2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumNaomi Klein's 8th point of fascism
has now arrived here in the USA.
Back in the days of George W, Naomi Klein had her excellently detailed analysis "The Ten Points of Fascism" published and then almost immediately those points were printed and re-printed in newspapers and blogs across the globe.
Point Eight involved the control of the press by the uber forces of Corporate Take Over of all discussion.
So regarding last night's AP announcment of Clinton winning, I must mention upfront that I was not that surprised by the Associated Propaganda branch of news distribution, and whatever CIA directive they received to do this.
I have on several occasions put up for review my own analysis of the Associated Propaganda's lack of truthiness, although in 2008 when I made my initial critique, it was related to the Corporate Take Over of Science, and the media, and not the takeover of politics news by fascistic forces. (See *** at bottom for my Daily Kos article, from several years back.)
In any event, last night, a good fifteen hours before polling places in California and elsewhere opened for voters, The AP made the stunning announcement that the election was over, as Hillary Clinton had amassed the correct number of delegates.
According to Clinton Campaign spokesperson Michael Briggs, " "It is unfortunate that the media, in a rush to judgement, are ignoring the Democratic National Committees clear statement that it is wrong to count the votes of superdelegates before they actually vote at the convention this summer." "Secretary Clinton does not have and will not have the requisite number of pledged delegates to secure the nomination. She will be dependent on superdelegates who do not vote until July 25 and who can change their minds between now and then."
It should also be noted that most political wonks have already voted. Even in my household, for a long time a most sacred bastion of procrastination, one of us had already voted by noon on Monday.
Today, my polling place was empty of other voters when I arrived at eleven Am, and polling workers mentioned that 80 percent of my county's voters had already voted by mail.
So the AP is a bit out of luck in terms of the damage it wanted to afflict.
Perhaps more destructive to democracy as the AP announcement is the very existence of superdelegates. Or as Mr Glenn Greenwald stated: "The decisive edifice of super-delegates is itself anti-democratic and inherently corrupt: designed to prevent actual voters from making choices that the party establishment dislikes. But for a party run by insiders and funded by corporate interests, its only fitting that their nomination process ends with such an ignominious, awkward and undemocratic sputter."
Other decent discussion on this issue can be found in the CommonDreams article, as well in the comments section that follows:
http://commondreams.org/news/2016/06/06/voters-outraged-media-accused-falsely-preemptively-crowning-clinton
*** http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/22/540267/-
Califonz
(465 posts)politicians conceded defeat in national elections before the polls closed in California.
TimPlo
(443 posts)2008 - January 31
2000 - March 7
You must be talking way back then.
Califonz
(465 posts)"NBC News projected Reagan as the winner at 8:15 pm EST (5:15 PST), before voting was finished in the West, based on exit polls. (It was the first time a broadcast network used exit polling to project a winner, and took the other broadcast networks by surprise.) Carter conceded defeat at 9:50 pm EST." -- from 1980 Prez Election wikipedia article.
NBC, pioneer in voter turnout suppression!
Cheese Sandwich
(9,086 posts)No, they hit a bulls eye.
Hillary had a huge advantage with the mail in vote.
Bernie had an advantage with people who would have voted at the polls.
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)Although maybe here in rural California, all of us Bernie supporters live and breathe Bernie. None of us would avoid voting today due to something put out by the AP.
And since many Bernie supporters are millennials, wouldn't they be out there tweeting about what an outrage the Associated Propaganda article is? Rather than staying home from the polls?
In any event, normally I don't indicate whether I hope I am right or you, but in this case, let's hope I am right.
AzDar
(14,023 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Faryn Balyncd
(5,125 posts)Klein's Shock Doctrine is a most important work.
And Naomi Wolf describes the 10 steps to fascism, step 8 of which is control of the press.
Both are brilliant.
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)Hi and a big
As far as The Shock Doctrine, we have already lived through two applications of this is in the past fifteen years.
First was the Nine Eleven Event, which was of course used to "unify" the population into conformity. Wear that damn Chinese manufactured lapel pin of the damn flag or we will suspect you might be a terrorist!
While pressured on all sides, the American population hardly noticed as trillions of dollars that the Powers that Be had previously told us the government didn't have for schools or road repair suddenly went off to the armament manufacturers. While our jobless young people went over there to Iraq and Afghanistan to "serve" their country by kicking in doors of Iraqis, who then ended up in prisons. Those service people not kicking in doors got to ride up and down "the Highway of Death" in unarmored Hummers, as Rice, Rumsfeld and Bush couldn't figure out a real war strategy, other than kicking in doors and letting our service people get blown up by IED's.
Then came the Colossus Collapse of 2008 to 2011. And many in the Middle Class have not yet recovered from that. But since we were told relentlessly that the only way to "save the world economy" was to give up our middle class economy, the Powers that be got more trillions as wealth from Main St went over to Geithner's, Obama's and the Clintons' friends on Wall Street.
Klein'sShock Doctrine applies brilliantly to both those "Shocks."
shanti
(21,711 posts)truedelphi
(32,324 posts)Come on, all together now - so somebody is waving around a newspaper with the headlines "Dewey Beats Truman" but it ain't the Truth.
And it ain't gonna happen. As long as Bernie stays committed to the idea of lasting until the convention, then he will be the nominee.
And he will be the President. Don't let the jackasses that think they run the world make you give up on things now.
Think of how Sanders was not even in our wildest dreams until when - January maybe? I mean, sure some people knew he intended to be in the race before January, but did anyone really think he would make it this far?
Keep believing. Don't give in to the despair - that is what they want us to do! Although Dem Party Big Wigs have adopted the exact same tactics that the far RW threw at John Kerry during October 2004, it is important to remember some basic facts.
The sun will come up tomorrow and Bernie will help the Universe deliver some karmic retribution to Ms NastyPants Suits. Some amazing things are about to happen.