#( first born. / && dom brennan. )

[findmyblood]

tags, pt. 8 – connections

[democratsunited-blog]

The Democratic Party’s Alt-LeftThe American Spectator

https://uniteddemocrats.net/?p=7738

The Democratic Party’s Alt-LeftThe American Spectator

Liberal reporters sprinted to the nation’s capital with their cameras this weekend in desperate hopes of capturing an “alt-right” uprising. The larger the smattering of white nationalists, the better for smearing Republicans and the Trump administration.

Alas, they were disappointed.

“Approximately two dozen white nationalists rallied in the nation’s capital on Sunday, one year after clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia,” lamented CNN. “The showing from ‘Unite the Right 2’ participants fell far short of the hundreds that organizer Jason Kessler was expecting.”

The liberal media didn’t get the “alt-right” fireworks it wanted. But in the meantime, liberals face an alt-left uprising within their beloved Democratic Party, and it doesn’t seem to disappoint them one bit.

Forget about two dozen angry white nationalists in Washington. They literally couldn’t fill two 15-passenger Ford vans. But how about the 40,000-plus members of the Democratic Socialists of America, the self-proclaimed largest socialist organization in the country? Not only is the DSA boasting a surge in membership under a Trump presidency, but it’s running candidates across the nation on the Democratic Party ticket. Traditional Democrats are losing in primaries to DSA “democratic socialists” running as Democrats.

The Democratic Party has an alt-left problem, and no one at CNN seems to care.

The DSA has been aggressively pushing its members to run as Democrats, and they’re winning. Here are three that embody what’s going on: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Summer Lee, and Sara Innamorato.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is, of course, the poster-girl for the new zeitgeist. That unclean spirit is the wind of “democratic socialism,” which is the rage among the Trump “resistance.” But Ocasio-Cortez isn’t the only young woman scoring big in the Democratic Party for the DSA. Two others are here in my backyard of Western Pennsylvania, Summer Lee and Sara Innamorato, who defeated longtime state reps Paul and Dom Costa. The Costas (they are cousins) were classic Western Pennsylvania Democrats, expected to hold their seats for life, until they were beat soundly in May in the primary by Lee and Innamorato, both of which now run unopposed in the general election and will glide into the state house as elected socialists. Well, actually, as “democratic socialists” who ran as Democrats.

Here are three “young progressive women,” as an excited New York Times describes them, that are on the march.

Lee and Innamorato, like Ocasio-Cortez, were openly backed by the DSA, and did not run from that endorsement. Quite the contrary. Both are members of the Pittsburgh chapter of the DSA.

“I hope [the primary election] emboldens some secret progressives in elected office,” says Innamorato. “I hope they stop thinking, ‘I will get voted out if I don’t vote for this abortion ban.’ They can’t use that excuse any more. [The election] says that this is possible, you can run on progressive platforms, you can be a DSA member.”

The DSA certainly doesn’t dodge the socialist label, even as it lamely tries to spoon the collectivist gruel in a more palatable way to oblivious Millennials: “We believe that the workers and consumers who are affected by economic institutions should own and control them.”

It’s the same old slop, even as the DSA “constitution” tries to dress up the standard socialist boilerplate, calling for (to note just one example) a “humane social order based on popular control of resources and production, economic planning, equitable distribution, feminism, racial equality and non-oppressive relationships.”

A sprinkling of economic socialism here, some classical Marxism there, and a little cultural Marxism, too.

Sure, guys. Go for it.

Even then, what the likes of Ocasio-Cortez and Lee and Innamorato and their advocates don’t understand is that they’re not the first “democratic socialists” or “socialist democrats.” Plenty of hardcore communists shared the label. Take the troika of Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin: Their Soviet Communist Party was originally the Russian Social Democratic Party, also known as (or variously called or translated as) the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party or the Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party. A key name change came in 1903, at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, starting in Brussels and ending in London, where Lenin seized the name “Bolsheviks” (meaning “Majority”) for his faction, whereas his opponents became the “Mensheviks” (or “Minority”).

They weren’t the only pioneering “social democrats” or “democratic socialists.” Consider Herbert Marcuse, the godfather of cultural Marxism, which today is prevalent in our universities under the deceptive label of “critical theory.” Marcuse first considered himself a “democratic socialist.” He was the most popular theorist of the Frankfurt School and became a guru to the 1960s New Left. The Weather Underground cadre read and loved Marcuse, as did America’s most famous female comrade, Angela Davis, who considered Marcuse her mentor. As readers here know, Davis in January 2017 held forth before a sea of clueless girls in pink hats fashioned after their genitalia at the Women’s March in Washington. There, comrade Angela spoke not of Marx and Lenin and Trotsky (she’s not stupid), but of gay rights, immigrant rights, the rights of flora and fauna, and on and on, while the ignorant young ladies screamed their approval.

