And while "Waste Fraud and Abuse" is usually a euphemism for canards like Welfare Queens, I would expect that we could balance the federal budget and issue every man woman and child a voucher for a solid gold house and a rocket car if we could root out more shit like this:http://www.freep.com/article/20110720/NEWS01/107200398/High-end-items-Detroit-office-bought-money-poor-people

And if we could stop duplication of services. Think about all the agencies, and even the charitable organizations that do the exact same fucking thing - most of which is about patronage, pet issues, and lack of communication or interaction between agencies and a desire to look good while "helping" the disadvantaged or general public.

Totally. The stupid Left-Right stuff is just pro wrestling for rubes and a distraction from the real pillaging.

The This American Life episode on the shale oil/fracking debate in Pennsylvania peeped me to something that I had never even thought of: That in addition to all of the other aspects of society that the Corportocracy influences or controls, they also fund much of the research and research departments at major universities which then lends that level of trustworthiness to their argument: "A study by Penn State University found that taxing or placing any sort of regulation on this sort of activity will destroy our economy"

We're on the verge of a deal, and clearly the Republicans (both the batshit wingnut Tea Party, and the hedge fund wank off corporatist elite) have won a huge victory. The language, concepts, area of discourse are all on Republican terms... they have been hugely effective in controling the process. I am watching McCain and Durbin debate on the Senate floor now... it's actually a debate, back and forth, an exchange of ideas, responding respectfully to each other's points.. it seems so retro and makes me happy and proud of our democracy and I got almost a little emotional and it's just too bad that the debate was between a moderate Republican and a conservative Republican.

1932 huge economic crisis... FDR... and strong shift to social justice solutions.
2008 huge economic crisis....BHO.... and strong capitulation to the Dark Force of atavist economic anarchic privilege.

From the left, the only benefit of this debt crisis/deal is that it MAY (depending on the trigger-provisions) push the next debt-limit vote to after 2012. There is time to regroup, but I've little faith in POTUS to have an angle to work... I still think he'll be re-elected (in large part because of either a Mormon or Stepford Wife Troglodyte Jello Mold Migraine Queen being the other choice), but there's no narrative in the wings to allow work in the second term to advance social justice goals. On the other hand things can change...

Harry, you may know more about this than me, so I'm going to toss a question at you. I suspect Yailvon Blorrsdale might have some insight here, but I want him to save his answer for something we're cooking up together.

In this book I read recently the author frequently mentions that between about 1880 and 1920, but really concentrating on the years 1890-1910, we were on the verge of a second civil war/second revolution. He doesn't delve deep into it because he's mostly talking about crime, but touches on it when talking about Sacco and Vanzetti.

But what he does say is that the true level of wealth disparity, and the open disregard for human life and human capital by the railroad and coal and oil barrons were pushing people towards radicalism such as Anarchy, and later the communist revolution in Russian emboldened American Communists to openly advocate for revolution.

I touch on it above, and I personally believe that FDR saved democracy and capitalism by putting in a social safety net. But has that same reliance, or ability to live a life that while hellish and unimaginable to most of the middle class is not exactly akin to tar paper shacks, 4 year olds picking cotton or working in/getting ground up in the machinery of factories. Is the relative comfort of poverty stanching any revolutionary fervor that would be brewing from the social justice side?

I mean, we can all make fun of the tea party and their diametrically opposed beliefs and desires, and their simpleton ways of thinking, and their furor over our President's alleged citizenship questions -- but shouldn't we somehow be pointing a finger at "Progressives" not just for failing to truly stand up for ideals, but for not being able to convince the people they're deriding that they should all be on the same side?

Is our modern life so complicated, and our communication ability so vast yet so unfocused, and has our conspicuous consumerism turned so many of us into wage slaves to our own SHIT that you can not only not design and disseminate a cohesive narrative, but that even if you could, people would shrug and say "yeah I'm pissed but I gotta go to work/my kid's baseball game/make my fantasy football draft" so I can't light any torches or carry any pitchforks today?*

I hope you can even derive the question I'm trying to ask from this disjointed post, but this subject has been on my mind recently.


