Political Realignment in Bizarro World!

[HamdenRice]

If you've ever doubted that the Bush criminal gang and the neo-con, Christo-fascist, Likudnik death cult have plunged us through the looking glass, you need only look at the political realignment that is taking place. I often don't understand what is going on in our country today, but sometimes, the bare facts of who is in favor of what and who is supporting whom gives me some insight into just what a strange world we have entered. Just consider the following political facts:

Progressives openly hope for the CIA to reassert its power and for the uniformed officers of the Pentagon to disobey the insane political leadership of the country.

Progressive democratic bloggers and posters applaud the writings and broadcast opinions of Pat Buchanan, John "Watergate" Dean (a self described Goldwater Republican), Lou Dobbs and various Reagan era republicans.

Hillary Clinton is being given a fundraiser by Rupert Murdoch.

Connecticut Democrats are flocking to support Ned Lamont, a recent convert from the Republican party to the Democratic Party, against the Democrats' 2000 Vice Presidential nominee, Joseph Lieberman, who despite his support for the Iraq war and blatant hypocrisy and disloyalty to the party did have a pretty good Democratic voting record.

The US Armed Forces have somehow allowed neo-Nazis to infiltrate the troops deployed in Iraq, but the Ku Klux Klan is holding protests against the Iraq War.

Christian fundamentalists who used to blame the Jews as "Christ killers" have become ardent supporters of Israel's excessively brutal use of force against Palestinians and other Arab countries, with the hope that the Rapture will occur and all Jews will either convert or burn in hell fire, and the Likud wing of Israeli politics ardently embrace their support.

Al Gore, once a stalwart of the Democratic Leadership Council and Vice President to Bill Clinton, has become the hero of the left wing of the Democratic Party, as Bill Clinton has become like a second son to George Herbert Walker Bush.

The most progressive radio network on the air, Air America Radio, is funded by anti-Bush international business billionaires like currency trader, George Soros.

Former first lady, Democratic Senatory from liberal New York State and former anti-Nixon Watergate investigator is an ardent supporter of George Bush's blatantly illegal and immoral war in Iraq.

In the face of undeniable evidence of global warming in our daily bizarre weather, environmental groups and the nuclear power industry are making common cause for the return of the building of nuclear power plants.

A shady, anti-democratic KGB agent is in charge of Russia, and his witty put downs of our own idiot president are making him as popular among Progressives in the US as Gorbachev.

The erratic leader of Venezuela, a man who once launched a coup against his own government, is the progressive hope of Latin America, and is trying to help poor homeowners strapped by oil bills in New England and is poised to replace the International Monetary Fund as the financial savior of cash strapped South American countries.

A pro-American government comes to power in Lebanon, touted by the Bush administration just months ago as the fruition of its pro-democracy polices, is attacked by Israel, and the administration stands by and encourages the carnage.

Am I dreaming? Is this really happening?

[applegrove]

1. Everything is backwards. You have a psychopath in your politics.

[HamdenRice]

2. It's way beyond Bush

I was talking to my sister about politics this morning, and one thing we agree on is that the true motives and plans of the elites is increasingly obscure. It's not just Bush, anymore, if it ever was just him. And when you don't know what the hell the real plan is, the outcomes just "look" increasingly illogical.

[Fovea]

36. War In Capitalist Heaven

The elites are not an orthodoxy.
The rise of information technology in the economy
put in peril strategies of the energy producing/trading
oligarchies, and tensions within the energy producing states themselves
to a degree produce this chaos. There was a shape to the 21st century world
that Bush I could not establish, and in that utopia the oil industry and its
producers were going to be kings of the world.

But under the BushI plan it was going to be seamless and
inevitable. Under BushII it is a tragi-comic war on terrah.

But the inversion of American policy, foreign and domestic is
a counter-revolution of the Good Ole Boy and the Good Girls.
They want the 'Christian' America they have been promised since the seventies
by Robertson, Falwell, Bakker, et al.

And they will ignore anything that gets in the way of Republican Jesus's
thousand year reich. Consequently, the hypocrasy and corruption will have
to start killing them outright before the Rapture Right wakes up.

I was in Canada working with an international team of software developers when the 2000 election
went down. I told the concerned Chinese, Israelis, French and Qubecois on the team not to be concerned.
Then I watched SCOTUS overturn logic in a decision they upfront stated should not carry precedent.

After that moment, the whole world started sliding into uncharted territory,
and the reality based community were suddenly the ones viewed as insane.
The White Rose Society (the original) talked about how the national socialist party
simply created their own 'philosophy' outside the rigors of analytic thought.

Welcome to BushWorld, where science and morality is what the president says it is,
and his ruminations are considered unquestionable law by the faithful.

[Reckon]

3. A very good post.

You could add how civil rights leaders just sit idly by while their civil rights are smashed at the voting booth.

Bizarro World in deed.

