We all know the story of the Trojan Horse. The Greeks cleverly concocted a plan to present to the Trojans, a valuable gift that in fact concealed those who would attack them from within.
Submitted for your consideration, two of today’s headlines about Obama from the valuable gift the Greek-heritaged Arianna Huffington has wheeled out in front of the Progressive’s castle, The Huffington Post:
“IS HE TRYING TO LOSE THE MIDTERMS?”
“THE EXPECTATION, I THINK, WAS AUDACITY – STEWART PRESSES OBAMA ON ‘TIMID’ POLICIES”
Unfortunately, I just blew the monthly PlanetPOV budget for huge red fonts but I thought an accurate representation would be most illustrative.
We are five days away and that Trojan Horse of a website co-founded by Andrew Breitbart, that bastian of Progressive thought, sounds the charge for Progressives to ATTACK…their own president and party. At the same time President Obama, President Clinton, Michelle Obama, Joe Biden and so many others in the Democratic Party are working tirelessly to get the vote out this upcoming Tuesday, Huffington Post is blaring headlines to discourage Progressives from turning out to vote.
One could argue, “Why should they support Obama and Dems, they are just trying to present fair and balanced news.”
One could reply, “I thought Fox News already has a web site.”
As we’ve discussed previously, there is a strain of Dems sometimes referred to as Purists, those who are angry towards and attack Obama for giving them only 90% of the ice cream that they wanted on their cone. Such short-sighted whiners would rather throw a tantrum and let the rich white kids steal all that ice cream from them while they kick and scream. However, that self-centered, instant-gratification-addicted segment of the Progressive community appears to those who oppose the Progressive agenda, as a nicely crafted, large and hollow wooden horse that would make a lovely gift for the Democratic Party.
And Arianna continues “proselytuting” her Third World America book on every media outlet (including Animal Planet) at the same time…an unrelenting assault on Obama and the Dems which supports a kind of the Reagan/Bush trickle-down economics.
And yet, people keep towing this Trojan Horsington Post across their internet threshold into their Progressive homes where its anti-progressive contents sneak out to accomplish their goals.
There are many solid Progressives who write articles and blog at that site, which is what helps make that Trojan Horse so attractive. However, the editorial policy of constantly attacking Obama, his administration and Dems is undeniable. It is no secret that for financial gain, their headlines are often tabloid quality, sensationalistic and dishonest, just to get you to read an article and spend more time there (which translates into higher ad rates they can charge). The question is, why can’t they exploit Progressives to make more money and yet still support their causes and elected representatives?
There is of course a very obvious conclusion to that…because they choose not to do so. And there is of course a very obvious motivation to that as well…because they don’t see it in their best interest.
There’s a name for someone who calls themself a Democrat and yet opposes the Democratic Party, their President and their agenda. “Ben Nelson”…or “Disingenuous” (if there’s a difference).
In this era of groups called, “Citizens United” which were all about handing control of our democracy away from citizens to corporations, it is fitting that a blog that positions itself as the premiere Progressive blog frequently runs anti-Progressive headlines that match those of Drudge Report and Fox News instead of moderate outlets like Yahoo News or legit progressive outlets like DailyKos.
And yet, because this Trojan Horse has been plastered in “Go Progressives!” bumper stickers, it is accepted without much critical thought that it’s contents naturally match its facade (Who ya goin’ ta believe, your critical thinkin’ or my bumper stickers?!”). Hosting articles by Progressives, having many thoughtful Progressives as bloggers and self-describing itself as Progressive helps insulate it from criticism and from being seen for having the agenda its editorial choices pursue.
It is not a site to be ignored, it is a site though that deserves just as much scrutiny as it aims at our Progressive president, officials, candidates and agenda. The belly of this beast needs to be opened up to sunlight as often as possible so that what’s hiding in it’s belly can be exposed to the light of day and disarmed.
In response to this article which confirmed my increasing suspicions that HuffPo is a right-wing Trojan horse, I vowed never to post on that site again, and indicated as such on my final post there yesterday. I am thankful to a popular poster on HuffPo named Chernynkaya who provided a link to this PlanetPOV article.
What an immense sense of relief I feel to have severed my connection with HuffPo! Arianna Huffington is good at marketing. She has created an alluring environment that attracts much like a drug. Many of the posters are intelligent and thoughtful. They apparently believe, as I did, that their input on the comment threads there matter, not realizing that by stirring up interest in the site, they are merely serving Huffington’s marketing purposes. Anyway, it is good to be free!
Welcome. A few of us go on over to the dark side still to save a few more souls, so welcome to the light!
