative.
Curses! Foiled again.
If he deleted your comment, it would say "This comment has been removed by the blog administrator." However, if blogger just disappears it for its own particular reason, then it vanishes without a trace.
Vance is weird. Trump is weird. Conservatives are weird. Masculine men are weird. Whites are weird. Heterosexuals are weird. And Christians are weird.
Weird (adj)
1. An alternative belief system, suggestive of or relating to the supernatural;
2. Odd, eerie, strange, bizarre, queer, deviant, aberrant and abnormal;
3. Archaic, associated with & related to the idea of fate or destiny.
Weird is the word of the day.
This term works (first) as a defamatory slur to indicate deviancy, aberrancy, minority & out-group status, (second) as an Orwellian subterfuge which attempts to redefine the statistically accurate NORM of a western white, christian, masculine & heterosexual majority as its opposite and (fourthly) as a most telling form of self-ownership (aka 'psychological projection') by an increasingly fractious, queer, deviant & bizarre coalition of progressive minority interests.
For we the *Whites* *Masculine* *Heterosexuals* *Christians*, WE REMAIN THE CLEAR MAJORITY IN THE WEST, at least for now, in spite and perhaps because of all of your Orwellian lies & disparagements.
We are the WEIRD by definition (as in 'Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich & Democratic') and we stand for everything that your increasingly queer, deviant, bizarre & unnatural coalition does not.
We THE MAJORITY will now stand against you, in accordance with the lesson of the Fasces, and we will win because it is our 'fate' (or, our 'weird', if you'd rather), and we have you progressives to thank because you've unified us by playing your hand of 'divide & conquer' way too soon.
Best
______
Grab some popcorn, folks, and watch the progressive coalition tear itself to pieces over the next few months. In both the EU & US -- Soon, Soon, Out go the lights -- as presaged by the recent outage in Paris.
"You’re almost certainly not competent enough to be a paid operative."
Haha. Thanks Alan. But idk, from the way you guys talk about them Rooskies, they sound like a bunch of bumbling incompetents. I would've thought our hapless leaders' failed predictions of counteroffensives and roubles in rubble would've disabused you of such things, but hey, what do I know? Victory is just around the corner, surely! Pay no attention to the fact that Russia is outproducing all of NATO combined and is turning its laughably overpriced Wunderwaffen into scrap with trivial ease. But hey, it's all just more dead Slavs and bloated profit for our noble piggies at the trough, so it's all good.
Thank you for the clarification re deleted comments, Larry. I've managed to find the deleted comment in my email. I guess it really did go into the ether due to digital gremlins. My apologies to Dave for the assumption of intentionality. Here is the comment:
"but then you need not be taken seriously" - Look, I don't want to be rude here, but the issue here is not whether you have verifiable proof of my real-world identity, but the number your propaganda bubble has done on your perceptions. You were more willing to take seriously the idea that I'm an LLM (lol!) than the idea that the people who lied you into Iraq and all the rest, lied you into yet another one. This is ridiculous, to put it mildly.
"Yet not a Cagey Bee" - Heh. Nicely done, sir. Fine, I'll come out and say it. I'm actually a dog. Haven't you heard that on the internet, nobody can tell if you are one?
Locumranch,
While I consider myself a progressive and do not relate to your reactionary vibe, I can see where you're coming from and cannot disagree with what you point out, how the so-called progressive agenda has been cynically weaponized and subverted to serve not-so-progressive ends. And you're right, storm's a'comin'. You point to the rottenness of the framing device that has cognitively captured libs like our gracious host, who only seem able to react to the narrowly-defined bogeyman Other Side, not realizing that the sum total of this two-step is a ratcheting ever-rightward. We have to see this thing for what it is and stop dignifying its phony, lobotomized logic.
Also, very nicely done "weird" pun there :)
Jeepers, thanks a lot, Larry! ;-)
Never mind. If it becme more than a mosquito irritant I will ban. But if I could learn to skim-ignore locum I guess we can all do the same with this poo-head. In fact, it has long amazed me how little of this shit we've gotten, in this era. There are theories as to why. Meanwhile...
...bzzzzzzzt... = zzzzzzzz
Ever the class act, Dave. Maybe I'll start going with Davie, to reflect your, shall we say, neotenous fascination with the fecal.
Don't worry, you can learn this daunting new skill, I believe in you!
Shades of Papa Lazarou?
@David: I knew about how the Korean UN resolution was passed thanks to Sov/Rus "boycott", but I didn't know about the Congo one. Thanks!
EVERY satrapy that’s been dominated by Moscow slips away and then hurries toward protective alliances, as soon as they can. And that's no one's fault but Russia's. They're terrible neighbors and worse overlords. But as long as the Kremlin mindset persists, Moscow won't notice, because they can't. Not "they don't wish to" -- can't. To comprehend that their neighbors despise them for cause, they'd have to comprehend that neighboring populations actually have agency and independent thought. But in the Kremlin mindset, ordinary people never, ever have agency; only power centers -- rulers, nobles, wealthy people, organizations, conspiracies -- can formulate actions.
