The Best of 2019

Since this blog began in 2017, I have presented a blog topic on the best of the year with regard for the videos which really made an astute observation on anything of politics. (This is influenced by a period I had of reading year-end, best-of lists, particularly in entertainment, timed near the end of every December.)

When it comes to citing particular following videos, I tend to list just one from a given program.

Here are four short form videos (typically well under an hour), as well as a long form bonus video (an “Honorable Mention” with a running time well past one hour) which stood out in 2019:




1. “NYTimes Journo Melts Down On Joe Rogan’s Show” 
(The Jimmy Dore Show; 02.04.2019)
Jimmy Dore—and kudos as well to the term smugnorant by fellow comedian Paul Gilmartin—beautifully summed up the arrogance of “received opinion” New York Times columnist Bari Weiss. She embarrassed herself—and with no sense of shame—as a guest on Joe Rogan Experience when the two discussed 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Weiss, who was challenged by Rogan, focused on smearing Hawaii U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, could not back up her claims because Weiss did not understand one specific term she used against Gabbard.

2. “High Powered Hollywood Agencies Push Tulsi Smear Campaign” 
(The Political Vigilante; 09.12.2019)
Graham Elwood lets us know, in part, why many of our most famous celebrities are empty. (Reason: They are connected with the Deep State.) Elwood reads Robbie Jaeger’s report (“Tulsi Gabbard Has Enemies In High Places”) on CAA and UTA celebrity clients and how CAA and UTA operate behind the scenes. It is fascinating. And revealing. It helps to get me to better understand why the performing arts—and who are our celebrities—are generally unimpressive.

3. “Saagar Enjeti: A Dire Warning for the American Right” 
(The Hill’s The Rising; 10.30.2019)
As co-host of The Hill’s The Rising, Saager Enjeti, who is a conservative, addresses and confronts the assumptions of self-identified conservatives and Republicans who assume—as if we are still living in the 1980s with then-U.S. president Ronald Reagan—that voters could and would never go for socialism (or anything remotely close).

4. “Mitch McConnell Played Democrats Like A Fiddle on Supreme Court Picks” 
(Secular Talk; 05.31.2019)
Kyle Kulinski published a terrific video that all Proud Democrats should have seen regarding what motivates U.S. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R–Kentucky). While self-identified Democrats—particularly those embracing of the corporate Democrats who like to talk about how the Old Classic Republican Party no longer exists (meaning, the Party of Abe, Teddy, and Ike)—they are delusional. And, from the Republican Party, and for their backers, McConnell delivers.

✩✩✩ HONORABLE MENTION ✩✩✩

“Joe Rogan Experience #1368—Edward Snowden”
(Joe Rogan Experience; 10.23.2019)
The above picks belong in a separate category—they are, in part, critiques. This one is an interview. And what an interview! Host Joe Rogan welcomed whistleblower Edward Snowden, timed with his book release Permanent Record, for a discussion on how the Deep State has violated our trust.

(Next blog topic will be published just as the clock strikes midnight, Eastern Time, on Wednesday, January 1, 2020. Yes, it is a holiday thread.)

Merry Christmas 2019!

I wish readers of Progressives Chat…a  Merry  Christmas! 

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, here in 2019, are on Tuesday and Wednesday. It’s the calendar.

I recognize all people do not observe the holiday. So, I mean no disrespect. And, in such case, I wish well for people with and during the holidays.

This is a time of the year in with I like to take a little break with respect for scheduling twice-a-week blog topic entries. And it may be wise given some readers may be busy. So, this will be the only posted topic for the current week.


(Next blog topic will be Sunday, December 29, 2019, at 12:00 a.m. ET.)


I will leave this with the following Christmas-related videos (each less than a half-hour): Frosty the Snowman, the classic which was originally broadcast by CBS on December 7, 1969; A Garfield Christmas, originally broadcast by CBS on December 21, 1987; and, published to YouTube on December 21, 2019, TheBitBlock’s Josh Thomas, a video gamer, invites friends to a funny contest in “Cube Crushers—A Super Mario Christmas Game.”

Democratic U.S. House Impeaches Trump

Donald Trump became the third president impeached in United States history.

This does not mean the same thing as removal.

The Democratic-controlled U.S. House voted for impeachment on Wednesday [December 18, 2019]. 

Next up: The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate. It is likely the 45th U.S. president will receive the support from there to remain in office.

I have nothing good to say about this. It has been a waste of time. The Democratic Party Establishment, entrenched in their corrupt corporatism, and doing their best to either prevent or destroy (they want to do both) a progressive uprising, have pissed away the last three years. With the 2020 primaries coming up—and with the Democratic Party Establishment wanting to have their cake and eat it too (meaning, prevent Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard, who abstained from voting for whether to impeach Trump, from the 2020 Democratic nomination and shove through Any Corporatist Blue Will Do)—this feels like a setup for re-electing Trump. (The Democrats know damn well Trump isn’t going to get removed from office.)

I have written this around midnight on Thursday, December 19, 2019, and I will include below a video by Jamarl Thomas. (He agrees with me.) If there are many more related videos, I know readers of Progressives Chat will not shy from including them in the comments. (Thank you in advance!)

(Next blog topic will be posted on Sunday, December 22, 2019, as expected, but it will be good for the entire week. In observance of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day—which fall on Tuesday and Wednesday—I will take a break from including a second topic. So, next week, there will be just one.) 

‘Biden Parrots “Profoundly Silly” Narrative That Lesson From UK Elections Is Democrats Should Not Go “So, So Far Left”’

Link:

Biden Parrots ‘Profoundly Silly’ Narrative That Lesson From UK Elections Is Democrats Should Not Go ‘So, So Far Left’

YouTube Sucks!

