I joked (not really funny but you have to cope somehow) with my friends that the real Cubs' Curse was that because HRC was a fan, we can't have both a Cubs World Series Win and a HRC presidency (kind of like a deal with the devil).
I also jokingly predicted the night of Chicago's win that Trump would win Ohio as a result of Cleveland losing (I know my humor sucks). So, the Curse continues?
It's a tough consolation that she might end up with the popular vote. For all my talk on here (and I did ALOT), in the end, I did listen to y'all, Animal Collective, Bernie Sanders, and my parents and voted for HRC. I didn't want to but the guilt got to me.
I do believe that introspection is needed by the Democratic Party more than scapegoating, though, which is why I don't regret defending third parties, throughout this cycle. I know it's seen as naive and idealistic but I guess that's who I am.
Agreed. I am optimistic, though.
The same as with the Brexit vote and the Democratic Primary, I compare the way millenials voted in the general election (Hillary landslide with 504 electoral votes vs Trump's 23) with every other generation and I am hopeful. Stay with me, I eventually get to my point in a roundabout way.
Despite my views and the way I voice them here, I do agree that to get anywhere on many of the problems we face, it takes time and compromise. I am of the opinion that Trump and his movement are a symptom of larger problems in the U.S. and reflect the failure of our flailing institutions and not only complacency but also arrogance and neglect of the people by our leaders. There is PLENTY that has already been said and is known about how the "Conservative Party" ( a history of racial and corporate-first politics and more recently the absolute recklessness of obstructionism (lead primarily by racial politics) after our last financial collapse ) put in motion last night's results even before some of us where born.
However, you can't ignore the actions of the "Liberal Party" which has more recently fought for the same power (corporate and oligarchical) by ignoring principles that put people first. I'm not talking about purity tests. You can make a Venn Diagram (please don't) and find legit overlapping grievances that have lead to "revolt" from the "right" (Tea Party and Trump movement) and the "left" (Occupy, BLM, and Sanders movement).
It's very unfortunate that disillusioned and hurting people (primarily white working class) have been swept up and taken in by leaders (Trump, really most of the Republican Party over the last few decades (who let's face it have similar feelings to Trump on the inside but have the ability to outwardly suppress these feelings), Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, and many other rising leaders across Europe) keen to further exploit racial politics and make it a game of US vs THEM. The way that globalization has been used across the "west" for decades to gradually exploit and marginalize the middle and poor class is essentially the biggest problem but the people (aforementioned leaders) who have honed in on the problem before the tone deaf "elites" (and their surrogates who Dan Davis mentions) don't, IMO, hold the solutions.
Although, "Clintonism" and the EU were a part of rising inequality problems (a raft drifting further out to sea as a storm gradually grows more violent is my analogy), the voting patterns (and overwhelming support of leaders like Sanders and Corbyn) I talked about above are signs to me that my generation and younger are aware of inequality problems and that Donald Trump and UKIP (among others) are NOT the solution. I'm optimistic that in four years, (if it doesn't kills us) we will be stronger when the people on the "left" and "right" continue to learn empathy and sympathy, the people on the "right" who do have legit concerns recognize their false prophets, the "Conservative" and "Liberal" parties and leaders reflect on their failings, and our larger media structures do their fucking job to inform the people over chasing money (left-side) and brainwashing people (right-side) (In the blame game, I'm all in on the "corporate media").
Yep, that's our "democracy." Wouldn't it be something if the U.S. had Ranked-Choice Voting (I see you making moves, Maine)? Then, you wouldn't have to worry about a "spoiler." Just like the Commission on Presidential Debates, though, the two major parties will never give up that power to the people. They would rather risk someone like Donald Trump becoming the President which, IMO, should tell you all you need to know about them.
@Mr. Gruff I get what your saying in regards to compromise over Gore being someone who would address climate change but didn't Nader essentially run the way Bernie ran this year primarily against Wall St. and corporation domination/against inequality more so than for environmental justice? Also, I don't think the war part you included is fair as I highly doubt that any voters had the prescience to think that something like 9/11 could not only happen but it would be the catalyst for an even bigger farce and tragedy led by W. Bush., Cheney, and PNAC.
@a.j.howard09 I'll concede the point that there are still "Southern Democrats" but how do you explain the "191,000 self-described liberals [lost] to Bush, compared to less than 34,000 who voted for Nader [in Florida]" that Jim Hightower noted weeks after the 2000 election?
