"Catholics basically believe the same teachings that Baptists believe. We just do it without the rhythm. But we try. We are not as without rhythm as some of our Jewish brothers and sisters." ~ Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Roman Catholic, speaking ecumenically at a Baptist church in Harlem.
Rhythm and Jews:
Trump's immigration crackdown was supposed to be good for American workers.
Trump's immigration crackdown was supposed to be good for American workers. But on California farms, it's creating a desperate labor shortage.
Wages rise on California farms. Americans still don’t want the job by Natalie Kitroef and Geoffrey Mohan (Los Angeles Times)
Wages rise on California farms. Americans still don’t want the job by Natalie Kitroef and Geoffrey Mohan (Los Angeles Times)
Don't think we need a radical change in political leadership?
Consider this:
The US House of Representatives voted Thursday afternoon to approve the federal budget for the current fiscal year, including a record $695 billion for the Pentagon, the largest amount ever, and more than half the total. The budget passed by a bipartisan vote of 256-167, with majorities of both Republicans and Democrats supporting it.
Ask not what your country can do for you?
The primary political questions are societal and aspirational; not how high are my taxes going to be or what benefits I can grab. Not, what's in it for me?
But:
What kind of country do I wish to live in?
Certainly not one where millions are imprisoned for petty crimes then denied reentry to society when their penalty has been paid; not one where people are put at a crippling disadvantage for the color of their skin, their beliefs, or the place they came from; not a country where the common wealth of the people is despoiled and pirated so that a fractional minority can prosper.
No, we want to live in a country where no one is forced to live in squalor; where if you work hard you can afford a decent life, where a worker receives a living wage; where no one suffers and dies because there is no affordable health care; where people have a reasonable prospect of advancing their own lives and where the lives of their children can be even better than their own.
The United States has been on the wrong road for forty years. Before our decline is irreversible, we must decide what kind of country we want to be. Freedom is meaningless without opportunity.
But:
What kind of country do I wish to live in?
Certainly not one where millions are imprisoned for petty crimes then denied reentry to society when their penalty has been paid; not one where people are put at a crippling disadvantage for the color of their skin, their beliefs, or the place they came from; not a country where the common wealth of the people is despoiled and pirated so that a fractional minority can prosper.
No, we want to live in a country where no one is forced to live in squalor; where if you work hard you can afford a decent life, where a worker receives a living wage; where no one suffers and dies because there is no affordable health care; where people have a reasonable prospect of advancing their own lives and where the lives of their children can be even better than their own.
The United States has been on the wrong road for forty years. Before our decline is irreversible, we must decide what kind of country we want to be. Freedom is meaningless without opportunity.
Our Feckless Democrats
Ten Democrats thwarted the (albeit mild) effort of Sen. Bernie Sanders and his allies to tap the brake on the permanent war machine.
Note that the celebrated Alabama Dem Doug Jones is on this list of shame, so that was a big win. And look what the people of Rhode Island contributed to this defeat. The ten warmongers are
On the other hand, five Republicans voted for the bill -- Collins (Me), Daines (Mont), Lee (Utah), Moran (Ks) and Paul (Ky), so there's that.Menendez (NJ)
Coons (Del.)
Masto (Nev.)
Donnelly (Ind.)
Heitkamp (N.D.)
Manchin (W.V.)
Nelson (Fla.)
Reed (R.I.)
Jones (Ala.)
Whitehouse (R.I.)
quote unquote: Bill Hicks
...All drugs should be legal.
The rich get richer.
The poor get poorer.
Thank you.
I'll be here all week. -- Bill Hicks
What's gonna take to get rational gun control?
This student spoke in front of the Capitol today during the National School Walk Out, slamming Congress for their lack of action on gun control.
"Their right to own an assault rifle does not outweigh our right to live."
"Their right to own an assault rifle does not outweigh our right to live."
Lucy Aharish: Humanity Made Irrelevant
“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” ~ Albert Einstein
quote unquote: John Quincy Adams
On the the search for "monsters to destroy."
"And now, friends and countrymen, if the wise and learned philosophers of the elder world, the first observers of nutation and aberration, the discoverers of maddening ether and invisible planets, the inventors of Congreve rockets and Shrapnel shells, should find their hearts disposed to enquire what has America done for the benefit of mankind? Let our answer be this: America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government. America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity. She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights. She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own. She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others,
"[America's] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice."