Edit: HamdenRice has given us food for thought. Let's give him a K&R for debate.

Nice work!

[HamdenRice]

4. I love the new Al Gore, but ...

maybe the first bizarro world effect was captured in the scene in Farenheit 9/11 when Gore presided over the Senate confirmation of the 2000 election results and ruled the objections of the Black Congessional Caucus out of order -- objections supporting his having really won the election.

That was the beginning of the bizarre.

[Reckon]

7. Good point.

I think before the election someone had predicted the winner would be the loser and the loser the winner. I wonder who that was and what their thoughts are about the future of our Nation?

[NJCher]

19. That is true

I remember that.

It was the only thing that helped me stomach the results.




Cher

[misternormal]

35. I watched that...

... I could not help but feel for the guy, by following the prescribed rules of order, and the fact that the objections had to be signed by a senator as well, that he saw his hopes for the presidency fly right out the window.

It never ceases to amaze me that not one senator... not ONE would put his precious ass on the line to do what is right.

I've lost respect for any and all elected officials.

[IndyOp]

33. Civil Rights leaders sit idly by while voting rights smashed- Bull.

Rainbow-PUSH Coalition
NAACP
People for the American Way
Jesse Jackson, Sr
Harlem Book Fair
DNC Voting Rights Institute revving up for Election Protection for November

ALL fighting in the trenches to get civil rights at voting booth restored - who do you think kept the nasty Republican amendments out of the renewed Voting Rights Act.

If you join in their efforts you will see that they are not sitting idly by.

Greg Palast says that while evidence of voter suppression and hackable e-voting is causing whites to despair it is REVVING Black communities UP. I understand it this way: When you are treated badly for a long, long time and no one will admit it's happening - that is crazy-making. When people finally admit it is happening your fighting spirit returns!

[mcscajun]

5. It's all happening, and you're right. We're living in Bizarro World

And to think I used to laugh about that place as a kid. Who knew?

The way * speaks Should Have Been Our First Tip-off; on the real Earth, US Presidents use the language properly.

So how to we get back to Earth? Anyone know?

[HamdenRice]

6. LOL! forgot that part of Superman Bizarro world comics! 'Me president'

Yes, in the old Bizarro world comics, the people in bizarro world also spoke like idiots: "Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country," etc., etc.

[MissWaverly]

17. what got diamond, no want diamond, want dirty coal instead

me am bizarro, will have wife and kids spread lovely garbage all over the house.

Do you remember the Federation of Bizarro Idiots, was referred to by its initials,
FBI.

Yes, I remember, they wanted the opposite of everything.

[mcscajun]

22. Damn! I'd forgotten Bizarro World's FBI

:rofl:

[MissWaverly]

23. Well from one comic book enthusiast to another

a toast!

:beer:

[NJCher]

20. whatever takes us there, it has to take us a long way

So how to we get back to Earth? Anyone know?

Earth is a long way.

Especially when compared to Russia, which is a big country. China, too. China's a big country.

Long way.




Cher

[GeorgeGist]

8. K & R

[Straight Shooter]

9. Bizarro World, the chickenhawk is a hero but the real hero is driven away.

:grr:

[Rex]

10. Some of it is just a dream. Some of it is happening.

The CIA can be used for good; first time for everything.

Global warming will absolutely kill us off without any sympathy or regard.

Putin wasn't just an agent he was the head of the KGB (think Poppy Bush and the CIA).

Gorbachev is extremely progressive for a former leader of the Soviet Union, the Russian equivalent of Al Gore. If not for Gorby, the USSR would still probably be in existence.

Chavez has yet to be underhanded in his dealing with politics. What do you expect from a man who America has tried to overthrow 3 TIMES now! We've turned Hugo into a paranoid leader, not good.

Lebanon and Israel = political capital to Bush, nothing more or less.

We are so far down the rabbit hole...yikes...

[katinmn]

11. K&N. Great post.

[European Socialist]

12. Let's not forget the new and improved Kenny Rogers

[Uncle Joe]

21. I keep thinking of Danny Bonnaduce of the Partridge Family

when I see Kenny now.

[robinlynne]

13. great post. k&r.

[lonestarnot]

14. Insideout upsidedown world. And what is the name of the

shady KGB Agent? I have missed him in the keep up. Ah Putin?

[Generic Other]

15. Pretty scary assessment of the situation

Maybe we've just fallen through one of those "tubes" on the internets.

[tblue37]

16. I am remidned of a Chris Rock routine,

from just before the Iraq invasion, in which he said this is a crazy world because "the tallest man in the NBA is Chinese, the best golfer in America is Black, the best rapper is white, The Germans won't fight, the French think we're arrogant, and the three most powerful men in the country are named 'Bush,' 'Dick,' and 'Colon.'"

[chimpymustgo]

18. That does sum things up here in Bizarro World!

Scary.

