If Donald Trump knew anything about history he'd be aiming so much higher than merely reversing Barack Obama's executive orders. Think how he'd please his supporters and enablers if he revoked the Emancipation Proclamation, say, or gave Alaska back to the Russians.
You're Not Thinking Big Enough
On Us
The problems we face as a nation are much bigger than, as most Democrats see it, "this horrible Republican President and Congress."
Distorted spending decisions, selective application of free market economic policies and militarized foreign policy pursued by both parties over the last 30+ years are what fueled the anger that permitted "this horrible Republican President" to ascend, but it is the permanent conservative majority in Congress, made up of both Republicans and Democrats, that has sent this country into its long, slow decline.
The one positive of the Donald Trump presidency is that it has ripped the happy face off the deadly fiction of American exceptionalism.
Electing in 2020 another personable and integrous but unimpassioned abettor of the best and the brightest, such as Barack Obama, won't be nearly up to the job of bringing about the fundamental changes needed (we mustn't allow ourselves to forget that the number of poor and the number of wars increased under the last president). It will require a radicalized congress and an aggressively pro-change executive to fix what ails us, to get us back on the difficult path toward economic and social justice. We must either accomplish a radical course correction or resign ourselves to further decline.
“Well, Doctor," Ben Franklin was asked outside Independence Hall on the final day of deliberations, "what have we got -- a Republic or a Monarchy?”
“A Republic," he replied, "if you can keep it.”
It's on us to keep it.
Extra credit:
>>Thirty years ago, the old deal that held US society together started to unwind, with social cohesion sacrificed to greed. Was it an inevitable process – or was it engineered by self-interested elites?: Decline and fall: how American society unravelled by George Packer (The Guardian)
>>Domestic and global trends suggest that in 2025, now just 8 years from now, the American century could all be over except for the shouting: The Decline and Fall of the American Empire by Alfred W. McCoy (Tom Dispatch)
>>Austerity is riskier than stimulus. The Big Question on the Economy: Is This Really Full Employment? by J.W. Mason (Roosevelt Institute)
>>What went wrong and what comes next?: Capitalism in Crisis by Mark Blyth (Foreign Affairs) >>Putting community needs at the center of society rather than those of the individual: An Economic Alternative to Exploitative Free Market Capitalism by Thomas Hedges (Truthdig)
Distorted spending decisions, selective application of free market economic policies and militarized foreign policy pursued by both parties over the last 30+ years are what fueled the anger that permitted "this horrible Republican President" to ascend, but it is the permanent conservative majority in Congress, made up of both Republicans and Democrats, that has sent this country into its long, slow decline.
The one positive of the Donald Trump presidency is that it has ripped the happy face off the deadly fiction of American exceptionalism.
Electing in 2020 another personable and integrous but unimpassioned abettor of the best and the brightest, such as Barack Obama, won't be nearly up to the job of bringing about the fundamental changes needed (we mustn't allow ourselves to forget that the number of poor and the number of wars increased under the last president). It will require a radicalized congress and an aggressively pro-change executive to fix what ails us, to get us back on the difficult path toward economic and social justice. We must either accomplish a radical course correction or resign ourselves to further decline.
“Well, Doctor," Ben Franklin was asked outside Independence Hall on the final day of deliberations, "what have we got -- a Republic or a Monarchy?”
“A Republic," he replied, "if you can keep it.”
It's on us to keep it.