Oh, and comrade Angela is well-known to Trump nemesis John Brennan: Brennan, Obama’s CIA director, voted for the Communist Party USA presidential ticket of Gus Hall and Angela Davis.

Of course, this unsavory history is likely unknown to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was born in October 1989, as the Berlin Wall was about to fall. Alexandria was nursing at her mother’s breast as the wall was being pick-axed by jubilant East Berliners. As for Summer Lee and Sara Innamorato, they were toddlers in bouncer-seats. None of them remember the wonders of what Brezhnev and boys hailed as “real socialism” in their delightful Communist Bloc, and their government schools and lousy colleges surely taught them nothing of it.

If told that history now, Ocasio-Cortez and Lee and Innamorato might object that they’re a happier brand of “democratic socialist,” perhaps more along the lines of what Hugo Chavez once hailed as “21st century socialism.” Of course, when one examines the actual results, “21st century socialism” smells a lot like 20th century communism. The lines and shortages and lack of deodorant and toilet paper are just as bad in Venezuela in 2018 as they were in Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Nonetheless, this “democratic socialist” bunkum is having success in America today, especially among Millennials brainwashed by their universities. And most striking, it’s making headway within one of this nation’s two dominant political parties.

It is apparently a new day for the Democratic Party. Maybe Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters and friends can take a page from the old troika of Lenin and Trotsky and Stalin, a page from the new troika of Ocasio-Cortez and Lee and Innamorato, and do a name change. Maybe the “Democratic Party” could become the “Democratic Socialist Party.”

These three women seem game for that. “My name is Sara Innamorato,” says one of the new troika at her campaign website. “I am a Democrat.”

Yes, and she’s a Democratic Socialist.

Is there really much of a difference nowadays?

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[365footballorg-blog]

Terrors and Bairns lead Championship shake-up

Dundee United indicated they mean business as the summer transfer window opened and manager Csaba Laszlo appears to have been given funding designed to ensure they do not spend a fourth season in the Scottish Championship.

The Romania-born Hungarian has utilised his knowledge of football on the Continent to secure goalkeepers from the top flight in Switzerland and Czech Republic.

He also moved quickly to sign four players from their potential title rivals and that has been a theme of the summer, with players switching jerseys between Championship clubs.

Willo Flood looked likely to be in opposition to United following his Tannadice release only to leave Dunfermline Athletic after just nine days, the Irish midfielder using a clause in his contract to take up a lucrative deal with Bali United in Indonesia instead.

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The Pars’ other headline-grabbing business was bringing the Longridge brothers together for the first time in their senior careers – forward Louis switching from Falkirk and his defender brother, Jackson, leaving promoted Livingston.

Like the younger Longridge, midfielder Josh Mullin and centre-half Gregor Buchanan also turned down the chance to stay with the Premiership-bound West Lothian outfit, joining Ross County and Greenock Morton respectively.

Falkirk manager Paul Hartley has shown his determination not to flirt with relegation again and among his signings are four players with international experience – Lithuanian striker Deimantas Petravicius, from Motherwell, Northern Ireland midfielder Paul Paton, previously of Plymouth Argyle, Cyprus midfielder Dimitris Froxylias, who left Dumbarton, and Scotland Under-21 midfielder Ruben Sammut on loan from Chelsea.

Promoted part-timers Alloa Athletic have brought with them the second top scorer in League One last season – Alan Trouten from Albion Rovers – while third-tier champions Ayr United have been slowest off the mark in making additions to their squad.

Premiership ins and outs[1]

League One ins and outs[2]

League Two ins and outs[3]

Championship ins and outs – January 2018[4]

Alloa Athletic

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Manager: Jim Goodwin

Last season: 3rd in League One

In: Alan Trouten, midfielder (Albion Rovers); Greig Spence, forward (Raith Rovers); Adam Brown, midfielder (Airdrieonians); David Galt, midfielder (Queen’s Park).

Out: Daryll Meggatt, defender (East Fife); Alan Cook, midfielder (Stenhousemuir, loan to permanent); Kris Renton, forward (Cowdenbeath); John Cunningham, forward (Albion Rovers); Craig Malcolm, defender (East Kilbride); Garry Fleming, forward; Frank McKeown, defender; Ryan Hoggan, defender; Adam Martin, forward; Dylan Monaghan, midfielder. Loan ended: Jamie McCart, defender (Celtic); Callum Crane, defender (Hibernian); Jordan Kirkpatrick, midfielder (St Mirren); Ross Stewart, forward (St Mirren); Callum Smith, forward (Dunfermline Athletic).

