For those whose memory doesn't go back that far, look up Aaron Brown in our archives and watch how our esteemed progressives turned against him on a dime.

DUers can be fickle. Think about it.

Or, put another way, he studied Classical Marxism -- you know, the economic theory/philosophy from well over a century ago.

To my mind, it is too reductionist. Perhaps because I am both a woman and of mature years I recognize this more readily than the young white men who were so enamored of him. POC see the reductionism as well.

Bernie Sanders is obviously well-meaning, but he's the kind of man who would say he "doesn't see color" and "doesn't see gender." Sadly, that means he doesn't see how different the challenges are for people who happen not to be white men. We are not all the same.

My husband really likes Bernie Sanders to this day. For one thing, culturally they could be cousins. He feels like he understands him at a level I never can.

Even so, my husband was the one person I was able to talk through my frustrations with during the campaign. Back when we were all a good deal younger, he studied philosophy (including reading Marx and Engels) and economics. He put his finger right on my dilemma with Bernie -- the fact that not every social problem can be reduced to a single economic theory, no matter how well-intentioned and just. (Just as a single gendered instance: only women will ever need to find a place to pump their breasts. Bernie, afaik, seems to think such considerations are a non-issue readily solved by wage-parity and/or raising the minimum wage.)

So once again, Bernie Sanders has offended POC and he does not even know why or how.. Sadly it seems that neither do his most ardent fans -- although they, mostly being a lot younger than their hero, are hopefully able to learn.

...have been won by Democrats. We seated Barack Obama twice and Hillary won by 3 million votes over the Trojan Horse. It took a massive conspiracy against the democratic processes of this nation -- including a hostile cyber-invasion -- to prevent Hillary from being in office.

The "failure" wasn't the "Democratic business model."

Stormy Weather keeps playing thru my mind.

Someone else mentioned Bad Moon Rising, which is perfect.

Any other suggestions? Music is good for sanity and the soul.

The rest of it -- it really looked like she pwned him. Did you see what she did there?

On their first bedroom encounter, she gave him a "playful" order (that she would spank him) which he followed. Waited only so long when he dangled a spot on The Apprentice before her, and then when he didn't come through ("we'll see about next week" or some such to string her along) she picked up her purse and just walked away.

THAT makes the big orange bully look WEAK. More than anything, that must rankle the hell out of him.

...of Iraq. Protesting the erosion of our Constitutional rights and seeking to protect them. Protesting Trump. Supporting women's right to a full range of health care. Working for gun legislation. Attempting to build Utopia on a small scale (communes). Seeking enlightenment. Founding the environmental movement. Saving the whales.

Everywhere I go in the realm of those seeking to protect and expand human rights, I see my generation, now grown old in the fight. If you want to lay blame, look at the 1%. If you want to fight the 1%, read Mineral Man's posts, and others who have not given up.

Really? An entire generation of humanity blew it and is inexcusable, disgraceful, and disgusting?

Someone seems to have some parental rebellion issues, democratisphere.

My husband and I live smack in the Thomas Fire burn area, which puts us in the danger zone for flash floods and debris flow.

The Thomas fire began in Santa Paula, Ventura County -- when it began, there was plenty of TV coverage. But as soon as the fire crossed the county line into Santa Barbara County, Ventura dropped off the map, both figuratively and literally. Fire maps and weather maps both have had a slash at the county line, although this is a regional disaster.

Last year we moved to the foothills above Ventura city, so this is of concern to me.

However, several different FB pages started up in Santa Barbara, and one of them aggregates news mostly on a regional basis. I have written thanking them. These are just average people doing good work, as opposed to the dipshit TV people from SB and LA who evidently view Ventura as an afterthought.

FB is one of those phenomena that in part is what you make of it, and it has made itself indispensible to a LOT of people for their social needs. I am sort of pleased at being in touch again with some of my graduate school classmates, but I am dismayed at how many of them are seemingly adamant about using FB in lieu of email. (So is my daughter, for that matter.) I have never really trusted the privacy of this platform, and with the news about Cambridge Analytica, I am all the more reluctant to say anything personal.

Also in the "Are you really sure you want to do this?" category are the large numbers and varieties of cutsie personality quizzes (including those purporting to show you are a genius), prayers for total strangers that must circle the globe to be effective, schmaltzy stories about brave veterans/cancer stricken kids/take your pick, that must also be Shared immediately to show you care, and if you don't you are a bad person. I have a dear friend who passes along all this crap. I am a bad person -- I don't "share."

Now it turns out that all this stuff goes into a vast data base and agorithms that sell you, not just junk jewelry, but junk science and a junk president. Zuckerberg's brain-child conspired with Uncle Sam's actual enemies. Zuckerberg was/is a useful idiot in the conspiracy to get us a potus who is making sure Uncle Sam's word is worthless among nations. And so on ad nauseum. This is a gross betrayal of us all. I hope all of FBs top guys get a grilling by Mueller, and in court.

But I'm not quitting FB -- yet.

...Bitcoins.

During the region-wide Thomas Fire in December, we were under mandatory evacuation at our new home in Ventura and our son and daughter had to evacuate from their respective homes in Santa Barbara. Our daughter took her kids way down the coast for better air, but our son and his wife moved their valuables to our still-empty old home with the for sale sign in front, and then themselves.

While our son was unloading his pickup, two men drove up, said they'd been burned out in Ventura, and offered to buy the house for Bitcoins. Son said no -- probably referred them to the Realtor.

When he told us about it, we laughed out loud -- because, Dutch Tulip Bulb Craze. But our son didn't laugh -- because, Cryptocurrency, It's the Coming Thing.

If Trump gets away with this, it is one more rip in the fabric of the Civil Service and in the idea of a career in government service. These are the people who hold the institutional memory; these are the people who actually believe they are serving their country. In some career categories, they actually put their lives on the line.

Remember when Dick Cheney outed Valerie Plame? This is in the same category of heinous betrayal.

I'm old enough that I have had my issues with the sometimes-behavior of the FBI, CIA, US military, and so on. But while I profoundly believe in oversight, while I believe there is great room for improvement, I never doubt the necessity for these agencies nor do I doubt the sense of service most of their personnel have. You don't go into it for the money.

...climbed up on a Gun Day billboard and hung 17 crosses from it. See, whoever it was who climbed up there at personal risk and created a very pointed memorial to the dead kids in Florida was just showing their very blatant (and I quote) "Christian privilege," because they failed to find out which grieving families would not actually bury a loved one under a cross.

So it is with Gal Gadot's comment. According to the bitter, she is evidently just thumbing her nose at everyone who is not physically perfect. According to some she must just be a thoughtless airhead.

Our own DUer, n2doc, collected numerous Toons memorializing Prof. Hawking exactly the way Ms. Gadot did -- leaving his wheelchair behind and taking off for the stars. What the hell, the man was not merely "disabled" and "living life to the fullest" -- he was 100% dependent on other human beings and a host of machinery for the most basic functions of life including breathing.

So let me say what is in my heart: Stephen Hawking has gone where all hurts are healed, and may the Cosmos he so vividly described open itself to him like a lover.