Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I
have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s
time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when
nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other
countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very
few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the
issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas
or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our
crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties
in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s
true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and
darkness. Carl Sagan
Alan, could you find some better advertisers? This ad has been running on your site for days. Not only is it probably fake news, it seems vaguely racist and misogynist.
I wonder what happened to all that criticism of the president taking the law into his own hands by bypassing Congress with his ‘Executive orders’? Didn’t that make Obama a ‘dictator in chief’? So far, that’s the only thing Trump has done!
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.–
Groucho Marx–
Trump has mastered this already
What he has mastered is a way to win the news cycle every day and to keep the opposition backing up.
As I kept pointing out in the campaign, Trump was strangling the Hillary campaign here and elsewhere. No one talked about why Hillary was so good and why her ideas were better.
I also kept telling people here that negative publicity can be a good thing – just look at how many airheads, nitwits or jerks we see in ads or commercials for various products.
Instead we got tricked into a pissing contest with the world champion pisser.
I kept saying all along that we were taking an approach that had a 0-16 won/loss record against Trump. Who here agreed with me, hmmm?
Trump took us off our game and has kept us off our game and there is no sign of the Left changing directions and presenting a superior agenda in a positive manner and staying on message to where our ideas dominate public discussion.
If we don’t change Trump will get reelected.
“What he has mastered is a way to win the news cycle every day and to keep the opposition backing up.”
Blame the media’s greed. pollsters not polling in the rural areas, high negativity numbers of the democratic candidate, the DNC failing to once again pay attention to it’s own principles and the working class of this country… yada yada yada.
Maybe you missed Saturdays event around the globe.
or what he and republicans have been doing beginning Friday ?
They want both our silence and complacency.
They will get neither.
We are not backing up…We are just getting started.
With or without the Democratic party if need be.
tRump and the republican party can’t dazzle us with brilliance
so they are attempting to baffle us with bullsh*t.
and they are out to screw everybody in the process….
only some of them don’t know it yet.
“Yada yada yada” – Swahili for “I can’t directly address your points.”
In my opinion, the main reason Hillary lost was we didn’t get our people to the polls.
Good grief, Trump got more Latino votes than Romney did. Had Obama voters showed up in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Hillary would have won.
There was another demo of women – I think it was women with a college education or something – where Trump got 53% of them to vote for him.
Over and over on this site and elsewhere I warned that we were treating Trump like a conventional candidate when he wasn’t. If he was, he would have been sunk after a few of his early dumbass comments during the campaign, but he just kept getting stronger.
Never play the other fellow’s game.
I’m a mediocre poker player. So I don’t play poker. I crush all comers at blackjack and backgammon though so that’s what I’ll play.
Trump is a blustering name-caller who uses that act as a smokescreen because when the discussion gets down to policy details, the Constitution and how our government operates he’s a fish out of water.
Bitching, name-calling and jeers from the peanut gallery do not constitute a superior alternative.
Trump pushed our buttons and we responded like a marionette and in the process we helped him strangle Hillary’s campaign here and elsewhere.
Hillary had a fine message but we ignored her.
During the campaign there were only a few blog posts here talking about how good Hillary was. I didn’t catch them all, but the last one I saw was during the convention.
Last night I was reading Alan’s Red, White and Liberal and he makes a nice point about nomenclature when it comes to the abortion issue. He refused to call it a pro choice vs. pro life issue. He talked about how it is a pro choice vs. anti choice issue. Then he went on to talk about refusing to allow the other side to determine the terms of the debate. He insists on using his own terms.
During the election Trump got away with determining terms, parameters and subjects each day.
To turn this around we are going to have to seize the initiative and refuse to pay him so much attention because it is more important to get our message out on various issues.
A large portion of the conversation needs to be us presenting superior ideas and plans in a positive way.
If all we do is bitch and jeer, Trump will win again.
Repeating an approach that now has an 0-17 won/loss record will yield predictable results.
We don’t have to change policies so much as we need to figure out ways to get our people to the polls and to expand those we appeal to.
Above I just got done remarking on how we should be dominant in rural and small town areas and not be clinging to cities on the fringe.
No one talked about why Hillary was so good and why her ideas were better. I kept saying all along that we were taking an approach that had a 0-16 won/loss record against Trump. Who here agreed with me, hmmm?
But seriously.
Neither Russian hacking nor voter suppression lost the election for Hillary.*
We let Trump hijack the entire conversation and forgot all about Hillary.
As Trump dumbass statements poured in, we failed to notice that despite our catcalling, he was climbing in the polls.