John Quincy Adams in 1821,
presciently warning against the Long War.
presciently warning against the Long War.
Saturday Catchup 2018-03-03
After a long absence, Saturday Catchup is back!
Social democracy is all the rage in the U.S. (and neoliberalism under assault) since Sen. Bernie Sanders' late run for president. In this video, radical journalist, author and film-maker Paul Mason; Dr. Faiza Shaheen, economist, writer, activist and director of the Centre for Labour and Social Studies; writer Anthony Barnett, co-founder of openDemocracy; economist Dr. Johnna Montgomerie; and Laurie Macfarlane, senior economist at the New Economics Foundation discuss whether radical social democracy offers a way out of the crisis of neoliberalism, and what this means for economic policy over the next decade. The debate is part of a new series of essays by Paul Mason exploring what radical social democracy means during the next decade:
Extra credit:
The word has become a rhetorical weapon, but neoliberal properly names the reigning ideology of our era -- one that venerates the logic of the market and strips away the things that make us human: Neoliberalism: the idea that swallowed the world by Stephen Metcalf (Guardian).
The mission of radical social democracy must be to rekindle hope in a simple idea -- that life in your community will get better: Neoliberalism has destroyed social mobility. Together we must rebuild it by Paul Mason.
I’m not a neoliberal. Maybe you aren’t either. by Laurie Macfarlane (Medium).
Eljeer Hawkins is a community, labor and antiwar organizer, and for 23 years has been a member of Socialist Alternative, the US affiliate of the Committee for a Workers' International, a global Trotskyist
Aestheticist Adolph Hitler doesn't care for gentrification:
"The right to be heard is crucially important. But I want to think more generally about how we have learned to look at women who exercise power, or try to; I want to explore the cultural underpinnings of misogyny in politics or the workplace, and its forms (what kind of misogyny, aimed at what or whom, using what words or images, and with what effects); and I want to think harder about how and why the conventional definitions of ‘power’ (or for that matter of ‘knowledge’, ‘expertise’ and ‘authority’) that we carry round in our heads have tended to exclude women." -- Mary Beard, Women in Power.
For the text of this talk, go to Women in Power by Mary Beard (London Review of Books).
The resemblance of zoos to prisons aside: At the Stock Island Detention Center, a jail in Florida, prisoners care for a zoo of their own. Curator Jeanne Selander runs the prison zoo with the inmates, who benefit not only from the responsibility, but also from experiencing reciprocal love and care --often for the first time. Operations like this one shouldn't be news, they should be standard.
Sign up for a weekly email from 60 Second Docs, for videos that are uplifting without recourse to freak accidents or weird animal friendships.
A song-story from country singer-songwriter Paul Overstreet
Finally, in a spirit of resistance not nostalgia, here is the last installment of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, never broadcast at the time. The brothers, Tommy and Dick Smothers, waged a war against network censorship for a couple of years in the late 1960s, a fight they lost when they were fired for inviting comedian David Steinberg back on the show, despite complaints from some viewers over a previous booking. Nancy Wilson and Dan Rowan were also guests.
quote unquote: William James
Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing. -- William James
From the Windfall Profits Desk:
"The $65 billion gain is...real-rest assured of that. But only $36 billion came from [our] operations. The [other] $29 billion was delivered to us in Dec when Congress rewrote the U.S. Tax Code." -- Warren Buffett, Annual Letter, Berkshire Hathaway
Red to Blue?
The NRCC outraised the DCCC in January, hauling $10.1 million compared to the House Democrats’ $9.3 million. Both hauls broke their previous January records. The NRCC ended with $50.6 million in cash on hand, while the DCCC ended with $43.8 million (HuffPost/Washington Times). The DCCC named six more candidates to its Red to Blue program, bringing the total number in the program to 24: former State Department adviser Lauren Baer in FL-18; state Sen. Jeff Van Drew in the open NJ-02; former Obama administration official Andy Kim in NJ-03; attorney Xochitl Torres Small in the open NM-02; retired Naval commander Elaine Luria in VA-02; and former state Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown in WA-05 (RollCall).
$$$$
If you're keeping count, J.B. Pritzker, the venture capitalist who is attempting to buy his way into the Illinois statehouse, gave his campaign another $7 million last week, putting him at more than $56 million in self-funding for the Democratic primary fight against Bobby Kennedy's son, philanthropist Chris Kennedy.