Over the last couple of weeks, Google has really stepped up ads on YouTube for possibly every video I watched. This was especially so during the holiday weekend.

The ads were not just on videos with political content. They were even on videos without political content, like some video game playing. One that I enjoy watching is chuckaaconroy (YouTube — chuggaaconroy). He has a very endearing personality—very enthusiastic—with his games. I was watching him play the 2010 Nintendo Wii game Super Mario Galaxy 2. Ads were there right at the beginning. (I will post three videos at the bottom; two are from Super Mario Galaxy 2, which chuggaaconroy started publishing a month ago; one is from the Nintendo 3DS game Animal Crossing: New Leaf, released in Japan in 2012 and the U.S. in 2013, which chuggaaconroy began publishing in 2013.)

These ads are often about five minutes in length. Some ads I have come across, not just in the recent days but from months prior, are not advertisement. Some of infomercial-type content. They are inserts. I have come across, as I am sure others have, of Prager University. I have come across ones of Ben Shapiro. And those have been ads not just five minutes in duration but ones which would last around 30 to 45 minutes. (I may underestimate. Perhaps they were 50 to 60 minutes in running time.)

Google LLC has been the owner of YouTube since 2006, one year after it was founded. I thought to look into subscribing to YouTube without commercials. I forgot about this option. So, I was thinking $5 per month. Well, it is YouTube Premium (formerly Red). And it is plenty more than $5 per month. It is $11.99 per month. Call it $12 per month. For a family membership rate, it is $18 per month.

Those prices are ridiculous. They are on par with a premium-movie programming subscription from the likes of HBO, Cinemax, Starz, and Showtime. Those premium-movie programmers have costs to their programming. Content published to YouTube does not compare.

I want to see a competitor rise, catch on, and surpass Google’s YouTube.

Howard Stern Interviews Hillary Clinton

Last week was, perhaps, a surprise as Howard Stern welcomed as his guest former First Lady, ex-U.S. senator from New York, and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

I can’t say I was very receptive. In fact, I have not yet watched any of it. But, I do have the following attitude: The more Hillary Clinton speaks and puts herself out there, to expose herself, the better it is for progressives. Hillary Clinton is a gift which keeps giving—to the Republican Party and Donald Trump, yes, but also to an awakened progressive movement demanding better from the Democratic Party which is held hostage by corporatism. The politics are changing. A realignment. It is necessary.

Here are the videos, published on December 6, 2019 to YouTube, by The Howard Stern Show:

Kim Iversen: ‘Predicting The Next Democratic Nominee’

In the above video, Kim Iversen speaks to a historic pattern she observes which may determine the 2020 Democratic nomination for president of the United States.

All 50 states and District of Columbia have been participating in the two major political parties’ presidential primaries since 1976 (Democratic) and 1980 (Republican).

With exception of 1992, a Democratic pickup of the presidency to Bill Clinton (who unseated then-Republican incumbent George Bush), all general-election nominees won at least one of Iowa or New Hampshire. (Clinton came closer to prevailing in New Hampshire.)

This is recognizing Iowa and New Hampshire—the first a caucus state; the second a primary state—as the two states selected to begin the presidential primaries season because, for both the Republican and Democrats, they are well-established predictors for who will end up with a party’s nomination. (Frankly, I see Iowa and New Hampshire, specifically, as the first two chosen states as yet another way for both parties to continue exerting as much control as they can over their nominating system. By the way: In 1976, New Hampshire was not the second state scheduled. That was Mississippi.)

The point is this: Kim Iversen, as of the published date of her video [Tuesday, December 3, 2019], senses which two 2020 Democratic presidential candidates may become positioned for the nomination—and that is reason enough for me to make her video this particular blog’s topic.

✩ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩

Notice

During the remainder of this current month, December 2019, I will be scheduling the publishing of blog topics on Sundays and Thursdays, at 06:00 a.m. ET. This isn’t motivated by anything that may be ideal—Sundays/Thursdays vs. Mondays/Fridays—but this has played out, to some extent, recently. And it just so happens the upcoming Christmas Eve/Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day fall on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Prior to those mid-week holidays, I think it makes sense to schedule blogs on the Sundays of those particular weeks. So, it dawns on me to simply run this schedule throughout the month of December 2019.

Possibly Revising Election 2020 Predictions

On Sunday, November 3, 2019, four weeks prior to this publishing date, I wrote and posted a one-year-out blog topic on anticipating and predicting Election 2020. (Link: Anticipating and Predicting Election 2020.)

I opted to predict the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination will go to Massachusetts U.S. senator Elizabeth Warren.

I am no longer confident that possible nomination will happen. This is with recognition of Warren making recent campaign calculations, especially on Medicare for All, that may become the catalyst for her to not go on to win the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Warren was looking good for some time. But, during much of November, that changed. And several readers, and this includes me, have posted videos on Warren pulling away from Medicare for All. And, frankly, I have written it before and will do so once more: The Democratic Party will not win back the presidency of the United States with a nominee who does not truly support—and is not determined to deliver—Medicare for All.

The general take on who will win the nomination is commonly reduced to four people. In alphabetical order, they are: Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren. Dark horses are: Tulsi Gabbard and Andrew Yang. Others supposedly in contention, like Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, and Amy Klobuchar—and other recent candidacies, like Michael Bloomberg and Deval Patrick—are not viable. Anyone else that I did not mention are each just one more number.

I may write and post a future “Anticipating and Predicting Election 2020”—more likely with attaching the word Revised—but have not yet decided. If I do come up with such future topic, it may happen either with by the end of 2019 or in early 2020.