I still stand by the idea that it's on the candidate to win the votes of the people. Yeah, it's cliche but actions speak louder than words. Also, despite not sharing a similar political outlook, I will always love Animal Collective and I cherish both of your opinions on politics and music.
I love you Mr. Gruff but this popular "revision" that Nader cost Gore the 2000 election needs to be put to rest.
Nader did get almost 100,000 votes in Florida and Bush "won" by 500 votes. However, these facts don't give the entire picture and thus, provide a scapegoat (pardon me) for the 2000 election. The more important facts (IMO) are that Nader got the votes of 24,000 registered Democrats in Florida , while Bush received the votes of 380,000 registered Democrats in Florida!
So, yeah, you can say that Nader cost Gore the 2000 election but I will say that's the Democratic party not taking responsibility for Gore not earning 500 votes from those registered Democrat voters in Florida that defected to Bush. Also, two other pathways for Gore winning the 2000 election (conveniently left out of the narrative) were him winning either New Hampshire or his home state of Tennessee .
A few articles that might give more insight into where I'm coming from.
This is a link to a collection of Thomas Frank election essays for The Guardian throughout this cycle: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/thomas-frank
Also, I highly recommend his book, Listen Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?
This is a recent and great article from Jacobin that critiques the way in which HRC's campaign has been run this cycle: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/11/spin-clinton-campaign-feminist-privilege-politics/
This is an article on that ties into what I'm talking about at the bottom of the page: https://www.thenation.com/article/the-slide-toward-war-with-russia/
I get that you are and have been scared of further critique of HRC (Yeah, that Comey play was bullshit and should have been a confidential matter between the FBI and Congress) because of the possibility of the thing that frightens you, but did I help out at all to explain a different POV possibly shared by a few people that fucking hate Trump but are freaking out over war drums and "issues" that have been pushed to the background this whole election cycle?
One more thing (from a sore loser) that really killed me during the primary is that HRC ran on her foreign policy "experience" which Bernie should have destroyed and outright revoked (he did good by basically saying, "Fuck Henry Kissinger" but should have went further) but it's such the DC way of thinking to the point where he didn't really push it and recognized correctly that most voters were more concerned with domestic problems. Also, I'm mad that the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") was essentially Mitt Romney's plan ("Romneycare) from when he was governor of Massachusetts, and Clinton's current foreign policy which pits Russia as the number one geopolitical foe of the U.S. was...yep, Romney's views four years ago. Remember a few months ago when I went on about the right-ward plunge of the Democratic Party (The reason why Republicans really hate Democrats is because the Clintons and Obama are beating them at their own corporate game while maintaining/growing their base with social issues) completed with Tim Kaine in either 2020 or 2024 ? You better believe it's happening, James Murphy!
I swear that I was optimistic before this year... At least, we got some fantastic music for our troubles!
However, if I was in a swing state, I would definitely chin-up and vote for Clinton over Stein (5% and I want to test this Diebold Machine) but then, if we were to go to war with Russia over Syria (A No-Fly Zone is fucking stupid. Ful Stop.) or invade Iran for Israel and Saudia Arabia (Palestine and Yemen are already fucked with our HUGE war packages (38 billion over ten years to Israel and 1.15 billion to Saudia Arabia ) and essentially our consent, not to mention HRC's pledge to be more supportive than Obama (HOW?))....I don't know what I would do.
Slavoj Zizek just recently publicly shared a similar conclusion to the one I've reached in the past month that a Trump presidency would be really bad for what it would mean for the Supreme Court, and the enabling of his supporters but versus increasing tension between nuclear powers, the marriage of neoconservative and neoliberal architects, and a "corporate media" to sell these wars/"interventions" to the public without push back so far because HRC's is a "Democrat", the Clinton presidency is potentially much deadlier. Zizek, though, was focused more on the Wall Street dominant aspect of an HRC presidency and the theory that a Trump presidency would implode both the Republican and Democratic parties. Also, he said that he would vote for Donald Trump... fuck that noise! Trump is a craven petty ignorant pig-fuck who I (like everyone else) am postive would be easier to manipulate and agitate than Clinton. He has his own slimy wrecking crew of sycophants manuvering to take
key positions in his administration as well. I just don't know them as well as the people on
Clinton's sides so it's really a case of dancing with the devil you know.