Over and over here, I said our “smug overconfidence” was going to cost us, but it seemed like everyone was undecided on just how massive Hillary’s landslide was going to be and didn’t want to hear it.
We didn’t get our people to the polls.
Even worse is it appears to me that few have learned their – our – lesson, and insist on pursuing an approach that now has an 0-17 won/loss record.
Good thing Alan changed the logo for this site from the map showing red and blue states.
It reminds me of when Nixon was run out of town and the reaction of the Republicans. Some, like Barry Goldwater, put the blame right where it belonged – on the shoulders of Nixon and his gang of crooks.
A significant portion of the GOP was unable to stand tall and admit their guy was so awful and so guilty. This weasel wing of the GOP chose to blame the messenger. They blamed the media, particularly the Washington Post and the New York Times for breaking all those Watergate stories.
Blaming the media rather than what the media reported became a mainstay for Rush Limbaugh and he attracted the weasel wing of the GOP and his career took off.
* Voter suppression and Russian hacking – that does not mean that we should not oppose them. The Democratic Party should be having regular voter registration fairs where we get people photo IDs or whatever else is in the way if we can’t change state laws.
The DNC should be organizing massive marches on Washington and in state capitols consisting of people who got health insurance through Obamacare. They should have done that when various states opted out.
When a cashier or someone else asks how I’m doing, I always reply,
“I’m loving life!”
Plenty of times this is not true, but I say it anyway. You see, I figure the car will go in the direction you steer it in, and that is where I want to be headed towards. Controlling and directing my thoughts this way are one way I deal with the depression that occasionally whomps me. I’d like to see this expression go viral.
In the same way, if we want positive results, we must point ourselves in a positive direction and doggedly continue, even when we are tugged in a negative direction.
Just look at how sour people on the Left are, and have been going back long before the election.
When the Tea Party magnified the ugliness in public discourse, the response of many of us has been to respond in kind, as if throwing fuel on a fire will extinguish it. No, the way to fight fire is with water, not fire.
During the election I tried to warn people, I kept saying Trump was strangling Hillary’s campaign on this site and elsewhere, but no one listened. Now Trump has stepped over the body of his strangling victim and is moving on to strangling liberalism here and elsewhere. If we continue on this path Trump will get reelected.
This used to be a site where one could come and get a positive, refreshing view of issues from a liberal perspective. It was, “those guys are wrong, and we have better ideas and here they are.”
Here is a song for our time and I wish people would think about it. It appeals to the old hippie in me and takes me back to so many discussions we had about peace, love and brotherhood. My favorite line: “I’d turn lies and hate to love and truth.”
yeah, I feel my old hippie stirring around in this old husk…I totally agree with you…All I ever wanted was to be left in peace to raise my family…I am feeling the old fight building in these old bones…I think tho, that with age, comes wisdom…I am not physically able to do what I used to do…but, I am much smarter, and hopefully much wiser, that I will be able to figure out how to be effective in my resistance to trump and the gop…OLD HIPPIES UNITE…. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/03a2268f7d04a917ac69aba05a06d25db3a1b558dadbff5838e0c678c70f1fe2.jpg
I almost could have reached out and touched this youngster as he walked past me…
Cool song, huh?
Think back at the major leaders of the Left over the decades. Ted & Bobby, Humphrey, Carter, Clinton, Wellstone, Obama and others.
They didn’t win and get important legislation passed by getting into pissing contests.
They prevailed when they put forth a positive message and superior plans and ideas that attracted voters.
They didn’t get elected by sliming the other guy. They put forth positive, hopefiul messages with superior ideas and we turned out to vote for them.
This time around, Hillary did a fine job but too damned many of us stayed home waiting to see the landslide.
Good grief, we should be dominant in rural areas, but we do such a lousy job of pointing out how our programs have been lifesavers for rural and small town America that the GOP has run us off, even as they cut the throats of those people.
amersham1046 January 21st, 2017 at 19:46
Lawyers Are Descending On Washington To Help Protesters–
https://www.buzzfeed.com/zoetillman/lawyers-descend-on-washington-to-aid-trump-protesters?utm_term=.dapqy0MzMw#.mgdZLGjqjk
amersham1046 January 21st, 2017 at 21:05
Five thoughts to sober up the morning after Trump–
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/01/thoughts-sober-morning-trump-170119134306093.html
Larry Schmitt January 22nd, 2017 at 17:49
How many Fox users you think have ever looked at Aljazeera? I bet their computers would explode.
amersham1046 January 22nd, 2017 at 18:11
Presstv.com (Irani) is always an interesting read
Hirightnow January 22nd, 2017 at 11:26
This is my laptop screen: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/06d5d697b56f556f986f7e6e5c87be553d8ee66214e726f72bd48f1308f18a21.jpg
…this is my tablet screen:
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/dragonball/images/2/20/VegetaJr.SS01.png/revision/latest?cb=20100310223038
….is there something wrong with me?
oldfart January 22nd, 2017 at 15:13
Nothing that getting out more often couldn’t fix.