Putinist incantations never speak of popular opinion, polls, votes, plebiscites, citizen rights, self-determination, or social movements because the Kremlin mindset is utterly certain that every-- EVERY-- report and result claiming "group X says/wants/believes/intends Y" is a Potemkin dumbshow. Actual distributed observation and decision-making isn't just against their worldview; they sincerely believe it cannot exist. Any efforts to show them reality are disregarded as enemy acts of propaganda before the first bit of data arrives. Any Russians who actually stop and pay attention are therefore fools who have been captured by the sinister anti-Russian forces who produce such propaganda.
(Is this sounding familiar to anyone?)
And Putin thus fears the encroaching NATO -- not because it will invade; as you say, he knows we'll never pre-emptively strike -- but because, as a Kremlin-mind, he can only see an empire expanding its sphere-of-influence at Russia's expense. And Ukraine standing up for itself pains him most of all because it explodes the notions of Pan-Slavism, Kievan-Russian fraternity, and Eurasianism that have been vital memetic tools for Moscow -- in some cases, since the Czars.
He cannot see an alliance of free peoples-- only an American Empire. It must be an empire, for in the Kremlin mindset, the only alternative is anarchy. It is stable, so it must be an empire. Thus it must ultimately be under Washington's influence and/or control, and anything seemingly to the contrary must be false. Thus if an action is taken that is against Moscow's will and that aligns resources with NATO, it must be due to the actions of someone in Washington. Therefore, in order to secure control over Ukraine, Putin believes he must disrupt the "source" of Ukrainian resistance: the US government.
At every step, Ukraine has been the highest priority in Moscow's meddling. Manafort was a point person for their "influenced" people in Kiev, then became Trump's campaign manager. Before anyone was really thinking about it, his top platform change for the GOP in 2016 was getting rid of support for Ukraine. It was an attempt to blackmail the Ukraine government that got Trump impeached the first time. And all the meddling through the last year -- even holding up aid to Israel! -- just to keep materiel from moving to the Ukrainian front.
Catfish 'n Cod,
Or could it be that Putin has a legitimate security concern in not wanting to be within striking range of missiles from an empire on a permanent war footing that sees no problem in throwing puppet state Slavs into the meat grinder it cries crocodile tears for from a safe distance? An empire that has shown itself to be "agreement incapable" in his apt words, as born out by its repeated failure to adhere to its own stated red lines because its permanent war footing has no off switch? America expects others to accept things it never would.
Insightful, Catfish. (Sorry I called you Craig.) I do disagree with "At every step, Ukraine has been the highest priority in Moscow's meddling." Well, it's viewed as an appetizer for correcting what Putin called 'history's worst tragedy -- the end of the Soviet Warsaw Pact empire. And Of Vlad's intent to push beyond to the Atlantic Ocean.
And beyond.
@Tony Fisk,
Or the Monty Python bit with "Let's have a ding dong"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GH7pfVvCII
Putin calling USSR's fall the greatest tragedy does not imply he wants to do something so foolish as expand across the Atlantic. Such imperial overstretch is America's style, and its undoing. He says what he means and vice versa, which is desiring territorial security for Russia. Sometimes that involves swatting neighbours that have suffered America's brand of "spreading democracy" and attendant belligerence.
Lol at the tankie troll "peacemaker" saying that sometimes Putin is allowed to swat at his neighbors iof they want self-determination.
This idiot cannot even keep his RT-inspired bullshit lines straight for 3 days.
I still maintain that this is yet another sock puppet from an old acquaintance. The idiocy is too on the nose and familiar.
Trump is just a school yard bully operating in the adult world.
And every school yard bully has a toady who eggs him on (like Butch and Worm in the Little Rascals, or those two kids that Ralphie beats up in a Christmas Story)
Trumps followers are "Worm" to his "Butch".
They egg him on because they like hurting people they hate (gays, trans, migrants, blacks, the educated, uppity women, etc.)
And trump's toxic narcissism feeds off that in a never ending feedback loop.
But when a school yard bully gets punched in the nose he always goes crying home to mama.
Which is what trump has been doing with his Truth Social posts the past few weeks as Harris kicks his arse.
Now I am still not happy with Joe being off the ticket.
But the chance to see Trump get the crap beat out of him by a black woman kinda makes it all worthwhile.
Heard on the Stephanie Miller radio show:
J.D. Vance is Vladimir Futon.
"I did not have sectional relations with that couch."
I love this little excerpt from Arthur Clarke's Imperial Earth:
For the last century, almost all top appointments on Terra had been made by random computer selection from the pool of individuals who had the necessary qualifications. It had taken the human race several thousand years to realize that there were some jobs that should never be given to the people who volunteered for them, especially if they showed too much enthusiasm. As one shrewd political commentator had remarked, "We want a president who has to be carried screaming and kicking into the White House--but then will do the best job he possibly can, so that he'll get time off for good behavior."
And on that note onward
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