I'm VERY disappointed that the Democratic Party has essentially set itself up as the "War Party." Why, to prove that you can be tough like the Republicans? So, now a part of me believes that wtih the trend for talking about and actually expanding the Millitary Indsutrial Complex, we will see a continual play and upping of the ante to retain this pitiful position where both foreign and domestic citizens are chewed up and spit out for profit, power, and dick measuring. That's Bullshit!
Getting back to my original point...does the fact that the Doomsday Clock is currently "Three minutes to midnight" hold any relevance with whoever is still reading? If it doesn't, then I am jealous (Ignorance is truly bliss). Knowing the foreign policy "experts" or masters of war (Project for a New American Century (Neoconservatives on the right who brought you Iraq) and Center for a New American Security (Neoliberals on the left who brought you Libya) among others "think tanks") who have assembled together in support of Hillary Clinton (and are not only vying for bigger roles in and around her administration but are already sharing socio and psychopathic wet dreams in Politico, NYT, and WP about HRC having a more aggressive foreign policy than Obama) and the way the "corporate media" has become a firewall for critique of "bipartisan" U.S. foreign policy and constant reliable demonization of Russia, I'm honestly scared as fuck of a Clinton presidency .
Now, war! You can go in my history here and find posts that I made from the more innocent month of June where I'm freaking out about not only U.S. nuclear proliferation and a call for a trillion dollar modernization (!?!) of our nuclear arsenal by Mr. Nobel Peace Prize, but encroachment and instigation towards Russia by NATO and U.S. I wasn't paying as much attention to the coup in Ukraine when it was occurring a few years ago to know the names of the main players (some of whom are predicted to be instrumental in an HRC administration) but after learning more about it and NATO's aggresive relationship with Russia the past decade I started getting pretty paranoid.
Then, flash forward to October and guess what?!? The U.S. government and most likely incoming administration are not only upping rhetoric in a war of words and allegations with Russia (deflections from forced transparency (which ironically enough the Obama Administration promised to be the most)) but key voices in the media are aiding and abetting in the foreground while in the background, U.S. foreign policy has gone from bombing three countries under George W. Bush to bombing seven (!?!) under Obama who now holds the distinction for being at war the longest of any U.S. president! Of course it's not entirely his fault, because of the royal clusterfuck that was the Bush administration and U.S. foreign policy decades before him but instead of heeding Uncle Ben's words (warning), he went further than Bush with expansions to executive powers in regards to the AUMF (prepetual war) and surveillance of the U.S. and world (George Orwell was quite the prescient motherfucker wasn't he?). Yeah, there are MANY other people involved but when you're names attached to the title, "Leader of the Free World," you kind of have to own the shit that went down on your watch.
Where she Lost Me
After reading all of that you're thinking/shouting "grow up, that was not only a realllllly long time ago but Trump is an existential threat to all life on Earth!" Again (despite my avatar), I am a black man born and raised in the south, so you might guess that my make-or-break issues this cycle might overlap with those of Killer Mike. I'm pretty upset over those issues, but really doe, the things
that keep me up at night involve the environment and war. I'll skip over the environment because I now believe that we're fucked in that department (Our religious brethren brainwashed by the "Conservative Party" (Ha!) who refuse to acknowledge man's role in climate change and the corporations in our Capitalistic society are not only too stubborn and too powerful but our "Liberal Party" is making a play for the same interests because C.R.E.A.M). Honestly, by the time enough people wake up to REALLY get something accomplished, it will already be too late for future generations (I've already decided, for me, it's probably best not to even have kids because shit is hitting the fan at a slightly faster rate than previously predicted).
Before I talk about war, something that can't be reiterated enough: Trump is a fucking idiot who has more than a few screws loose. He is fortunate to have more opportunities than everyone on Stereogum combined and the fact that the media was willing to set its soul on fire to film him acting like a child to make both of them rich off of a circus shit show (and me waste more words and thoughts on him). Mission Accomplished, Jackass! I thought that you could only be impeached for crimes while in office but prior crimes can be brought up so, if he somehow got to 270, we're probably looking at a President Mike Pence (which actually might scare me more than President Trump, and a President Cruz in 2020 definitely scares me most of all (Call me judgemental, biggoted or whatever, but I'm terrified of anyone with that much power who is absolutely convinced he has "God" on his side).
