LEFT IN EAST DAKOTA

The DNC changed its debate requirements so Bloomberg, who’s not even a Democrat, could participate. They’re in an open panic at this point. Klobuchar didn’t stick, she’s got a problematic past (and no one has even looked into her foreign policy yet, particularly that NYE trip to Ukraine where she was palling around with a Poroshenko government full of open neo-nazis along with her bffs McCain and Graham). They warmed up to Warren after she went dirty against Sanders but she took a nose dive as Warren vs Sanders turned into CNN vs Sanders. Mayor Pete’s campaign is always on the verge of imploding, good riddance when it finally does. Biden, who no one really actually likes, should be running away with this thing but is just sticking around. His gaffs aren’t endearing but senior moments, some of which seem purposely creepy. To top it all off, politico is reporting some DNC executive committee members want to give superdelegates a first ballot vote at the nomination convention in order to…

Ilhan Omar could have had a job for life in Congress, no questions asked, if she would have just kept her head down and played the part. The Minneapolis elite primarily wanted her to represent their supposed enlightened wokeness. They had/have no desire for her politics that go far beyond their squishy (mainly cultural) liberalism. In a surprise twist of history, she is more Farmer Labor than Democrat, a throwback politician who understands what it takes to significantly change society and isn’t beholden to the rad lib politics that permeate the liberal left. I don’t live in her district, but am donating to her reelection campaign.

People before Trump’s Presidency:
He’s going to be a dictator! The country may never recover! We must resist! This is the most important election in history!!! If you don’t vote for Clinton you support Trump!!!

Same people when Sanders emerges as the clear frontrunner for the Dem nomination:
The presidency actually isn’t that important. (You know we have a system of checks and balances.) It doesn’t really matter who’s elected. Congress is what’s really important.

It’s fashionable for the media, political and cultural elite to define social pathologies in such a post-modern way that activist influencers can build cultural capital off of definition creep. At the same time our elite is still as xenophobic as ever, projecting this historic European anxiety regarding Asian development that goes back to the Mongol Empire. While you can build a brand showcasing your awareness of personal guilt regarding day to day interactions (within a system, always have to add that part or else you’re just a dick), it’s much less lucrative to situate your biases within a grand historical context. A fear of the Russians, Chinese, and apparently even the Iranians, is punching up for this crowd.

Air strike assassinations get met with “no angel” tropes and above the fray “this is a bad strategy” cop-outs. These guys don’t like our half-wit president’s bluster. But you can’t build much of an anti-war movement on questioning the empire’s aesthetics. I don’t trust them. …

Bernie’s social democracy has a libertarian feel, not only because Sanders himself is a stout civil libertarian, but because for lots of reasons (good and bad) the US doesn’t have the same overarching officialdom (Josie Appleton’s “busybody state”) that has taken over many of the European welfare states, even as they implement austerity. (My brother and his wife have horror stories of the layers of bureaucracy sewn into everyday life when they lived in England.) Bernie’s plans play to the good parts of that as they are universal, easy to understand (Medicare for all paid for by a progressive payroll tax), and not only don’t infringe on personal freedoms they substantially increase them. 
It’s often the Vox inspired liberal, the one who fetishizes means testing and builds policies based on nudge theory, who wants to enshrine officialdom into our lives. (The Obamacare disaster is a key example.) This is mayor Pete’s, and even Elizabeth Warren’s, constituency. They represent the public/pr…

Trevor Noah has this bit (on The Daily Show) about Trump being shunned by the “cool kids” at the recent NATO gala. Don’t get me wrong, Trump is a teetotalling blowhard (the worst kind) who I love to see ostracized, but who are the “cool kids” in this scenario? Macron? He’s about as well liked as the US Congress. He was elected on the platform of being slightly more agreeable than an open fascist and his major accomplishment is furthering France’s descent into a full-on police state. Trudeau? He is the ultimate cynical politician. He’ll march for the climate in the morning and sign an oil deal in the afternoon. He’s an image of his father, though that imagine is in a wavy piss puddle. No, forget that. The best thing Trudeau has going for him is that persistent rumor that he’s Fidel Castro’s bastard son. I’m not even going to say anything about Boris Johnson because he’s already Boris Johnson for Christ’s sake. 
Also, NATO is an unnecessary organization that is a danger to world peace.