Many more are getting wise to her game, but you are still among the elect few with your heightened degree of discernment. 🙂
Welcome. How thoughtful of Cher to give a a shout out to AdLib’s post and to the Planet.
Regarding Ariana’s Republican Stripes and Cheshire Cat tendencies…a picture is worth a thousand words:
Amalfi Italy — August 2010
[img]http://washingtonscene.thehill.com/images/stories/ariannanewtamalfi.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.indecisionforever.com/files/2009/10/huffington_mask.jpg[/img]
Totally Love It Darling! You know at that size it is purrrr fect for the kitty!
That’s pretty close to her actual image… Except the eyes in this one have a little more depth and compassion than the real Aryana has in hers.
Scary. Love the pink eyes.
http://flic.kr/p/7fTP86
To go with what Adlib rightly pointed out about such a shameless media wh*re.
Fascinating, real inside baseball kind of info about HP in a graphic like this, impressive.
Excellent, Auntie. I think I’m gonna put this on my fridge. Did you make it?
More Obama bashing from Arianna on Morning Joe:
Excuse me this early in the day, but “Fuck You Bitch!! Did the world sink into a world-wide depression? Did the economy go from negative to positive growth? Has employment not gone up nearly every month? Summers may not have gotten it exactly right according to some but he didn’t get it exactly wrong. The Obama administration got more done, with an extremely objectionist congress, it is quite remarkable.
What the hell was your plan? To make money off the misery and frustrations of people? To mislead your readers with your lies with a mask of “I’m a ‘Progressive’?” To take your pennies out of the “big banks (boy, that would really have turn around the economy)?” More stimulus? (do you even remember the fight they had to get this “too Small of one passed?)
I never believed your overnight conversion from a ‘conservative’ in the first place.
I should delete this comment, but I am pissed.
Don’t delete it, b’ito! Let it stand. That’s the main reason our loyalties are here and not there.
Here, thanks to AdLib and the other founders, we can say what we think and feel.
I just don’t know if I have ever seen such a low information election in my life, k’es. We have women not voting or voting for “zero-choice” candidates, people living on/in the social safety nets not voting or voting for candidates that want to remove them. Or railing about bailing out the banks while their anger is bankrolled by, and for their profit, from the very same big money interests?
Meanwhile, we have we have AH, with her millions and unable to be hurt by a recession, misleading the masses with “you got vanilla ice cream and you wanted Rocky Road, be angry.”
I’ve talked to so many other people who’ve expressed the same utter dismay and frustration, b’ito.
What has happened to the American electorate? I have no easy answer.
But — today — I’m going to do the one thing I can do. I’m gonna go vote early. I’m not taking any chances that the car won’t start or I’ll get the flu on Tuesday. I want to nail this down today! (Then I’m meeting my sister at the museum for a couple hours!)
So — I’m off to go and cancel out a Tbagger vote now. Wish me luck!!
Report on the early voting experience:
The polls were swamped, but were handling it extremely well and moving people through rapidly and accurately. They told me it had been this way since early voting started–every day.
MANY African-American voters. Yay! People in general displayed no “enthusiasm gap.”
I was heartened.
And you get these, k’es!
b’ito, you little devil!!!
You know I am a total sucker for any kinda BADGE!!
😆 Where’d you get that?
Don’t you dare delete it. If it will help you out, the fucking bitch, deserves it.
Khirad – You asked about the date when O’Reilly went after HP, it was just before the 2008 election. Why did HP fold to O’Reilly and clamp down on its members?:
I’m wondering what that says about the Geithner hunt, too.
And the AIG obsession. It was obviously in the hedge funds’ best interests to attack Geithner and AIG.
Good. You’re connecting the dots.
That makes sense. That site is obsessed with Geithner.
[edit] Speak of the devil. There’s an anti-Geithner story as the Main as we speak!
Boy, they’re deleting like CRAZY on HP right now.
That place is nuts!
Next week is going to be much worse, I would guess.
They really don’t talk much about Freedom of Expression over there.
I call that group the “Microwave generation”. I try to blog over there with the idea of posting this site and definitely harangueing(sic) her for he shameless book. She is making money off the backs of the poor. She is no better than the people she mocks.
As I often say, the word that most describes her to me is “opportunist”.
She changes her political views, promotes books, makes ludicrous proclamations (remember her contrived call for Biden to resign as VP?) and oversees an often dishonest and exploitative tabloid style front page headlines.
Her commitment appears not to be to any political parties or ideologies, just to opportunism and the additional wealth, fame and power it can bring her.
I was disgusted by what I saw, and made two comments to that effect.
