Pretty Hate Machine

Trump won his primary the old fashioned way. Against a bag of hammers, but still.  He won the general by the same rules every candidate has for 250 years. Half of us didn’t vote.  He prevailed with less than one quarter of eligible voters.  Nobody’s fault but ours.

Math.

If you think Russia picked your president, you’re worthless.  This sudden shock and righteous indignation over the revelation that some other power is trying to fuck with us is ludicrously naive. We’ve been doing it for decades.  They’ve been doing it to us for decades.  US intelligence agencies engage in election sabotage in any number of countries before, during and after their morning crap.

Show me where they actually hacked the machinery and changed vote totals as opposed having something, somehow, to do with the leaking of some genuine emails that ranged from cryptic to embarrassing, and we have a conversation starter.  Until then, piss up a rope.

On the other hand, how about that democratic primary?

It’s not the knee jerk, faux patriotic contempt for foreign intervention that disgusts me, but the abrupt, convenient faith and consent in the American political corporation.  Depending on what week and what party of course.  Today it’s the republicans who don’t give a shit about the Russians and the democrats who want to burn down the electoral college.

But stand by.

Hold your breath.

What makes Hillary a loser is that she lost to Donald Trump.  The 2.8 million popular vote surplus? We should just let coastal population clusters inside neoliberal bubbles elect our president?   Some serious number didn’t vote for Trump, but against Hillary.  Another serious number voted in quiet desperation.

Math.

Things are this bad for this many.

She sucked that much.

He saw it and he closed.

He didn’t bother with New York and California and he lied his ass off.

He won.

Was it a proxy battle between the CIA and the FBI?  Maybe, but it wasn’t the Russians that ate Hillary’s lunch.

Is this euphoric sentimentalism for the good old days of red baiting?  Nationalistic nostalgia for cold war angst that had us investing in bomb shelters and keeping an eye out for pinkos at the corner market? Remember that warm fuzzy feeling you got from the drills, hiding under your desk to keep you safe from the incinerating power of the sun in your backyard?

Good times.

Trump and Putin are gonna compare dicks sooner or later. It won’t go well, they have way too much in common.

The corridors of power throb when the citizenry share a common enemy.  Habeas corpus is extinct and Posse Comitatus was shitcanned eight years ago.  Trump inherits the ability to detain anyone indefinitely and dispatch US military troops against you and me with mere convenience. Meanwhile, he stocks his larder with generals and hawks, flouting the doctrine of civilian leadership for the military.

But there’s commies under your bed.

Is it just me or are those drums distracting?

Drinks for my friends.

14 Responses to “Pretty Hate Machine”

  • Cass:

    Comey and the Russkies decided this election. Trump didn’t ‘win’. That is fact and the only thing we should be talking about. Fact:: 20 million people voted those 9 days HRC was under suspicion. THAT is what we need to talk about. The DNC got hacked, the RNC didn’t. Imagine what they would have found there? You want to just sit on your hands and let them get away with this — AGAIN? No offense, but you’re full of shit, Michael.

    http://election.princeton.edu/2016/12/10/the-comey-effect/

    • LOL. Did they now. Couldn’t have had anything to do with her being the most despised democratic candidate in history? Let them get away with exactly WHAT? Let them get away with what? Sheezus there is derp.

    • Benedict@Large:

      I’m still waiting for the first person who’ll step up and say, “Yeah, it was me. I changed my vote at the last minute because of James Comey.” Mostly all I get is, “James who?”

    • She lost. Your pissed. I’m glad. She just hacked the wrong votes in the wrong places. Russia is innocent until proven guilty. In the meantime who killed JFK? Who attacked on 911? Your only consolation… She got the Lemming vote she worked so hard to abscond with. I dont appreciate her lying and smearing her way almost into office. What more does she want? The presidency? She should be thankful she is not in prison. Hopefully she WILL be brought to justice. The real problem this country faces is widespread corruption and a hijacking of the free press turned into a propaganda machine. Until we have a reliable media nothing else really matters does it?

    • Barbara:

      Good for you Cass. Michael is smart and his observations prior to the commencement of this past election have been incisive, but his love of all things Sanders has blinded him. I don’t know how he can conclude that “all the voters wanted Sanders” considering Hillary beat Sanders by 4 million votes, and then she went on to beat the orange asshat by almost 3 million. Hillary received more votes than any other presidential candidate EVER. Yes, EVER. So no, ALL the voters did NOT want Sanders, and Hillary is NOT the antichrist. Michael you bought the lies, smears, and all the false shit that the rethugs shoveled into your open brain about Hillary. Congratulations, you performed just like they wanted you to. Third party votes in key electoral college states far exceeded the number it would have taken for Hillary to beat the orange asshat, so good for you, you wanted “change” and you sure as shit got it. And yes, despite your refusal to accept it, if not for the large number of insane third party votes and write ins in key electoral college states, she could have easily overtaken the small number Trump beat her by. So YES, we SHOULD let “coastal population clusters inside neoliberal bubbles elect our president.” Get over yourself. Your selfishness is stunning. Nothing was “stolen” from your hero. He lost fair and square, and you guys fucked all of us when you fucked her. I’m sick to DEATH of this patriarchal bullshit. Thanks for nothing.

