by William Skink
A recent inquiry about whether or not a bromance has bloomed between Big Swede and I got me thinking. No, not about Swede’s strong arms and masculine self-reliance, but something I’ve written about before: the politics of emasculation.
The bromance comment is not at the level of emasculation politics practiced by the Pogie against the dastardly Zinke. But it did inspire me to include some homo-erotic elements in the new piece I’m finishing up, my Tester Rap.
Stay tuned…
by William Skink
Democrats are hoping that the midterm elections result in a blue wave of Democrat victories. If the wave doesn’t materialize, Russia is already being set-up to take the blame:
Russia is already meddling in the midterm elections this year, the top American intelligence officials said on Tuesday, warning that Moscow is using a digital strategy to worsen the country’s political and social divisions.
Russia is using fake accounts on social media — many of them bots — to spread disinformation, the officials said. European elections are being targeted, too, and the attacks were not likely to end this year, they warned.
“We expect Russia to continue using propaganda, social media, false-flag personas, sympathetic spokespeople and other means of influence to try to exacerbate social and political fissures in the United States,” Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee at its annual hearing on worldwide threats.
It’s very convenient to have a scapegoat ready to go because accountability is a term that doesn’t seem to be a part of the Democratic lexicon. If Democrats lose, it’s because Russia is spreading discord among the electorate, not because Democrats refuse to change their tune.
We’ll get to Montana’s Senate race in a second, but first let’s take at how the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is taking the unprecedented step of attacking a Texas Democrat ahead of a primary:
ON THURSDAY EVENING, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took the extraordinary step of publicly attacking a prominent Democratic candidate in a contested Texas primary. The party committee’s move was made all the more jarring given the background of the candidate, Laura Moser, who in 2017 became a hero of the Trump resistance movement as the creator of Daily Action, a text-messaging tool that channeled progressive anger into a single piece of activism per day.
“Voters in Houston have organized for over a year to hold Rep. [John] Culberson accountable and win this Clinton district,” DCCC Communications Director Meredith Kelly told the Texas Tribune. “Unfortunately, Laura Moser’s outright disgust for life in Texas disqualifies her as a general election candidate, and would rob voters of their opportunity to flip Texas’ 7th in November.”
The comment followed the release of an opposition dossier the party compiled on Moser. To date, the DCCC has made only two such memos public, one on Moser, and the other on arch-conservative Rick Saccone, a Republican running in an upcoming special election in Pennsylvania.
Why is the DCCC doing this? It would seem the Democratic establishment is continuing to do what it can to marginalize progressives, like when the DNC purged Bernie supporters late last year. At a time when Democrats need all the help they can get, moves like this seem inexplicable.
Maybe the Russians are using remote mind-control technology to get the Democratic establishment to undermine its progressive wing?
In Montana, Democrat Jon Tester is facing a very difficult reelection bid. Republicans will try to depict Tester as an out-of-touch liberal and that depiction may work with low-information voters, but for the more political savvy, Tester is far from being a liberal.
Back in 2014, when Tester was tapped to chair the DSCC, this is how the Washington Post described the decision to go with Tester to head this fundraising arm of the Democratic establishment:
With this move, the Democratic leadership has signaled its appreciation of the brains beneath Tester’s trademark flattop haircut and the political tapestries his seven-fingered grip has woven nimbly. In selecting Tester to head the DSCC — responsible for spearheading the campaign efforts of the Democratic Party in the Senate, including messaging, candidate recruitment and prodigious fundraising — the party chose someone who won two tough races, made inroads into traditionally Republican constituencies in a red state and understands rural values. Democrats probably were going to lose the Senate in 2014 no matter what they did, but a careful review of exit polls suggests that the party lost major ground among white men and rural voters. And while national demographic trends may favor Democrats, they must appeal to these groups to remain competitive electorally in key states.
That was a long time ago, before evil white men in flyover country helped elect Donald Trump. Will Tester really be able to make more in-roads with that deplorable demographic to win another election in Montana?