*this quote/way of thinking is what Bloor told me about war protesters: I think the war is bullshit, but I can't just take the day off to march down the street about it.

Here's my honest feeling today: No, modern life is not overly complicated. Most people wake, eat, work, sleep and repeat. It's mindnumbing and because of this we're mostly numb, lazy, defeated, distracted, live in bubbles and are too selfish to really have a mass dedication to change. The progressives are huge wimps who let the aggressive, stupid(?) conservatives/right wing fanatics do whatever they want, and it pisses me off because I believe in progressive ideals. But in my heart of hearts I'm not going to do anything with that anger because the political system is so seemingly wrecked that what good could I do?

I'm retiring to Paraguay.

Be the change you want to see, Stu.

And I think you underestimate this modern world thing. For 8000 or so years of recorded human history, human beings across all cultures basically had the same existence of farming, etc. Before what? 150 years ago 98% of the world was completely fuckjng illiterate and now we're bombarded not just with ads, ideas and new technology that has fundamentally changed many things about the way the world works, the way information is spread, the way information is processed, yet somehow we're stupid and lazy?

There's entire sections of books and industries built around helping people cope with change in their work environment, but we somehow just take for granted that everyone can just automatically adapt to this newfangled shit storm of a world where everything is "easy" but it's all a huge hassle all the fucking time.

I also think we all underestimate the innate aversion of humans to change - and one of the reasons is that life is suck a hassle that all people want to do is go to work and go home but along the way they're bombarded with messages about government not working, sports leagues on strike/lock out, nuclear meltdown in Japan, and some stupid fucking movie about a fat dude who takes care or zoo animals that he troglodyte kids will want to be taken to - and how that's $50 fucking bucks.

We've pretty much gone through more fundamental change to the way the world works in 3 generations than we did the first however many thousand years of recorded human history, but I don't see why that would make communication difficult or finding common ground seem impossible.

I guess I can say this another way - people are scared of things they don't know or understand. And when they get bitter, they cling to their guns and religion. And thats a natural reaction - so when it's stoked with massive corporate money and media used to manipulate and distract - and it manifests itself via a lot of weird behavior.

Natural, maybe. Stupid, definitely.

The endless barrage of crappy and frustrating news, new tech, social media, family life, etc leads to distraction. Sitting there and sucking it all in makes us numb, lazy (in a world of instant gratification, and "oh, someone else will take care of that") and stupid. In my everyday life, no one around me cares about the overall betterment of their country, they care about making their lives comfortable, maybe making their loved ones or people they care about comfortable and surviving it all.

Politicians just want to get reelected and have power. It's grotesque. The only thing I know to do is to write my congressmen (which I do) and vote for those politicians I *think* will work on behalf of their electorate to perpetuate those values and create laws I believe in.

The flip side to that is "everything is so complicated and the world is so fucked up that I'm just going to control what I can control and fuck everything and everyone else."

Oh, and if you want to influence your congressman you need to give him money. And absent that, you should figure out if your company has a Government Affairs guy or if it is part of a larger organization that seeks to influence the industry or the local area. i.e. Does your company belong to the Chamber of Commerce locally, and does said chamber do a yearly trip to DC and can you go on it as your company's representative?

Boehner should have donned a robe and platinum blonde wig and interspersed his remarks with "WOOOH"



Awesome that he worked in "job killing tax hikes" and "job killing national default". Let's not forget what got us here, folks:

Enjoyed Jason Linkins' summary:



If you like the idea of the Sunday shows, but hate watching them because they suck, Linkins' TV Soundoff: Sunday Talking Heads is the best fucking thing on the web. Now that Frank Rich is gone, it is my go to Sunday lefty screed (and had actually replaced it before he left NYT)

Linkins is too jargon and smarmy nicknamey for me. I like straight news and or political humor, but I don't really like them together.

And I've seen that chart posted by every lefty blogger and honky Dem I know, and no one gives a fuck. Because it pretty much does what even Barry refused to do - relitigates the past. Who cares whose fault it is? The majority of Americans blame Barry and or both parties already. The real deal is we have to end the "wars" aka massive police actions and nation building exercises and cut some of these outmoded and unneeded and unwanted weapons systems. And I have some ideas on how to actually make that happen.

