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BlueMTexpat

BlueMTexpat's Journal
BlueMTexpat's Journal
March 29, 2016

Media Lie Obliterated As Poll Finds Hillary Clinton Supporters Extremely Enthusiastic

Hillary Clinton supporters are extremely or very enthusiastic by 54% to Senator Bernie Sanders supporters who are extremely or very enthusiastic by 44%. So Democrats need not fear no matter which candidate wins the 2016 primaries. Both are capable of whipping up enthusiasm. And there dies another Beltway narrative.

Not just a "Beltway narrative" ...

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/03/28/bust-beltway-narrative-clinton-supporters-extremely-enthusiastic.html

We’ve been hearing all about how former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suffers from an enthusiasm gap, but according to a new Gallup poll, that’s not accurate at all.

In fact, Hillary Clinton supporters are extremely or very enthusiastic by 54% to Senator Bernie Sanders supporters who are extremely or very enthusiastic by 44%.

So Democrats need not fear no matter which candidate wins the 2016 primaries. Both are capable of whipping up enthusiasm. The winds of enthusiasm are behind both candidates, and Clinton is drawing more than her fair share of enthusiasm.


She is leading in the popular vote for good reason.
March 27, 2016

Beyond Victimhood: 5 Slaves Who Fought Back and Changed History

Not all of these had the African American experience of slavery, but ALL changed history.

http://www.juancole.com/2016/03/beyond-victimhood-5-slaves-who-fought-back-and-changed-history.html

March 25 marks the United Nations’ “International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery,” which aims to draw attention to the more than 15 million men, women and children who fell victim to the Transatlantic Slave Trade that lasted from the 15th through to the 19th century.

The United Nations calls this 400-year-period “one of the darkest chapters in human history.” And according to the U.N., March 25 is aimed at raising awareness of the dangers of racism and prejudice today.

To mark the day, teleSUR aims to commemorate all victims of the trade but will pay special attention to those who dedicated their lives to ending slavery through resistance and rebellion.

March 27, 2016

The Ouarzazate Solar Plant in Morocco: Triumphal "Green Capitalism" and the Privatization of Nature

There have been several OPs posted (some by me) touting Morocco's solar plant as a model for alternative energy development. This article provides a contrarian view - not that I wholeheartedly share it - that shows how the project also has its downsides. The downsides are certainly worth taking into consideration.

The article was posted by a FB friend who is also a RPCV and former colleague in Morocco. http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/24124/the-ouarzazate-solar-plant-in-morocco_triumphal-gr

Ouarzazate is a beautiful town in south-central Morocco, well worth visiting. It is an important holiday destination and has been nicknamed the "door of the desert." It is also known as a famed location for international filmmaking, where films such as Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Mummy (1999), Gladiator (2000), and Kingdom of Heaven (2005) were shot, as was part of the television series Game of Thrones. That is not all what Ouarzazate has to offer as its name has recently been associated with a solar mega-project that is supposedly going to end Morocco's dependency on energy imports, provide electricity to more than a million Moroccans, and put the country on a “green path.”

If we were to believe the makhzen's (a term that refers to the king and the ruling elite around him) narrative, recycled without nuance or critical reflection by most media outlets in the region and in the West, the project is very good news and a big step toward reducing carbon emissions and tackling climate change. However, there is space for scepticism. One recent example of such deceptive talking points was the official celebratory announcements of a "historic" agreement at the COP21 in Paris.

My recent visit to Ouarzazate has prompted me to deconstruct the dominant narrative around this project. In particular, to scratch beneath the surface of the language of "cleanliness," "shininess," and "carbon emission cuts" in order to observe and scrutinize the materiality of solar energy. This analysis examines the project through the lens of the creation of a new commodity chain, revealing its effects as no different from the destructive mining activities taking place in southern Morocco. As Timothy Mitchell argues, analyzing this materiality of such a project can help us trace the kinds of economic and political arrangements that particular forms of energy engender or hinder (Timothy Mitchell 2011).


This is also a Good Read, but I am not X-posting. I also know Ouarzazate firsthand and can personally attest that it is indeed an exotically lovely place.
March 21, 2016

I am not on DU as much these days

because I am spending time with family and friends.