Maybe she should title her next book, “Shameless”
and (after my namesake)
There’s something happening here
what it is ain’t exactly clear
but there’s a lady with a site over there
telling us we’ve got to beware
I think it’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look what’s going down
some people “faved” both comments, so clearly there is disgust from we who post comments there. It is so blatantly obvious that SHE is the one who is trying to lose the midterms for the Dems that it would be funny if it weren’t so disgusting.
Think I’ll “retire” from there again for a while.
The regulars are definitely on to it.
It’s always important to avoid generalizations. Many of our members blog over at HP, like many others there, they are principled and thoughtful bloggers.
I go over there daily to check out what stories they’re promoting (and what propaganda they may be pushing). I do browse the comments sometimes and still see some very clever and insightful ones there. I also regularly see comments from bloggers who are upset that their comments have been wiped without any understandable reason as well as the unending provocation from trolls proudly expressing ignorance, hatred, racism, sexism, spite towards compassion, etc.
The whole reason I got into blogging was to interact with a community of bright, informed people who were just as concerned as I was about the world around us. People with whom I could explore issues, become more informed and enlightened and have a few laughs as well.
My desire to become a blogger didn’t have to do with wanting to bash trolls (though I did do my share at HP), struggle to avoid being censored, support a site that cynically promotes division or get involved in soap operas over cliques, feuds and power struggles.
When I joined HP in 2007, just before the official launch of the 2008 Presidential primaries, it was still a healthy and satisfying place to blog. I really value the time and adventures I had there and the many friends I made there (some of whom are here too…and co-founded The Planet!).
Now…The Planet reflects much more of what I was seeking when I originally was seeking to blog so I’m just not as motivated to blog over there.
But then…I may not be the most objective person here about The Planet.
Hear! Hear! 🙂
Adlib
I still do not get all the cliques over there. I will respond to most anyone who is reasonable but am constantly being reminded that a certain blogger is “off-limits” It is distressing but in order to keep a pulse on what people are thinking, I still go over there. I fully believe that Whorianna is responsible for alot of the tr0lls there. Now damnit, look how I spelled troll.
I’m going to take a wild guess here that you may be referring to a poster who posts a lot of very articulate and well-written spam. Unfortunately, he has also been known to lash out at women posters and on several occasions now has flung the C-word at women posters like a monkey flinging poop. He did this two nights ago … AGAIN. Hence, he is very, VERY controversial with a lot of posters on HP. And he probably will always be controversial.
A lot of people like him, a lot of people hate him. I wholly respect that different posters will have different opinions of someone. A lot of that is based on your personal experience with someone and what you’ve seen them post with your own eyes.
The frustration I have are people who “team up” and literally “go on the warpath” against others groups of posters they see as “opposing” someone in their group or someone they support. That’s what I find so childish.
In any case, I blame those CM2s. Most CM2s are good folks, but I think those badges make some people act nuts and make the cliques more hyperventilated.
Scores more people are seeing her for what she is. People laud her for her intelligence, but really, she’s not that bright. Her ego’s shoved her head up her ass so far, she can’t see the light of day,.
Her jump-the-shark moment was when she came on Rachel’s show, dissing the President, and, basically, preaching trickledown, telling people the President wasn’t “into” the middle class. Like Whoreanna knows, right.
Rachel’s FB page took a beating for that, but hundreds of people now know her for what she really is.
Interesting comments, all…The corporate influence is everywhere…I believe fascism to be the true nature of America…I read -the writer’s name escapes now-that a fascist economy is a permanent war economy even in peace time.
This is for me striking as the Great Depression was ended by the war…but it was a guns or butter scenario, with Sweden being the first nation to deficit spend her way out of the GP, on butter. While nazi germany was second out of the GP by deficit spending on guns, followed by britain and then the US also on guns.
We find in 2010 the same dilemma, do we continue to spend on guns?
The Military Industrial complex has a death grip on all of us…fascists need to have “anti regime” conspiracies to rally the troops…
Here’s an old quote I feel is apropos:
Henry Wallace got it right, Phread.
yeah he did…you’d think he was talking about fox noise…
Phread, very well said and excellent choice of quote!
I think it is an eternal struggle to keep those with power and wealth at bay in this nation.
We are at a very dangerous point now that the SCOTUS has handed the keys to our democracy directly to the wealthiest and most powerful in the nation and the world.
We can prevail but I have a feeling that Americans are going to have to suffer to a greater degree before they throw off their Snuggies, get off their couches and march in the streets to demand a fair economic system and a fencing off our democracy to domestic and foreign corporate interests.
Indeed we will have to suffer greater losses before people wake up…
A fascist economy is a permanent war economy, even in “peacetime”…
I strongly recommend Friendly Fascism, The New Face of Power In America by Bertram Gross, exposing the big-business big government connection. The citizens united ruling makes complete sense in the context of a fascist economy…
that is a great quote, in terms of how well it describes the situation now, sixty five years later.
