Does anyone else notice?

Our sham elections have no longer any resemblance of democracy. I have been silently watching for a while. What is there to say that is not being turned into a drum beat.

I am 80 years old and it is quite clear that having participated in elections all those years only shows how much the system has the power to totally boggle otherwise functioning minds. Once one sees through the con game there is no going back.

For reasons I do not totally understand this election has reached a level of absurdity that reveals how rigged the system is.

Clinton is just another pathological liar. She is inept at hiding it. She is doing a good job of making support for her a pure exercise in class war.

Bernie has done so much to expose the system for what it is but will it eat him too? Endorsing Clinton would negate everything he has built and make him worse than Obama.

I watch and wait for there is no cutting through the ritualistic election BS in this country. Not even a weatherman can tell us which way the wind is blowing. It is clear that it stinks though.

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RejectingThe3rdWay's picture

Clinton is just another pathological liar. She is inept at hiding it. She is doing a good job of making support for her a pure exercise in class war.

I would change this to

Clinton is just another pathological liar. She is inept at hiding it. She is doing a good job of making support for her a pure PHONY exercise in class war,as she serves the 1% and that will never change.

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When I was a kid, Republicans used to red scare people, now it's the Democrats. I am getting too damn old for this crap!

murphthesurf's picture

Did anyone catch "She who shall not be named " lying like a sedated rug on the PBS news hour tonight?
Wow.

Maybe someone will find a transcript or a video link...
"Beyond the Pale".
(She is ghostly pale, btw, imho, ymmv, of course )

Peace -
Murph

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murphthesurf's picture

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karl pearson's picture

Mark Shields: "Judy, the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, the last poll, asked questions of personal characteristics. They asked, who do you think is more honest or trustworthy? And Donald Trump, not known as an ethical giant in most circles, was the choice of 41 percent. Hillary Clinton was at 25 percent. A meager margin thought her — she was more honest and trustworthy than Donald Trump."

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Unbelievable!! To hear two very respected journalists do an outright smackdown is just friggin unbelievable. What has this country come to?? Two totally dishonest arrogant egomaniacs as candidates, police who are so afraid that they murder black men at a routine, or un-necessary racial profiling traffic stop, or shoot a man already prostrate, and restrained, or a group of black people so radicalized by the continuing police brutality in their neighborhoods, that they decide to murder as many white cops as possible???? Have we reached a point of societal meltdown? Chaos? Anarchy.

Damn! It makes me mourn even more at the corruption evident in the primaries, and for the loss of positive thought, hopes and dreams, that Bernie stirred in so many millions of Americans.

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MsGrin's picture

Perfect!

I watched a couple sentences & had to stop.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

"nothing to see here, move along, now"

I wonder how scripted Judy Woodruff's questions were? Because Hillary sure seemed ready for them.

Missed the Shields and Brooks - might be able to catch it later.

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karl pearson's picture

During certain Dem primary debates this season, I wondered if networks like CNN & MSNBC had given Clinton the questions ahead of time. She seemed to know what was going to be asked. At the minimum, I bet the Clinton campaign received some clues. Bernie did great in the debates and I'm sure he didn't get the questions early.
I read the transcript of Shields & Brooks. It was very good. At least that's better than the other stations.

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Any interviews she does is probably similar to the demands for her speeches at GS you know the plane size, prez suite etc.
For interviews
All questions must be submitted in advance, no going off script during the interview , no real hard questions that require the truth and so on. Everything for her is completely scripted well at least until the debates that are coming up--that will be interesting, as when Bernie backed her into a corner well if looks could kill, safe to say trump could have a field day with her on with the e-mails alone

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Alligator Ed's picture

I appreciate that you put us on notice about one of Hillary's self-aggrandizing forays into the public eye. However, I can stomach neither her appearance nor sanctimonious cackles.

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murphthesurf's picture

Ed-
I concur.
I had to see myself .
Peace -
Murph

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Thaumlord-Exelbirth's picture

let's drop this sham of Bernie endorsing Hillary makes him the ultimate traitor. We've all seen how this system works. Does anybody here think that system will let Bernie accomplish anything at all if he doesn't give a meaningless endorsement? Yes, I said meaningless. What does an endorsement mean to any of us anyway? How many of Hillary's endorsements are you already dismissing? Clearly, the endorsements of those people don't matter to you, so why should Bernie's? The only people who seem to think endorsements mean anything in this election is the establishment.