Classic NRA-owned hypocrite:
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield offered this tweet on the Florida massacre: "The heart of our nation breaks with the senseless and tragic loss of these young students. Our prayers are with them and their families." In the meantime, he continues to sock away gun-lobby contributions*.
* bribes
* bribes
A dozen here, a dozen there, pretty soon it adds up to mass murder.
The Second Amendment is not a paragraph in a suicide pact.
"The current FBI definition of mass murder, commonly accepted by the media as a proxy for 'mass gun violence', is three or more people murdered in one event. We believe this does not capture the whole
Using this definition, there have been 41 mass shootings in the United States since January 1, 2018.
Stalking Horse?
I don't have an opinion yet on the campaign for governor between Gavin Newsom, Antonio Villaraigosa, John Chiang and Delaine Eastin, but the entry into the race of Amanda Renteria, a former Hillary Clinton campaign staffer, is suspicious at the go. Who enters a major race 30 days before the filing deadline with no campaign infrastructure, no staff, no website, no endorsements, and no cash? It's not a stretch to think that Renteria will be on the ballot to suppress support of Newsom's chief rival Villaraigosa among Latinos. Is this another attempt by the party poobahs to rig a primary outcome? Shouldn't the voters get to hear from the candidates before the fix is in?
College dropouts
The next time someone starts talking about the constitutional sanctity of the Electoral College, think about the image below. The EC, as we all know, is a work of political genius. Because, you know, the Founders.
Getting rid of the Electoral College is another one of the many things that's "too hard" or "too complicated" in present-day America. But surely a nation that succeeded in ridding itself of slavery,
Of course, even after the Electoral College is gone, there will be a lot of work left to do if we are to live up to our ideal of one person, one vote: gerrymandering will need to be tackled; other barriers to voting, such as onerous identification requirements, will have to be eliminated; nor will suffrage ever be universal until felons and ex-felons are guaranteed the right to vote. Much more difficult, admittedly perhaps "too hard" and "too complicated," will be democratizing the Senate (possibly by abolishing the upper chamber and replacing the Congress with a unicameral legislative body -- there is no reason, beyond historical accident, why the residents of a state with, say, 360,000 citizens should have the same representation as a state with, say, 36,000,000 -- and the runaway imperial presidency must be reduced to its original role as executor of the legislature's intentions -- the Founders, royalists though most of them were, never intended to create a serial king.
But first things first. If the constitutional requirement can't be met to amend it out of existence, there are other ways to upend it, such as the National Popular Vote interstate compact already adopted by 11 states and the District of Columbia and close to passage in 11 more, a solution as jerry-rigged as the problem it is attempting to fix but at least a step in the right direction until we're able to solve our political issues like grown-ups.
Extra credit:
✓ Former secretary of labor Robert Reich warns that hundreds of thousands are being disenfranchised: Jim Crow Is Making a Furious Comeback by Robert Reich (AlterNet).
✓ After the 2010 election, state lawmakers nationwide started introducing hundreds of harsh measures making it harder to vote. The new laws range from strict photo ID requirements to early voting cutbacks to registration restrictions: New Voting Restrictions in America by The Brennan Center for Justice.
✓ 6.1 million citizens will be barred from voting on election day: Why Prisoners and Ex-Felons Should Retain the Right to Vote by Gregg D. Caruso PhD (Psychology Today).
✓ The upper house is a malapportioned, anti-democratic embarrassment: The United States Senate is a failed institution by Ian Millhiser (Think Progress).
✓ Congress is too dysfunctional to act as a check on executive power: Abolish the Senate. It's the only way to rein in modern presidents. by John Bicknell (Washington Post).
✓ The President's threats against North Korea expose the many dangers of the White House's post-9/11 powers. Here's what Congress must do: Don’t Just Impeach Trump. End the Imperial Presidency by Jeet Heer (New Republic).
