Category: Politics

Richard’s Forewards 2

  • Nouriel Roubini recommends several drastic proposals. (registration req’d). These include:

    massive and more unorthodox monetary policy easing to defrost credit markets even if this may imply central banks widening collateral and taking greater credit risk; massive and front-loaded fiscal stimulus more on the spending than tax side and with income relief to agents with high marginal propensity to spend (poor, unemployed, state/local governments); rapid takeover of insolvent banks – full nationalization – and their quick clean-up and re-privatization (etc.)

  • New York Times ignores corporate welfare issues.
  • Israel continues to block charity shipments to Gaza.
  • Tom Engelhardt on U.S. foreign policy-speak.

Richard’s Forewards

A cousin in California has been sending out forewarded emails from the internet and other friends of his for years of left news, opinion, and commentary. Some of it leans libertarian, some leans socialist, and some might reflect a conservative talking point in good light. Friends reading his emails knew the Iraq invasion would stir up a hornet’s nest, that the Bush administration was screwing the U.S. and the world up on a daily basis, and we heard Roubini forecasting the economic collapse early in 2008. I have encouraged Richard to start his own blog and post his own gleenings and commentary from the internet himself but he is content with his small but loyal mailing list.

So instead of letting most of his emails lie fallow in my in-box, I will occasionally be forewarding Richard’s forewards here with links and synopsis or maybe just a headline. Feel free to discuss anything posted here below or at the sources.

  • It’s Time to Break up the Big Banks. Richard Whitney on bank nationalization and “soaking the taxpayer.”
  • A Pandemic of Economic Violence. Michael Klare claims we’re “A Planet on the Brink.”
  • Iran and the IAEA. Gordon Prather on the marginalization of the IAEA and the U.N.
  • Continued Military Occupation in Iraq. A socialist critique.
  • Irish kids everywhere (again).

Playing Ping Pong for the Coach

I learned how to play ping pong on a permanent metal table bolted on a deck in the park behind my house. At night, the sprinkers would leave puddles of water on the table causing the table top to rust and blister. When it got bad enough, a new sheet of metal would be installed with a fresh coat of industrial paint. While the ball didn’t bounce exactly like it does on a wood table (or sound the same), I got good enough at it to where I came in fourth place in the city ping pong tournament. Okay, table tennis, whatever.

The paddles and the net for table provided by a park director who all the kids called “coach.” Coach also provided crayons, construction paper, popsicle sticks, Carroms, chess, checkers, backgammon, playing cards, cribbage, Parcheesi, Trouble, Sorry, basketballs, kickballs, four-square balls, softballs, bats, bases, footballs, flags (tackle football was frowned upon), frisbees, and sometimes donated tennis balls and rackets. I remember the mildewy smell of the coach’s office like Marcel Proust and a lot of the coach’s names: Curt, Pam, Karl, Gary, Jan. My family went to one of their weddings.

When Proposition 9 passed (California) and all of Coach’s salary went kaput, I lost a small piece of faith in humanity.  I couldn’t understand how my city would get rid of all of the city park’s coaches. I felt like my city and state didn’t care about kids. That ping pong table is gone and the city doesn’t even hold ping pong tournaments anymore. You can still be a ping pong champion out of your own pocket, I suppose.

With all of the handwringing over Obama’s stimulus package, get over it. It will be stimulating.

Update: Jay breaks it down in hard numbers.

See also this debunking of the right’s perpetual FDR myths.

Goodbye to a Huge Embarrassment

Last night, I was discussing with friends whether Barack Obama has ever been cheesy. Smile at the camera and say cheese! He is good at that. You could argue the train tour to Washington following Lincoln’s route is a bit cheesy. Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention featured some pretty bombastic and cheesy staging effects. You can talk about some gaffes that were exploited by the opposition and quoted out-of-context. Were they curdling or cringe-worthy? Presidential public relations spin is an old game and the winners are the ones who spend more time on spin than on counter-spin.

Pundits on the right and left are already exclaiming over the change in tone that is descending on Washington. To call it a breath of fresh air is understatement. Anyone can edit together a video of “uh…. uh…” and other stuttering from the podium, however, Obama is never going to rise to the level of red-faced, jaw-dropping, eye-rolling idiocy and embarrassment that George W. Bush has provided the world with for eight years. (h/t David Letterman)

The Blue Park

Smurfs frolic here or they make smurfs here in vats of blueberries with lots of sky, ocean, space, and blue algae. There are aquariums with blue whales, bluefish, and aquatic murals on the walls with all kinds of fish.

I went for a ride today (to 71st and CPW and back if you must know) and my gloves weren’t cutting it. What does arthritis feel like?

Politics are on the backburner for the most part but Ken Silverstein lists the reasons Hillary Clinton should NOT be Secretary of State.

The Wingnuttery of An Actor as President

I’m watching HBO’s production of Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. As others have noted, it would’ve been better if HBO had spent at least a season’s worth of Deadwood-style TV time on it instead of making it a 2.2 hour movie. Given its Hollywood drawbacks (pass the bombast please), we can still consolingly absorb our history vitamins as they are so bestowed on us by those finger-wagging Hollywood elites.

Thompson as Grant
Thompson as Grant

I’m particularly fascinated by Fred Thompson’s portrayal of Ulysses S. Grant, not least because as a youngster my next-door neighbor Roy Engel portrayed President Grant numerous times on Wild Wild West. Lincoln’s bully general (adopter of the scorched earth battlefied tactic) is also buried a few blocks north of me. (Hi Groucho!)

