1/ A fascinating essay on how Hunter S. Thompson predicted the rise of Trump 50 years ago.....it's how the alienated white males of the working class have nothing to lose by voting for a charlatan like Trump - they are already losers, and their vote is a middle finger to the elites....
Read this - it will prepare you for the horrors ahead....
In late March, Donald Trump opened a rally in Wisconsin by mocking the state’s governor, Scott Walker, who had just endorsed his Republican opponent, Ted Cruz. “He came in on his Harley,” Trump said of Walker, “but he doesn’t look like a motorcycle guy.”
“The motorcycle guys,” he added, “like Trump.”
It has been 50 years since Hunter S. Thompson published the definitive book on motorcycle guys: Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. It grew out of a piece first published in The Nationone year earlier. My grandfather, Carey McWilliams, editor of the magazine from 1955 to 1975, commissioned the piece from Thompson—it was the gonzo journalist’s first big break, and the beginning of a friendship between the two men that would last until my grandfather died in 1980. Because of that family connection, I had long known that Hell’s Angels was a political book. Even so, I was surprised, when I finally picked it up a few years ago, by how prophetic Thompson is and how eerily he anticipates 21st-century American politics. This year, when people asked me what I thought of the election, I kept telling them to read Hell’s Angels.
2/ A companion piece to the Hunter Thompson article above - more detail on what the Trumps want, and it's to piss off the "libtards" which is you!
(Credit: Getty/Mandel Ngan)
The horror show that was the 2016 election will be examined and reexamined for years, and depending on how bad things get, quite likely decades to come. There were, of course, a lot of factors: Cultural change, economic change, racism, liberal complacency after Barack Obama, the FBI manipulating the election, the Russian government manipulating the election, hatred of feminism and so on.
But it’s also important to notice that Donald Trump’s election is the culmination of decades of right-wing media teaching its audience that liberals are subhuman scum, and that hating liberals — whatever their stereotype of a “liberal” looks like — is far more important that minor concerns like preventing war or economic destruction.
Friday morning, the phrase “preparing for Trump” started trending on Twitter. It appears to have started with liberals tweeting out an article by Peter Dreier laying out a 10-step process to resist Trump’s attempts to turn our government into a kleptocracy at best, and a fascist state at worst. But of course the meme was soon taken over by right-wingers eager to exclaim how excited they were about the Trump presidency.
3/ And it seems appropriate to revisit this SNL ad for Trump....one funny minute from a more innocent time.....
The sketch show joked about the appeal of the GOP presidential frontrunner on this weekend’s episode, by tossing a bunch of its cast in a fake campaign ad, where between their daily racist lives of book-burning and fear-mongering they talked soothingly of Trump’s “winning” style.
Trump has recently faced some controversy for the manner in which he disavowed an endorsement from David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Klu Klux Klan; and January polling data showed that nearly 20 percent of his supporters did not approve of freeing slaves.
4/ It gets worse - the erudite Benjamin Studebaker explains clearly and clinically the problem with our media.....very interesting indeed, and a must read.....
Fake News is a Symptom of a Larger Problem–We are Destroying Our Own Media
by Benjamin Studebaker
Many people now believe that fake news contributed to Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election. I’ve seen this issue debated a number of times around the web, and whenever it’s discussed there tends to be a great deal of conceptual imprecision. Different people have widely divergent understandings of what constitutes “fake” news. This has led many people to misunderstand what fake news is, why it exists, and what its significance is.
When people use the term “fake news” they are often combining together two distinctly different phenomena:
- Ideological news–news which interprets descriptively true facts in an overtly normative way, informed by substantive moral beliefs about what should be done.
- Descriptively false news–news which makes untrue descriptive claims.
Whenever a news outlet offers an interpretation of the facts, that interpretation is necessarily ideological–there are always an array of different possible interpretations of any given set of facts, and the choice of one at the expense of others is necessarily a normative choice
5/ Hard to categorize this four minute video, but it's simultaneously beautiful and thoughtful with some haunting images of our beautiful Earth.......you won't regret watching this.....
Images are from a truly enigmatic movie "Tree Of Life".....
