European Tribune - Community, Politics & Progress.

AlterNet: Economic Realities Are Killing Our Era of Fantasy Politics

In the general scheme of things, stupid machismo beats considered realpolitik every time.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 10:19:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Sunday Open Thread (4.00 / 5)

Economic Realities Are Killing Our Era of Fantasy Politics By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com
Posted on July 19, 2008, Printed on August 10, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/91927/
I am a single mother with a 9-year-old boy. To stay warm at night my son and I would pull off all the pillows from the couch and pile them on the kitchen floor. I'd hang a blanket from the kitchen doorway and we'd sleep right there on the floor. By February we ran out of wood and I burned my mother's dining room furniture. I have no oil for hot water. We boil our water on the stove and pour it in the tub. I'd like to order one of your flags and hang it upside down at the capital building... we are certainly a country in distress. -- Letter from a single mother in a Vermont city, to Senator Bernie Sanders
The Republican and Democratic conventions are just around the corner, which means that we're at a critical time in our nation's history. For this is the moment when the country's political and media consensus finally settles on the line of bullshit it will be selling to the public as the "national debate" come fall.
If you pay close attention you can actually see the trial balloons whooshing overhead. There have been numerous articles of late of the Whither the Debate? genus in the country's major dailes and news mags, pieces like Patrick Healy's "Target: Barack Obama. Strategy: What Day is it?" in the New York Times. They ostensibly wonder aloud about what respective "plans of attack" Barack Obama and John McCain will choose to pursue against one another in the fall.

Long article. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it already.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 10:22:07 AM EST

Re: Sunday Open Thread (4.00 / 6)

The Democratic party that was once the impetus behind much of these changes, that argued so eloquently in the New Deal era that our society would be richer and more powerful overall if the spoils were split up enough to create a strong base of middle class consumers -- that party panicked in the years since Nixon and elected to pay for its continued relevance with corporate money. As a result the entire debate between the two major political parties in our country has devolved into an argument over just how quickly to dismantle the few remaining benefits of American middle-class existence -- immediately, if you ask the Republicans, and only slightly less than immediately, if you ask the Democrats.

I have long noticed that, as even Geroge Bush knows, the GOP is the party of "the haves and the have mores" where having probably starts at $10 million, the fact is that the Dems have long been the party of millionaires. And they are commented upon by a media who regard poor as earning around $100k.

So there simply isn't anyone left in DC who lives in 99% America and their discussions pass right over the heads of most americans. The debate shouldn't be about how to reach across the centre ground and create policies that appeal to that 40 or 50 million Americans who will vote for the GOP candidate, even if it were Joe Stalin himself. The debate should be why in a country where 250 million are "entitled" to vote so many poor people see no reason to vote.

It ain't a matter of "What's the matter with Kansas?" and why working class people vote GOP, it's why so many working class people can't see any difference between being shafted by the GOP or the Dems.

Which is exactly the situation the UK labour party has got into. It is so beholden to the City and Big Money that its economic policies attack the very people supposed to vote for it. Who recognise that, tribal loyalty notwithstanding, there is no good reason to vote for or against either party cos they're both gonna screw you.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 10:52:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Sunday Open Thread (4.00 / 4)

Great Taibbi -- as usual but more so.

<...> None of this is a secret. Here, however, is something that is a secret: that this is a class issue that is being intentionally downplayed by a political/media consensus bent on selling the public a version of reality where class resentments, or class distinctions even, do not exist. Our "national debate" is always a thing where we do not talk about things like haves and have-nots, rich and poor, employers versus employees. But we increasingly live in a society where all the political action is happening on one side of the line separating all those groups, to the detriment of the people on the other side.

<...> Home heating and car ownership are slipping away from the middle class thanks to exploding energy prices -- the hidden cost of the national borrowing policy we call dependency on foreign oil, "foreign" representing those nations, Arab and Chinese, that lend us the money to pay for our wars.

<...> We are in the midst of a political movement to concentrate private wealth into fewer and fewer hands while at the same time placing more and more of the burden for public expenditures on working people. If that sounds like half-baked Marxian analysis... well, shit, what can I say? That's what's happening.

<...> Our economic reality is as brutal as it is for a simple reason: whether we like it or not, we are in the midst of revolutionary economic changes. In the kind of breathtakingly ironic development that only real life can imagine, the collapse of the Soviet Union has allowed global capitalism to get into the political unfreedom business, turning China and the various impoverished dictatorships and semi-dictatorships of the third world into the sweatshop of the earth. This development has cut the balls out of American civil society by forcing the export abroad of our manufacturing economy, leaving us with a service/managerial economy that simply cannot support the vast, healthy middle class our government used to work very hard to both foster and protect.