I am very happy generally to see many good friends returned from exile and the better tone on DU since the results of March 15.

But some STILL don't get it. I have seen, for example, two OPs this am where dubious sources were cited to continue posting trash against Hillary. One case I alerted on and am waiting to hear the results. For the other, I was a juror and the post was allowed to stand 4-3. I found that abusive and alerted on the jury's results.

There is still a lot of work to do before DU will become a collegial source of expression of support for actual Democrats. I am frankly sick and tired of the nastiness. Period.

March 18, 2016

Listening to Montana

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/03/listening-to-montana/473979/

In Chester, Montana, a world away from city life inspires an artist's music.

To the north, the first traffic light is 144 miles away.
To the south, the first traffic light is 92 miles away.
There are no traffic lights here in Chester, Montana.

This is how the musician Philip Aaberg introduced his hometown of Chester, Montana, in a short radio commentary he produced for KCRW a while back, along with his wife, Patty, and their son Jake.

A privilege of our American Futures journey is that, occasionally, we can fly our small propeller plane far, far away to places like Chester, Montana. Chester lies at the top of the country, 30 miles as the crow flies from the Canadian border. From even farther west, we flew over the Bitterroot Mountains, which then rolled away into the high plains, with fields of green, yellow, and gold. The rivers below us meandered. The rail tracks looked very important. The roads indeed didn’t need traffic lights. In the skies, there was not another plane in sight for hours.

We had just spent some time along the Washington-Idaho border, to see one of the newly-finished Maya Lin installations for the Confluence Project, along the path of Lewis and Clark’s expedition some 200 years earlier than ours. And we were heading to the American Prairie Reserve in Northeastern Montana, to see the new rewilding of the American prairie with native bison, pronghorn antelope, and other animals. Chester was more or less on our way.


My MT hometown and longtime family friends are featured in this article in The Atlantic. What a pleasant surprise!
March 18, 2016

George and Amal Clooney to Host Series of Hillary Clinton Fundraisers

http://variety.com/2016/biz/news/george-clooney-amal-hillary-clinton-fundraisers-1201732999/

Please make room UTB for George and Amal Clooney - if they are not there already!

In 2012, Clooney hosted a fundraiser at his Studio City home for President Obama’s re-election campaign, raising about $15 million, a big boost to fundraising coffers after the campaign invited supporters to participate in a raffle contest to attend. The success led to other campaigns adopting a similar fundraising approach, with the campaign of Mitt Romney holding a raffle to attend dinner with the candidate and Donald Trump.

Clinton next will visit Los Angeles on March 24 for a series of fundraisers, including an event at the nightclub Avalon Hollywood and a reception at the home of ICM Partners’ Chris Silbermann and Julia Franz.

The campaign says supporters can text CLOONEY to 47246 to enter.

Clooney told The Guardian last month that he planned to hold fundraisers for Clinton, but he also had words of praise for her rival for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders. As for Donald Trump, Clooney called him a “xenophobic fascist.”
March 18, 2016

Review: Hillary Clinton’s Broad City Appearance Was a Win, for Her and the Show

http://time.com/4262827/broad-city-hillary-clinton-review/

The candidate showcased a subtly cracked take on her own image

Politicians are very poor actors. TV cameos by political figures, perhaps because they’re so heavily brokered to ensure that the politician won’t be embarrassed, end up risking nothing but the audience’s boredom. With that in mind, Hillary Clinton’s guest appearance on Wednesday night’s Broad City was a strange triumph—a performance that was totally secondary to the show’s sensibility. Clinton’s episode of Broad City had little to do with her, and it was all the better for that.

It’s worth noting that Clinton barely appears on the show; her cameo comes at the episode’s end, and is quite brief. (About two minutes, and much of the sequence is a close-up of Clinton’s smiling face as Abbi and Ilana freak out over her.) When she finally does show, she’s as odd as any member of the show’s loopy universe, dragging a car-dealership air dancer into the campaign office and gleefully watching it unfurl. “It’s a she,” the former Secretary of State declares proudly, of the giant fabric tube.