But that it is best understood by the analogy with music. Because music, as an art form is essentially playful. We say, “You play the piano” You don’t work the piano.
Why? Music differs from say, travel. When you travel you are trying to get somewhere. In music, though, one doesn’t make the end of the composition. The point of the composition. If that were so, the best conductors would be those who played fastest. And there would be composers who only wrote finales. People would go to a concert just to hear one crackling chord… Because that’s the end!
6/ A Democrat won the Governorship of Montana, yes Montana.....read how Steve Bullock did it, and it's a lesson for all Democrats....
For the longest nights of the year, there is no better place to be than on snow-crusted ground, staring up at Montana’s big empty sky. Democrats across rural America must know the feeling, this Christmas week, of looking into a black void and feeling so very alone.
There is a chance for the pulse to quicken — a flash of the northern lights, perhaps, the distant howl of a wolf — in that utter darkness. And there is hope for a party spurned in the wide-open spaces of the country, as well. Meet Steve Bullock, the newly re-elected Democratic governor of Montana.
Donald J. Trump took Montana by 20 percentage points — a rare win for celebrity-infatuated megalomaniacs in a state whose voters can usually smell the type from a hundred miles out. But once again, Democrats won the governor’s office, and did it with votes to spare. Bullock’s Mountain State secret sauce is something national party leaders should sample during their solstice.
7/ Time for some humor.....the "Greatest Living American Writer" explains why this will be our last Christmas.......[I hope it's humor!]
(Credit: Shutterstock/Salon)
As a permanent night sets in over Mount Winchester, Roger, my beleaguered manservant, hangs the popcorn balls over the fireplace per holiday tradition. Why he’s doing this, I don’t know. I might as well open the French doors and allow the crows to eat the popcorn. It’s all they’ve ever wanted. Apparently, this country belongs to evil scavengers now.
The fire roars as I toss in my copy of the Constitution and then my copies of the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and “The Power Broker” by Robert Caro. I guess I won’t be needing those anymore. In fact, I’m burning all my documents, except for “Rules for Radicals,” by Saul Alinsky, which I’ll hide in chapter segments under the floorboards, keeping them as handy reference for the class war to come.
America was once the America we all knew, an America that understood the American idea. But no longer. We thought we lived in America, but it turns out that the America we lived in betrayed us and it is America no longer. How true that is. As I write in “Palindromes and Predator Drones: The Upside-Down Betrayal of the U.S.A.,”my forthcoming collection of essays, “This was a country born of liberty, but now the libertines are getting a taste of peasant blood. Soon, we will all suffer the grandest torment of them all: Trump.”
8/ A story by Martin Wolf in the British Financial Times, not an alarmist newspaper. He explains why our institutions alone cannot stop a demagogue like Trump.....and by the way one of the techniques he will use is hatred of liberals and define YOU as the enemy....
Democrats, demagogues and despots
Fear and rage must not be used as an excuse to destroy America’s core institutions
Are the political upheavals of 2016 — Brexit and America’s election of Donald Trump— a triumph of democracy or a threat to it? Democracies must respond to legitimate grievances. Indeed, their ability to do so peacefully is among their strengths. But the demagogue’s exploitation of such grievances threatens democracy. This has happened elsewhere. It would be foolish to assume western democracies are immune.
In 2016, fear and anger became dominant political emotions in the UK and the US — two of the most important, stable and enduring democracies. The fear was over downward mobility and cultural changes; the anger was against immigrants and indifferent elites. They came together in resurgent nationalism and xenophobia. Some Brexiters and Republicans believe in the ideal of absolutely free markets. But that idea did not bring Brexit to the UK or Mr Trump to Washington. The emotions were far more visceral and less attractive.
For democrats, the outburst of such primal emotions is disturbing because they are so hard to contain. Democracy is at bottom a civilised form of civil war. It is a struggle for power contained by understandings and institutions.
9/ One of the best ventriloquists ever is Nina Conti, and this six minute clip is really funny.....
10/ This column from David Leonhardt in the Times defines the difference between Democrats and Republicans..... ruthlessness of the right that is destabilizing our society....