[Ravy]

24. Excellent post! Thank you! (n/t)

[Vidar]

25. Great post. K&R.

[rman]

26. "Progressives openly hope for the CIA to reassert its power"

I think that's an oversimplification.

Progressives do tend to side with the CIA regarding the supposedly faulty pre-war intelligence. Most progressives also think the CIA was involved in the JFK assassination and various other dubious operations (ie Iran-Contra, Pay of Pigs).
For this to make sense one has to look al little deeper. The short version is that progressives hope that the rogue/criminal elements within the CIA (and other agencies and govt branches) will be exposed for what they are.


Another issue that makes more sense once you look deeper is Chavez. I don't know what brings you to call him "erratic" except that it coincides with the MSM view. But regarding the coup that he staged, there was enormous popular support for it. It is thanks to that popular support that Chavez was pardoned and released from jail early. It is thanks to popular support that Chavez was freed and returned just days after the US supported military coup against him in 2002.
It is to simplistic to say that any coup is by definition bad. Suppose one of Hitler's generals would have been successful in staging a coup that removed Hitler from power. Would that have been a bad thing? To find out whether any given coup is good or bad, one has to investigate the background of the situation.


It is true though that many things are happening that look quite odd on the surface, and our media do a very poor job of informing us about the background of those issues. How about all time humanitarian hero Mandela being a good friend of Fidel Castro... That to makes a lot more sense once one has investigated the background. But i'll leave that for another time.

[HamdenRice]

28. "Progressives openly hope for the CIA to reassert its power"

Hi rman,
The intention of my post was to look at events and alliances superficially just to note how much the world has changed and how bizarre it is.

As for the CIA, the underlying story also is that the CIA of the 1950s through 1970s was partly dismantled by the Church Committee hearings, and covert operations were drastically reduced and subjected to the rule of law at least to the extent of being subject to presidential directives. Part of the CIA became highly professional as data and foreign affairs collectors and analysts. Reagan and Bush I revived the operational side, but the CIA became really two organizations.

During the Bush II administration, the operational "dirty tricks" side became increasingly militarized, and continuing a trend begun in the Reagan and Bush administration, those operational capabilities were moved into the Pentagon, as Delta Force and Special Operations.

I think what progressives are reacting to is that Bush II has used the professional data gathering and analysis side to take the fall for 9/11 and Iraq. Bush has almost completely destroyed this aspect of the CIA, through scapegoating, but also through intimidation, purges and career destruction, represented by the Valerie Plame affair, while completing the move of operations into the Pentagon under the madman, Rumsfeld. I think it is fair to say that progressives are hoping for the professionals, represented by the likes of Valerie Plame, to reassert their power.

As for Chavez, my comment that he is erratic is based on fairly sympathetic profiles I read about him early in his administration. I think it is fair to say he is an eccentric character -- the very long speeches, the flying around the country making promises to everyone, without keeping tract of his obligations -- but maybe only eccentric characters can make significant changes in that kind of society. I also think that since his early days, a kind of progressive bureaucracy has formed around him and the implementation of his ideas is becoming much more regularized.

[rman]

31. Points well taken - but i think what has changed,

is that the bizarre things are done more openly, which has caused more people to look into it. And of course these days we have the internet to help us find out about it.

It's true that more extreme things are done these days, but i don't think the world has changed in that it has become bizarre where it first was 'normal'.
It has been bizarre all along, and the big change is that more people see it now than ever before.
Your OP certainly helps point it out to those who might not yet see the full scope of it.

[bklyncowgirl]

27. Pity the poor cartoonists & authors of political satire.

Anything that you invent to stretch the boundries of absurdity will probably be tomorrow's headlines.

You can't make this stuff up.

[H2O Man]

29. Wonderful post!

Nominated, of course.

Sometimes it is amazing to step back, out of the frame, to get a better view of the picture. Your post highlights some of the strange things we see from that view point.

[DanCa]

30. me am so happy me can cry ...

I think 9-11 caused a rupture in the time space continum and transported me into the bizzaro world. Honestly things have become so screwed up since than there's no other rational explanation.

[DemReadingDU]

32. Bizarro indeed

34. wow that is crazy n/t

[never cry wolf]

37. You are correct, reminds me of a post by Ilsa I bookmarked

Ilsa Thu Aug-28-03 07:31 PM
Response to Original message
4. "is Bush the Antichrist? "

I ask myself that question almost daily, when I hear about some absurd revisionist explanation of why everything they do has to work backwards like Seinfeld in Bizarro World:

We have to cut down the forests to save them.
We have to bomb the Iraqis to protect them.
We have to restrict American freedom so we can protect liberty.
We have to protect the overseas outsourcing of jobs to create new jobs.
We have to save money on the war by privatizing and providing a profit.
I can't even lucidly convey the concept of how there were no Al Queda terrorists in Iraq until well after the US occupation of Iraq.

My head is spinning.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=244761#244837