What that guy says.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 12:31:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I wish I shared Taibbi's belief that this year might be the year we finally sit down and have a serious conversation about policy, but it's not going to happen.

What have we covered so far in this election? There was the very important issue of whether or not Hillary Clinton was trying to show off her breasts with one of her outfits last year. Then there was John Edwards's $400 haircut. Then there was Obama's crazy pastor and ties to some New Left leader from the '60s (when Obama was, of course, a small child attending a Madrassa in Indonesia, or something).

Then there was the outrage at the NYT for having the audacity to question the integrity of John McCain, and the series of skirmishes that somehow all revolved around his time in Vietnam (even though the skirmishes had nothing to do with it).

Then, more recently, there was universal (among the talking heads) wondering about whether Obama was ~~uppity~~ presumptuous for going abroad, talking to world leaders, and giving a speech to a bunch of (gasp!) Germans(!!!) after McCain demanded he do so.

Now we're reduced to wondering if every Obama lead in the polls is somehow good news for ~~Rudy Giuliani~~ John McCain, and about how effective McCain calling Obama a ~~Jew(?)~~ ~~elitist~~ ~~fag~~ celebrity.

The only ray of hope comes from the fact that the only person on television with increasing ratings seems to be Keith Olbermann, and from the fact that so many Americans get their news online nowadays, while the tradmed is slowly dying. But we've got a way to go.

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

by Drew J Jones (blahblahblah@blahblahblah.com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 01:49:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Yes, that may be rather wishful thinking at the end of the article. Especially as he's already told us what's going to happen in terms of framing the "national debate", and he's much more convincing on that than on "maybe at last we'll have the real debate".

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 01:58:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I think he, like me, feels like he has to grasp at straws sometimes, just because contemplating reality is so grim. I imagine reading through a pile of the letters to Bernie Sanders looking for one to start the article with would have been heart-rending.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 02:03:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

He nailed the Michelle Obama thing. They won't go after Barack Obama on race, but you just watch: By November 4th, Michelle Obama will be turned into the mythical "Cadillac-driving welfare queen" of Reagan's fantasies.

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

by Drew J Jones (blahblahblah@blahblahblah.com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 02:19:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I got the impression that he was saying there ought to be that discussion, but it's all about distractions.

God, we need that discussion here, but the only people attmepting it are old tankie socialists who are talking about solutions that were discredited and belief systems about society that are simply no longer operative.

We need a 21st century discussion and in the UK we're getting a 19th century one.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 02:27:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]

That's okay. Over here we're getting a 20th Century one from the Democrats and a 14th Century one from the Republicans. So looking at the FiveThirtyEight.com projections, I think the UK comes out ahead....

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

by Drew J Jones (blahblahblah@blahblahblah.com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 02:31:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]

For $5bn/year, we could provide primary care to every American.

$5bn/year.

Are you fucking kidding me? It'd be a steal at a hundred times that price. It's pocket change to the federal budget. A few days in Iraq.

It really amazes me how stupid this country is sometimes.

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

by Drew J Jones (blahblahblah@blahblahblah.com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 01:30:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Cheap train to Cologne.

Deusche Bahn are offering return fares from London to Cologne for £79, that's a 5 hour train ride, which is probably quicker than air all things considered.

Anyone fancy a Colgne meetup in Oct/Nov or even to coincide with a Christmas market ?

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 10:22:27 AM EST

eek! I am about to announce my suggestions for a Cardiff November meet up to coincide with an exciting event... diary will be up in 5 mins.

Ad astra per aspera

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 04:10:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Come to my birthday party (none / 1)

There's more to it...

Ad astra per aspera

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 04:20:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Sunday Open Thread (4.00 / 7)

Went voter registring yesterday in PA, gave an interview to an Austrian radio correspondent (god. my spoken German is rusty), got lots of enthusiastic support, ran into my first black PUMA, was told I'm going to hell, and I don't mean that they told me to go to hell, was told that voting is unamerican, got home late, exhausted, woke up, wrote a comma spliced run on sentence about the previous day.

by MarekNYC on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 01:47:41 PM EST

Ignorant old(er) fart question:

What is a PUMA?

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bork! Bork! Bork!

by ATinNM on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 02:09:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Party Unity My Ass aka diehard Clinton supporter, won't vote for Obama even though they're a democrat.

by MarekNYC on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 02:12:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Thanks for that ... (none / 1)

... I just saw that in a dKos diary commentary thread, and didn't want to ask there.

Utsukushikereba sore de ii

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 02:32:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Why are you supposedly going to Hell? And why is voting supposedly un-American?