Democrats Had a Knife, and the G.O.P. Had a Gun
President Obama and Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina don’t agree on many policy questions. But they have found themselves facing a similar political situation this year. And their very different reactions capture the deep — and alarming — differences between our two political parties right now.
Both Obama and McCrory essentially had their accomplishments on the ballot. McCrory, a Republican, was running for re-election. Obama wasn’t, but his chosen successor was running against a candidate who had personally demeaned him and promised to repeal his agenda.
As you’d expect, Obama and McCrory each campaigned hard. There, however, the similarities stopped. The differences have played out in three acts.
In the first act, before Election Day, Obama was faced with evidence that Russia was trying to help Donald Trump win. Obama erred on the side of nonpartisan caution, opting not to announce the C.I.A. findings on Russia’s motives. He was willing to use the presidential bully pulpit to criticize Trump, but not the levers of presidential power to disadvantage him.
McCrory went so far using his levers that a federal appeals court unanimously slapped him back.
11/ A "Cris de Coeur" [cry from the heart] from an Australian writer about the special relationship the land down under has had with the US, that is now threatened by Trump.....
SYDNEY, Australia — On the other side of the world from you, we are living in two time zones. One regulated by the rise and fall of the sun, the other regulated by the American news cycle. In our early afternoon you go to bed, in our late evening you wake again and news breaks afresh. We examine the entrails of the tweets of your president-elect for news of our common future.
In Australia, and around the world, we have been living this presidential transition with you. We watched the debates on our lunch breaks, we scrolled through news on our phones as the voting results were announced, in the warm light of a spring day.
12/ Some good advice on how to protect your privacy....
FILE - In this June 5, 2015, file photo, the Homeland Security Department headquarters in northwest Washington. A Homeland Security Department official says hackers have targeted the voter registration systems of more than 20 states in recent months. FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers this week that the agency is looking “very, very hard” at Russian hackers who may try to disrupt the U.S. election. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)(Credit: AP)
This article was originally published on The Conversation.
Protecting individual privacy from government intrusion is older than American democracy. In 1604, the attorney general of England, Sir Edward Coke, ruled that a man’s house is his castle. This was the official declaration that a homeowner could protect himself and his privacy from the king’s agents. That lesson carried into today’s America, thanks to our Founding Fathers’ abhorrence for imperialist Great Britain’s unwarranted search and seizure of personal documents.
They understood that everyone has something to hide, because human dignity and intimacy don’t exist if we can’t keep our thoughts and actions private. As citizens in the digital age, that is much more difficult. Malicious hackers and governments can monitor the most private communications, browsing habits and other data breadcrumbs of anyone who owns a smartphone, tablet, laptop or personal computer.
President-elect Donald Trump’s criticism of encryption technology and interest in expanding government surveillance have technologist
As an ethical hacker, my job is to help protect those who are unable, or lack the knowledge, to help themselves.
13/ For me the best music video of 2016........it's an amazing, powerful and completely different version of the Simon and Garfunkel classic "Sounds of Silence"......
Sung by "Disturbed", a metal band - the lead singer's voice is powerful. You also find yourself listening to the lyrics......
14/ Two articles on some great TV out there.....the first from the Times, and the second from Rolling Stone....
Both lists have two shows in common - "The Americans", and Samantha Bee"......we can also vouch enthusiastically for "Stranger Things"....
It's hard to find good TV folks, and you have to read these reviews to sort the good from the indifferent......
Year-end lists are stories: They tell the truth by lying. The idea that a critic can watch all the television there is today, let alone isolate the 10 best works among wildly different genres, is a fiction. But play along with it, and you tell a larger tale about what mattered that year and why.
To whittle this story down to 10 titles required some little cheats. I left out ESPN’s revelatory documentary “O.J.: Made in America” because this publication reviewed it as a film. “Halt and Catch Fire” is as terrific as when I included it in 2015; I bumped it this year to make room. (Yet I repeated “The Americans,” “Transparent” and “Rectify.” Life is unfair.)
Reviews with video clips for Rob Sheffield's top 20 shows....
Todays video - a one minute ad trying to get real Americans to visit Mississippi.....amusing....and pretty true as well.....