I'm tired of this idea that who a person endorses in the political theater should matter more than anything a person has ever done. What if it was the other way around? What if Hillary endorsed Bernie? Would she be absolutely amazing then? Or would she still be a repulsive mass of slime inhabiting human skin?

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thanatokephaloides's picture

......asked him to not endorse HRC, or, if he must occasionally do so, to do it as seldom as possible.

Like lunachickie and Thaumlord-Exelbirth, I recognize that Bernie may encounter situations where he has no realistic choice. Example: Bernie on the Dem Convention stage. But please, Bernie, don't volunteer any if you can help it!

Diablo

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

for Bernie and that despite his long service he has learned a few not very pleasant things.

I hope he tells us about them.

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wilderness voice's picture

Bernie will do what he needs to do in order to continue have influence for the purpose of helping the 99%, that is, us. For those who would say otherwise, he got a very good VA bill through a Republican congress. He will continue to be a force to be reckoned with.

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This is far from a normal year.

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Thaumlord-Exelbirth's picture

You abandoning Bernie, or continuing to support him?

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don mikulecky's picture

I have been in this frame of mind since Bernie and I were at the University of Chicago in the early 1960s. I support Bernie because we have almost identical world views. Same reason I am a charter member of DSA. If Bernie chooses to endorse Clintron we part ON THAT ISSUE ALONE. The rest can't change.

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An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.

Yes, politics are ugly... but I wish Bernie was not so physically, emotionally, psychologically threatened, and demoralized by the elite establishment, that he could act on his conscience, and just move forward without having to lower himself, and the faith that millions have in him. Hillary Clinton is as corrupt, and inhuman as any candidate I've had to consider in 44 years of voting. I think Bernie will vomit before and after he is forced to endorse the HRC piece of shit. With an endorsement Bernie will lose ALL his cred...and that is what the DNC and the Clinton machine want. Their only desire is to emasculate Bernie, and his entire movement.

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Thaumlord-Exelbirth's picture

and then have support for his re-election somehow not materialize in votes as someone more pro-clinton takes his place (could still happen). Or he has some kind of "accident." And we end up with one less good person who had (and probably still does) the courage to fight for us in that den of thieves.

The only way the establishment gets Bernie to lose his credibility is if we fail to recognize that him endorsing Hillary is a result of the corrupted government system that we were roused to fight. It shouldn't discourage any of us, but should invigorate us to fight harder than ever, so we don't have to keep experiencing this stage show set up by the rotten hearted beast that is our government.

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lunachickie's picture

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Amanda Matthews's picture

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

It's end of empire

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SparkyGump's picture

blatantly created the meme that it was over and inevitable before it even began. The media, including Kos, jumped on board like the lackeys they have become. We had faux feminist outrages caused by non existent "Bernie Bro's" diverting our attention from our very democracy taken from us. Disgusting. I'm not looking forward to the next four years of endless scandal, war and austerity.

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The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.

snoopydawg's picture

First she says this:

You know, with respect to the handling of classified material, I take it very seriously, and the 300 or so people with whom I e-mailed on the course of my time in the State Department do as well. These are experienced diplomats. They have expertise in handling classified material. They were not careless.

and then this:

And the material that they sent to me, they didn’t believe was classified. The very, very few examples that Director Comey pointed to have also been clarified, as he accounted yesterday. The State Department has said two of the three that he had pointed to were human error. They were not to be classified.

So, I’m very proud of the work that we did over four years. And I’m very proud of our diplomats and our other professionals, who have to act in real time. They are responding to heads of state, to press inquiries. And they are doing the best they can. I do not believe they were careless. I do not believe that they sent material that they thought was classified, and certainly no finding of anything intentional was made after this investigation.