The most interesting thing I read today about the debt deal was about 10 year forecasts being wrong, there was never an actual 3 trillion dollar surplus to "give back" via the Bush Tax Cuts in the first place and there's not nearly as much long term structural debt as either side agrees there is because they always compare the forecasts by using different denominators. I'll link it later.

A couple of simple questions to complex situations:

1. How difficult would it be if we had sane people running our country to simply cut duplicate and wasteful programs or federal grants no one uses, et al, and how much spending would that cut from the budget? I feel like the CBO (or similar non-partisan entity) has found billions of dollars in redundant programs out there??

2. How do we get politicians to think rationally about our crumbling infrastructure and create a possible nationwide public transport or high-speed rail. I've never used it, but assume that AmTrak is a shit-show. But, I don't trust private industry to create any safe or reliable high-speed rail either.

1. It's impossible because the money that goes to YOUR district is wasted expense and probably being stolen or given to undesirable elements, while the money that goes to MY district is used for vital economic development. (Did you come up with this on your own or did you read my first post on this page?)

2. Is an interesting thought exercise. If you remember the thread on this I don't really think it will work, especially in the south because of the stigma of public transportation. You can chart the decline of public bus systems in southern towns starting with the day the Montgomery boycott ended and buses were integrated. But, if you reverse the logic of the above question, i think you could do it by making enough jobs, and cloaking it under the guise of it being private industry driven, not government driven.

I guess I failed to draw a parallel.

I am thinking of a reasoned and hopeful response to all this (which, in some ways, will respond to BaronSenatorLoogar's earnest, brotherly question about.."wherefore, social justice now???") but for the present moment by history and age cause me to suggest:

This line of thinking crosses my mind from time to time. Usually when I go to check my email on Yahoo and there is some new article about something going on in Washington and then come the comments. Literally about 3 posts in and there is something about the "goddamn Republicans" or "HOW'S THAT HOPEY CHANGEY THING WORKING OUT", and there are 5000 posts of ill-informed drivel.

Marc Maron was on Maher a couple weeks ago and he had a pretty good point. He was saying that these people that completely lose their minds with rage maybe just angry people. Politics just gives them an outlet for their rage and whatever is arleady inside them. Most of the crap these people spew accomplishes nothing.

I've said it before on here but if anyone is really wanting to exact change, do it in your own backyard. Something that is tangible and you can see the results. As someone who is now about 9 months at a new gig with a non-prof I see what even the smallest efforts can yield with regards to doing something positive every single day.

I don't advocate sticking ones head in the sand on a large scale but I do believe everything starts locally. Unfortunately we've come to a point where most of the country believe nothing they do or say matters one bit to Washington. This plays out in every election when 50% +/- stay home.

Repub Dreier from Cali essentially used the same numbers but switched parties when identifying what "got us here" this morning on the Take Away.

I saw the Maron appearance as well. He has a point.

What has lead us down the path of "Unfortunately we've come to a point where most of the country believe nothing they do or say matters one bit to Washington"? Watching from the sidelines I see two inept parties battling it out. We had a Democrat house and senate and nothing really happened (heathcare bill was passed, but it still has corporate welfare built-in). Is there somewhere online I can see in a clear, concise layout what the last two Congresses and Obama have actually accomplished? That's what needs to be out there, to combat the fact-hating left and right.

Ok, to start with, this is part of our enormous problem... this assumption that "both sides" have equal crazies, have equal distortion of the facts... it underlies the Orwellian "dept of Peace militarism" of Fox's "Fair and Balanced." I think the think tanks of the right have, with brilliant intention, have created this "let's be fair" and understand that any analysis "IS NOT TRUE" but rather only POSITIONAL. A case in point: Raising taxes kills job creation, lowering taxes creates jobs. There is a huge body of research that demonstrates this in not true: empirically it's not true. But we only view this refutation a "political talking point." And so "compromise" is the change the our president, bless his neo-liberal corporatist heart, brings us. "We are not a red country or a blue country we are ONE country"." Caveat emptor. And that one country is a place where truth is positional, relative, and not connected to the principles of justice.