Todays Alzheimers joke
This takes less than 15 seconds..If you are male and over 65 yrs old,you SHOULD take this Alzheimer's TestHow fast can you guess thesewords and fill-in the blanks?1. _ _NDOM2. F_ _K3. P_N_S4. PU_S_5. S_X6. BOO_SAnswers:1. RANDOM2. FORK3. PANTS4. PULSE5. SIX6. BOOKSYou got all 6 wrong...didn't you?The good news is: You do NOT have Alzheimer's.However, you are a pervert.
Todays texting joke
Text to the Neighbor
Hi Fred, this is Alan next door. I have a confession to make.
I've been riddled with guilt these past few months and
have been trying to get up the
courage to tell you to your face, but I am at
least now telling you in text as I cannot live with myself a
moment longer without you knowing.
The truth is I have been sharing your wife, day and night when
you're not around. In fact, probably more than you.
I haven't been getting it
at home recently, but that's no excuse, I know. The
temptation was just too much.
I can no longer live with the guilt and I hope you will accept
my sincerest apologies and forgive me. It won't happen again.
Please suggest a fee for usage, and I'll pay you.
Regards, Alan.
THE RESPONSE
Fred, feeling insulted and
betrayed, grabbed his gun, and shot his neighbor dead. He
returned home where he poured himself a stiff drink and
sat down on the sofa.
He took out his phone where he saw he had a second
Hi Fred, this is Alan next door. I have a confession to make.
I've been riddled with guilt these past few months and
have been trying to get up the
courage to tell you to your face, but I am at
least now telling you in text as I cannot live with myself a
moment longer without you knowing.
The truth is I have been sharing your wife, day and night when
you're not around. In fact, probably more than you.
I haven't been getting it
at home recently, but that's no excuse, I know. The
temptation was just too much.
I can no longer live with the guilt and I hope you will accept
my sincerest apologies and forgive me. It won't happen again.
Please suggest a fee for usage, and I'll pay you.
Regards, Alan.
THE RESPONSE
Fred, feeling insulted and
betrayed, grabbed his gun, and shot his neighbor dead. He
returned home where he poured himself a stiff drink and
sat down on the sofa.
He took out his phone where he saw he had a second
message from his neighbor.
THE SECOND MESSAGE
Hi Fred, This is Alan next door again.
Sorry about the typo on my last
text. I expect you figured it out anyway,
THE SECOND MESSAGE
Hi Fred, This is Alan next door again.
Sorry about the typo on my last
text. I expect you figured it out anyway,
and that you noticed that darned Auto-Correct
changed "wi-fi" to "wife"
That's technology for you, hey?
Regards, Alan
changed "wi-fi" to "wife"
That's technology for you, hey?
Regards, Alan
Todays blond jokes.....
On the first day of training for parachute jumping, a blonde listened intently to the instructor. He told them to start preparing for landing when they are at 300 feet. The blonde asked, “How am I supposed to know when I’m at 300 feet?” “That’s a good question. When you get to 300 feet, you can recognize the faces of people on the ground.” After pondering his answer, she asked, “What happens if there’s no one there I know?”
The blonde walks into a drugstore and asks the pharmacist for some bottom deodorant. The pharmacist, a little bemused, explains to the woman that they don't sell anything called bottom deodorant, and never have. Unfazed, the blonde assures him that she has been buying the stuff from this store on a regular basis, and would like some more. "I'm sorry," says the pharmacist, "we don't have any." "But I always get it here," says the blonde. "Do you have the container it comes in?" "Yes!" says the blonde, "I will go and get it." She returns with the container and hands it to the pharmacist, who looks at it and says to her, "This is just a normal stick of underarm deodorant." The annoyed blonde snatches the container back and reads out loud from the container: "To apply, push up bottom."
On day a redhead, a brunette, and a blonde were on their way to heaven. God told them the stairs to heaven were 1,000 steps and on every step he was going to tell them a joke. If they laughed they would not be able to get to heaven. So the redhead made it to the 45th step and laughed. The brunette made it to the 200th step and laughed. But the blonde made it to the 999th step and laughed even before god told his joke. God asked "Why did you laugh I haven't even told the joke yet" The blonde said "I know I just now got the first one!!!"