Extra credit:
>>Thirty years ago, the old deal that held US society together started to unwind, with social cohesion sacrificed to greed. Was it an inevitable process – or was it engineered by self-interested elites?: Decline and fall: how American society unravelled by George Packer (The Guardian)
>>Domestic and global trends suggest that in 2025, now just 8 years from now, the American century could all be over except for the shouting: The Decline and Fall of the American Empire by Alfred W. McCoy (Tom Dispatch)
>>Austerity is riskier than stimulus. The Big Question on the Economy: Is This Really Full Employment? by J.W. Mason (Roosevelt Institute)
>>What went wrong and what comes next?: Capitalism in Crisis by Mark Blyth (Foreign Affairs) >>Putting community needs at the center of society rather than those of the individual: An Economic Alternative to Exploitative Free Market Capitalism by Thomas Hedges (Truthdig)
Climate change
The Poetry of Robert Frost: The Collected Poems, Complete and UnabridgedSome say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
–Robert Frost
Don't feel bad, CNN. Izzy Stone never got invited to the White House Christmas Party, either
"Sarah Sanders Gleeful That CNN Won’t Be A Guest At White House Christmas Party" (HuffPost headline).
quote unquote: Teddy Roosevelt
As conservatives and neoliberals continue their subversion of progressive taxation, it's worth remembering words on the subject
by the well-known socialist, Teddy Roosevelt:
"We grudge no man a fortune in civil life if it is honorably obtained and well used. It is not even enough that it should have been gained without doing damage to the community. We should permit it to be gained only so long as the gaining represents benefit to the community.... The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size, acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and … a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion, and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate." -- Theodore Roosevelt, the "New Nationalism" speech, delivered 1910/08/31 at the dedication of the John Brown Memorial Park in Osawatomie, Kansas.
Better late than never
Wouldn't this seem like a swell time for the U.S. Senate to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, and often described as an international bill of rights for women? Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination.
Blue State Blues
Looking toward 2018, here are the top scorers in the California Republican delegation on "How often a member votes in line with Trump's position":
David Valadao (CA-21) 98.1%; Stephen Knight (CA-25) 98.1%; Mimi Walters (CA-45) 98.1%; Jeff Denham (CA-10) 98.1%; Ken Calvert (CA-42) 98.1%; Paul Cook (CA-8) 98.1%; Kevin McCarthy (CA-23) 98.1%; Doug LaMalfa (CA-1), 98.1%; Devin Nunes (CA-22) 98%; Ed Royce (CA-39) 96.2%; Darrell Issa (CA-49) 96.2%; Dana Rohrabacker (CA-48) 92.5%; and Tom McClintock 88.7%.
By comparison, of the six members of the House that vote least with Trump (at 9.4% of the time) -- a list that includes Raul Grijalva and Keith Ellison (the Progressive Caucus chairs), Bonnie Watson Coleman and Adriano Espaillat -- two, Maxine Waters and Barbara Lee, are from California (source: Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight).
David Valadao (CA-21) 98.1%; Stephen Knight (CA-25) 98.1%; Mimi Walters (CA-45) 98.1%; Jeff Denham (CA-10) 98.1%; Ken Calvert (CA-42) 98.1%; Paul Cook (CA-8) 98.1%; Kevin McCarthy (CA-23) 98.1%; Doug LaMalfa (CA-1), 98.1%; Devin Nunes (CA-22) 98%; Ed Royce (CA-39) 96.2%; Darrell Issa (CA-49) 96.2%; Dana Rohrabacker (CA-48) 92.5%; and Tom McClintock 88.7%.
By comparison, of the six members of the House that vote least with Trump (at 9.4% of the time) -- a list that includes Raul Grijalva and Keith Ellison (the Progressive Caucus chairs), Bonnie Watson Coleman and Adriano Espaillat -- two, Maxine Waters and Barbara Lee, are from California (source: Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight).
The neologist
There is no adjectival form of the word integrity. One is needed.
I propose integrous (as opposed to integritous or integrious, neither of which is as euphonious).
You may not find need of it often, but on the rare occasions you stumble upon someone behaving integrously, by all means use it.
Intregrous behavior should be extolled wherever it crops up.
I propose integrous (as opposed to integritous or integrious, neither of which is as euphonious).
You may not find need of it often, but on the rare occasions you stumble upon someone behaving integrously, by all means use it.
Intregrous behavior should be extolled wherever it crops up.
