DUmmies flee DU3, head for the LUnie Bin!

In yesterday's DUFU, we showed you how--suddenly, over the weekend--Head DUmmie Skinner unveiled the new and improved DU3, with its increased ad space (and thus harder-to-read format, unless you pay extra for the "classic" look) and its "hosts" and "juries" and heavyhanded rules. This move did not sit too well, to say the least, with a number of the longtime DUmmies. But what will they do? Will they just sit outside and grumble and complain? Will they, after a suitable pout, reluctantly come inside and be good little DUmmies? Or will they finally have had enough and go elsewhere? Remember, even before DU3, many of the DUmmies were mad because they thought DUmmieland wasn't far-left enough.

Well, the answer for some of the disgruntled DUmmies is to go elsewhere. And where are they going? To the LUnie Bin! The "LUnie Bin" is what I am calling "Left Underground," a prog blog that fancies itself farther far-left than DU (hard to imagine, but that's what they think). And its membership largely consists of people who have "Left Underground," i.e., they left Democratic Underground.

The LUnie Bin is of more recent vintage than DUmmieland, having been established earlier this year. But just in the last few days, coinciding with Skinner's switchover to DU3, LU has experienced a sudden growth spurt. There has been an influx of DUmbflux.

After starting at LU's HOME PAGE, we will read the accounts of refugees who have rowed away from Skins's Island and landed in the LUnie Bin, mostly from this FORUM, "Member Introductions," and this THREAD, "Gee, I wonder what prompted the sudden growth at leftunderground?" and this THREAD, "Who here came from Democratic Underground and why?"

So say hello to the LUnies! We've had the DUmmies, the KOmmies, the HUffies, and the OWSies. Now we can add the LUnies to the list. Whether they will have any staying power or not, who knows? But for now, we'll take a look. The remarx of the LUnies are in Super-Bolshevik Red, while the commentary of your humble guest correspondent, Charles Henrickson--predicting that, while the LUnie Bin may claim some, most of the disgruntled DUmmies will sooner or later make the move to $kimmer's Island of Misfit Noise--is in the [brackets]:

WELCOME TO OUR COMMUNITY!

[Welcome to the LUnie Bin!]

Who Are We? A community for progressives and liberals to discuss "stuff".

[Who Are We? The LUnar-American Community.]



The goal is to promote free and open discussion. The goal is not to impose countless rules and regulations. . . . You do not need to support a specific candidate or political party to be welcome here.

[These are slams, of course, against Herr Skinner and DUesland DUesland Über Alles.]

Skinner and his lot of Obama apologists can kiss my liberal @ss.

[You wish, benburch. (No, it's not the real benburch. But we have a certain benburch joke quota to fulfill, and this seemed like a likely candidate.)]

Welcome to the refugee camp.

[Hey, look! It's our old friend IndianaGreen! I thought you had moved to Cuba or something.]

Don't you feel liberated like the first childhood day of summer vacation. . .no more rules under the watchful Miss DU Goody-two-shoes?

[Principal Skinner is now Miss DU Goody-two-shoes. Nice.]

DU makes me crazy. The DLC makes me crazy. To be frank, the Democratic Party makes me crazy.

[You're LUnie!]

I think those in the Democratic Party/Democratic Underground are just trying to save their jobs - psychophants all.

["Psychophants"! You win the Unintentionally FUnnie Typo of the Day Award!]

I think [Obama] does care about being re-elected. . . . House staff galore, chefs, pastry chefs, physicians always at hand, bodyguards, gardeners, Air Force One, the Beast limousine, the Beast bus, getting the Jones Brothers to entertain his kids and Paul McCartney to sing"Michele" to his wife, and even 100 professional decorators flown in from all over the country to decorate his and Biden's house for the holidays, the adoration of the show business world and millions of Democrats, and on and on. If there's an afterlife, Tutankhamen and Cleopatra are eating their Ptolemaic hearts out with envy, while Louis Quatorze and Marie Antoinette are wailing, "Versailles, c'est merde. Gateau, c'est merde. I want to be POTUS, merci beaucoup."

[Let them eat peas!]

I used to live over at DU. . . . I went to sleep in Bedford Falls and woke up in Potterville.

[It's an Underground Life.]

Welcome to the village on the Left Bank.

[Left Bank it!]

It's great to be here where we don't have to worry about what we say about the Pres.