      • Barbara,

        You know what sucks?

        You’re LYING.

        Nowhere in anything I’ve written does it say, “all the voters wanted Sanders”.
        Hillary Clinton DID NOT receive more votes than any presidential candidate ever. She was however the most HATED democrat to EVER run. Yes, EVER.

        There are NO lies, smears or falsehoods in ANYTHING I’ve written. NONE. So, I sure as fuck didn’t buy anything from the goddamn republicans.

        Blaming Hillary’s loss on the microscopic third party movement is utterly pathetic. It’s intellectually cheap, lazy and disingenuous. Hillary sucked so thoroughly she couldn’t beat a cotton candy haired pimp and you want to blame it on Jill Stein? Unfuckingbelievable.

        Bernie supporters “fucked” Hillary? LOL!! Hillary and the DNC fucked Hillary. You fucked yourselves and you want to blame anything and everything else. YOU are what got us Trump. We had nothing to do with it. She FAILED to EARN our votes.

        “Patriarchal bullshit”? So now it’s sexism, misogyny? Make up your goddamn mind. THAT is the most desperate and dishonest argument of all. 53% of WHITE women voted for Trump, dumbass.

        Your entire post is based on LIES. Congratulations. What little credibility you had with me has evaporated completely.

        This isn’t James Comey’s fault. It’s not the fault of third parties. It’s absolutely not the fault of Bernie supporters. It’s hardly because of misogyny or sexism. It has little to do with Julian Assange and fuck all to do with Russian intervention.

        For a few years now we’ve been ballyhooing the implosion of the republican party. The democratic party got out over it’s skis and beat them to the punch. I’m done with this goddamn party. Only Wasserman Schultz and her posse could have choreographed such a spectacular ballet just prior to such a disastrous face plant.

        Uneducated white people (men in particular) elected this buffoon for one simple minded reason. Trump promised an abrupt change from the educated, moneyed elite’s control and economic suppression of their lives for profit. Nevermind that he had no intention of doing any such thing.

        He closed.

        These people were absolutely correct to see Hillary Clinton as one of those elite and that’s where the DNC throat raped us all. They engaged in elaborate fuckery to force feed her to us while the one democrat who legitimately represented the actual change that all the voters craved regardless of political ideology or party affiliation built a smart and focused movement of monolithic proportion around that very change right in front of them.

        Bernie Sanders’ earnest threat to business as usual scared them more than Donald Trump ever could. The DNC was neither blind or stupid, they were calculating and deliberate because they understood all too well that this man would undermine their avaricious grip on the 99%. With eyes wide open and hearts black and hardened, the democratic corporation didn’t just sell out democrats, they sold out America. They knew they’d do just fine in Trump’s fever swamp of ignorance, arrogance and incompetence.

        It was crystal clear the people wanted change. Trump was selling it. Bernie was selling it. Hillary was not. It’s not piling on to point out that she’s scandal ridden, thoroughly lacking in transparency, authenticity and hopelessly unlikable. It’s not piling on to point out she cost us senate and house opportunities. It’s not piling on to point that Hillary and friends may have screwed the pooch on the supreme court for at least a generation.

        She was the one candidate who could lose to Trump and the DNC knew it.

      • Lindsay Dyett:

        Barbara, your comment has at long last, made me consider giving up hope..all hope for a better future, reason itself, or even peace.
        “Number of insane third party votes and write ins in key electoral college states, she could have easily overtaken the small number Trump beat her by. So YES, we SHOULD let “coastal population clusters inside neoliberal bubbles elect our president.” Get over yourself. Your selfishness is stunning. Nothing was “stolen” from your hero. He lost fair and square, and you guys fucked all of us when you fucked her. I’m sick to DEATH of this patriarchal bullshit. Thanks for nothing.”
        ..don’t know where to begin..not a single legitimate point. Not one holds water. Most are undemocratic and disturbing. ..not to mention the reliance on repeated uses of the eff word.

  • Ray Cohn:

    The corporate press covered up for Trump—and you are leaving out a tidbit of reality—our country is still a racist,sexist,misogynistic nation that favors a flatulent pig of a man who gets a big kick out of spewing racist and misogynistic blabber out of his mouth like diarrhea.

  • Sandy:

    If you don’t think Russia helped elect that idiot, you are not just “worthless,” you are uninformed and misinforming others. Yes. Not enough Americans voted. Yes. The third party anti-Hillary voters hurt immensely. But, the fake news outleets and Hillary bashers, (helped by Russian hacked leaks), and conspiracy theorists like Bannon and Flynn, et al, were complicit in getting people to stay home or not vote or vote for the lying con man. He did no win anything. And it is way past time (like by 200 years) to end the racist electoral college system.

  • William W Haywood:

    So we get called a bunch of names for voicing our opinions, and this person thinks you win when you call everyone who disagrees with you the foulest and dirtiest names. He/she sounds exactly like Trump, which is enough for me to just ignore him/her.

  • Mary Ann MacLeod:

    Gerrymandering also played a part in this and should be outlawed also.

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