The Sage of San Diego showed up over the holidays:
[...]
I keep up with the news but have resisted the urge to comment. Pretty much everything I said back in 2008 about the wrong track the respectable people on the Left were determined to take has come true, not that they appear to notice. The Boyz of the Blogz continue to be as shallow, narcissistic, clueless, and self-congratulatory as ever, no matter how many times the Incomparable One and the Shrill One smack them upside the head.
My political perspective doesn’t align with most other blogospheric positions, left or right. I am unimpressed by the street rebellions (though I agree with Eric Hobsbawm that it is like 1848 all over again), rolling my eyes at the wasted opportunities of the Occupy movement, and deeply cynical about the antics of hacktivists, from Julian Assange to Lulzsec to Anonymous. A customer of the company the Spousal Unit works for got attacked by Anonymous a while back and it was days of effort to keep the little fuckers from bringing down the site. No, not amused by these hooligans whatsoever.
I watch an allegedly liberal intelligentsia unable to escape its collective fantasy that anyone who rejects Obama can only be doing so because they are racist, not because the guy is to the right of Richard Nixon. No, I won’t be placated by the knowledge that the Right is worse – shitty governance is shitty governance even if the choice is that or obscenely shitty governance. It’s bad and sad when you realize Nixon would be an improvement.
In the absence of material improvements to living conditions brought about by the Long Recession (which, truth be told, really started when Reagan took office), increasing numbers of people will vote their resentments. If it won’t get better, you might as well make other people hurt. The high-minded left doesn’t want to consider that the dumb-shit cop who pepper sprayed the protesters at UC Davis is a perfect representative of the portion of the 99% who must be wooed away from the reactionary right if any high-mindedness is to have an actual effect in the world. That’s the deep failure of the left in this country since LBJ.
Good writing is like good acid. It opens your mind and think of things you never did before.
If you really want to turn the wonk up to eleventy try this:
Modes of Reaction and Revolution
Welcome back Anglachel. I hope you stick around awhile.
Amen, Amen… again I say AMEN!
This *is* good shit!
Hoo boy. When she is on she is good. Obama wants class resentment as a campaign devise. He doesn’t realize a lot of it is going to be directed at him.
It’s hard to find good stuff in political philosophy that doesn’t fall into the tribal “We’re good, they’re bad” mindset.
Honk!
Sounds like she’s been through a really tough year. I don’t always agree with her but I’m glad she’s back.
Forget DHS, it’s CPS that needs to open a field office at each of the OWS encampments.
OWS in a nutshell.
This comment on the linked article made me LOL.
LOL
Fantastic stuff Anglachel, thanks for finding it myiq!!
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/01/12/obamateurism-of-the-day-660/
backtrack considering moving the last day of the democratic convention to the Bank of America field to make more money
It is nice to see Anglachel back, she does make you think
Honk!
Oh yea, good shit man.
this court ruling could effect the money the dems have for the election.
http://theulstermanreport.com/2012/01/10/union-dues-for-dems-facing-supreme-court-challenge/
Interesting.
That will be an interesting case. Union dues are taken to support an organization that in turn supports and represents the members. Of course most of that resource is for supporting needed infrastructure (a few people at least) to do the collective bargaining and for supporting members when they’re on strike. But some of that tends to be for political action because that’s just the way the world works. Pressure from government to the company and of course laws make perhaps even more difference than the bargaining.
But there are certainly conflicts. Many members, though want laws and representatives to support them, may have different ideas than the union organization. So can they be forced to support what they don’t like. I suppose if the organization is set up democratically so the members vote for their representation, based I assume on how they will spend money and what they will do, then perhaps it’s fine.
Then the other funny issue is, if it’s fine to require union membership for some job, and thus money be taken for such things, can a company also require deductions from paychecks, dues if you will, for things to support the corporation, and supposedly in turn the jobs? Can a company do basically the same thing as a union? Always wondered about those differences.
My union gave you the choice on whether or not you wanted a dollar of your dues to go to political action.
I guess all unions do not do that. If they did would that not make the case unnecessary?
Eh, I don’t know. She did take certain liberal factions to task for their obvious impotence, but she also articulated entirely in a defensive worldview of liberalism, and failed to acknowledge that certain factions have made a mockery of what liberalism actually meant once upon a time. She’s still suggesting that, while progs/libs are not that great, cons are the devil. And that I cannot abide. I prefer to work toward discourse that does not rely on Teh Cooties Theory.
I like that, “the cooties theory.” I’m such a bleeding heart that I refuse to believe in devils .I also think that dismissing some Americans as right wingers and labeling them the enemy is a cop out. If you’re a politician in this country or a party leader, your job is to win hearts and minds to your cause. If you don’t have a cause that people can see the value in, you don’t have the right to blame other people for not getting it. Bill Clinton, in the midst of numerous attacks, was still able to work with the right and to serve the people of this country. So have other leaders.
Honk!
The Cootie Theory ! Awesome.
Yes, but also there is a distinction to be made between party leadership, party operatives, and party electorate, which I rarely see made by even the more honest reporters of our political discourse. And very few are willing to acknowledge the dishonest cultural hegemony perpetrated by leadership and operatives on the left for many decades. They only recognize it on the right, but that’s a dishonest assessment. Meanwhile, the average American citizen is often unwittingly influenced by these cultural manipulations.
Sommerby and Silber are two that get it, but often their writing styles can obscure the larger points they want to get across.
holder’s department of crime says recess appointments are legal.
surprise surprise
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/01/12/justice-releases-legal-memos-backing-obama-recess-appointments/?mod=WSJBlog
I just e-mailed my congresswoman and asked just how long do we have to put up with holders dept of crime and when is the congress going to stand up, speak out and stop the power grab by the executive branch.
Do not really expect an answer
A ‘Sierra Hotel’ post..good writing is her forte.
Does she still think all men are rapists or rapist sympathizers?
Why don’t you ask her?