How far would you get on $13.63 an hour?
In California, defining a low-wage worker as one earning less than $13.63 hour in 2014, this is how the state's employment profile looked:
From the "Sure. Why Not?" Desk:
The Norfolk, Va., city council is due to decide on granting easements for a natural gas pipeline that would run under the city's drinking water reservoir, the Virginian-Pilot reports. No room for Murphy's Law there.
Mut-See TV
Maria Bamford's "Lady Dynamite" is back for a second season on Netflix. In the half-hour semi-biographical comedy she plays a stand-up who, after a breakdown and institutionalization, is readjusting in an ever-changing mental state to an ever-changing world. Brilliant, touching, hilarious, irresistable.
Lima Beano
Dialogue
"Bernie Sanders supporters are divisive." "Berniecrats aren't Democrats." "Bernieacs would rather destroy the Democratic party than compromise." "Berniebros hate Hillary Clinton so much they can't think straight." "Bernieistas are still fighting the last election."
"My job, our job is to go forward, is do everything we can to defeat this right-wing agenda of the Republican Party and the Trump administration, not to look backwards." -- Sen. Bernie Sanders
"Oh, shut up."
"My job, our job is to go forward, is do everything we can to defeat this right-wing agenda of the Republican Party and the Trump administration, not to look backwards." -- Sen. Bernie Sanders
"Oh, shut up."
quote unquote: Wilfred Owen
Strange Meeting
It seemed that out of the battle I escaped
Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped
Through granites which Titanic wars had groined.
Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned,
Then, as I probed them, one sprang up, and stared
With piteous recognition in fixed eyes,
Lifting distressful hands as if to bless.
And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall;
By his dead smile I knew we stood in Hell.
With a thousand fears that vision's face was grained;
Yet no blood reached there from the upper ground,
And no guns thumped, or down the flues made moan.
"Strange friend," I said, "Here is no cause to mourn."
"None," said the other, "Save the undone years,
The hopelessness. Whatever hope is yours,
Was my life also; I went hunting wild
After the wildest beauty in the world,
Which lies not calm in eyes, or braided hair,
But mocks the steady running of the hour,
And if it grieves, grieves richlier than here.
For by my glee might many men have laughed,
And of my weeping something has been left,
Which must die now. I mean the truth untold,
The pity of war, the pity war distilled.
Now men will go content with what we spoiled.
Or, discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled.
They will be swift with swiftness of the tigress,
None will break ranks, though nations trek from progress.
Courage was mine, and I had mystery;
Wisdom was mine, and I had mastery;
To miss the march of this retreating world
Into vain citadels that are not walled.
Then, when much blood had clogged their chariot-wheels
I would go up and wash them from sweet wells,
Even with truths that lie too deep for taint.
I would have poured my spirit without stint
But not through wounds; not on the cess of war.
Foreheads of men have bled where no wounds were.
“I am the enemy you killed, my friend.
I knew you in this dark: for so you frowned
Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.
I parried; but my hands were loath and cold.
Let us sleep now. . . .” Read: Wilfred Owen: Poems Selected by Jon Stallworthy
Weekend reading:
Red Century: A series of essays published by the New York Times exploring the history and legacy of Communism, 100 years after the Russian Revolution.
That's enough. No Moore!
'Mary was a Teenager.' -- Alabama Republican using Jesus' mom to defend Roy Moore. These guys are ruining cynicism for the rest of us.
The Long War
A new 'Costs of War' report published by Brown University's Watson Institute shows the actual costs incurred by the U.S. as part of its global 'war on terror' that widely contradicts the cost of war figures put together by the Pentagon in its report.
Some of the Costs of War Project’s main findings include:
370,000 people have died due to direct war violence, including armed forces on all sides of the conflicts, contractors, civilians, journalists, and humanitarian workers.
It is likely that many times more than 370,000 people have died indirectly in these wars, due to malnutrition, damaged infrastructure, and environmental degradation.