To win, Tester will need to make more than just in-roads with white, rural voters. This time around, the Libertarians in Montana are without Mike Fellows, who died in a car crash in 2016. Why is that important? Because Libertarians have helped Tester win his last two elections by peeling off potential Republicans votes, making it a part of the calculus of Tester’s past successes.
Being tarred and feathered as a liberal is not good for Tester’s reelection bid, so it’s not surprising to see that Montana’s premier progressive blog, The Montana Post, is trying to make the case (correctly) that Tester is a moderate, not a progressive, which you can read about in a post by mature blogger Pete Talbot, titled Scum-sucking dog: a compendium.
Jon Tester is getting bills signed into law left and right, which is strong evidence that Tester is able to work with Republicans to get things done. Even Russian agent Donald Trump has signed Tester legislation into law. I guess the anti-Russian hysteria can be put on hold when it comes to promoting the strengths of your preferred candidate in a hotly contested Senate race.
One sub-set of voters who have not been impressed with Tester are the non-collaborating environmentalists. Maybe it’s because Tester has referred to this demographic as extremists, or maybe it’s because Tester has been exposed lying about claims of logging litigation, or maybe it’s because the moderate collaboration Tester represents is a direct threat to the remaining wilderness these environmentalists (who chose not to compromise their integrity by hopping in bed with industry) are still dedicated to protecting.
In a Counterpunch article last Friday by Joshua Frank, he implores the band Pearl Jam to put pressure on Tester regarding the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project. Here is a portion of that article:
Despite the rhetoric that Tester’s Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project would protect 80,000 acres of Montana wilderness — where there are roads there’s no wilderness, and Tester’s bill will cut the roadless acres in the Monture area of the Bob Marshall Wilderness in half.
Tester’s monstrous bill will set up two recreational playpens in the center of Monture, a 3,800-acre mountain biking area and another 3,000 for snowmobiles. Currently, neither are allowed in this roadless area. If passed, Tester’s bill will change all of that.
Indeed, it was road development across the West that sparked the modern day environmental movement. The great Bob Marshall was one of the first to speak out against roads in wilderness areas. Now, Tester wants to allow roads in Bob Marshall’s namesake wilderness preserve.
Don’t expect to read any criticism of Tester’s poor record on environmental issues from the self-described progressives at The Montana Post. Time and time again, progressive environmental ideals take a far back seat to the political expediency of protecting Tester at any cost and I don’t expect that to change during this contentious mid-term election.
And that’s the problem, a lack of substantive change by Democrats despite loss after loss. But they don’t want to hear that kind of criticism, so they retreat to better-insulated platforms where opposing views can be censored and critics maligned.
Jon Tester has a very difficult road to reelection. He will need all the left-flank, ass-covering by partisans pretending to be progressive that he can get.
And if he loses, Democrats can just blame Russia.
by William Skink
Long-time readers of this blog know over the years I have cultivated an open disdain for Intelligent Discontent, now rebranded to appear like a journalistic online media endeavor called The Montana Post. There are many reasons for this, some on the policy level and some on the personal level.
When I started blogging nearly a decade ago, the progressive blogosphere was much more populated than it is now. There were plenty of skirmishes back then, much of it stemming from my contention that to preserve a sense of progressiveness one had to point out where the Obama administration deviated from progressive ideals.
As Obama neared the end of his tenure things came to a head when I engaged in some audacious speculation that the progressive fire burning for Bernie was ultimately being tended by a sheepdog who would lead them into the psychopathic, neoliberal embrace of Hillary Clinton.
That was too much, so Jay Stevens pulled the plug at 4&20 Blackbirds. With help from the Missoula Independent, a more general story of the decline of the progressive blogosphere was told, one that included erroneous claims about 4&20 Blackbird’s traffic that, when pointed out, caused the Indy to at least print an online update.
One of the points of criticism levied at myself and fellow blogger JC was our use of anonymous pseudonyms. I was outed several times, so clearly it was an issue important enough to try and cause me personal harm by disclosing my identity when I had legitimate reasons to want to stay anonymous.
