Why I love My Brother

Because he sends me stuff like this.... priceless..

Millennials Speak

 

 

From today's NYTimes, in response to a Blow article disparaging those who support Bernie as urealistic.

 Mike C

New York 2 hours ago

What frustrates me as a millennial is that I was brought up being told that Franklin D. Roosevelt was one of the greatest presidents in history because he was so liberal, and not just for his time. His economic bill of rights (which sadly never saw the light of day) guaranteed, among other things, that every citizen in the country has the right to a paying job. Many living politicians in the Democratic establishment sing the praises of President Roosevelt, calling him one of the greatest presidents to ever live, comparing him to Lincoln, and claiming that the New Deal saved the country from economic ruin. He was so popular that the Constitution was amended so that no future president could be elected as many times as he was.

Now, seventy years after President Roosevelt died, a candidate comes along with an awfully similar message, and the Democratic establishment completely turns their backs him. So it's become very easy to see where the rhetoric ends, and where Democrats (including you, Mr. Blow) actually stand on liberal policy.

And don't lecture me about how his agenda will never get passed. The New Deal didn't exactly sail through Congress, and a lot of what did got struck down by the Supreme Court. FDR was called a tyrant and a communist, among other things. Still, his courage, his leadership, and the boldness of his vision survive, despite the political realities of his time--it lives on in Bernie Sanders, not Hillary Clinton. 

Yeah, what he said....

Still walkin the walk..

Still my hero. With a message we all need to hear, especially those of us over 50. The jaded many. Where did America's middle class come from? Here's one answer, and one we would all do well to remember this year.   History, it's where we are and it's what we make it. Each of us.

Nobody from CSRL on Vimeo.


And Bill Clinton is still an asshole.

Happy Chinese Lunar New Year

And the Year of the Monkey too.  Time to burn those shreds of buddhists flags waving in the wind on my back porch.  Intentions scattered to the winds...

Reading The New Yorker online this morning..   All that money for a few slick Super Bowl ads;  embarassing those Super Bowl babies, for them I mean.  Wouldn't you think?  And what kind of a country spends millions on silly, not to say desperate, ads for a ball game when so many have not a pot to piss in, can't see a doctor, have no home, are living on starch courtesy of ADM, are trying to start a life burdened with crushing school debt and lousy pay. It's freakishly Roman.

There's so much going on in the world – plus this is an election year in the US and I'm in the middle of house restoration – I thought that rather than feel obliged to write something original I'd just post items of interest here on the off chance anyone visiting might find them interesting.  You know... rather than just post nothing at all...

There was the Gloria Steinem/ Bill Maher kerfuffle this weekend... Talk about tempest in a teapot. As usual Gloria – poorly understood by those looking to pick a fight over nothing and too full of themselves and impatient to let her finish a sentence – is heaped with disdain by self-righteous, spoiled young feminstas...   but why bother..

When I read the New York Times, which I do almost daily despite their fawningly pro- Hilary position – jeez, you'd think Bernie was an also- ran, and if Ralph is right he may soon be – I am always more impressed with the Comments submitted by readers; their insight, intelligence and honesty so often outshine the content of the articles they're responding to.

Here's a recent  Times commenter whose thoughts struck me as remarkably to the point, or right on, if you will....

"gregrocker l.a. 35 minutes ago
I listened to much of the rise of talk radio during the 80's and 90's where GOP operatives simultaneously dumbed down and organized up the most ignorant third of the country. At the end of a day of Rush, Sean, Michael and [insert local hothead] they tucked the listeners in with an all-night UFO show. It was all the same piece.

It became less funny which their perfect icon George W Bush was elected President off the cover of Mad Magazine, but yet I still listened fascinated because I knew these people, had escaped from the midwest Ozarks and South where ignorance is enforced with guns and nearly weekly terrorist attacks emanate documented for decades by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

And now the convergence of the Fox News willfully ignorant 1/3 with the Entertainment-replaces-Reality Reagan redux which absorbs another third, the master showman and Ringmaster of Circus Bizarro about to pump that majority into another Presidency of flimflam, nonsense, magical thinking, contempt of the whole world. There is no civic involvement, just hordes drawn to the show like bloodthirsty Romans in the Coliseum.

The slim hope falls to the remaining third to create such a movement and roar against such ignorance and for the future that it captures the attention and wakes up some of the others. Doubtful if it would be Hillary that could do this, but Bernie could possibly lead by teaching what real citizenship is, how great nations conduct themselves and invest properly."

Right on, there, gregrocker

Peace.

A Heartbeat Away?

Stoned to the bone.

Did she get her lips done?

Or is it just a problem with facial muscle control?

Happy Birthday, Monsieur Voltaire!

‎"Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.”

― Voltaire

 

 Voltaire is one of my first tier heroes. Reading about him today, this little ditty from childhood popped into my head.

"Chantons, chantons, sing a little Paris song...

 Chantons, chantons, everybody sing along...

Let's all sing when any little thing goes wrong!