[Here you can get in touch with your Inner Racist and blast away at Obama! (Isn't the reason anybody ever criticzes Obama is because they're racist? Or does that only work if you're conservative?)]

I have ALWAYS been suspicious of DU why, Follow the Money. . . . I would not be surprised that the DLC is funding and or now invested in DU3.

[Follow the Money. That's what $kimmer does.]

That jury system pisses me off.

[It pissed you right off the island.]

Good riddance to that sh*thole!

[Hail, the new sh*thole!]

$kammer is cute with only allowing classic view for those that have a star.

[Would you like to swing on a star? That'll be $42, please.]

I got my DU star, , now it feels like a tattoo I got on a dare. Yes, this is the actual star of shame.

[Star of blunder, star of blight, star that's loyal to the Right. . . .]

The new Du3 has led many to join up. Everything was so different before it all changed.....

[DU3: The DU When Everything Finally Changed.]

DU3 is dead to me. Period.

[DU3 is DOA.]

The owners turned The DU into a drama queen sh*thole. I believe that Skinner is taking money from the Democratic party, or the White house itself. That is why they changed their donation system. They don't need donations to keep afloat like they did previously. F*** you skinner you egotistical right wing sh*thead. You sold your members out to the DLC to line your pockets.

[I predict that ex-DUmmie/new-LUnie niceypoo will NOT be returning to Skins's Island.]

I support the dream,
DU supports the team.
The reason for the team is the dream,
so if you support the team,
when the team ignores the dream,
then you are no longer you.
You are not quite what you seem.

["You cannot write," so I scream.]

I'm new from DU today. . . . DU3 was the straw that broke the camel's back. I didn't consider DU2 to be broken and so DU3 is like New Coke. . . .

[DU3 is the straw that stirred the New Coke that passed through the eye of the needless.]

I'm here from Democratic Underground. My name there was Readmoreoften. . . . My name here is Marvel Dobbs, after the wife of the Trotskyist Teamster Union Leader, Farrell Dobbs.

[If you marry DUmmie FUnnies Leader PJ-Comix, that would make you Marvel Comix.]

I have read on other forums that December is usually a time for DU purges of liberals.

[He's makin' a list, checkin' it twice,
Gonna find out who's naughty or nice,
Skinner's claws are comin' to town . . .]

There were a couple of "last straws" for me. I was there since May of 2001, often making substantial donations (like a fool, as it turns out). The new-and-improved DU3 struck me as being a way to let Skinner's Pets run the asylum and the fee structures seemed to be a method of gouging the faithful (some animals are more equal than others).

[Our DUmmie Ant Farm has turned into Animal Farm.]

Going from "contribute what you can afford to avoid a few ads" to "contribute $42/year or you will be assaulted with blinking ads everywhere you look" -- and having this presented as a improvement ("hurrah, no more fund drives!"). Then DU3, whose only purpose is to make room for more ads from what I can tell.

[Make Room for Addy!]

I didn't leave DU...but the fit is pretty uncomfortable for me. I was invited here and figured I would give it a whirl! ...from a nameless Horse with a new name

[LUnie poli_wonk, are you . . . could you be . . . the DUmmie Horse with no Name??]

[And now, finally, on another LU thread, someone asks:]

What do you all think about the Occupy movement?

[And someone responds:]

I find myself being excited about it, and thinking that this is the only hope on the horizon. However, as usual, there isn't much attention to or knowlege about poverty, and I have come to the point where that is my line in the sand. I know it varies by location.... apparently, Fresno Occupy is more involved with homelessness, but many consider their involvement to be limited to camping and handing out food to poor and homeless people. There is much more to poverty than that... as I keep saying, Charity won't ever solve poverty....NEVER. The Occupy in my area has even been hostile to homeless people, so there is no way I would consider involvement. Occupy can either be an integrative movement of middleclass AND poor people, or it can serve to further isolate poor people. The choice is up top the middleclass Occupiers.... and that isn't just financial... it is a mindset. The future remains to be seen.

[The turning-every-thread-into-a-guilt-trip . . . the "How come you liberals aren't doing more about poverty?" . . . the "I want more than just your charity, I want you to fully subsidize my lifestyle" . . . Yes, it could only be one person. Ladies and gentlemen, now posting from the back of her Buick in Denver, it's . . . Bobbolink! Yes, Bobo the Hobo, right here on our stage! Let's give her a big handout! . . . Why, it's like Old Homeless Week here at the LUnie Bin!]