Saviolo
Saviolo's JournalListen:
I have tremendous answers to these questions, okay? You believe it, I've got the best answers. And you know, there are real problems here, some of these questions are real problems, here and we're just going to keep looking at this until we figure out what's going on. I have so many friends of mine, and they just call me and say "Thank you, thank you so much for figuring out this problem." and I have-, listen... We're under attack, okay? And there's a tremendous problem, and all of these questions, I'm the only one who's asking about these questions and who's got answers to these questions, they're just the best answers. You better believe it!
Donald, the question was "What rhymes with cheek?"
A reminder from Cenk to GOTV
We haven't won all the hearts and minds, yet.
[blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"][p lang="en" dir="ltr"]Almost never met working class person who had nice thing to say about Hillary Clinton. DC bubble is not getting how disliked she is. Uh oh.
[script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"][/script]
https://twitter.com/cenkuygur/status/758315284340015106
It's no secret that Cenk was a huge Bernie booster through the primary, but his analysis is usually spot on.
Remember that Trump is still speaking straight to the pocketbook of a lot of working class non-unionized people. He's lying through his teeth, of course, but the vast majority don't understand that.
The race is not yet won, and it's still vital to GOTV and counter the vicious lies spewing from the dumpster fire of the GOP.
Trump is an anthropomorphic internet comments section
With his latest attack on Warren:
“She’s got a fresh mouth,” he said. “Other than that, she’s got nothing going.”
He's got nothing by negating and superlatives. With insults and comebacks straight from the minds of our greatest 14-year-old trolls.
He truly is the biggest thing the GOP has ever created. Republicans have for years been building the dialogue that Liberals, Democrats, Progressives, Unionists, Immigrants, Foreigners, the UN, POC, LGBT, Feminists are all terrible people. They're filled with hate for YOU, the AVERAGE PERSON. Of course, for them the average person is a middle-aged or older straight white dude who has PAID HIS DUES, DAMMIT!
Except, as Jon Stewart said in his rant on Colbert's show, "There is no real America!" and the GOP doesn't own it. What they do have to own, though, is they created Donald Trump all by themselves. They built the narrative that politicians are bad, that government should be run like a business, that Democrats are taking your money to give to people who don't work. They've been building this narrative since Reagan, and Trump is the angry little hateball that is the direct result of the seeds they've sown.
Ted Cruz hates Trump? Well, own him, buddy boy, you built him! You, and Mitch McConnell, and Karl Rove, and Dick Cheney, and Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity, and Tucker Carlson, and Glenn Beck, and Marco Rubio, and and and and and and the list goes on. The narrative you've built around the idea that corporations really would work far better if that gosh darned government just wouldn't ask what they're doing so much! You're bought and sold, you know it, and anyone can see, though not everyone will or wants to.
The GOP has moved into the insane asylum and now they have to come to grips with the monster they have built and all he's doing is spewing schoolyard insults and generalized hate.
GOTV, everyone. It's a battle for the soul of America. Time to show Trump the door.
It is possible to unhappy with the DNC and scared of Putin's potential involvement
It is possible to be unhappy with how the DNC has behaved during the primaries and also be extremely upset that there may be massive foreign influence on this hacking scandal.
DWS backed payday loans companies against Elizabeth Warren, and the DNC rejected requests several times on Bernie's part for more debates. It was pointed out very early on that DWS had been Hillary's campaign manager previously, and that there might be a conflict of interest there in an organization that is supposed to remain neutral across its potential candidates.
By the same token, Wikileaks has turned into a really gross organization, and if they're being backed by Putin-funded Russian hackers who are trying to prop up Trump, that's massively troubling, too.
I'm glad to see DWS step down. If there are even the hints of skeletons in the DNC's closet, they need to clean that shit out because Trump is going to BEAT US OVER THE HEAD with them. I'm terrified because this election is too close right now. To everyone who says "Trump will never be elected!" I hope most fervently that you are right, but it is so vital to GOTV and not assume that he's going to have some kind of meltdown between now and November.
Bernie's stepping up to the plate despite what happened during the primary, and is supporting Hillary while still working to further liberal planks within the Democratic platform. He's not taking the bait on this email thing and bad-mouthing Hillary or DWS, and he's got his sight set squarely on Trump, which is what all of us need to do.