I believe that the VAST majority of Sanders supporters are still voting for HRC in the places that matter , but numbers could certainly be lower than expected. One of the points that Sanders and his camp tried to make during the Democratic Primary Convention was that even though he lost the popular vote during the primary by a few million, polling showed that he had more support from Independents for a general election. I'll restate an observation from the NYT that I put in a previous post: only 14% (30 million) of the eligible U.S. voting population (220 million) voted for BOTH Trump and Clinton in the primaries.
All of the previous information plus tacking on the Email Server Scandal (bad because of Nixonian implications of a potential HRC presidency in regards to avoiding the press and therefore the people but not a deal breaker) and Clinton Foundation Scandal (really bad if you look at legit reporting on it and not just smearing for the sake of politics) that, according to Podesta's emails, were known about enough in advance to be fretted over and planned for (covered up) by her campaign (that's perfectly fine b/c that's their job), members of the DNC (you'd expect leadership and impartiality but they were essentially a BIG cog in the Clinton Machine), and members of the media (absolutely unacceptable; do you're fucking job!) are why some people still remain pissed.
ALOT of stress could have been avoided if all of these people in positions of power weren't so hellbent on retaining and gaining more power by gambling on an HRC presidency in this cycle which, let's be honest, depends on the opposing candidate having more skeletons (fake or otherwise, unfortunately it's politics). Hey, what's that? Trump is the other candidate!!! Sanders, O'Malley and Lawrence Lessig were the only primary candidates because the pathway was cleared well in advance. The goats are the Democratic Party and the "corporate media." If you want to check out my more personal rambling, check out the bottom of the page.
Every voter has his/her make-or-break issues; Killer Mike eloquently outlined his in the note above. If you bothered to read any of my thoughts (essays) on the election that I've shared throughout this forum (I don't blame you if you didn't, they're all way too fucking long), I ranted about the myriad of yellow and red flags in regards to HRC's job record and positions. Bernie Sanders whole campaign and current superstar political status doesn't happen if there aren't legit grievances from the left wing of the Democratic Party and left-leaning Independent voters.
Then, in addition to HRC's record and "positions", there is a culmination of steps/events before, during, and after the Democratic Primary where people on the left of the "left" become more and more agitated and a vocal minority reach a breaking point: schedule of debates, erasure, heckling, and smearing of minority, female, and white male supporters of Sanders who are all then conveniently grouped together as "Bernie Bros" (like "Obama Boys" strategy but social media the narrative really spread), mass media blackout and distortion of Bernie Sanders, abnormal voting occurrences throughout the U.S. but especially in Iowa, New York, Rhode Island, Nevada, and California, DNC favoring of HRC in a primary subsidized by taxpayer money,
superdelegate strategy pulled off with help from "corporate media", premature calling of the primary by "corporate media" before California actually voted, selection of Tim Kaine for VP, fight over the Democratic platform (which, let's be real, probably stays the same or potentially regresses without Sander's surrogates), overall treatment of Sander's surrogates including those at the platform fight, Nina Turner, and Tulsi Gabbard, treatment of Sanders delegates and supporters at Democratic Party Convention,
selection of Ken Salazar for Transition Chair "pivoting right" after convention by rehabilitating and touting Neoconservative support instead of trying to genuinely unite with the left wing of the Democratic Party, Wikileaks publishing of John Podesta's emails confirming key "conspiracy theories" and "worries" of people on the left in regards to media collusion and HRC's actual positions, and (the one that finally lost me) the way that HRC, her campaign and media surrogates, and the Democratic party decided to handle the hacks/leaks.
Disclosure: Again, I vote in South Carolina, so in the grand scheme of things (electoral college) that probably affects my views but I couldn't really tell you how much.
First, I'm in agreement with you and everybody here that everybody should vote and it's disappointing especially to hear him tell black people not to vote. In theory (basically, a dystopian novel), I like the idea that if enough people abstained, it would cause the overseers to freak out and potentially spark some sort of insurrection (I don't know what happens after that because I don't make it past that part alive)...but unfortunately, I highly doubt that would ever happen in the U.S (also, they definitely prefer voter apathy). As evident from this election cycle alone, the people are not only too distracted and divided but we also wouldn't be able to depend on "the media" to hold up their end of the bargain for this hypothetical mass protest to work because we currently (and haven't for quite some time) don't hold the reins.