Because comment threads can get quite heated, and because trolls increasingly poisoned online discourse, anonymity itself was one scapegoat used to either close down comments altogether, or at least try to attempt to moderate. When moderation proved too difficult, especially when a blog’s own standards weren’t followed and moderating appeared too close to censorship, a move to Facebook offered the requirement that comments would be issued under a person’s real name.
The Montana Post made that move and now, in an ironic twist, the tables have been turned. A person or persons with administrative access to The Montana Post’s Facebook page can now engage commenters, commenting under their real name, from the safer distance of anonymity.
I mentioned this in the comment thread of my last post about partisan derangement over Russiagate. After posting, whoever has administrative access to The M-Post’s Facebook page gave me a curious suggestion, curious because I referenced sometimes M-Post contributor Josh Manning in the post, who was recently called out by Glenn Greenwald for conspiracy theorizing.
Here was the comment directed at me:
I think you should probably stop reading so much Glenn Greenwald. You don’t understand what he’s trying to do. You are not him, be yourself and quit parroting.
Is this Josh Manning? Is it the even more obnoxious partisan, Nathan Kosted? Is it Don Pogreba, perpetual media scold and Montana Democrat foot soldier? I don’t know, but I think the identity is worth knowing. For a blog that has made such a big deal of anonymous writers expressing themselves under pen names and pseudonyms, to not be more transparent should be explained, otherwise the easy accusation of hypocrisy will be made. By me, Travis Mateer, aka William Skink, continually.
Because I’m interested in what people tell me not to read, I’d like to link to a preview of a showdown between Glenn Greenwald and fellow Intercept contributor, James Risen. For the record, I don’t trust Greenwald or his billionaire funded journalistic project, The Intercept. I do appreciate Greenwald putting his neck out to dampen the increasing hysteria over Russiagate because I believe, like Greenwald states, there are incredibly dangerous implications to the stoking of Cold War-like tensions with a nuclear-armed Russia. But don’t take it from me, parrot that I am. Here is Greenwald himself, pushing back against Risen’s series of articles that starts out asking if Trump is a traitor: link.
By William Skink
I had this post ready to go, for the most part, a week ago, but wasn’t able to get it posted before leaving the States for a glorious week with the family in Mexico. Now that I have returned to the cold (and Cold War 2.0) I see nothing much has changed. Here is the post, with some additional info on the 13 indictments that offers a different perspective. Here we go.
*
The two main partisan blogs in Montana—Montana Pos(t) and Moogirl—have lost their shit over Russiagate. They delude themselves that the FBI is beyond reproach and any evidence of corruption within the FBI (and DOJ) is nothing more than a campaign to discredit the investigation.
Here is one example from Moogirl, I mean, “Montanan”:
We are living in a world of circular logic. We have white supremacists, Nazis, and Russian bots creating online propaganda with hashtags to release a Congressional memo that is simple regurgitated BS from white supremacists, Nazis, and Russian bots. Then the sane people in this country from John McCain to Jeff Flake and folks of all political persuasions try to hopelessly explain the complexities of the legal system, while the right-wing media machine of far-right radio, suspect websites and a certain “news” channel that report on a meaningless memo elevating it to be meaningful somehow.
And here is some hyperventilating from sometimes Pos(t) contributor, COMBAT Vet Josh Manning:
Yes there are important people who are showing us the dangers ahead and that have transpired. Robert Mueller has access to the blueprints of why we are where we are and he almost alone has the power to lay those out. But he will not end this by himself. We have to protect him yet we cannot think that he is our savior. We cannot think that individual senators or representatives are any more powerful than Mueller.
In the end, this is about us. Each of you has to figure out what you will be willing to do to prevent America from becoming the cherry on Moscow’s political cupcake. It demands not only being informed and talking with friends and neighbors but also whether you are willing to join a national sit-in near the White House when Trump cronies fire Mueller (spoiler alert: it is coming), if you will not be silenced or intimidated by being called anti-patriotic when you oppose the “major event” of a war with North Korea meant to boost Trump’s approval at the cost of millions of lives, if you will join in local demonstrations against these authoritarian actions, or if you simply watch Maddow and yell at the television. I will be at events one and two. I will make them happen. I need you all to help. If we whither and die as our nation crumbles then that will be our fate. I did not serve in the military to watch my nation dissolve after I returned from far away wars.