I’m a recovering cowboy bee bop fan… ;)
Hirightnow January 22nd, 2017 at 15:36
I, myself, have “Bleach” issues…
oldfart January 22nd, 2017 at 15:14
…and before it gets too stale…
https://youtu.be/lCGCG_N2b30
Hirightnow January 22nd, 2017 at 15:40
GODS, that man’s skill!
oldfart January 24th, 2017 at 10:29
I envy the talent. It’s a little long but this one is less flashy…
https://youtu.be/adWo_774HBs
But it still ROCKS !
amersham1046 January 22nd, 2017 at 16:34
Spicer offers “alternative facts.”
Trump overstates inauguration crowd as Women’s March appears to draw bigger turnout–
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/womens-march-washington-route-change-turnout-trump-1.3946578
Hirightnow January 23rd, 2017 at 04:04
Who are you gonna believe? Your lying eyes, or us?
Hirightnow January 23rd, 2017 at 03:41
Because you people need this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U
Hirightnow January 23rd, 2017 at 03:54
The original, for those of you who may want it
eyelashviper January 23rd, 2017 at 17:51
Just have to share this, tidbits from Sean Spicer’s past, and in college he was called Sean Sphincter:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4146020/WH-Press-Sec-Spicer-s-media-grudge-began-college.html
amersham1046 January 23rd, 2017 at 20:45
Every little bit helps–
Nova Scotia village hosts one of the smallest women’s marches, but it’s still mighty–
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/women-s-march-on-washington-sandy-cove-digby-neck-donald-trump-1.2899568
dewired4u January 24th, 2017 at 01:14
Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I
have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s
time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when
nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other
countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very
few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the
issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas
or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our
crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties
in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s
true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and
darkness. Carl Sagan
Willys41 January 24th, 2017 at 17:12
Yeah, well, look at the people earning advanced degrees in the US and you’ll see that lots and lots of them are from other countries.
Hirightnow January 24th, 2017 at 07:43
Things your angry relatives always get wrong about protests.
oldfart January 24th, 2017 at 10:06
“who describes himself as “alt-right,” which is Nazi for “Nazi.”
A most enjoyable read, thanks ! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b029c76378ea5eb0d17be0ae40b316f329298b08b0b47105020d3c5aaea4a82e.gif
Mensa Member January 24th, 2017 at 09:57
Alan, could you find some better advertisers? This ad has been running on your site for days. Not only is it probably fake news, it seems vaguely racist and misogynist.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/609a0a1fe2f56ba436497fc5e8bb364a49dc1f1c63cb80647018dbd681049fbc.png
Obewon January 24th, 2017 at 10:07
I had to explain to a Donnie dolt ‘Powered by NewsMax’ is guaranteed faux news.
StoneyCurtisll January 26th, 2017 at 17:16
That is why I use AdBlocker…
I don’t see that bullshit.
oldfart January 24th, 2017 at 10:20
KO #25
https://youtu.be/1qdRyMgaR2g
robert January 24th, 2017 at 10:59
Cha-cha chia trump
http://www.target.com/p/as-seen-on-tv-presidential-chia-trump/-/A-51217923
William January 24th, 2017 at 11:39
…And now, THIS! https://www.facebook.com/BlastAvenue/videos/1565784520100077/
Foundryman January 24th, 2017 at 12:21
I wonder what happened to all that criticism of the president taking the law into his own hands by bypassing Congress with his ‘Executive orders’? Didn’t that make Obama a ‘dictator in chief’? So far, that’s the only thing Trump has done!
amersham1046 January 24th, 2017 at 19:49
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.–
Groucho Marx–
Trump has mastered this already
burqa January 24th, 2017 at 20:32
What he has mastered is a way to win the news cycle every day and to keep the opposition backing up.
As I kept pointing out in the campaign, Trump was strangling the Hillary campaign here and elsewhere. No one talked about why Hillary was so good and why her ideas were better.
I also kept telling people here that negative publicity can be a good thing – just look at how many airheads, nitwits or jerks we see in ads or commercials for various products.