The next two post are a surface-level recap of my take on why it took so long for Sanders supporters to support HRC and why some might have been lost in the process. The post doesn't exactly include differences in positions (important) like you asked as much as is does the political maneuverings (key IMO) which were more visible (thanks social media, independent journalists, Guccifer 2.0, and Wikileaks) than they would have been at any previous primary and thus, dissent lingered longer. Feel free to skip to my more personal feelings at the bottom of the page.
Fuuuck...Moses Sumney dropped and EP today, too?!? Danny Brown, Solange, Nicolas Jaar, and Luke Cage were enough to make me want to change September 30 to Christmas. Might have to bump it up to my birthday.
I liked the PWR BTTM video the best this week; their videos started out good and are getting better. The Swet Shop Boys video for "T5" is the only thing I think your list is missing. Also, that Weyes Blood video is hilarious. I think that a more accurate description would have been "Better than The Village" though.
I get why you probably don't like The Revenant (most people think that Iñárritu and his work reek of pretension), but in the process you are writing off Lubezki's cinematography, DiCaprio and Hardy's acting, and Ryuichi Sakamoto's score and it pains me.
@theyachtmaster In the Internet age, I would guess that it is thought to be a necessary step in getting the hype-train rolling for pre-order sales so that the artist/band has a better chance at obtaining a #1 album.
MON's RTJ2 example is good but I'll throw another one out there. Do you know how many white people (no offense white people, I'm doing my best Chris Rock) pre-ordered Long. Live. A$AP when they read "1 Train - Featuring Kendrick Lamar, Joey Badass, Yelawolf, Danny Brown, Action Bronson and Big K.R.I.T."? No one knows the answer to that question but I'm sure it helped in some way on that album's path to #1.
Lady Gaga definitely doesn't need to release the tracklist to help album sales but I think by now it is standard operating procedure as with 99% of roll-outs for albums that don't magically appear either on the Internet or your iTunes by Bono (September 9th #NeverForget).
TLDR: You jokingly nailed the gist of it in your post: it's basically capitalistic foreplay.
Re: AOTW
What did the Toms say to my southern heart?
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/400x300q90/924/c4cEBc.jpg
It's not likely but if anyone needs me, I'll be listening to I Have a Dream in the shower taking a knee in solidarity with Kaepernick and Blochead thinking, "fuck the police, marry the people, kill the power," whilst crying, "woe is me," with an angel serenading: "Don’t trust the moonbeams. / Moonbeams are off the record. / Don’t count your heart beats. / Your heart won’t beat forever."
Just like I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Nick Cave and Warren Ellis did the soundtrack for Hell or High Water while watching the film, I had a similar experience last week with the French film, Dheepan. This time, though, the veil was lifted after the film.
For his first feature-length film, Nicolas Jaar's composition work was beyond adequate. I HIGHLY recommend both Dheepan and the reason for me going to watch it, A Prophet, which I would guess is Jacques Audiard's most well known film.
I mean it sounds like the songwriting on Swing Lo Magellan with some of the sensibilities of the Getty Address and the (relatively) cleaner production started on Bitte Orca. You could probably take fragments of this songs and match it to the DNA of different songs and experiments across Longstreth's whole discography.
@lazuli I get what you are saying but if a consumer buys the "Keep Your Name" single on vinyl, plays the vinyl on his/her record player at a faster speed, records the audio, and upload the audio to Youtube, would you have the same feelings about that person's actions? I highly doubt this is the case, but would your critique change if we found out later that Dave Longstreth released a slowed-down version as a misdirection from the actual album song? The sped-up version actually sounds like Dirty Projectors influenced by Timbaland more than what I previously said.
The user who uploaded the sped-up version says that he/she loves the original song and did the manipulation "out of curiosity." No one but the person who uploaded that audio knows whether or not he/she purchased the digital single before speeding it up but that would probably be my only (minor) point of critique regarding the person's actions.
All I know is that I can't wait to buy the album and see them play it live.
Someone has already sped up the song on Youtube so that Longstreth's vocals are normal and everything else is hyper:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzgxiG1kB8A
It sounds like an amazing Dirty Projectors song influenced by Bjork, produced by James Blake and including a verse from alien-pitched Kendrick. We have two versions?
Missy, Joni, Beethoven = I'm dead
I love Lonstreth's mind so much. I will be very heartbroken, though, if this signals the end of Damber. Or is it Ambid? Either way, this is both fantastic and it hurts.
Should I be worried if all of my favorite music this year is centered around depression, divorce, and death?
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