Addendum:
Neil Freeman redrew the state borders in another attempt to help us think about the undemocratic nature of our federal system as currently organized. Currently, "[t]he largest state is 66 times as populous as the smallest," Freeman explains on his site, "and has 18 times as many electoral votes." His map is based on 2010 Census data, which records a population of 308,745,538 for the United States. Divided up among 50 equal states, that's a little over six million people per state. Made equal by population, they might look like this:
And:
The Long War drags on:
In "Julius Caesar," Brutus argues that "Th'abuse of greatness is when it disjoins / Remorse from power." Thus Lincoln, in whose character cohabited forcefulness, caution and morality, will be honored through generations, long after Bush, Obama and now Trump, the facilitators of endless war and apologists for the slaughter of innocents, are mercifully -- and justly -- consigned to oblivion.
With apologies to dictionary.com
INTERSECTIONALITY
[in-ter-sek-shuh-nal-i-tee] noun
1.
the theory that the overlap of various social identities, as race, gender, sexuality, and class, contributes to the specific type of systemic oppression and discrimination experienced by an individual (often used attributively): Her paper uses a queer intersectionality approach.
2.
the oppression and discrimination resulting from the overlap of an individual’s various social identities: The intersectionality of oppression experienced by black women.
3.
the antidote to identity politics: The intersectionality or “parallel problems” of economic disparity, gender inequality and institutional racism was the idea underpinning the presidential candidacy of Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Antonyms: capitalism, patriarchy, white supremacy, empire.
See, also: class consciousness, class struggle.
Extra credit:
"There will be no economic or political justice for the poor, people of color, women or workers within the framework of global, corporate capitalism. Corporate capitalism, which uses identity politics, multiculturalism and racial justice to masquerade as politics, will never halt the rising social inequality, unchecked militarism, evisceration of civil liberties and omnipotence of the organs of security and surveillance. Corporate capitalism cannot be reformed, despite its continually rebranding itself. The longer the self-identified left and liberal class seek to work within a system that the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin calls 'inverted totalitarianism,' the more the noose will be tightened around our necks. If we do not rise up to bring government and financial systems under public control—which includes nationalizing banks, the fossil fuel industry and the arms industry—we will continue to be victims." The Bankruptcy of the American Left by Chris Hedges (Truthdig)
A cross-racial and class conscious movement is the only foundation for effective freedom: Against National Security Citizenship by Aziz Rana (Boston Review)
"In the worlds of politics and nonprofits intersectionality has become a sneaky substitute for the traditional left notion of solidarity developed in the process of ongoing collective struggle against the class enemy. Intersectionality doesn't deny the existence of class struggle, it just rhetorically demotes it to something co-equal with the fights against ableism and ageism and speciesism, against white supremacy, against gender oppression, and a long elastic list of others. What’s sneaky about the substitution of intersectionality for solidarity is that intersectionality allows the unexamined smuggling in of multiple notions which directly undermine the development and the operation of solidarity. Intersectionality means everybody is obligated to put their own special interest, their own oppression first – although they don’t always say that because the contradiction would be too obvious." Intersectionality is a Hole. Afro-Pessimism is a Shovel. We Need to Stop Digging (part 1) by Bruce A. Dixon (Black Agenda Report)
"In the context of the real left, the community of those aiming to overthrow capital, patriarchy, white supremacy and empire—not two or three out of four but all four, the term intersectionality has become a kind of brood parasite. It mimics just enough of left feminist rhetoric and branding to deceive the unwary and ensnare many bright, serious and sincere leftists into defending and promoting its fundamentally hostile project." Looking Down That Deep Hole: Parasitic Intersectionality and Toxic Afro-Pessimism (part 2) by Bruce A. Dixon (Black Agenda Report)
"My enemy's enemies...?"
 |
| Юлий Ганф |
A Soviet-era cartoon from the 1950s satirizing American politics.
Well, here's a thing!
"In Missouri’s deep-red 97th General Assembly district, Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton by a 61-33 margin in 2016. Republican State Representative John McCaherty won reelection in the same year with almost 75 percent of the vote. McCaherty crushed a Libertarian candidate in that race; Democrats didn’t even bother to contest the seat.