This is, in small part, a cracked vision of Clinton’s image as decisive and competent. But more than anything, the Clinton appearance has little to do with Clinton in the world, and it’s better for it. Clinton, like everything on Broad City, exists only insofar as she relates back to the show’s central narcissists. Perhaps the most revolutionary thing Clinton does is appear in a scene in which a character, at a loss for words, announces “I pegged” (referring to a sex act from the previous season). Though Clinton isn’t really trying to keep up with the show’s humor, she’s hardly standing in its way.
March 17, 2016

UM celebrates International Women’s Day with Denise Juneau, international performances

http://www.montanakaimin.com/news/article_6881c960-ea0b-11e5-946d-bf34b0ef5780.html

Standing at a podium in the UC Ballroom, current Montana congressional candidate and Blackfeet Nation member Denise Juneau barely looked at her notes as she spoke to an audience of 70 people about the importance of achieving gender equality at the University of Montana’s celebration of International Women’s Day Friday night.

“In politics, women hold about 20 percent of the seats in Congress. At this rate, it will be 100 years before our Congress represents the American population,” Juneau said. “It needs to become normal to see women in decision-making positions. My mom always said, ‘If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re on the menu.’”

Behind the speaker's podium hung posters with various multicultural feminist messages.


More about Denise Juneau: http://www.charkoosta.com/2016/2016_03_17/womens_gathering.html

HELENA — Leaders from urban areas and Montana reservations met in Helena on Saturday, March 5 at an “Indian Women Gathering” roundtable conservation to discuss a people-driven agenda for this election year.

Host and coordinator, Anna Whiting Sorrell, said she was inspired by articulate and solid positions of the nearly 30 women.
...
Topics of discussion were: voting rights; appointments; political appointment boards; commissions and making state government look like the state; economic development; infrastructure; the rates of incarceration of Indians; health care; protecting Indian Education for All; funding for tribal colleges; protecting children in foster care; meth addiction; and land, water, air and language preservation.


More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Juneau

To contribute: https://denisejuneau.com/
March 15, 2016

Hill's Group: Interesting tidbits from FiveThirtyEight

http://fivethirtyeight.com/live-blog/march-15-primaries-ohio-florida-results-presidential-election-2016/

There are some, mostly supporters of the Other Candidate, who are criticizing FiveThirtyEight for its predictions on MI, failing to understand that the polls are what they are and Nate & Co, make their predictions based on polls conducted by other people. There is some discussion of the MI result at the link.

The link is to their Live Coverage Thread. Scroll down to see what Harry Enten has to say about demographics-based predictions and just above that, a later post by Nate, showing those demographics. The results are mostly favorable to Hillary, although not nearly in the percentages that the polls show in some instances.

Please let these favorable predictions be true!
March 15, 2016

Hill's Group: Hillary Clinton Delivers A Commander In Chief Level Performance At MSNBC Town Hall

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/03/14/hillary-clinton-delivers-commander-chief-level-performance-msnbc-town-hall.html

Hillary Clinton delivered a rock solid performance at an MSNBC town hall from Illinois where she looked like a candidate who would be ready to be Commander in Chief on day one.

Clinton was talking about Trump when she said the best form of protest against the Republican frontrunner is to vote against him. The former Sec. of State also called on the American people to organize against Trump.

Chris Matthews played clips of Robert F. Kennedy and Trump back to back and asked Clinton to compare them. Clinton compared RFK’s language to calm people down to Trump’s demagoguery. Clinton also called out Trump’s birtherism. She called Trump more than wrong and offensive. Clinton called Trump dangerous.
...
Clinton admitted that she no longer trusts the polls because polling has become difficult. She said that the polling is going to have to get better because people rely on the information. Clinton was asked about Michigan. She said that she is building a broad, inclusive coalition, which shows in the fact that she has gotten more votes than any other candidate.

On trade, Clinton said that she is not the same as Bernie Sanders because she knows that the United States has to trade with the rest of the world. Chris Matthews asked Clinton if she was a hawk. She answered no that she is a smart power advocate.


More at the link. I was phone-banking at the time and didn't see the town hall. But Hill rocks!

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Gender: Female
Home country: USA
Current location: Switzerland
Member since: Wed Oct 29, 2008, 04:01 PM
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