Well Josh, I am informed, but not in the way you and your fellow partisans would hope. The post-9/11 authoritarian nature of this country is in its second decade of development and its evolution has been midwifed by both Republicans and Democrats. Only a partisan can deny this reality.
For those suffering from partisan memory loss, Obama presided over the extrajudicial killings of US citizens without due process, which sounds pretty authoritarian to me. Where was Manning’s outrage then? Maybe he was too busy shooting at Iraqis and Afghans in America’s imperialist wars of choice to notice a Democrat acting the authoritarian role of dear leader, unhindered by constitutional constraints, which of course makes his concern about Trump disingenuous.
The amnesia on display from these partisans regarding Mueller and the FBI is both convenient and very concerning. To counter that amnesia, Consortium News (now without Robert Parry, who passed away recently) has an article that reminds us what Mueller and his sidekick, Comey, were doing after 9/11:
Setting aside for the moment the merits of the Russiagate narrative, who really is this Robert Mueller that amnesiac liberals clamor to hold up as the champion of the people and defender of democracy? Co-author Coleen Rowley, who as an FBI whistleblower exposed numerous internal problems at the FBI in the early 2000s, didn’t have to be privy to his inner circle to recall just a few of his actions after 9/11 that so shocked the public conscience as to repeatedly generate moral disapproval even on the part of mainstream media. Rowley was only able to scratch the surface in listing some of the more widely reported wrongdoing that should still shock liberal consciences.
Although Mueller and his “joined at the hip” cohort James Comey are now hailed for their impeccable character by much of Washington, the truth is, as top law enforcement officials of the George W. Bush administration (Mueller as FBI Director and Comey as Deputy Attorney General), both presided over post-9/11 cover-ups and secret abuses of the Constitution, enabled Bush-Cheney fabrications used to launch wrongful wars, and exhibited stunning levels of incompetence.
Mueller and Comey are both cogs operating in the cesspool of DC. And who is Josh Manning? Is he someone who believes Americans have the right to know what the military he proudly served has been doing in theaters like Iraq? No, he does not. Not when he hallucinates big, scary Russia behind any unwanted development threatening the establishment he shills for.
An example of this can be found in a recent Zerohedge piece. Apparently the fact Chelsea Manning is running for office is just another evil Russian plot. Remember, Chelsea Manning is the whistleblower who exposed some pretty heinous acts committed by members of America’s armed forces.
The first tweet, from foreign policy and strategy consultant Molly McKew, starts of the conspiracy theory with this:
A little too convenient that Chelsea Manning will primary @SenatorCardin, one of most active Senators on foreign policy & leader in making policy/legislation to respond to Russian aggression, for MD Senate.
Guess that’s what Dem Tea Party is going to look like: Snowden party.
Then Josh Manning chimes in:
Senator Cardin authored and released a 200 page masterpiece on Russian influence in western elections. Suddenly he has a primary from Kremlin stooge Assange’s Wikileaks primary source Chelsea Manning. The Kremlin plays the extreme left to swing elections. Remember that.
And then Glen Greenwald adds this great jab to Josh Manning:
Oh my god: this is how deranged official Washington is. The President of the largest Dem Party think tank (funded in part by dictators) genuinely believes Chelsea Manning’s candidacy is a Kremlin plot. Conspiracy theorists thrive more in mainstream DC than on internet fringes
And to put the Greenwald cherry on top of this xenophobic conspiracy theory here is more from GG:
This conspiracy theory mocks itself.
The idea that Vladimir Putin sat in the Kremlin, steaming over Benjamin Cardin’s report on Russia, and thus developed a dastardly plot to rid himself of his daunting Maryland nemesis – “I know how to get rid of Cardin: I’ll have a trans woman who was convicted of felony leaking run against him!” – is too inane to merit any additional ridicule.