"So when McCaherty quit the seat last year to focus on a campaign for Jefferson County Executive, Republicans had little reason to fear they would lose it in a special election. They slated the son of a popular former legislator from the region and he ran on a conservative platform that, local media pointed out, mirrors that of other Republicans in the Show-Me State.
"Then, the 'sure-thing' Republican lost.
"Democrat Mike Revis, a 27-year-old Anheuser-Busch employee who said he was inspired to run because of his frustration with Republican policies that serve 'multi-millionaires who buy influence with elected officials,' swept to victory Tuesday night with a 52-48 margin. That represented a 31-point swing from the 2016 presidential race numbers, and a 37-point swing from the last time a Democrat sought the seat."
The rest of the story:
A pro-union Democrat just won a seat in Missouri that Trump won by a landslide: 35 and Counting! Democrats Flip Another Republican Legislative Seat by John Nichols (The Nation)
"So when McCaherty quit the seat last year to focus on a campaign for Jefferson County Executive, Republicans had little reason to fear they would lose it in a special election. They slated the son of a popular former legislator from the region and he ran on a conservative platform that, local media pointed out, mirrors that of other Republicans in the Show-Me State.
"Then, the 'sure-thing' Republican lost.
"Democrat Mike Revis, a 27-year-old Anheuser-Busch employee who said he was inspired to run because of his frustration with Republican policies that serve 'multi-millionaires who buy influence with elected officials,' swept to victory Tuesday night with a 52-48 margin. That represented a 31-point swing from the 2016 presidential race numbers, and a 37-point swing from the last time a Democrat sought the seat."
The rest of the story:
A pro-union Democrat just won a seat in Missouri that Trump won by a landslide: 35 and Counting! Democrats Flip Another Republican Legislative Seat by John Nichols (The Nation)
To whom it may concern
Dear nonprofits, interest groups and political parties:
Please stop sending hundreds of return-address labels with each of your fund-raising appeals. No one but you mails anything anymore. There are these new things called email and texting that people are using instead. Spending huge amounts to produce useless promotional items does not build trust in your fiscal judgement.
The shopping bags and windbreakers are very nice, though.
Thank you for you attention.
Please stop sending hundreds of return-address labels with each of your fund-raising appeals. No one but you mails anything anymore. There are these new things called email and texting that people are using instead. Spending huge amounts to produce useless promotional items does not build trust in your fiscal judgement.
The shopping bags and windbreakers are very nice, though.
Thank you for you attention.
quote unquote: Jean-Paul Sartre
You don't fight fascism because you're going to win. You fight fascism because it is fascist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre
quote unquote
Executive earmark: Instead of a wall, it would be "far cheaper to erect a 50-foot concrete statue of a middle finger and point it towards Latin America." -- Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Tx)
A bizarre law is overcrowding California's public schools
In California, traditional neighborhood schools are forced to give space to charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately operated. This is causing all kinds of headaches for students and parents.
Is Bernie Sanders an empty suit?
Many in the Hillary Clinton camp continue to allow their bitterness over the loss to Donald Trump to misdirect their anger at Bernie Sanders. Especially nonsensical is the charge that the Vermonter, despite having been elected and reelected numerous times as mayor, Member of the House and U.S. Senator, is a "failed politician."
Serving in Congress is largely a matter of compromise and influence. To measure Sanders' record you would need to include such factors as his ability to work with the opposition to get things done (to take an example going back to his ealiest days in office, coordinating with the business community to revitalize the lakefront as the socialist mayor of Burlington); his effectiveness in the House; the committee leadership positions he has been trusted with by the Senate Democratic caucus and the fact that the DSCC (led by Sen. Chuck Schumer at the time) protected his reelection to the Senate from challenge by a nominal Democratic opponent; and his founding and chairing of the congressional Progressive Caucus. Most significant -- and most galling to the party establishment -- is that he has helped to move the Democratic Party away from neoliberalism and toward more traditional liberal/progressive policies and proposals.
Inconvenient facts:
Nobody in congress has gotten more amendments passed than Bernie Sanders. Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, breaks it down.
California Democrats to Dianne Feinstein: "Good work on Trump. Now come home."
Okay. I'm one who applauded: "Dianne Feinstein is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore."
But the thundering hosannas for her releasing of the Fusion GPS testimony have begun to drown out reality.