So she spent 4 years as SOS and didn't send one classified document during that time and not one person sent her any?
How in the hell could she have done her job without sending classified emails to anyone? How was classified information sent or received?
I recently read an article that she said that she was going to break up the Iranian deal because Bibi doesn't like it.
The article also stated that one of the reasons for removing Assad from power in Syria was to make Israel more safe.
If Israel needs to feel more safe from Syria and Assad l then why the hell isnt Israel doing the fighting and footing the bills instead of our troops and taxes doing it for them?
The whole Middle East clusterfuck is so that Israel can be the only super power in the region.

Off topic, but does this make sense to anyone?

HILLARY CLINTON : Well, I think President Obama has done an extraordinary job in trying to explain and provide information to anyone who’s willing to listen about the inequities and the difficulties that are being confronted by so many of our fellow Americans.
His policing commission that he put together after Ferguson, Missouri, has excellent recommendations, but not enough police departments have followed them. And I want to put money in the budget when I’m president to make it possible for every police department to implement these important reforms

So Obama put together a policing commission, but he didn't put any in any money for it? But she will and of course the GOP is going to authorize it?
Comment was edited because I got something wrong.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

Bisbonian's picture

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

snoopydawg's picture

DAVID BROOKS: Well, I agree with both sides of Comey’s conclusion, that she shouldn’t be charged, but that, basically, the defense she has given us and for all these months was a tissue of lies, that she didn’t have one device, she sent over 100 classified things, she had multiple servers, and that her staff didn’t even look at some of the — some of the things they deleted as personal, some of the e-mails were actually business.

And so she’s told a series of falsehood. And, frankly, I thought her reaction tonight was a little off-tone, a little too defiant, when a little humility and a little contrition might be in order, given what Comey said, completely accurately.

And so, if she had real opposition, this would have been devastating for her. I don’t think it rises to the level of sort of indictable offense, but I do think it’s sobering, and should be sobering even if you love Hillary Clinton and you are a Democratic, to see someone’s claims be exposed as falsehoods so readily.

Tom P had a diary yesterday about this. If it was anyone but Trump running against her, what Comey said would have been devastating to Hillary.
That is quite a low bar to set.

This from Mark:

This is a real problem. It’s been a problem, lack of transparency and forthrightness, all the way back to the Rose firm’s billing records some 20 years ago in the White House. And I thought that there was going to be a start of almost a candor offensive, the fact that she was doing the interview with you.
And I just think it’s time for frankness and an acknowledgment that this was wrong, that they were misleading. And to me, it’s not going to go away.

And to think, we could have had a candidate that isn't looked at as being untrustworthy and has his entire career to back up what he campaigned on.
Sigh!

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

I think Bernie will endorse Hillary. However, I don't think his endorsement will negate everything else he has accomplished and will accomplish. However, I will not vote for Hillary simply because he will.

http://caucus99percent.com/comment/127496#comment-127496

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Lenzabi's picture

They do have a thing to hold over Bernie's head that may have crushed him. He has grandkids that they could threaten, maybe not the movie or house of Cards style physical harm kind of threat, but that their futures will be pitiful and hard scrabble with low wage, low hour jobs that put them on the what is left of the social safety net for subsistence level of existence. That will never climb higher if he resists any further. He has fought hard for all, but his family would be precious and a target of underhanded political dealings as we have seen, the elites at the DNC are not beyond anything with underhanded and criminal tactics.

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So long, and thanks for all the fish

How true over the past 35-40 years the corporatist's have bought off all levels of the government from ALEC on the repub side and various groups on the Dem side. They run the show now and are so deeply entrenched that removing them will be extremely difficult , Bernie has exposed them for what they are but to many people still have their heads up their asses on both sides. They don't realize or don't care the only ones getting representation in DC are the corportaions ,not we the people. Bernie might have been the last chance for a peaceful revolution politically. Now I fear it will lead to JFK's quote
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
Our constitution does call for it when the government no loner works for the people, take a good look at our country, the frog is in the warm water and the pot is on the stove and the corporations keep turning up the heat just a matter of time unless things start changing inline with what Bernie has wanted to do.

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MonetaryLeviathon's picture

the amount of corruption throughout government and rigging of markets to maintain the illusion of 'all is well' is overwhelming

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