Grant was in the middle of a long line of 19th century Presidents who adopted the yoke of indian removal begun by Andrew Jackson. Grant’s logic in the movie is in agreement with General Sherman’s: We bought the land the Indians are sitting on from the French so it’s ours especially because there’s gold there so it’s our gold. (And those Indians really do freaky things with their tomahawks.) (Note to self: fix image wraparound.)

In this fact-checking and instant polling internet culture, it’s funny when you see the same logical leaps in present-day punditry from Thompson as he appeared on the “circle the wagons” show hosted by Hannity after the 2nd Presidential debate. The GOP talking points have been deemed mostly irrelevant and yet they’re repeated and repeated as though the logic is “Voters won’t get it until we pummel them with repetition.” (Keating Five who?)

And another thing: Failures of irony bug the crap out of me. Another instance of this was over at America’s Shittiest Website™  today where Michael Graham is shocked– ok “informing us”– that an “elite” Harvard professor is suggesting the current administration ignore the constitution one more time but this time, really for the good of the country. Bush went to Yale and some of you people still swing the elite charge around like a dead cat. Meanwhile, a co-chair in the McCain campaign calls himself and Obama “a guy of the street” last week. Connect the ironic elephant dots that are stampeding on your faces.

I’m Not There (but I’m Free)


Be careful of shrinks. If you say the wrong thing (or the right thing depending on your point of view), they will call the cops and put you in the psych ward. There really are shrinks out there who view their job the same way an asshole cop does: whatever it takes to keep the streets free of dirt. Mr. Bad Vibes must not be allowed on television figuratively, or on the 6 o’clock news. Judge, jury, sometimes executioner.

I just watched I’m Not There, Todd Haynes’ brilliant film about Bob Dylan’s life in the 60s and early 70s. Yes, it’s brilliant. I’m listening to Dylan’s 1966 “Royal Albert Hall” concert. I’m behind the curve and need to stay up on these things when they hit the theaters. Anyone with a creative life, who has ever been onstage for an extended gig and has ever had to answer for it, or maybe if you’ve been a critic parsing someone else’s jello nailed to the wall — should have an appreciation for this film. If you’ve ever studied film, this is one for the books. The internets have enough written about it already. Do a google®.

In the commentary, Haynes throws out some zingers during the credits regarding freedom. I believe these were credited to Ginsberg and Rimbaud. “You are free only as long as you are free to say no.” And “No one is free. Even the birds are imprisoned by the sky.”

This brings me full circle to crap I usually talk about in this blog: politics. Bush’s insane “conservative” budget was ramped not just by the war on terror, but by a domestic spying program and police state (severe crowd control techniques) designed to intimidate naysayers into silence, as well as an expensive public relations effort designed to overwhelm naysayers and keep them out of mainstream media. I’m dead certain John McCain would continue expanding these mostly needless expenses that basically burn money and manufacture nothing — a largely overlooked black hole in the American economy. A transparent administration wouldn’t need such frivolity. Barack Obama appreciates that freedom without security is meaningless whereas security without freedom is an oxymoron. Obama embraces dialog and that is a breath of fresh air I can believe in.

George Bush has been the world’s (fascist) asshole cop long enough and needs to get in the shrink chair.

Lighting the Greens (rant)

Oh, the difference a couple of years makes. I had friends and family members recoil in horror at some of the language I used to use to describe President Bush. “Why are you so angry?” they said. I don’t want to be an angry person and if I talk about politics, I’d like to keep it about things like healthcare, education, the environment, and infrastructure (Supertrains!). But I ticked off the 10 Most Awesomely Bad Moments of the Bush Presidency as they happened, and it’s true I got mad. Only now, Mr. Bush has turned the volume up to 11. The most I could ever really muster was to call Bush a fascist.

Here’s me in January.

I don’t get that [some] conservatives call Obama a socialist because he’s going to make only the extremely wealthy pay more taxes. It’s just not trickling down enough. Your precious freedoms aren’t going to be taken away and he’s not going to dismantle the military and the CIA and let extreme Islamism take over. Get a grip.

Religulous Sarah Palin

Buds walk on water
Buds walk on water

I’m listening to Terry Gross interview Bill Maher and Larry Charles (director of Borat) about the movie Religulous. While I haven’t seen it yet, I think I’ve heard enough to talk about it. Maher picks off low-lying fruit by singling out fundamentalist elements of religion but it needs to be done as it is the shrill element of religiousity that makes religion dangerous. People need their stories for moralism and philosophy but when the stories seriously cloud rational judgments about history, current events, and science, and are accepted as truth, they really do belong in a psych ward.

Later in the show, Terry interviews Steven Waldman, co-founder of Beliefnet — probably the closest thing to an objective platform for faith. The main topic of both interviews turned out to be Sarah Palin. There are Youtube videos and statements that raise all kinds of questions that have not yet been asked of Ms. Palin. Like Matt Taibbi, who has a long rant on Palin published at Rolling Stone and Alternet, I think the Palin phenomenon says really disturbing things about the American psyche in general. Here’s Taibbi’s windup:

The truly disgusting thing about Sarah Palin isn’t that she’s totally unqualified, or a religious zealot, or married to a secessionist, or unable to educate her own daughter about sex, or a fake conservative who raised taxes and horked up earmark millions every chance she got. No, the most disgusting thing about her is what she says about us: that you can ram us in the ass for eight solid years, and we’ll not only thank you for your trouble, we’ll sign you up for eight more years, if only you promise to stroke us in the right spot for a few hours around election time.

The Palin nomination really boggles my mind. I don’t think I’ll be watching her debate Joe Biden on Thursday. It’s getting too painful to watch this trainwreck.

Recommended: TPM gathers highlights of several economist views on the Wall Street bailout.