Toodle oodle oo, toodle oodle lay

 Everyone chantez, chantez

Tooodle oodle oo, toodle oodle lay

Everyone chantez!"

    It's a silly song, nonetheless imprinted indelibly on my cerebrum, never to be erased.

It was odd, but after the disaster in Paris on November 13, my first thought was that I was not where I was supposed to be, that rather than rejoice I wasn't in Paris that night,  as one might expect, I felt misplaced, as though I'd abandoned that city I adore, let it down somehow by my absence.

  I adore the French for a number of reasons, some of which were nobly exemplified by several citizens  interviewed on the streets soon after the disaster; so very French in their determination to endure and carry on without bitterness or rancor, no "dead or alive" threats of vengeance ... preserving that joie de vivre even in mourning, and this from a people who in the last century have known brutal oppression, who have good reason to be bitter, but instead choose to sing in the lifeboats.

Alors: Vive la France! Je t'aime.

Encore, L' hero

Still my guy, Yanis (and the new Pope, of course – who called money "the devil's dung", I mean, seriously, this guy is cool, but that's for another day... Though the two of them should rule the world).  Below: powerful language, right on the money, from a recent speech to French citizens by the ever brilliant Yanis Varoufakis, the entire text of which may be found here.

Now wonder the financiers are so afraid of this guy.

"It is not true that our creditors are interested in getting their money back from the Greek state. Or that they want to see Greece reformed. If they were, they would have discussed seriously our proposals for restructuring Greece’s public debt in a manner ensuring that they get most of it back. But they could not care less. They instead insisted on our surrender. It was the only thing they cared about. They cared uniquely about one thing: To confirm Dr Schauble’s dictum that elections cannot be allowed to change anything in Europe. That democracy ends where insolvency begins. That proud nations facing debt issues must be condemned to a debt prison within which it is impossible to produce the wealth necessary to repay their debts and get out of jail. And so it is that Europe is turning from our common home to our shared iron cage."

.... whew!.... "shared iron cage" indeed.  Bernie Sanders could borrow that phrase when he talks to debt- ridden Americans, college students, their parents, and those who've lost everything because of greedy bankers, politicians, and loan sharks. Treat yourself to Yanis' entire speech, linked above. This is the kind of powerful, honest language we never see from leaders anymore. The kind of language that stirs a nation to take off the blinders, see problems clearly, and act to remedy them. (If you want to see a perfect example of the opposite, try the Steve Jobs documentary and iPhone users reactions to the Foxcomm worker revelations). The Greeks did, to the tune of 62%, before they were betrayed.  

Listening to a recent panel discussion (you can find many posts of Yanis' lectures, etc, here on his blog), I was gobsmacked to hear him describe the current economic argument among the euro countries in terms of Catholic versus Calvinist. Yes! thought I.  These terms perfectly encapsulate the political tensions among Americans, or, more accurately, between old school Repub/ Democrats and the new breed of neocon/neoliberals who occupy what the media refer to as the (formerly actual, now well right of) center.  The entire argument between the haves and have nots is absolutely religion based: the Catholic position being one of wealth that should be widely shared (late-arriving immigrants' cultural tradition), and the neo-Calvinists (early arrivals, stern, Puritan types, etc., now with a modern "I've got mine" twist), a philosophy rooted in the idea that you are poor because you're not among God's chosen, i.e., you're a sinner, not "saved" (by Southern standards) therefore, poor.  Therefore, irresponsible, can't be trusted with anything, especially money.

Once Reagan had everyone drinking from the "greed is good" trough, putting the ol' Christian notion that "greed is bad" to rest, the 90s Republican party kicked the neo-Calvinist ideal into high gear, The Bush team made it part of the "legitimate" political argument. Throw in a dose of Rovian stage direction and a few years of Faux News and you have a whole new idea of what it means to be a Christian.
So I get what Yanis means when he employs the Catholic versus Calvinist metaphor. And I think he's onto something there. I never could figure out why the neo-cons claimed ownership of the Bible as rationale for punishing women and the poor, when if Jesus was kind and loving and generous to and non-judgmental of anyone it was women and the poor. Not to mention "suffer the little children" and all. And does anyone really think a roaming philosopher who traveled around with twelve male devotees  would have a problem if one of that clan was gay?  Or, more likely, two? Gimmie a break. Jesus liked the gals... you could tell.  He loved children, he was most compassionate toward those who had nothing, most forgiving toward the fuckups, he said they'd all inherit the earth. That the last will be first. Not once did he ever mention or imply that financial success was the measure of a human being. In fact, isn't it more difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle? (He sure had a way with a simile, didn't He?) And I seem to recall he didn't think much of money lenders either.... 

I've had it with all this neo-Calvinist crap. It's been nearly four decades of this baloney argument here in America. It is no sin to be poor. It can be one to be rich, depending on how you got there.

So, Bless you, Yanis. Yanis for President of the World!  Pay attention, folks. This guy ain't goin nowhere. He'll be back. (sigh....)