200,000 civilians have been killed in direct violence by all parties to these conflicts.
Over 6,800 US soldiers have died in the wars.
We do not know the full extent of how many US service members returning from these wars became injured or ill while deployed.
Many deaths and injuries among US contractors have not been reported as required by law, but it is likely that at least 6,900 have been killed.
10.1 million million Afghan, Iraqi, and Pakistani people are living as war refugees and internally displaced persons, in grossly inadequate conditions.*
The US has made an estimated 76 drone strikes in Yemen, making the US arguably at war in that country.
The wars have been accompanied by erosions in civil liberties and human rights at home and abroad.
The human and economic costs of these wars will continue for decades with some costs, such as the financial costs of US veterans’ care, not peaking until mid-century.
US government funding of reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan has totaled over $170 billion. Most of those funds have gone towards arming security forces in both countries. Much of the money allocated to humanitarian relief and rebuilding civil society has been lost to fraud, waste, and abuse.
The cost for the Iraq and Afghanistan/Pakistan wars totals about $4.8 trillion. This does not include future interest costs on borrowing for the wars, which will add an estimated $8 trillion through 2054.
The ripple effects on the US economy have also been significant, including job loss and interest rate increases.
Both Iraq and Afghanistan continue to rank extremely low in global studies of political freedom.
Women in Iraq and Afghanistan are excluded from political power and experience high rates of unemployment and war widowhood.
Compelling alternatives to war were scarcely considered in the aftermath of 9/11 or in the discussion about war against Iraq. Some of those alternatives are still available to the US.
* Source: The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) (2015).
Some of the Costs of War Project’s main findings include:
370,000 people have died due to direct war violence, including armed forces on all sides of the conflicts, contractors, civilians, journalists, and humanitarian workers.
It is likely that many times more than 370,000 people have died indirectly in these wars, due to malnutrition, damaged infrastructure, and environmental degradation.
200,000 civilians have been killed in direct violence by all parties to these conflicts.
Over 6,800 US soldiers have died in the wars.
We do not know the full extent of how many US service members returning from these wars became injured or ill while deployed.
Many deaths and injuries among US contractors have not been reported as required by law, but it is likely that at least 6,900 have been killed.
10.1 million million Afghan, Iraqi, and Pakistani people are living as war refugees and internally displaced persons, in grossly inadequate conditions.*
The US has made an estimated 76 drone strikes in Yemen, making the US arguably at war in that country.
The wars have been accompanied by erosions in civil liberties and human rights at home and abroad.
The human and economic costs of these wars will continue for decades with some costs, such as the financial costs of US veterans’ care, not peaking until mid-century.
US government funding of reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan has totaled over $170 billion. Most of those funds have gone towards arming security forces in both countries. Much of the money allocated to humanitarian relief and rebuilding civil society has been lost to fraud, waste, and abuse.
The cost for the Iraq and Afghanistan/Pakistan wars totals about $4.8 trillion. This does not include future interest costs on borrowing for the wars, which will add an estimated $8 trillion through 2054.
The ripple effects on the US economy have also been significant, including job loss and interest rate increases.
Both Iraq and Afghanistan continue to rank extremely low in global studies of political freedom.
Women in Iraq and Afghanistan are excluded from political power and experience high rates of unemployment and war widowhood.
Compelling alternatives to war were scarcely considered in the aftermath of 9/11 or in the discussion about war against Iraq. Some of those alternatives are still available to the US.
* Source: The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) (2015).
It was a good night,...
...but let's not lose sight of the road ahead. To come out on top in 2018, the Democrats must still agree on a raison d'être more compelling than "Stronger Together" and "A Better Deal," suffer expensive, divisive primaries that may or may not settle their differences or produce electable candidates, be outspent by $ millions, and for many House and local legislative races overcome a decade of GOP gerrymandering. Voters can be unhappy with Trump and still not see the Democrats as the antidote.
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