[Andrew Mandelbaum]

In Hell, battles of wits are played out by similar rules. Dante mops the floor with the Dullard. The Dullard pumps his fist in victory. Beatrice looks right through Dante as he holds out history, reason, and basic human decency in the palm of his hand. She loops her right arm into the crook of the Dullard's left, and then, caressing his tin foil helmet with her other hand, they go laughing into the sunless horizon together.

And they do it all over and over every thread. I mean day....

[Roger Slater]

Originally Posted by John Whitworth

Roger, that is just rude. America cares for nothing except American interests and never has. Obama didn't like Brexit because it might impact adeversely on the United States so he went immediately into threatenng mode. Which is what you do, isn't it?

Try to keep a civil tongue in your head.

You're the one who isn't being civil, John, saying how you don't care what happens in America because you believe (incorrectly) that it doesn't affect Britain. Even if your patently ridiculous premise were correct, your callous indifference to what happens to America is far from endearing. If you don't think the American election has any effect on you and you couldn't care less about the outcome because you are safely sealed off in Brexit England, impervious to world events and unaffected by such exogenous concerns as the NATO alliance, then why don't you simply keep your mouth shut on the subject the way you asked non-British people to do in an earlier thread about Brexit? It's none of your business, right? Just as what happens in Britain is none of mine?

[Andrew Mandelbaum]

And as our hero rises again, the room eerily reminds him of yesterday. And the day before. And camera one...over to the Dullard...

[R. Nemo Hill]

What Roger said.

[Andrew Mandelbaum]

A debate between Hedges and Reich that should be read:

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/7/2...rs_support_now

[Siham Karami]

Thanks for the link, Andrew. Amy Goodman rocks! But the country is pretty much overall centrist, not progressive, for whatever reasons, some of them not so good. But in response to the question presuming nobody could possibly like Hillary, neither left nor right, I'm going to be enemy #1 and say I think Hillary Clinton is a highly experienced, balanced, and thoughtful leader who would make an excellent president. She is hated for a complex litany of reasons, many of which have to do with a willingness to compromise that tends toward the level of hypocrisy, but which may not exactly be hypocritical so much as indeterminate, and nobody likes that in a leader. On the other hand, I think she has taken a stand in some areas and gotten results, but no credit for those results. Much of the hatred is also because she is a woman whose husband put her in a compromising position, indicating "weakness" to many, and at the same time is a power player in politics, which in men is strength but in women seen as "overbearing" unless the woman is totally not compromised by a man such as Bill C. I'm with her not because of fear of Trump, although I'm no fan of fascism and the police state he would create, but because there's a war going on between the covert agencies and the ostensible government (this has been a long-standing issue but its worse now) and she may be one of the few people who is already heavily invested and committed to democracy winning that war, albeit not in Amy Goodman's vision of it. She will keep valuable institutions others blindly would get rid of.

[Skip Dewahl]

So much for "valuable institutions":
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ch-church.html

[John Whitworth]

I should just like to say that on the three occasions I have visited the United States in the last few years I have found the people there kind, hospitable and generous, so much so that it is difficult to actually pay for anything.

As to politics what does it matter beside the private joys of family and friends? It is amazing, looking back, how things that seemed very important at the time turned out to be not important at all. Doubtless a Trump Presidency, should it come to pass, would not result in the collpase of the world order. Likewise the collapse of the EU would be a mere blip. Fifty years from now it will be gone like last year's snows. The young people will never have heard of it, as today's young, and most Americans I am sure, have never heard of the SDLP (the what?) or Mrs Shirley Williams.

Meanwhile, Jayne, lighten up. It truly doesn't matter what we say.If we lived in many countries of the world it would, because we would be arrested

[Julie Steiner]

We all seem to be running a fever. Some of us with high temperatures, and some of us with actual hallucinations.

Feel better soon, everyone.

Max, regarding the person who called Bernie supporters ridiculous, consider the source. Sarah Silverman is a so-called comedian who has never, to my knowledge, said or done anything even remotely funny. I consider her the live-action version of the Marmaduke comic, which has also never, to my knowledge, been funny. The sample drawing and punchline here is typical of what passes for wit in the Marmaduke comic; "I stubbed my vagina" is typical for what passes for wit from Sarah Silverman. Marmaduke's one joke is that HE'S A REALLY BIG DOG!!!!, and Sarah Silverman's one joke is that SHE'S A REALLY OFFENSIVE WOMAN!!!!

So, yeah, someone hip and edgy invited her onstage at the DNC, and she said something really offensive. Surprise, surprise.

[Michael Cantor]

I didn't think it was offensive at all. Sarah Silverman worked her ass off for Bernie, and at the end of the day she realized that (a) Bernie had lost, and (b) it was far better for the future of the nation to work to defeat Trump than to continue to prance and shout like a kid at a party who isn't getting enough attention. She'd earned the chops to say so - she'd paid her dues - and I'm delighted she told that small number of loud jerks they were being ridiculous. They were. And every self-involved scream and disturbance they created was working to Trump's advantage. And Sarah - who was a Bernie guy, but not a politician - was in the best possible position to say something. Brava!