Monday, April 25, 2011

Not Touching Anything but Satin and Dandelions



I won't begin to describe the serendipitous alignment of bleggal coincidences that weight bear this post, but I was going write about this Ian Walsh post before an email from a (first impression? Kind) stranger:

(W)hat happened is that Obama bailed out the rich and the financial industry, who were bankrupt, then refused to prosecute them for systemic fraud.  He did so in a way which left, by and large, the exact same class of people in charge of the financial industry, made the remaining banks bigger and more powerful, restored the wealth of the rich to pre-crisis levels and restored their profits.  Meanwhile employment has still not recovered (ignore the unemployment rate, it is a lie), wages are flat or declining, real inflation is through the roof, the price of oil is skyrocketing and the current discussion in DC is how much the poor and middle class should get screwed out of their Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, in order to keep the rich filthy rich.  Oh, and how much tax cuts the rich should get....

Remember, the question is not “if” this will happen, it is when.  The sooner you get it over with, the sooner you have another chance to get it right, and the less decline the US will have suffered. If President Teabag gets in after 4 years of Obama, the US will be in better shape at the start of his wrecking than it will be if he gets in after 8 years of Obama. Obama is a disaster, who is making things worse, not better.  He’s just making it worse more slowly than a Republican. [emphasis mine]

This is the fourth time I've heard and now read this argument in the past half-week.

Thought experiment! President Frothy Mix of Lube and Fecal Matter is sworn in January 2013, with strong pig majorities in the House, Senate, a majority of governorships and state houses in solid pig hands. 2014 midterms? 2016 general election? Left revival?

I don't agree that that's the best case scenario of ever reviving a potent American Left - I don't think there is a potent American Left (and even if there were, Corporate wouldn't permit it), and I don't think Ian Walsh thinks there's a potent American Left, much less a way to halt America's terminal decline. The question is, is this the best case scenario for the .06% less-shittitarians to revive and prolong the .06% less shittiness, to suffer four years of .06% more shittiness? Which is worse, four more years of Obama laying the groundwork before the Republicans take over or four years of Republican excess before the lesser-Republicans regain control of the spigot?



  • A reminder - all Fleabus photos are by Planet.
  • Washington on the rocks
  • Corporate wins again.
  • The word Pincus is looking for is..... 
  • Unfunny dark comedy.
  • Panopticon.
  • Was thinking of writing more about Billy Don, but I pleased to give drip the last word for now: I looked and looked for a clip of Willy Don, standing in front of his rowhouse in the snow, tears streaming down his cheeks as he expressed his thoughts about the Colts doing the inconceivable. I failed to find one. He was a man who lived without spectacle, but was of it. He lived in complicity, but never gave into it. He loved his little house and his little city and his little state, and weird as he was, he made us love those things, too. The Sun piece was good, which is really hard to believe. YFWaPo spewed its usual drivel. Peace to Willy Don
  • One reason I gave up helmetball is that when motherfucking billionaires steal teams in the middle of the night, they shouldn't be allowed to steal the colors and the name. Los Angeles Raiders Chargers Jaguars Vikings. 
  • Reasons to hate the motherfucking Capitals. Lamest fanbase ever.
  • Heh.
  • People are stupid
  • White flag.




AND IT CAME TO PASS

C.D. Wright

This june 3
would be different

Time to draw lines

I've grown into the family pores
and the bronchitis

Even up east
I get by saying goddamnit

Who was that masked man
I left for dead
in the shadow of mt. shadow

Who crumbles there

Not touching anything
but satin and dandelions

Not laid his eyes
on the likes of you

Because the unconnected life
is not worth living

Thorntrees overtake the spot

Hands appear to push back pain

Because no poet's death

Can be the sole author
of another poet's life

What will my new instrument be

Just this water glass
this untunable spoon

Something else is out there
goddamnit

And I want to hear it


9 comments:

  1. Fuck you.

    (/bait-bite)

    It's like I said. A DC club lost the one expendable game to a NY club last week. Another DC club won the important ones. Go back to Smoketown, yinzer.

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  2. Heh!

    I'm glad for your sake they won, but I dread the bandwagoneering of (not you) fake fans if they keep winning. If you didn't give a damn when they sucked, your damn now is worthless.

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  3. Your animosity toward the GOP is a blind spot. You imagine they're worse. Your apostasy is incomplete. Living in DC you know absolutely nothing of the lower class "rednecks" you love to hate. They're an easy target for your ire. A simple scapegoat.

    Clinging to lesser evilism is embarrassing when you're a person of fairly remarkable intelligence. But it's not embarrassing when your blindspot covers the problem while engaged in self-examination.

    Your musical tastes are interesting but they don't make up for the broadcast blaming of Your Chosen Hated Enemy Tribe.

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  4. Dude, what's with the anonymity? You're always welcome here.

    All you say is true. I've been working on it. I've never denied my prejudices. The whole point of the post (every post) is to examine them.

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  5. I hate to burst your new BFF's bubble, but "Obama" did not "bail out the rich and financial industry." Um, that was Bush & Paulson.

    re: failure to prosecute. Have you ever prepared a prosecution? Do you know how fairly certain you must be to even bring such an action? How prepared? Do you know how much more so when the other side's got $750/hr defense attys? You can't just prosecute an industry. "Systemic fraud": what even is that? where is that in the code? Maybe Obama should prosecute hedge fund managers for being douches and assholes.

    The clusterfuck was so clusterfucked when O became Pres. that your commenter is simply naive (if not delusional) to believe that anyone (even a Stalin-type strongman—which seems to be what he's longing for) could've turned it around in what? 2.5 yrs against all the entrenched (for nearly three decades) interests lined up against him.

    Not saying I'm ecstatic about "the direction the country is going", as the latest talking point poll phrases it, but I do feel perspective is important. And context. Oh, and facts.

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  6. One reason I gave up helmetball is that when motherfucking billionaires steal teams in the middle of the night, they shouldn't be allowed to steal the colors and the name. Los Angeles Raiders Chargers Jaguars Vikings.

    [strike]Brooklyn[/strike] L.A. Dodgers. That's what set my dad against baseball.

    P.S. Eff blooger for not allowing the strike tag in common tation!
    ~

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  7. Landru said it. But coming from a person who sat in the damn Capital Center many a night with half the seats empty, you don't get to trash me because there's a little temporary happy to be had. Besides Abe deserves better.

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  8. Abe deserves better, but the Caps are not some cellar dwelling dawgs. They are choking dogs. I hope they get the Habs and then the Pens and the Squid Chuckers and free themselves of the well-earned tag. Not that I'll watch.

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  9. I blame bandwagon fans for the direction of our economy and policy both foreign and domestic.

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