On a separate matter, although I see what you mean about Sweden recovering from the Depression early from its “butter before guns” policy, I am guessing that if it had not been for Sweden’s economically brilliant policy of supporting the war efforts of both sides leading up to and during WWII, their Keynesian policy alone would have been unsustainable. So we may be looking at the depressing (pun unintended) fact that our entire world economy at present is buoyed by, and demands, war as one of its crucial elements. Maybe something like (off the top of my head) cars & gasoline, food, war, real estate and household devices and appliances (including diversions like TV), in maybe roughly that order.
So THAT really needs to change.
My point is that Keynesian policy did work and can work again. The facts are there; it was in 1934 that Sweden became the first country to fully recover from the Great Depression. Why does everyone ignore Sweden’s success with Keynesian deficit spending? In fact, Germany, Britain and the USA engaged in deficit spending for war.
Referring to Sweden;”their Keynesian policy alone would have been unsustainable” this remark is of course false as all retro logic is false due to the fact it is unverifiable…
not “of course false” because what I wrote was, “I am guessing that…..would have been unsustainable”.
Which just means we disagree on this point.
The point is, Sweden ramped up its armament spending in the thirties and forties like other countries, first to protect itself from Germany’s rising power and then just because there was so much money to be made helping to arm both sides.
We do indeed disagree…the facts do not support you…Sweden was neutral in WW2 Sweden’s spending was on butter not guns…again fact.
Sweden’s armament started in 1936 after Sweden had gotten out of the depression in 1934…
“In 1936, the Swedish government started to heighten its military preparedness as the international situation worsened. Military spending in Sweden went from US$37 million in 1936, to $50 million in 1937, to $58.6 million in 1938, and then increased over fivefold to $322.3 million in 1939. During World War II itself, military spending peaked at $527.6 million in 1942.”
Hi wts, what do you mean “Sweden supported war efforts on both sides”?
Hi Q.
Sweden’s governmental policy of neutrality meant that the government could not interfere with Swedish industry selling its wares to whoever wanted it, and during the war there was a lot of demand for what Sweden had to offer. By some (probably not entirely accurate) estimates, the Nazi military machine was basically dependent on iron ore from Sweden. Meanwhile, Swedish producers sold iron ore and ball bearings, etc. to Great Britain, and the allied war effort.
If phread is reading this, I don’t dispute that Sweden was neutral during the war, I’m just saying that there was a mercantilist underbelly to this neutrality. So I don’t think Sweden was “above the fray”. They wisely chose a policy of not fighting, but they were in the fray in that their businesses were helping to supply the guns, not butter.
I’m gonna disagree with you too WTS.
Many critics have questioned just how “neutral” Sweden can be considered during WWII. It seems to mean they were all but occupied, but unlike the Swiss, allowed far greater collaboration with the Nazi government. How much of the economy was based on supplying Die Krupps and how much was on butter, I don’t know. This is where we could get to the bottom of this.
I would imagine, though, that the former was no small change. The Nazi War Machine did in fact rely on Swedish iron ore in great amount. They also prized Swedish women for their Lebensborn program, but that’s something else altogether…
Hi, Khirad.
With people like you “disagreeing” with me, I’ll never need supporters! 🙂
I think we both have pretty much the same views about this.
Oops, I meant disagree in concert with you. 😉
so we’re agreeing to disagree, eh? Gives new meaning to that old expression!
whatsie, your “agree to disagree” has taken on a new meaning!
Points well made, WTS, if I might be allowed the use of shorthand…my original point is that Sweden was out of the GP first, in 1934, and by the few accounts I have been able to locate, it was NOT because of deficit spending for war…Germany was the second nation out of the GD, because of deficit spending for war.
What Sweden did after that may have been due to the threat of invasion and occupation by Germany, but with retro logic one can not make binding assertions.
We, in the USA, have a decision to make, continue with supply side deficit spending that is destroying our economy by creating an inefficient market system through oligopoly, and protracted war. Or do we spend to rectify the demand deficiency we currently have.
The reason I find the Swedish experience interesting is it shows that deficit spending for war was not the only way to recover from the GD; this may present other options if there was an actual dialogue in the USA rather than corporate propaganda defending the failed status quo…
I do thank you WTS for making me think some more about this.
I think your point is excellent, and I similarly thank you for the thinking opportunity. I agree with you that it is important to consider that a “butter” policy can work (and work for the U.S.), and the fact that the Swedish recovery preceded the arms buildup (which I wasn’t aware of until you pointed it out) is encouraging, to be sure. History has so much to teach us, and so often its best lessons keep going unlearned.
phread, my uncle is a software designer for the Swedish Stock Exchange. Maybe I should ask him what the deal is. He’s very knowledgeable. Not like the all-seeing, all-knowing Khirad, of course. But still.