Harry's exactly correct - and his post points to one of the major culprits of this whole mess: the dissemination of the news. As much as the right-tards like to shout about the "leftist media", the fact is the news is generally delivered through corporate entities that benefit from repug policies. So while the media could answer Harry's point quite directly by simply reporting facts, it chooses to ignore that duty and instead offers up fact vs. lie as if they're simply two equally legitimate sides to an argument.

I've actually come to the realization that I don't understand American politics at all, because I just don't see how anyone with a conscience and the ability to reason could ever stand under the present-day banner of Republican. That party is clearly prepared to lay waste to your entire country in an effort to create enormous wealth for an infinitesimally tiny number of humans, and yet around 50% of the population is prepared to vote for them. I don't get it. I'll never get it. It's not even fun to watch from a distance anymore - it's just disheartening.

yeah i dont get it either. of course, 50% of the population is not voting republican. maybe 50% of those that actually muster up enough energy to get off the couch and actually vote. probably, what, 25 or 30% of the population is actually voting republican? still, thats a hell of a lot of country folk, old people, and upper middle class suburban types. i saw a woman today ACTUALLY READING a tim pawlenty book. wow.

the thing that concerns me more is that there is no real opposition, and those that are pushing an real progressive/liberal agenda are demonized as crackpots, when they would have been fairly mainstream democrats a few decades ago. but someone in the middle, like obama, is argued to be a socialist. i find myself to the right of a lot of people i run into in Portland...but I am still several notches to the left of the democrats in washington.

fuck it

And we've bought this false paradigm of "the Independent middle" that must be won to win national elections, and so the Left triangulates to the ephemeral Center and stands for nothing. Compromise. There is no One Kind of Independent, there is no one, Essentialist "Independent Middle." What if there are some who don't vote, some Independents, some of the Libertarian right, some seniors and even a middle class who are unnerved by the last decade... that can be persuaded that movements of Justice are the right thing for our country. The demographic shift to Brown from White and Black could change everything in 20 years.

And to the gentleman from British Colombia, don't give up on us babe... our tradition decoupled Kings and God.

We need billionaires to fund think tanks to define the talking points and communication strategies that can match the success of the Extreme Right. (Or simply reach back into our own Progressive history and remember how our powerful movements were successful in the past... women's suffrage and feminism, civil rights, social security ). "Investment in our future" said over and over again and connected to every progressive proposal... is a great place to start. Connecting government spending to investment and being clear about "ROI" over and over again.

It's all been about losing the struggles around communicative action in the public sphere. "What's wrong with Kansas " is that our ideas are vaporized in the more effective sound gardens of Power, Wealth and Privilege. It's got to be different...and soon.

And one of those great principles that we are weak to protect and put forward is.... Justice. The Right has, with great success, driven Liberty into the American consciousness ("taxes" and "government in general" are enemies of Liberty - and that there are a view inconsistencies - right to choose, marriage equality, drugs - haven't impeded the connection). But like Justice needs mercy, Liberty needs Justice.... and I believe with all my heart that the American people will respond to the call for Justice, if they can hear it amongst the flak and static of the Masters of Opression and War... and make no mistake those Masters are now in control.

me too




Why can't the Dems (who are now the moderates) take what the GOP does really, really fucking well - talking points, manipulating dialogue towards their ideologies and getting middle Americans to believe this is what they want - and talk common sense to Americans who have been totally duped by GOP/TeaParty media barrage to get them to act on what is best for the country? Is Obama completely inept at this? We'll see as the 2012 election really gets going. The divisiveness that has us at a political stalemate and cultural polarization can't be solved by compromise when compromise means bending to politicians who only care about reelection, power and making their rich supporters ever richer at the cost of over *85% of Americans. Where are those 85%?? Are they, as I said yesterday really numb, lazy and too self-involved to realize they're being duped?

*taking into account the top 15% of Americans are probably upper-middle class ($200k+ a year?) to billionaires