Clean the closets, boost the candidate, and defeat the worst Republican presidential nominee seen in living memory.
From Reddit: A final response to "Tell me why Trump is a Fascist."
So, here's a post on Reddit:
https://m.reddit.com/r/EnoughTrumpSpam/comments/4teoxl/a_final_response_to_the_tell_me_why_trump_is_a/?st=iqunrok6&sh=ef9534c3&utm_source=mweb_redirect&compact=true
With an incredibly long and detailed list of answers to people trying to get you to show somehow that Trump is a fascist. I won't excerpt any of them, because there are SO MANY it's hard to even pick a few really good ones from among the crazy long list of articles, stories, and blogs.
There's also a pretty good discussion afterwards.
Anyway, this gives all of us plenty of ammo for anyone who feels like they might stay home this election, or alt-righters who think that Trump's just being strong. He's absolutely not, he's a straight up fascist. If the hatefest in Cleveland and some of the links on this list don't encourage people to GOTV, then I'm not sure what else to say.
Terrifying.
When so much of our food is provided by an increasingly small and centralized group of companies, instead of many smaller independent food producers, this is the result.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/big-corporations-have-an-overwhelming-amount-of-power-over-our-food-supply/5391615
The U.S. agricultural sector suffers from abnormally high levels of concentration. Most economic sectors have concentration ratios around 40%, meaning that the top four firms in the industry control 40% of the market. If the concentration ratio is above 40%, experts believe competition can be threatened and market abuses are more likely to occur: the higher the number, the bigger the threat.
The concentration ratios in the agricultural sector are shocking.
-Four companies own 83.5% of the beef market.
-The top four firms own 66% of the hog industry.
-The top four firms control 58.5% of the broiler chicken industry.
It's possibly the best example of how control of a basic need in the hands of few giant corporations can be a bad or dangerous thing. The linked article talks mostly about the economic troubles that it causes, but this recall is another problem that we face. If a single giant centralized processing plant has a listeria outbreak, or an e-coli contamination, or staph or salmonella, it's not just an economic problem; people die.
My husband runs a restaurant, and his whole philosophy is locally sourced, prepared in-house, and sustainable. No orders of boil-in-bag meats from Sysco, no hollandaise made from a powder, no imported-from-China produce.
A bit on his philosophy: https://t.co/Bo5as4euXs
Plagiarism may be the least horrible thing that happened on that stage
Egregious as it is, Melania's speech-stealing is not the most newsworthy thing that happened on that stage last night.
Let's look at the big picture, here.
Melania stole a couple of platitudes from Michelle Obama's speech from years back, yes. But also last night a congressman (Steven King R-IA) said on TV that whites have done more for civilization than non-whites. A soap opera actor called the president a muslim. Two different speakers railed against "illegals." The opening prayer referred to Clinton and and Democrats as "the enemy."
The coverage of the speech is sensational, watch-the-birdie kind of stuff for the news cycle, and what we really need to call out is the amazingly overt racism, sexism, homophobia on display last night. That needs to be the real call to arms. Forget the fluff, forget the distractions. The -real things- the people are saying up on that stage are disastrous. They are emboldening racists and fascists throughout the USA, and it's unconscionable that the media is letting them get away with it.
A tweet from someone on my twitter feed today:
https://twitter.com/supership79/status/755384971150430209
I agree she should be called on the carpet for copying so blatantly, but this is a sensational story that the media can plug into the headlines to keep from having an uncomfortable conversation and losing access to the RNC by making their headline "RNC is an openly racist, sexist, and homophobic organization, now." I'll bet when the fact checkers discovered the plagiarism, they all breathed a sigh of relief that they didn't have to report on any of the disgusting things the other speakers spewed constantly all night.
This post has been shamelessly cribbed from some of my other posts on the subject.
Egregious as it is
The plagiarism of Michelle's speech was the headline today? Not a Congressman (Steven King R-IA) saying that whites have done more for civilization than non-whites? Not a speaker at the RNC calling the president a muslim? Not two separate speakers talking about the danger of "illegals?"