I found the aforementioned quote RE fascist economies:
Fascism was
What this and the economic crash lays bare is the fairy tale we are all indoctrinated to believe about America and capitalism. “Capitalism” is presented the same as a religion, as an infallible, all-good, almost magical belief system that brings us everything wonderful we could ever wish for…heaven on Earth.
The myth of capitalism is a necessary part of plutocratic control. The people MUST be convinced to believe that the system that provides for and protects the success, wealth and power of the upper class is a godsend for them. A magic lamp from which a wondrous genie has granted them all that’s enjoyable in their lives and one day…they too will be wealthy and powerful so they need to protect this system for their own benefit.
However, we’ve now had the reality rubbed in our faces through TARP, the corporate-caused deterioration of the press and the domination of our democracy.
Where would any major corporation be today without the billions they loot annually from state and especially federal government…our tax dollars…to feather their nests? From no-bid contracts to pork barrel amendments aimed specifically at robbing the people to enrich the wealthy to tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas and lawfully allowing billion dollar corporations to set up sham offshore entities to evade contributing back the money they drain from tax payers.
And yet, they have the audacity to call it the “free market”. Maybe, from their POV, it is a free market…where they can go up and down the aisles, grabbing whatever they want and for them, it’s all free, we’re the ones who get stuck with the bill.
The bottom line is that there is clearly a cumulative deterioration to the nation’s financial system as well as the world’s, as we’re seeing. Mathematically, plutocracies can’t ultimately be self-sustaining.
Here’s why:
1. Around 70% of the American economy is consumer driven.
2. The Corporate agenda includes a goal of draining as much tax money as possible from government while reducing the amount of their contributions of tax money flowing to government.
3. The Corporate agenda also includes a goal of constantly reducing expenses such as employee salaries while raising prices on products to increase revenues.
4. Once government revenues are rerouted past a certain point to corporations, necessary operations of government that sustain society deteriorate and would eventually collapse.
5. Once wages vs. necessary expenses decline past a certain point for a majority of Americans, including the shifting of expense from government to individuals, there is not the amount of expendable cash available for optional purchases.
6. The driving force of our economy, that 70% of what drives and sustains our economy, collapses.
There’s a much easier and simpler way to tell this story. The plutocratic plundering of a society was told in another fairy tale that wasn’t titled “The Magical Wonder of Capitalism!”.
It was an Aesop’s Fable I’ve also known since I was a child. “The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg.” KO may read Thurber on Fridays…I wonder if Aesop might not be more appropriate:
Now that’s the fairy tale that I feel describes the economic system I see in America and much of the world, not “The Magical Wonder of Capitalism”.
I agree…your points 5 & 6, economists call it demand deficiency, just like the GP…the corporate manipulation of markets- by trusts or monopolies/oligopolies call it what will- creates market inefficiencies.
We need a regulated economy in order to have a real free market.
quote boy strikes again:
Phread, so pleased to have you on The Planet! Your insights and references on economics are very appreciated!
In my more layman terms, the central goal and legal responsibility of corporations is to produce maximum profits to their shareholders. They can be sued for doing the right or moral thing for a society instead of the wrong and immoral thing if the former produces less profits than possible.
As the incredible documentary, “The Corporation” pointed out, since a corporation is regarded as a person, if analyzed as a person it would be determined to be a sociopath.
There are functional sociopaths in society but allowing sociopaths to control a society and make decisions for its population would be insane…and kind of where we are now.
The Repubs may win the House and feel empowered to press forward with their corporate agenda.
Unbelievably, just a scant two years from the worst economic crash since The Great Depression (also a result of corporate greed run wild), the Repulicorp agenda is…less regulation and more taxpayer money flowing to corporations!
These same entities that destroyed our economy, caused all these foreclosures and all this unemployment and suffering, the solution to the mess they caused is to give them more power and freedom to wreak havoc?
And the election is favoring Repubs because the corporate powers have successfully put the blame for our current economy on Obama?
This is so fucking Orwellian, it makes me angry! And maybe I’m more angry at the idiot Americans out there who swallowed this corporate propaganda so readily than the corporations themselves.
It’s like being convinced by the arsonist that set your house on fire that the firemen are to blame for not putting out the fire quickly enough…and out of anger, the fire chief is fired and the arsonist is made fire chief!
I find it difficult to suffer ignorance on such a scale.
I have seen the Corporation and wish more people would see it.