Ayr United

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Manager: Ian McCall

Last season: 1st in League One

In: Daniel Harvie, defender (Aberdeen).

Out: Paddy Boyle, defender (Peterhead); Lyle Avci, goalkeeper (Stranraer); Craig Reid, defender; David Waite, defender; Jordan Hart, goalkeeper. Loan ended: Jack Ruddy, goalkeeper (Wolverhampton Wanderers).

Dundee United

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Manager: Csaba Laszlo

Last season: 3rd

In: Christoph Rabitsch, midfielder (Wolfsberger); Benjamin Siegrist, goalkeeper (Vysocina Jihlava); Frederic Frans, defender (Lierse); Matej Rakovan, goalkeeper (Vaduz); Craig Curran, forward (Ross County); Callum Booth, defender (Partick Thistle); Nicky Clark, forward (Dunfermline Athletic); Fraser Aird, midfielder (Dunfermline Athletic); Sam Wardrop, defender (Celtic).

Out: Willo Flood, midfielder (Dunfermline Athletic); Mark Durnan, defender (Dunfermline Athletic); Jordie Briels, midfielder (Oss); Grant Gillespie, midfielder (Raith Rovers); Brett Long, goalkeeper (East Fife); Cammy Ballantyne, defender (Dumbarton); Graham Taylor, midfielder (Edinburgh City, loan to permanent); Scott McDonald, forward; Bilel Mohsni, defender; Scott Fraser, midfielder; Paul Quinn, defender; Emil Lyng, forward; Logan Martin, midfielder; Dominic McMeekin, midfielder; Logan Martin, midfielder. Loan ended: Anthony Ralston, defender (Celtic); Sam Stanton, midfielder (Hibernian); Harry Lewis, goalkeeper (Southampton); Thomas Mikkelsen, forward (Ross County); Brandon Mason, defender (Watford); Craig Slater, midfielder (Colchester United).

Dunfermline Athletic

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Manager: Allan Johnston

Last season: 4th

In: Jackson Longridge, defender (Livingston); Louis Longridge, forward (Falkirk); Danny Devine, defender (Partick Thistle); Mark Durnan, defender (Dundee United); Joe Thomson, midfielder (Celtic); Tom Beadling, defender (Sunderland, loan to permanent); Aidan Connolly, midfielder (York City).

Out: Willo Flood, midfielder (Bali United after arrival from Dundee United); Dean Shiels, midfielder (Derry City); Nicky Clark, forward (Dundee United); Fraser Aird, midfielder (Dundee United); Callum Morris, defender (Ross County); Declan McManus, forward (Ross County); Conner Duthie, midfielder (Stenhousemuir); Joe Cardle, midfielder; Nathaniel Wedderburn, midfielder; Jean-Yves M’voto, defender; Michael Paton, midfielder; Jason Talbot, defender; Scott Lochhead, midfielder; Aaron Splaine, midfielder. Loan ended: James Vincent, midfielder (Dundee); Daniel Armstrong, midfielder (Wolverhampton Wanderers).

Falkirk

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Manager: Paul Hartley

Last season: 8th

In: Deimantas Petravicius, forward (Motherwell); Leo Fasan, goalkeeper (Kilmarnock); Dennon Lewis, midfielder (Watford); Tom Dallison, defender (Brighton & Hove Albion); Paul Paton, midfielder (Plymouth Argyle); Dimitris Froxylias, midfielder (Dumbarton); Tom Owen-Evans, midfielder (Newport County, undisclosed); Patrick Brough, defender (Morecambe); Scott Harrison, defender (Hartlepool United). Loan: Ruben Sammut, midfielder (Chelsea); Dan Turner, forward (Port Vale).

Out: Craig Sibbald, midfielder (Livingston); Tom Taiwo, midfielder (Hamilton Academical); Cameron Blues, midfielder (Livingston); Louis Longridge, forward (Dunfermline Athletic); Peter Grant, defender (Plymouth Argyle); Robbie Thomson, goalkeeper (Raith Rovers); Rory Loy, forward (Dumbarton); Sean Welsh, midfielder; Paul Watson, defender. Loan ended: Alex Jukubiak, forward (Watford); Conor Hazard, goalkeeper (Celtic); Ryan Blair, midfielder (Swansea City); Andrew Nelson, forward (Sunderland); Reghan Tumilty, midfielder (Ross County).

Greenock Morton

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Manager: Ray McKinnon

Last season: 7th

In: Charlie Telfer, midfielder (Almere City); Ryan Skully, goalkeeper (Partick Thistle); Gregor Buchanan, defender (Livingston); Jim McAlister, midfielder (Blackpool); Danny Johnstone, forward (Colchester United). Loan: Ross MacLean, forward (Motherwell).