Instead we got tricked into a pissing contest with the world champion pisser.
I kept saying all along that we were taking an approach that had a 0-16 won/loss record against Trump. Who here agreed with me, hmmm?
Trump took us off our game and has kept us off our game and there is no sign of the Left changing directions and presenting a superior agenda in a positive manner and staying on message to where our ideas dominate public discussion.
If we don’t change Trump will get reelected.
oldfart January 25th, 2017 at 01:25
“What he has mastered is a way to win the news cycle every day and to keep the opposition backing up.”
Blame the media’s greed. pollsters not polling in the rural areas, high negativity numbers of the democratic candidate, the DNC failing to once again pay attention to it’s own principles and the working class of this country… yada yada yada.
Maybe you missed Saturdays event around the globe.
or what he and republicans have been doing beginning Friday ?
They want both our silence and complacency.
They will get neither.
We are not backing up…We are just getting started.
With or without the Democratic party if need be.
tRump and the republican party can’t dazzle us with brilliance
so they are attempting to baffle us with bullsh*t.
and they are out to screw everybody in the process….
only some of them don’t know it yet.
burqa January 25th, 2017 at 20:12
“Yada yada yada” – Swahili for “I can’t directly address your points.”
In my opinion, the main reason Hillary lost was we didn’t get our people to the polls.
Good grief, Trump got more Latino votes than Romney did. Had Obama voters showed up in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Hillary would have won.
There was another demo of women – I think it was women with a college education or something – where Trump got 53% of them to vote for him.
Over and over on this site and elsewhere I warned that we were treating Trump like a conventional candidate when he wasn’t. If he was, he would have been sunk after a few of his early dumbass comments during the campaign, but he just kept getting stronger.
Never play the other fellow’s game.
I’m a mediocre poker player. So I don’t play poker. I crush all comers at blackjack and backgammon though so that’s what I’ll play.
Trump is a blustering name-caller who uses that act as a smokescreen because when the discussion gets down to policy details, the Constitution and how our government operates he’s a fish out of water.
Bitching, name-calling and jeers from the peanut gallery do not constitute a superior alternative.
Trump pushed our buttons and we responded like a marionette and in the process we helped him strangle Hillary’s campaign here and elsewhere.
Hillary had a fine message but we ignored her.
During the campaign there were only a few blog posts here talking about how good Hillary was. I didn’t catch them all, but the last one I saw was during the convention.
Last night I was reading Alan’s Red, White and Liberal and he makes a nice point about nomenclature when it comes to the abortion issue. He refused to call it a pro choice vs. pro life issue. He talked about how it is a pro choice vs. anti choice issue. Then he went on to talk about refusing to allow the other side to determine the terms of the debate. He insists on using his own terms.
During the election Trump got away with determining terms, parameters and subjects each day.
To turn this around we are going to have to seize the initiative and refuse to pay him so much attention because it is more important to get our message out on various issues.
A large portion of the conversation needs to be us presenting superior ideas and plans in a positive way.
If all we do is bitch and jeer, Trump will win again.
oldfart January 25th, 2017 at 20:49
…It also means there’s plenty of reasons why Hillary lost but
there’s no point in even discussing it. there’s work to do.
burqa January 25th, 2017 at 20:55
Repeating an approach that now has an 0-17 won/loss record will yield predictable results.
We don’t have to change policies so much as we need to figure out ways to get our people to the polls and to expand those we appeal to.
Above I just got done remarking on how we should be dominant in rural and small town areas and not be clinging to cities on the fringe.
trees January 25th, 2017 at 15:00
Oh please. That’s not why she lost…
It was because of Russian hacking.
Please try to keep up.
burqa January 25th, 2017 at 20:35
Heh heh.
But seriously.
Neither Russian hacking nor voter suppression lost the election for Hillary.*
We let Trump hijack the entire conversation and forgot all about Hillary.
As Trump dumbass statements poured in, we failed to notice that despite our catcalling, he was climbing in the polls.
Over and over here, I said our “smug overconfidence” was going to cost us, but it seemed like everyone was undecided on just how massive Hillary’s landslide was going to be and didn’t want to hear it.
We didn’t get our people to the polls.
Even worse is it appears to me that few have learned their – our – lesson, and insist on pursuing an approach that now has an 0-17 won/loss record.
Good thing Alan changed the logo for this site from the map showing red and blue states.
It reminds me of when Nixon was run out of town and the reaction of the Republicans. Some, like Barry Goldwater, put the blame right where it belonged – on the shoulders of Nixon and his gang of crooks.