I am not as angry as I had been at the success of right wing propaganda. Now I’m actually frightened. The same economic polices that put us here are still prescribed as the treatment, because there is more money to be had!
I sound like a broken record, but we have fascism in America…not like the Nazi’s, or Italian fascists and not like the Spanish falange.
In my readings about fascism historians remark about the difficulty of defining fascism. IMHO, historians will never have a “unified theory of fascism”. Given the first tenet of fascism cited by historians is nationalism this virtually precludes a single simple definition of fascism.IMHO
Gee Wiz, Germany, Italy and Spain are different nations with different cultures, each had its own version of fascism. Italy and Spain catholic, Germany mostly protestant; antisemitism was not a key driver in all fascist regimes.
In 2010, we know to follow the money.
Fascists were anti-labor and anti-liberal amongst a host of other anti-isms. Why would fascists be anti-labor? Germany’s economy was a shambles after WWI, how was Hitler able to deficit spend on war preparation?
Eisenhower’s farewell speech says it all for me. The military Industrial Complex…but in America we have multiple corporate complexes from numerous sectors of the economy vying for that risk free tax payer money. I really believe the left must unite against this corporate control of America. This goal must be the number one priority eclipsing all other concerns. Cut off the head and the monster will die.
The strength of the right is a fragmented left…this is the lesson of the Spanish Civil War.
Its also nice to spell fascist without using @!
Phread
Have you also seen Orwell Rolls in his Grave? It is even more chilling to me. I have watched both many times.
No I have not seen Orwell Rolls in his Grave…hhhmmmm perhaps I’ll have find it…
I wish I had a link to this that got past HP screening.
We’re so person
This redirect link works at HP and will take people to this article:
http://go.
I tried it Adlib and they would not post my link. Cher tried too. She got hers through by leaving a blank space.
Yep, the word “planetpov” is on their naughty list so as long as it’s broken up, such as:
http://planet pov.com
and you mention in your comment to copy the URL and remove the space, the comment will post and people will be able to get here.
Otherwise, whenever requested, I can create a link to the main site or any article here as I did above which will pass through their naughty filter.
Nah, it’s okay. It’s just that at the time I posted that someone over there was bringing up Gingrich and questioning Arianna’s agenda unprompted by me (it got poofed quick) – I should have done what you suggest.
Yeah, I have broken it up in the past. It get’s through pending, but one needs to click the link quick, if you catch my drift.
I know what you mean. Then again, there is no rule against reposting at various times a link that may have been wiped.
Do use the referral link above so people can quickly click before the haters of free expression over there Orwell it.
LOL it worked. I just posted it with the comment:
ach pee is playing everyone here that is a progressive LOL
Arianna Huffington is a hypocrite in many ways. For one, she says she’s a “progressive” yet has been spotted hanging out with Newt Gingrich.
Arianna is the type of person who attacks everybody. She spent the last eight years attacking George W. Bush, now she’s attacking Barack Obama. She’s the kind of person that no matter how much you cave into her demands, it’s just NOT good enough.
As for her website, I’ve stopped commenting on many of the political related articles, posting on only the Entertainment related articles I find interesting. But overall, everyone on Trojanton Post has an ego… whether it be from the right winger posters who end up faving each others comments, or from the Purist posters who think they’re Mr. Big Shot with the Progressive Stripes, attacking President Obama and Democrats for not being far left enough and how they wont support Obama and the Dems and want to go third party, etc etc etc.
And it’s stupid how some words trigger a filter and send your post to pending, or how some threads are fully modded, and your comment takes about an hour to get posted, IF it gets posted at all. Also some Moderators with the badges and deleting privileges have become mod happy and delete posts at free will. It’s nothing short of a kindergarten playground.
I think you’re more right than you know with the “playground” comment — I liken it to junior high school hall monitors. Most of the moderators are good eggs, but some have let those asinine badges go to their heads; I’ve seen this creepy little clique of CM2s throwing their weight around, letting people know, “you better not mess with us … we’re tight with the HP mods… we’re the ELITE … ” It’s really pathetic. Give a certain personality type a little petty power and they go monkeyshit with it.
Well, you’re very welcome to express yourself here, ClusterFoxWarrior. Freedom of Expression and a respect for all other members here are our priorities.
As has become quite apparent, HP’s priority is site traffic (read: ad revenue). The frequent false and misleading headlines in 80 point red font, the troll attacks left up while reasonable responses that undermine the desired meme are moderated.
Even before the CM2s, HP was not a place for free expression. Consider that the figurehead herself, whenever she posts an article, has all the comments of the “little people” moderated and any that are not glowing or kind in their criticism are trashed.
Why is she so afraid of her members honestly expressing what they think about her opinions?