But this is the climate in Washington: no conspiracy theory is too moronic, too demented, too self-evidently laughable to disqualify its advocates from being taken seriously – as long as it involves accusations that someone is a covert tool of the Kremlin.
The most recent development in the Russiagate investigation (insurance policy?) is the indictment of 13 Russians. Once again the resistance is hyping this latest development as further evidence of Russia influencing America’s election.
For a perspective you won’t get from either MSM echo chamber, Moon of Alabama has a very interesting take in a post titled Mueller Indictment – The “Russian Influence” Is A Commercial Marketing Scheme. Read the whole post, it’s compelling.
I linked to MoA’s post on Montana Post’s Facebook page, and the reaction was predictable. I’m accused of watching Fox News and the actual substance of the post was of course totally ignored. At one point in the comments whoever is running MP’s Facebook page said this:
Putin is a dictator who influenced our election. The way to defeat him is sanctions. Trump won’t implement them.
To which I asked “how did Putin, the dictator, specifically influence the election? Where is the evidence that directly implicates the Kremlin?”
And this is the response I got:
The internet is a magical place. Enjoy exploring it Travis. You can find information that fits any bias you have. It takes a rational person to find the facts, analyze them and make conclusions. I hope you enjoy your journey in cyberspace.
I will conclude this post with the final comment I made to this ridiculous non-answer:
After a year and a half of scapegoating Russia there is no direct evidence, that is the sad reality you partisans refuse to acknowledge, but it doesn’t stop you from making the same unsubstantiated accusations. Trump’s regime is disgusting and corrupt, but Russiagate is not going to be the impeachable scandal you hope it is. You are wasting time and sapping energy by continuing to promote your xenophobic, anti-Russian conspiracy theories.
Like Vonnegut said, And so it goes…
by William Skink
A higher return on investment is just another way of saying greed, and greed is ultimately at the core of the world’s financial problems. Fuck modest returns on investment, say the self-anointed Masters of the Universe. If you take away our derivative toys we’ll just leverage the shit out of VIX instead.
If you don’t know what the hell I’m talking about it don’t worry, neither do I. It’s not just strange financial terms that befuddle regular people from understanding what is happening, it’s the increasing complexity of what return junkies have to do to get their fix.
I’ve been watching Zerohedge for an article that explains yesterday’s signal that we’ve entered a period of volatility in language I can understand. I think this piece, titled The Death Of The “Death Of Contagion” Central Bank Meme, is worth reading even though the language is still a bit heavy on Wall Street Speak. Here’s an excerpt:
We’re experiencing a major correction in the equity markets brought on in a mean-reversion exercise thanks to central banks trying to shore up their defenses around the last battle they lost, namely off-exchange, unregulated CDOs — synthetic debt-based investment products.
Humans are clever and will always find a way around a problem. The problem is incentives. The banks created CDO’s because there was a demand for investment returns far above what the central banks were allowing the market to pay, by setting interest rates well below the real risk profile of the investment community.
In other words, government bonds were over-priced and investors went looking for better returns. Now that Yellen et.al. have stamped out most of that market investors still need yield.
The response to the 2008 financial crisis was zero-bound interest rates and trillions in liquidity created by the central banks sitting around looking for yield. It found its way into the equity markets which over the past six plus years been on an historic rally off the October 2011 low.
During that time the VIX became more important. What was once only discussed by the real pros was now in the hands of everyone. Contagion risks jumped asset classes.
Essentially what this is saying is that gambling addicts enabled by greedy investors moved their derivative scam after the economic crisis to another arcane niche of the financial universe.
Why? Because why not? The architects of the last crisis were bailed out and no one went to jail. So why not chase some other scheme for investors?
Whatever comes next–and it won’t be more immediate financial carnage–Donald Trump is going to own it. By claiming the high water mark of the market, whatever comes next is his.
The reality is the seeds were sewn as Obama took power and Democrats controlled Congress. Thanks to the complicity of the entire political class, no high-profile bankster went to prison, the Federal Reserve opened the zero-interest spigots, and greed went back to work with the same incentives in place to maximize short-term returns and fuck everything else.
To be clear, that everything else is us.