A significant portion of the GOP was unable to stand tall and admit their guy was so awful and so guilty. This weasel wing of the GOP chose to blame the messenger. They blamed the media, particularly the Washington Post and the New York Times for breaking all those Watergate stories.
Blaming the media rather than what the media reported became a mainstay for Rush Limbaugh and he attracted the weasel wing of the GOP and his career took off.
* Voter suppression and Russian hacking – that does not mean that we should not oppose them. The Democratic Party should be having regular voter registration fairs where we get people photo IDs or whatever else is in the way if we can’t change state laws.
The DNC should be organizing massive marches on Washington and in state capitols consisting of people who got health insurance through Obamacare. They should have done that when various states opted out.
burqa January 24th, 2017 at 20:22
When a cashier or someone else asks how I’m doing, I always reply,
“I’m loving life!”
Plenty of times this is not true, but I say it anyway. You see, I figure the car will go in the direction you steer it in, and that is where I want to be headed towards. Controlling and directing my thoughts this way are one way I deal with the depression that occasionally whomps me. I’d like to see this expression go viral.
In the same way, if we want positive results, we must point ourselves in a positive direction and doggedly continue, even when we are tugged in a negative direction.
Just look at how sour people on the Left are, and have been going back long before the election.
When the Tea Party magnified the ugliness in public discourse, the response of many of us has been to respond in kind, as if throwing fuel on a fire will extinguish it. No, the way to fight fire is with water, not fire.
During the election I tried to warn people, I kept saying Trump was strangling Hillary’s campaign on this site and elsewhere, but no one listened. Now Trump has stepped over the body of his strangling victim and is moving on to strangling liberalism here and elsewhere. If we continue on this path Trump will get reelected.
This used to be a site where one could come and get a positive, refreshing view of issues from a liberal perspective. It was, “those guys are wrong, and we have better ideas and here they are.”
Here is a song for our time and I wish people would think about it. It appeals to the old hippie in me and takes me back to so many discussions we had about peace, love and brotherhood. My favorite line: “I’d turn lies and hate to love and truth.”
https://www.google.com/search?q=youtube+eric+church+kill+a+word&oq=youtube+eric+church+kill+a+word&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j0.11127j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Buford2k11 January 25th, 2017 at 08:25
yeah, I feel my old hippie stirring around in this old husk…I totally agree with you…All I ever wanted was to be left in peace to raise my family…I am feeling the old fight building in these old bones…I think tho, that with age, comes wisdom…I am not physically able to do what I used to do…but, I am much smarter, and hopefully much wiser, that I will be able to figure out how to be effective in my resistance to trump and the gop…OLD HIPPIES UNITE…. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/03a2268f7d04a917ac69aba05a06d25db3a1b558dadbff5838e0c678c70f1fe2.jpg
I almost could have reached out and touched this youngster as he walked past me…
oldfart January 25th, 2017 at 12:41
He’s got more hair on his head than I do…
burqa January 25th, 2017 at 20:50
Cool song, huh?
Think back at the major leaders of the Left over the decades. Ted & Bobby, Humphrey, Carter, Clinton, Wellstone, Obama and others.
They didn’t win and get important legislation passed by getting into pissing contests.
They prevailed when they put forth a positive message and superior plans and ideas that attracted voters.
They didn’t get elected by sliming the other guy. They put forth positive, hopefiul messages with superior ideas and we turned out to vote for them.
This time around, Hillary did a fine job but too damned many of us stayed home waiting to see the landslide.
Good grief, we should be dominant in rural areas, but we do such a lousy job of pointing out how our programs have been lifesavers for rural and small town America that the GOP has run us off, even as they cut the throats of those people.
amersham1046 January 25th, 2017 at 00:04
Trump Properties Face Global Terror Risk With Presidency–
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2213635-trump-properties-face-global-terror-risk-with-presidency/
eyelashviper January 25th, 2017 at 12:31
It’s only a matter of time until tRump Inc is attacked and he sends in troops, bombs, or whatever…
Willys41 January 25th, 2017 at 01:26
Hidden camera video from Trump Tower: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evAjbfp0MW0
Budda January 25th, 2017 at 08:39
Sad, but often happens with age.
whatthe46 January 25th, 2017 at 07:52
https://twitter.com/TheRoot/status/822961994227712001
awesome sauce
Suzanne McFly January 25th, 2017 at 16:45
She is absolutely adorable, when I see her I just smile.
burqa January 26th, 2017 at 18:46
I feel the same about you……