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

by Drew J Jones (blahblahblah@blahblahblah.com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 02:17:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I'm not sure why I'm going to Hell, though given that we're talking about a bunch of anti Vatican II Catholics talking about how Benedict is a raging liberal I can guess. I also don't know why voting is unamerican, though I was rather curious and tried unsuccessfully to get a response. The statement was made by a middle aged white guy in a suit getting into a nice car in a very poor neighbourhood.

by MarekNYC on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 02:51:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Clinton told to portray Obama as foreign - Mike Allen - Politico.com

The politico has some excerpts from an upcoming Josh Green article on the Atlantic.

For the Mark Penn haters:

The Penn memo suggesting that the campaign target Obama's "lack of American roots" said in part: "All of these articles about his boyhood in Indonesia and his life in Hawaii are geared towards showing his background is diverse, multicultural and putting that in a new light.

"Save it for 2050. ... Every speech should contain the line you were born in the middle of America American to the middle class in the middle of the last century. And talk about the basic bargain as about the deeply American values you grew up with, learned as a child and that drive you today. Values of fairness, compassion, responsibility, giving back

"Let's explicitly own `American' in our programs, the speeches and the values. He doesn't. Make this a new American Century, the American Strategic Energy Fund. Let's use our logo to make some flags we can give out. Let's add flag symbols to the backgrounds."

Part of the backstory is that a GQ piece on the Clinton campaign by Josh Green was quashed by the Clinton camp, September last year.

by nanne (zwaerdenmaecker@gmail.com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 01:50:06 PM EST

Yes, well, we all know Mark Penn is an arse whose idea of campaigning comes from the olden days. I think progressives actually owe him a debt of thanks for helping to derail HRC's primary campaign (Bill played his part too).

The autopsies on the HRC campaign will no doubt fill bookshelves for years to come and the judgement of history will probably say "could have done better". Even with a good campaign I don't think she could have beaten Obama, but she was yesterday's news with yesterday's policies and so much baggage the Titanic would have wallowed. I'm glad Penn advised her into oblivion.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 02:22:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Helen:

The autopsies on the HRC campaign will no doubt fill bookshelves for years to come

Penn was - and is - an arse. Putting a Rep arse at the centre of a Dem campaign was always Epyc Stuped.

Penn was only there because he was sure the uppity negro wouldn't win. After the convention - the world!

Shame, huh?

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 02:31:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I still say he's going to advise Brown, which makes him all y'all's problem. And we appreciate you taking him off our hands.

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

by Drew J Jones (blahblahblah@blahblahblah.com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 02:36:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Sunday Open Thread (4.00 / 4)

[weeps]

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 03:01:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Nah, Brown and Penn is toxicity squared. Penn is just an anchor round the neck of a guy wearing concrete slippers. Going down.

Right now, nothing can save Labour, so having Penn around makes no difference and may persuade the rest of the party to leave him alone.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 03:31:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Oh, but I didn't say it was smart. I just said I figured Brown would use him if he could.

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

by Drew J Jones (blahblahblah@blahblahblah.com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 03:38:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Meanwhile - have we lost the BooFeed? The dropdown list of hotlinks hasn't changed for a couple of weeks now.

Or is this a Firefox issue?

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 02:33:06 PM EST

Nope, it's way outta date on IE as well

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 02:53:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]

An American politics diary ... (none / 0)

... "The two wings of the progressive populist movement?" available in red, green and bluestar, and three eyes.

Thinking through life within the duoparty system, so its not a diary I'd post on the Eurotrib.

Utsukushikereba sore de ii

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 02:36:10 PM EST

hilarious vid from NZ comedy duo!! (4.00 / 3)

tried to post this 4 times, trying a workaround of replying to amother comment, sorry bruce

Peace is not the absence of war -- peace is the absence of fear. Ursula Franklin

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 07:15:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Hip Hop Hippotamus! My Lyrics are Bottomless (4.00 / 2)

"Did Steve tell you that, perchance / Steve!"

Double-paren youtube space id-string double-close-paren

id-string is the stuff after "v=".

Utsukushikereba sore de ii

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 07:19:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]

ta bruce- (4.00 / 2)

this one's funnier, truly twisted

the humans are dead

Peace is not the absence of war -- peace is the absence of fear. Ursula Franklin

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 08:14:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: hilarious vid from NZ comedy duo!! (4.00 / 2)

sigh, the workaround worked, but i blew the youtube link, duh

one more time...

((youtubeWGoi1MSGu64))

or try this, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGoi1MSGu64 since i can't get the new user guide instructions to work.

considering i can't make a comment appear without replying to another one, i dunno wtf's going on...

Peace is not the absence of war -- peace is the absence of fear. Ursula Franklin

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 08:06:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]