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Monday, January 30, 2017

Jeff Bezos bought WaPo, he's corporate big, the Amazon man, and does his owned media hence dutifully editorialize in favor of corporate big?

That is experimenting with a headline. This is not about Bezos, nor about WaPo. It is about Wired and about Justice Democrats.

But slanting a headline grossly and admitting it up front and clearly; that's not playing by the rules. The rules rampant at NYT and WaPo, even HuffPo say be sly. Here, a one man blog w/o editorial nor ownership input beyond yours truly, that allows thumbing one's nose at headline slanting dogma, the "gotta be tricky rules rule" dogma of CNN and FOX and MSNBC, each with their ad-sales and ratings review decision making - the lack of anyone's foot on the throat shaping opinion and intuition is the entirety of the fun of it here.

Having said that -

Now, Wired - dateline Jan. 23, 2017, via its writer Emma Grey Ellis states in part (with links omitted):

So, kind of like a left-wing Tea Party.

They’ve even given themselves a name: the Justice Democrats. And like some mirror-universe version of the Tea Party, the Justice Democrats likewise plan to build grassroots support on the internet. In the wake of the Women’s March and other anti-Trump protest movements, progressives have realized that they still need to mobilize in a way that will garner political power. The Justice Democrats think that a successful YouTube empire, combined with Sanders campaign digital expertise, might be enough to put new, millennially-minded candidates into office.

Though the group has largely disappeared from the headlines, the Tea Party’s success in driving the GOP to power—and to the right—is manifest. The Justice Democrats, a hodgepodge of Sanders-campaign veterans and liberal media types, hope to have the same effect. Right now the group numbers just 12 people, but they claim the digital platform experience of The Young Turk Network (with a YouTube channel that has over 3 billion views), the Sanders campaign, and the popular streaming and YouTubing Secular Talk Radio.

That digital-first approach might confer a few advantages. The progressive base is young and internet savvy, as was clear during the Sanders campaign. Second, the internet never keeps its thoughts to itself. The Justice Democrats are planning to use the TYT and Secular Talk Radio YouTube channels and social media presences to push out videos on everything from policy positions to potential candidates, and they’re depending on their subscribers’ feedback. “We’ll use the digital platform to find a candidates that have the best chance of success,” says Cenk Uygur, co-founder of the Justice Democrats and founder of TYT Network. “Our followers will naturally get excited by some of them, and that gives you some strong evidence of where you’re more likely to be productive.”

And of course, the internet could solve their biggest political problem: money. TYT raised $1.1 million to fund investigative journalism during the Trump administration, and the Sanders campaign raised over $200 million. They’ll need to repeat that performance if they’re to run somewhere between 200 and 400 candidates for the 2018 midterm elections. “Money is how the Tea Party got coopted by the same corporate interests they thought they were fighting,” Uygur says. “You can’t raise money on TV by asking people to go to a website later. And we’re not going to take money from corporations. We’re going to do it with small online donors, Bernie style.”

[...] “The ultimate goal is to take over Congress,” says Uygur. “The first thing the Democrats will do is beseech us to not primary people,” Uygur says. “They’ll offer some concessions, and our answer will still range from ‘no’ to ‘hell no.'”

That’ll certainly threaten party unity, and make these Justice Democrats unpopular. The thing is, despite the efforts of his mainstream detractors, Trump is POTUS. Protests are in full swing, but progressives still risk apathy or exhaustion from their supporters. “The left needs to take a lesson from the Tea Party and frame these issues in terms of existential threat,'” says Christopher Parker, a political scientist at the University of Washington who has studied the Tea Party. “That life will not look the same for you after Trump is done.”

Existential threat? Yes, that's been a part of Tea Party fearmongering MO. But, being Chicken Little explains Tea Party success? Digital media? My impression is some GOP insiders cooked up a "rile 'em" strategy and once the genie was released from the lamp it went its own way. Specifically micro.

Indididual non-cetralized groups sprang up using the rubric, each getting talking points from centralized data, but each having its own gripes, bitching and prejudices - it's own Facebook page in essence - which led to local cohesion.

The defining moment/person: Eric Cantor.

Thus far, and it is early, no local Justice Democrats group is meeting on any regular basis in Minnesota.

Drinking Liberally has been in action for years, and its size and reach is unknown to me because I don't socialize that way. Not my cup of tea.

Of interest, the web address of Drinking Liberally is:

http://livingliberally.org/drinking/chapters/MN/minneapolis

Using the browser addon for quickly parsing a URL to the homesite, readers are now strongly urged to peruse:

http://livingliberally.org/

If it resonates with you, follow up. The people there are believed to be well intentioned and believed open to welcoming new blood.

That said,

If Justice Democrats can take out Diane Feinstein, who is married to big time money and who clawed to the top atop dead bodies of Harvey Milk and Mayor Mosconi, bless them then, for that shall prove them real.

A progressive in that Senate seat would be a godsend.

Holding much hope for them, for change, there is doubt over likelihoods. I put in, so far my two hundred seventy buck contribution. That's 10 times twenty-seven, a rallying point amount, so let us pay heed as time marches to November 2018. If CHANGE can be caused in the absence of billionaire table scrap purchasing of politicians from and by the bushelfull, it will be a unique departure from the hateful John Roberts - Alito status quo, where money no longer just talks but barks so loud and incessantly that little else can be heard.

Or do I misjudge Pete Hegseth?

We wait. We hope.

______________UPDATE______________
HuffPo, "The Democratic Base Is Marching Right Past Its Leaders;" see Crabgrass earlier, here.

DU, here. Linking here. That DU item is dated Jan. 24. The day after Justice Democrats sprang forth from Zeus' head.

Remember the decision for "Our Revolution" was to go a 501(c)4 route, not mixing in individual candidacies, thereby leaving a void.

End of February might be a best time to reexamine the JD approach and this particular implementation of it, to see whether it grows legs. Navel gazing any more now likely is counterproductive. As well as time consuming.

BONUS: Tune time for the establishment DC Dems who've survived last election cycle, in office, still getting paychecks, in Angst, razors edge: Here. Here - long and extended.