Out: Jim Duffy, manager; Ricki Lamie, defender (Livingston); Thomas O’Ware, defender (Partick Thistle); Gary Harkins, midfielder (Queen of the South); Ross Forbes, defender (Dumbarton); Conor Brennan, goalkeeper (Brechin City); Jamie McGowan, goalkeeper (Troon); Michael Doyle, defender; Luca Gasparotto, defender; Andy Murdoch, midfielder; Mark Russell, defender. Loan ended: Frank Ross, midfielder (Aberdeen); Gary Fraser, midfielder (Partick Thistle); John Baird, forward (Inverness Caledonian Thistle).

Inverness Caledonian Thistle

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Manager: John Robertson

Last season: 5th

In: Jamie McCart, defender (Celtic); Angus Beith, midfielder (Heart of Midlothian, player swap); Tom Walsh, midfielder (Dumbarton); Shaun Rooney, defender (Queen of the South); Jordan White, forward (Barrow).

Out: Jake Mulraney, midfielder (Heart of Midlothian); Iain Vigurs, midfielder (Ross County); Gary Warren, defender (Yeovil Town); John Baird, forward (Forfar Athletic); Collin Seedorf, defender; Connor Bell, forward.

Partick Thistle

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Manager: Alan Archibald

Last season: 11th in Premiership

In: Cammy Bell, goalkeeper (Hibernian); Thomas O’Ware, defender (Greenock Morton); Sean McGinty, defender (Torquay United); Aaron Lennox, goalkeeper (Raith Rovers).

Out: Ryan Edwards, midfielder (Heart of Midlothian); Paul McGinn, defender (St Mirren); Danny Devine, defender (Dunfermline Athletic); Callum Booth, defender (Dundee United); Ryan Scully, goalkeeper (Greenock Morton); Gary Fraser, midfielder (Forfar Athletic); Mark Lamont, midfielder (Clyde, loan to permanent); Tomas Cerny, goalkeeper; Abdul Osman, midfielder; Steven Lawless, midfielder; Martin Woods, midfielder; Mustapha Dumbuya, defender; Kevin Nisbet, forward; Neil McLaughlin, forward. Loan ended: Conor Sammon, forward (Heart of Midlothian): Baily Cargill, defender (Bournemouth).

Queen of the South

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Manager: Gary Naysmith

Last season: 6th

In: Gary Harkins, midfielder (Greenock Morton); Josh Todd, midfielder (St Mirren, loan to permanent).

Out: Shaun Rooney, defender (Inverness Caledonian Thistle); John Rankin, midfielder (Clyde); Derek Lyle, forward; Dan Carmichael, midfielder; Jesse Akubuine, midfielder; Jordan Marshall, defender. Loan ended: Dom Thomas, midfielder (Kilmarnock); Myles Beerman, defender (Rangers); Nikolay Todorov, forward (Heart of Midlothian); Kyle Cameron, defender (Newcastle United); Joe Thomson, midfielder (Celtic); Curtis Lyle, goalkeeper (Kilmarnock); Josh Todd, midfielder (St Mirren).

Ross County

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Managers: Steven Ferguson and Stuart Kettlewell

Last season: 12th in Premiership

In: Keith Watson, defender (St Johnstone); Jamie Lindsay, midfielder (Celtic, loan to permanent); Harry Paton, midfielder (Heart of Midlothian); Stelios Demetriou, defender (St Mirren); Iain Vigurs, midfielder (Inverness Caledonian Thistle); Callum Morris, defender (Dunfermline Athletic); Declan McManus, forward (Dunfermline Athletic); Josh Mullin, midfielder (Livingston).

Out: Christopher Routis, defender (Servette); Jason Naismith, defender (Peterborough United, undisclosed); Thomas Mikkelsen, forward (Breidablik); Craig Curran, forward (Dundee United); Andrew Davies, defender (Hartlepool United); Blair Malcolm, midfielder (Cowdenbeath, loan to permanent); David N’Gog, forward; Alex Schalk, forward; Tim Chow, midfielder; Aaron McCarey, goalkeeper; Reghan Tumilty, midfielder; Mark Fodden, goalkeeper. Loan ended: Harry Souttar, defender (Stoke City); Greg Tansey, midfielder (Aberdeen); Max Melbourne, defender (West Bromwich Albion); Mattias Kait, midfielder (Fulham).

References

^ Premiership ins and outs (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ League One ins and outs (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ League Two ins and outs (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ Championship ins and outs – January 2018 (www.bbc.co.uk)

BBC Sport – Scottish

Terrors and Bairns lead Championship shake-up was originally published on 365 Football