Eric Hoffer on Rudeness

by Nomad

How RNC Chairman Reince Priebus Pushed the Republican Party over the Precipice

by Nomad

When this 2016 election fiasco is dissected in the coming years, there will be a hunt to find the person who was most responsible for Donald Trump's elevation to leader of the Republican party. How could this actually have happened? One name that is bound to come up- - is the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus.
And rightfully so.

When the Elephant Got an Itch

When the historians write about the election of 2016, they will probably not be kind to some of the key figures in the GOP. Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus for example. From the moment Trump first declared his candidacy- when misgivings were initially expressed- Priebus reassured the doomsayers that Trump was a good thing. Really! 

After ignoring his own advice about the Republican brand, Priebus has continually issued a series of weak and contradictory messages to Republican members. Last Friday's barrel-bomb of Trump's"hot mic" tapes exposed the foolishness of  ignoring the elephant in the room. At some point, the elephant will get an itch and there goes your china cabinet, there goes the plasma TV, there goes the walls. 

Essentially, that's what happened when Trump's  remarks (which amount to advocating sexual assault) became public knowledge. 

It was undeniable Trump's remarks sounded like the boasts of a sexual predator. Trump predictably issued an apology so stiff and insincere, it resembled a North Korean hostage "confession" video. 

Many Republican in Congress refused to accept Trump's excuses and phony apologies. They were outraged, they said.
Outraged but supportive.

Who Really Murdered Manufacturing Jobs in America and Why That's Important in November

by Nomad

American workers have every reason to be angry. For a crafty politician, it's the kind of emotion that wins elections. However, the question is whether they have fully understood who was responsible for their plight.

The Angry Unemployed American Male

The last half century of American history has been marked by one undeniable economic trend: the death of the American worker. Between 1965 and 2015, experts say that employment rates for the American male spiraled relentlessly downward. 

In September, a TIME Magazine article pointed out:

America is now home to a vast army of jobless men no longer even looking for work—more than 7million between the ages of 25 and 54, the traditional prime of working life...The collapse of male work is due almost entirely to a flight out of the labor force—and that flight has on the whole been voluntary. The fact that only 1 in 7 prime-age men are not in the labor force points to a lack of jobs as the reason they are not working.

The Atlantic Monthly provides a little more information:

Poor men without a college degree are disappearing from the labor force. The share of prime-age men (ages 25-54) who are neither working nor looking for work has doubled since the 1970s.

This is, not too coincidentally, the core support of Republican nominee Donald Trump's campaign.

Distrust and Discord: How Putin and Trump Have Teamed Up to Undermine the Political System

Attempts to Tamper?

Recently, U.S. officials announced they have “high confidence” that Russia is behind what they describe as a major influence operation in this year's election. They could not go into specifics and admitted that their evidence probably would not yet stand up in any court. 

The breaches include hacking into the email servers of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Presumably, this was in search of damaging information which might be used to cripple the Clinton campaign.

But there were other concerns too.

In mid-August, the FBI alerted all 50 states to dangers that their election systems might be vulnerable to attack. Authorities have also delivered evidence of a “significant” number of new intrusions into their systems. Experts at the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security “are still trying to understand" who is behind it and what's actually going on.

Admittedly, neither the United States or Russia are innocent when it comes to meddling in the elections of other nations. In the past, the CIA made a more or less regular practice of it in countries. The very first CIA covert action was a manipulation the 1948 Italian elections. 

More recently Russia has reportedly interfered in the elections of major U.S. allies that have imposed sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Attempting to manipulate the elections in the US is- as far as we know- a first.

Buckwheat Zydeco - Make a Change

by Nomad

Musician Stanley Dural Jr., better known by his stage name Buckwheat Zydeco died of lung cancer on September 24 at the age of 68. 

An American accordionist, Dural played music from the Louisiana bayou for 30-plus years. The term Zydeco refers to a musical genre born in southwest Louisiana, blending blues,rhythm and blues, and music indigenous to the Louisiana Creoles and the Native people of Louisiana.

His Grammy- and Emmy-winning band collaborated with Willie Nelson, U2 and others.
Here's "Make a Change" from 1989.