Sen. Feinstein's action was admirable. If she had not done it, she would have been complicit in the blatant lying of Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham. But she is far from being the Second Coming of FDR.
She has been the strongest Democratic proponent in the Senate of the security state, she has dependably supported the Long War, and she has carried water for corporate and financial interests throughout her career, as when she voted for the bill that repealed Glass-Steagall’s banking reforms (California's other U.S. Senator, Barbara Boxer, voted nay). After decades in office, she is out of step. left behind by her increasingly liberal constituency; even with the advantages of incumbency in a blue state, she is only getting about 40% in support of her reelection campaign.
You have to ask yourself why at 84 she is running at all. My guess is that the party poobahs, realizing that if she retires the seat will almost certainly fall into the hands of a progressive, have decided that she remains their best hope to hold the seat for the donors; she will almost certainly be one of the two standing candidates after the primary (out-of-staters may not know that in California the general election is a run-off between the top two primary vote-getters, even if they are from the same party or no party at all), and Democratic leaders are betting she will get enough Democratic and all Republican votes to win (the other candidate will be a Democrat to her left -- there is no other kind; the GOP is not a factor at the state level in California); then, after a year or two, she will step down and the new governor, presumably Gavin Newsom, a Democrat in any case, will appoint a reliable supporter of business-as-usual.
Sen. Feinstein deserves all credit for unilaterally releasing the transcript of Glenn Simpson's testimony before her committee, and I hope she continues to hold Grassley's and Graham's feet to the fire.
When you think about it, though, this would be a perfect moment to retire. The primary will be bitter and divisive, and since experience suggests there is every likelihood that the poobahs have it wrong anyway, possibly pointless:
Instead, for the good of the nation, she could go out as Fighting Dianne Feinstein, spending her final days of service battling the criminalized GOP (as she is doing in taking a lead in rejecting Trump's off-shore drilling scam and supporting the Dreamers). What an honorable way to go.
Extra credit:
> The Republicans Fake Investigation by Glenn R. Simpson and Peter Fritsch (New York Times)
> Sen. Dianne Feinstein Releases Full Testimony From Co-Founder of Firm Behind Russia Dossier by Molly Olmstead (Slate)
> The full text of Glenn Simpson's interview before the Senate Judiciary Committee on 2017/08/22 (PDF)
> Dianne Feinstein survived childhood abuse, assassination attempts, and a brutal fight with the CIA. Now it’s time to take on Trump: The Lioness in Winter by Gail Sheehy (Mother Jones)
> In a rare meeting, the Democratic senator finds little common ground with hometown activists: Dianne Feinstein Town Hall Shows Why She’s a Conservative by San Francisco Standards by Matt Tinoco (Mother Jones)
> California's feverish political moment creates opportunity for a Feinstein challenge — or a few by Seema Mehta and Melanie Mason (Los Angeles Times)
> Kevin de León, president of the California Senate, is challenging the longtime senator next year, creating a dilemma for the party's 2020 hopefuls: The Democrats’ Dianne Feinstein Problem by David Dayen (New Republic)<br />
> Alison Hartson announced she's running for U.S. Senate: New liberal challenger to Sen. Dianne Feinstein launches bid on 'The Young Turks' by Sarah D. Wire (Los Angeles Times)
Some choice
Who was right, George Orwell or Aldous Huxley?
"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.
"Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.
"As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny 'failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.' In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure.
"In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us." -- Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death (Penguin).
Our civil polity is in free fall
Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. ... Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. -- Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, 1852(AP/January 4, 2021) President-elect Oprah Winfrey, with Vice President-elect Ellen DeGeneres, appeared in the White House press room Monday afternoon to announce the first appointments to the new cabinet. The soon-to-be Commander in Chief had special praise for Secretary of State nominee Rachel Raye, who was in attendance, saying she "is the right person to cook up a new foreign policy" for the nation.
Other designees on hand included Treasury Secretary Suze Orman, Attorney General Judge Judy Sheindlin, Labor Secretary Phil "Dr. Phil" McGraw, Commerce Secretary Stacy London, HUD Secretary Mehmet “Dr. Oz” Oz, and Surgeon General Jenny McCarthy.