Why is a Progressive site so heavy handed about limiting free expression?
Actually, can a site accurately call itself Progressive when it opposes Free Expression?
I’m still trying hard to get my head around the fact that Howard Fineman has moved there as Senior Political Adviser, I used to like him on KO. Can’t believe that he’s swallowed her bs hook, line and sinker. What’s wrong with this picture?
I hardly go there, just to read Bob Cesca, I really need to close my account in this den of blatant hypocrisy, it’s only the nostalgic memories of conversations with older posters who are now no longer there that have kept me from closing it. That time we had there will never come back, and it wasn’t the place, it was the people I got to know. I really must go there to finish this soon.
AH is just a greedy media w***e who only thinks about herself, money and fame while she peddles insincere concern for the “little people.” Hope the rest of her “admirers” wake up to her scam soon, but that seems like wishful thinking when you stay to read some of the comments there.
Speaking of admirers, I think it’s telling that Arianna is a hot word and that every one of her blogs gets heavily, heavily modded. I mean, we say that a lot, but these things are like Ft. Knox of what they let through. Or, maybe like der Todesstreifen. Nothing unflattering gets through, or stays very long. It’s as if she mods her articles herself – and can’t you just see it?
In the beginning in 2007′ I posted on her blog a few times, it was literally hours before it was shown, and with my time difference, I couldn’t be bothered to wait.
She either does it herself, or has a trained seal to do it for her. Nothing unflattering has ever made it to the thread, only the “Mirror, mirror on the wall” types get through, you know the ones that proclaim that she is “the fairest of them all.”
Kalima, Newsweek was being bought out and I have a feeling Fineman saw the writing on the wall with regards to being let go. So, he jumped to the only life raft he could fine, the SS Trojan Horsington Post.
It’s a sad turn of events that the decline of print journalism has brought on.
I do think visiting HP is constructive, good to know what they’re up to…along with Fox News.
But they can’t honestly make a claim to being a destination for honest news any more than Fox. Yes, they do have a number of legit and honest people writing over there but having truthful headlines and verified/researched articles 50% of the time means that 50% of the time, you don’t.
And who can trust any news source that isn’t truthful 100% of the time?
I wonder if they had a chat in the “Green Room” during one of KO’s shows, I can just imagine her bs hype.
Still, his new association with anything HP at a time when it is so obvious what she is up to, is quite off putting when I watch him speak on shows lately. Guilty by association might not be fair in this case, but it does play in my thoughts nevertheless unfortunately.
When Fineman announced that he was going to HP, he seemed very sheepish, almost ashamed. He is a bright man. He knows he’s compromising his integrity but how many other places, in this era of declining magazines and papers, is a journalist his age going to find a job?
The degradation of the field of journalism will be televised and Twittered.
When you put it like that, I feel for him. Such a shame for a good mind going to waste over there, how many members there at the moment will actually be interested or even agree with his opinions at all, sad really.
I’ve been noticing a huge uptick in purist trolls.
Including one long-winded one asking us, what, even if Dems were to keep the house, would we expect the failure of the “faux-progressive” Obama to do?
If you’ve spent any time there you will know this notorious purist.
My question was – why had I not seen them regularly since they were trying to kill the HC bill so we could “start over”?
At first I thought they were just a delusional purist in their own constructed reality where everyone pays attention to process and everyone has the facts and the same passion as they do.
Now, I’m not so sure I can even give them that.
It’s all very, very fishy how they popped up again most vociferously a week before midterms.
I call Trojan horseshit.
Love it! “Trojan horseshit”!
There really is little difference between an aggressive purist and a concern troll. No difference in their words, the only difference may be that a concern troll knows what he’s doing while a Purist Dem is oblivious to how they’re working against their own interest.
Trojan horseshit indeed!
Khirad, that sounds like the paid RW trolls we had there during the primaries in 08′, you can’t believe a word they post, it’s just to try to make Dems and Progressives doubt in Obama’s agenda. Every comments that sticks, means a dollar something in their pockets. In 08′ there were some who openly admitted to being paid to cause doubt. I’d take their comments with a grain of salt if I were you, they only post the daily “talking points” from the people who pay them.
Actually, when I became utterly CONVINCED that the site had become inundated with paid posters was during the debate over health care reform. The site was just LOUSY with trolls, I mean they literally outnumbered the liberals, then after health care reform passed, dozens of them simply “vanished.”
I was no longer posting at this time Pepe, but I’m sure that you are right.
Now just before the elections, with so many crazy choices of tea party nutters, I’m sure the paid trolls are very busy on HP, trying to dig holes.
