there was an episode of the simpsons in the 90s, where they did a parody of the x-files....

but, this is what they're running, i think. they want to play down the political differences between the candidates and turn it into a popularity contest. remember: hillary is apparently unaware of the fact that she's not widely loved.

the thinking, though, is that if you can take the issues off of the table - or minimize them - then it gets reduced to a no-brainer decision: trump is batshit crazy and she's just a little bit crazy.

two reasons why i think they're doing this. first: she always does this. it doesn't matter who her opponent is. bernie opposes the tpp? she opposes the tpp. weasel language, but nonetheless. abortion drives the gop base? they bring a pro-life vp in. it's the tactic she always uses. second: it's actually kind of true. they are basically the same candidate, except she's a little less crazy. or at least seems that way. for the first three seconds...

i'm not convinced it's a sure loss. i mean, she doesn't have a lot of better options. she can't be alienating the moderate right. that is a sure tactic to lose, because she is going to certainly bleed on the left.

she needs some kind of sugar, there. i don't know the best way to do it...

the grievance, rachel, is that they don't believe anything she says. is hillary even her real name?

remember when the other clinton was against nafta?

and, it's not like it's some kind of error in pr management, either. you can't blame this on the primary. she's spent her whole career lying to people. now, nobody believes her. how does that saying go, when we're on to "fool me for the thirty-ninth time"?

actually, i think that this is why she has to swing right. she has a better chance of convincing conservatives than she does of convincing leftists. it's perhaps a crisis point for the democrats - in two years. right now, the goal has to be to win the election. she's not going to do that by telling lies to people that don't and never will believe her. her better chance is to lay the truth on the table and go after the right. not happy about it, of course. but, is it not obvious that she'll never convince them?

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/bob-black-the-abolition-of-work

j reacts to hillary clinton's perception of the value of democracy

i know i do a lot of long rants, but i'm just going to leave you with a statement and ask you to keep it in mind as you see the coverage unfold. i just saw an interview at rcp with cory booker wearing a purple tie and talking about the left and right coming together. first of all, who does that remind you of? what does "bipartisanship" mean to you? but, forget about that for a minute. just remember this statement over the next several months:

hillary clinton thinks that government policy should exist independent of the election cycle - that party differences in policy creates instability that makes the country less safe and less productive. it follows that she believes that elections should not affect policy decisions.

if you're having trouble understanding things, just come back to that statement of explanation.

j reacts to the absurd naivete on the "left" around dws

that's right. she did a great job, so she got promoted.

i've said my bit about the kaine thing, already.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/T_v_jcyaRTc

j reacts to the expansion of broadband as social engineering tactic

this is actually a great idea, and something that left-leaning governments everywhere should look into. they're arguing it will be good for the economy, and they might even be right.

i support the idea more on social engineering grounds.

if you look at a map of most of the world right now, you notice something pretty dramatic: urban areas lean towards inclusive/liberal parties and rural areas lean inwards and towards the right. ontario is no different. modernizing the rural areas could consequently be interpreted as a type of enlightened gerrymandering.

except that we need to eat, too.

i hypothesize that one of the biggest reasons that we have these divides is the insularity of rural communities. if you live on a farm that's an hour drive from any real civilization, you just don't come into contact with any kind of diversity. so, you're naturally suspicious of it - because you don't know it.

increasing internet access in rural areas is consequently a sort of window into the present for a lot of these communities, who otherwise have little access to modernity.

little access. it's not zero access. but one of the major windows into the world from these communities right now is the print media, which is dominated by the right-wing. in canada, we have the sun chain along with the national post. replacing the bottleneck on information in the print media with open internet access will broaden people's opinions.

it won't lead to seat changes overnight. it may even take a generation to have any meaningful effect. but, it may be the single most powerful thing that the left can do to break the lock that the right has on rural communities.

i've been pushing this for a while, and i'm happy to see the government pick it up.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/governments-spend-180m-on-high-speed-internet-in-ontario-1.3695222

something else that i'm in strong support of is the idea that internet lines should be interpreted as public infrastructure, like roads. so, i hope that the government hangs on to the lines, this time. we had publicly owned phone and cable lines in canada for a long time, but sold them off during the neo-liberal period. that was a big error.

yeah. he's got some 'splainin' to do, alright.

www.cbc.ca/news/world/bill-clinton-speech-hillary-clinton-democrats-1.3695087

25-07-2016: i woke up early for an mri, and never really recovered for the day

tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1

whatever the russians think about trump, they hate clinton.

for example: sergei lavrov is on record calling her a war criminal.

jessica
fool me once...

i don't blame him. maximize revenue, right? and, hey - it's more legit than making money from ad revenue, anyways.

i see that you didn't like the 40 minute vlogs about music production.

so, i've given you 80 minute vlogs about music production.