I agree she should be called on the carpet for copying so blatantly, but this is a sensational story that the media can plug into the headlines to keep from having an uncomfortable conversation and losing access to the RNC by making their headline "RNC is an openly racist, sexist, and homophobic organization, now." I'll bet when the fact checkers discovered the plagiarism, they all breathed a sigh of relief that they didn't have to report on any of the disgusting things the other speakers spewed constantly all night.
Chinese Media Is Now Warning Canada’s Housing Crash Will Be Worse Than The US
There's been a lot of ink spilled lately about Canadian real estate and foreign (largely Chinese) ownership of Canadian property, and its effect on the Canadian housing bubble. There was recently a thread here in the Canada group about the homeless came in Victoria: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10875877
and The Walrus recently had an article about how our hesitance to "blame" Chinese investors for pricing working Canadians out of the housing market is hurting the poor here at home: https://thewalrus.ca/how-political-correctness-is-hurting-the-poor/
But Better Dwelling went to Chinese media (yes, it's state sponsored, take with a grain of salt) who claim that our housing crash will be worse than the US. A potentially big chunk of this sort of information is designed to keep Chinese capital in China. But here's the article: https://betterdwelling.com/city/vancouver/chinese-media-now-warning-canadas-housing-crash-will-worse-us/
And some exerpts:
We’re always curious to know how other countries interpret our statistics, political climate and what outside media is reporting about Canada’s economy. Since China has been a hot button subject in Canadian news recently, we thought it was high time we took a look at how Canada is portrayed in China’s State regulated media. While the Chinese media does acknowledge that Chinese buyers are a contributing factor to our prices – and admit they have been capitalizing on it – they also point out some interesting observations that our media has failed to cover. Here are the most interesting points we found from three major Chinese publications.
Hexun, China’s largest finance portal, recently published an article pointing to Canada’s debt fueled economy. They noted that Canadians have the largest debt-to-income ratio of any G7 country, with the average spending 165% of their salary. To contrast, at the height of the US housing crisis in 2008, Americans carried what was then considered an outlandish 147% debt-to-income ratio – 17 points lower than where we currently sit. Canada’s total household debt reached $1.892 trillion dollars, with $1.234 trillion dollars of that as mortgage debt – roughly 65% more than we make per year. To put that 1.82 trillion dollars into perspective, we could have run the US government for 8 months with that amount of money.
Sina.com’s real estate partner, and NYSE listed Leju was quick to point out that while the average home price in Vancouver is up more than 30%, the province is in a state of “stagflation.” Stagflation is a fancy word that describes when the cost of living increases but there is stagnant demand in the economy. They go on to say BC has one of the lowest median incomes in the country, and the BC government is hoping rising home prices will “render some good”.
While they didn’t put statistics to those statements, we recently published an article that showed Vancouver’s home prices have risen 172% in the last 15 years, while income has only moved up 10%. The struggle in VanCity is real.
The article seems a little threadbare on facts, to me, but one thing stood out to me as being straight up wrong. It says:
other cities like Toronto, that have substantially more international buyers, are not having discussions about “vacancy taxes” and “restrictions”.
But that's not true. I've heard this bandied about a little around City Hall, though mostly it is being denounced by folks like Tory as a non-starter. It has been brought up, though.
Anyway... I don't really have a horse in this race. I don't see my way ever being clear of renting at this point in my life, but we'll see what happens, I suppose. I've got some friends who are looking to buy houses. I've also got some friends who work in Toronto, but have bought homes in Mississauga and Hamilton because there are no houses that you can afford in Toronto proper anywhere.
Food for thought.
Interesting Twitter rant about "We Are The Left," Marx, and Identity Politics:
From Helen Razer, the very long rant is storified here:
https://storify.com/number86/helen-razer-tweetstorm-on-marxism-teh-left
Interesting discussion on what it means to be "left" "liberal" and a bit of discussion about the Base/Superstructure.
I found it on Tim Minchin's Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/timminchin
If you haven't heard of Tim, he's an extremely smart and funny musician and comedian from Australia.
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Ottawa, Ontario
Home country: Canada
Current location: Toronto, Ontario
Member since: Wed Oct 29, 2008, 04:34 PM
Number of posts: 3,280