AdLib, I saw that crimson tide of a headline over there today, as well. The odd thing is that it was attached to an article that was almost entirely irrelevant to, and disconnected from, the headline. The article was, if I’m not mistaken, narrowly focused on some comments Obama had made about the foreclosure crisis and the need to make sure that people who did not actually merit assistance did not get it. Many of the comments I skimmed through had a sort of “What the….?” reaction to the headline:story incongruity.
I guess the real question (the one we probably know the answer to) is: “Is HP Trying to Lose the Mid Terms for Obama?”
On a related issue: I’m taking a sort of wait-and-see approach to this weekend’s Jon Stewart DC event. But I can’t deny that I’m also disappointed in the way he handled the Obama interview on his show. It made me wince to see the president being laughed at. Maybe my perception of that is all off. (I’ve seen large segments of the interview, but not the whole, thing.) So maybe I’m missing something. But what I saw was disheartening this close to the election. I don’t think it helped the Dem cause at all.
I realize this is not an original observation, but — the right never, ever, ever breaks ranks. Even when they have personal disagreements, they keep them under wraps to win elections. This weekend John Boehner is going to come to northern Ohio to campaign for Rich (Nazi-Boy) Iott. I doubt that even he really wants to do that. But that’s how far they will go to maintain a united front that’s virtually impenetrable.
On the other hand, we on the left don’t stand up to Fox. We don’t stand up to Limbaugh. We don’t stand up to Beck. And when one of our own, like Alan Grayson stands up forcefully to someone like “Taliban Dan,” this is what happens to the levels of support he has:
http://elections.nytimes.com/2010/forecasts/house/florida/8
EDIT: Just to clarify — when I say “we” I don’t mean “we” on the Planet! I mean the left in America in general tends to lack unity. And this makes it easier for people like Aryana to divide and conquer.
Yes, the article connected to the
And it’s amazing how many people read only the headlines over there, AdLib. They comment all the time on articles they haven’t even read! That’s another reason why giving them push-back on their Trojan horse headlines (and content) is definitely in order.
I do hope you’re right in that Stewart’s directness with Obama is akin to lancing a festering wound. It just made me feel awful to see Obama almost visibly wince when he started a sentence with “Yes, we can…but…” and Stewart and the audience burst out laughing. The RW is already trying to “Carter-ize” him. Please, don’t help them… ouch!
On the occasions when I do visit the dark side, though, I go knowing what sort of duplicitous environment it really is and hoping that I can introduce as many termites into that Trojan horse as possible. It’s the least I can do for Aryana… 🙂
I find a number of folks over there chiding others for commenting only based upon the headline and not even reading the article, just as you describe.
Not everyone is seeking truth, some are just seeking to react to something and have someone else care about what they think.
As for Stewart, I do think he was being consistent in questioning the powerful but getting the resentment out in the open…sunlight can be the best disinfectant. Some folks would have to have come away from that interview feeling that Obama got the message loud and clear and his acceptance of receiving the message and the way he responded probably diffused some folks frustration. I sure felt better that Stewart gave him the chance to deal with it head on and Obama did great.
Good job, bringing light to the Dark Side!
I Remember the halcyon days of 2006 when we all thought HuffPost was genuinely a pure place for progressives to gather. It was OUR playground.
It was all a sham. We were sold a false bill of goods, my friends.
I joined HP in 2007 and it was still that place but was beginning to turn into a heavy handed, pro-corporate site. One thing I remember as a huge turning point was when Bill O’Reilly attacked HuffPo for someone’s…this will make you chuckle, comparison of Bush to Hitler. It turned out that Arianna was in the midst of soliciting $25 million in investment for HP at the time and this harmed her efforts.
So, the site went into harsh lockdown, every comment monitored, free speech stomped flat…until the Oak Investments money came in. Then, heavy moderation continued as it does today.
Folks there today have no idea that in “the old days”, the only comments that got moderated were the outrageous ones and the ones flagged by enough members.
Joined sometime in fall 08, but only left a comment here and there (not even for the US election). It wasn’t until the Iranian elections of 09 that I really started staying there and getting wise to the culture. So, yeah, I have no idea what people talk about as the good old days.
I remember when O’Reilly did that though. Was that around the same time he went after Kos, too? or was that later?
By god, think of if we repeated everything said on FOXNation.
Yup, I remember the Bill O’Reilly thing. That’s when it started to change, because he made a big stink out of HP on his show. That and when Volvo got banned … I remember thinking … you mean they actually can BAN people?
Indeed, when they started purges including Volvo and other longtimers, the writing was on the wall. It was a rather quick descent but as I recounted, the $25 million investment from Oak was on the table and they weren’t going to allow free speech or their members to get in the way of that kind of money.