In an attempt heal some hurt feelings from a hard-fought campaign, Dwayne "The Rock " Johnson will take over at Defense. In a surprise move, Bob Greene, who had been expected to be Surgeon General, has been named special advisor to the President; he will share an office with the already appointed Gayle King, and is expected to work closely with Chief of Staff Steve Harvey. Meryl Streep, an early backer of the president-elect's run for office, will be the new U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St James. Mark Cuban will be sent to Finland.
In a separate briefing, Press Secretary Kanye West announced that the Secret Service had to call in all available agents because of the crush of citizens seeking selfies and autographs.
[Note to The Hill: Just took an informal poll of Democrats on prospect of Oprah presidential run. Couldn't find a single one that could be described as "thrilled." Prospect of President Winfrey thrills Dems by Amie Parnes (The Hill)]
"An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought." -- Simon Cameron *
Happy days are here again
Really psyched about the people's uprising in Tehran and the Persian countryside. Hope we don't miss the opportunity to lend a hand in Iran like we did in Iraq, Libya and Syria.
Goodbye, good luck, and good riddance:
"Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the longest-serving GOP senator in U.S. history, is retiring at the end of his term."
The rate and severity of shootings are accelerating.
"The deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history came in October, when a gunman pent up in a Las Vegas hotel tower showered gunfire on concertgoers across the street, leaving 59 people dead and more than 500 others injured. A month later, a man opened fire on churchgoers in Sutherland Springs, Texas, killing 26. There were dozens of smaller-scale events this year. The Gun Violence Archive reports more than 14,000 people were killed and over 29,000 were injured in mass shootings in 2017. That might make it the worst year on record."
(The map shown here does not include incidents after October 2.)
Resolution
I'm gonna wash that man right outta my hair
I'm gonna wash that man right outta my hair
I'm gonna wash that man right outta my hair
And send him on his way
Walk him out
Dry him out
Push him out
Fly him out
And send him on his way!
Written by R. Rodgers, O. Hammerstein II
quote unquote: James Baldwin
I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain. -- James Baldwin
The Long War
As we live in a state of endless, undeclared war, it behooves us to remember the wise words of one the Founders:
"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” – James Madison
Demockracy
Money buys elections. The media covers the horse race, not the issues, and routinely deems threats to the status quo "unelectable." There is no party discipline. Gerrymandering and voter suppression are rampant. The Electoral College devalues some votes and enhances others. A vote in one state for the U.S. Senate is worth 100 times what the same vote is worth in another. Judges sit for life. The operatives of money and power routinely rotate in and out of legislative and executive positions, enriching themselves and their cohort as they go. Huge amounts of public wealth are transferred continuously to private hands and trillions of dollars are spent in secret. Wars are conducted without following constitutional procedures.
Sometimes cynicism just can't catch a break.
How frustrated must be Kirsten Gillibrand. She throws Al Franken under the bus, the one to the high road, and the press still praises Kamala Harris as the "new face" of the party.
If it's not nailed down, privatize it.
The FCC voted in a 3-2 party-line vote to end net neutrality, despite overwhelming bipartisan and public support for it.
Net neutrality is now officially on life support. Here’s what happens next. by Aja Romano (VOX)
Trump has his "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" moment:
"USA Today published a brutal editorial Tuesday after President Donald Trump smeared Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) by saying she 'would do anything' for campaign contributions. 'A president who’d all but call a senator a whore is unfit to clean toilets in Obama’s presidential library or to shine George W. Bush’s shoes,'” USA Today’s Editorial Board wrote, adding Trump was clearly suggesting Gillibrand would trade sexual favors for campaign donations. The board added that Trump is a 'uniquely awful' person with 'sickening behavior.' His tweet was a new low for a president redefining rock bottom, they wrote. -- USA Today Calls Trump Unfit To Clean Obama's Toilets In Scathing Editorial (Yahoo News).
Will Trump's lows ever hit rock bottom? by The Editorial Board (USA Today)
Will Trump's lows ever hit rock bottom? by The Editorial Board (USA Today)
????
The Democratic leadership constantly promotes the benefit of parsing evils. How come that lesser-evil thing doesn't doesn't favor Al Franken when measured against Donald Trump, Roy Moore and the other actual criminals peppered throughout the governing class?
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