Displaying 3,241 To 3,270 Of 3,373 Comments Religious Right Holds “Prayercast” To Stop Health Care Bill doffs hat, to Kalima and Khirad and Emerald! » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 18, 2009 @ 1:15 am Since most CINOs (Christians in name only) can’t even tell you all of the Ten Commandments, here’s a list they could probably be convinced come from the Big Guy Himself Thou Shalt Not be a Communist or a Socialist » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 18, 2009 @ 1:14 am Our Senator, who art in Connecticut, » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 18, 2009 @ 12:37 am A Mandate for Civil Disobedience This is such a great article! My personal feeling is that “Television” and “The Commercialism of Damn Near Everything” represent the most damaging factors. Bundle them up and call it “The Entertainment Industry”. Simply put, we spend too much time being entertained! There are people who spend more time thinking about Beyonce or LeBron James or Peyton Manning or Quentin Tarantino than anyone in their own, real lives. They will never meet these people! They will certainly never meet the Captain Jack Sparrows or Jack Bauers either, because they don’t even exist! When you get people disconnecting from reality and “connecting” to a fantasy world, then you’ve basically got them. They won’t revolt. They are, more or less, content. Monday Nite Football comes around, with its heroes and villains and people we wish we were, and all is well. And we’ll have something to talk about at work the next day too! Wudja think of the game? Wudja think of the hotties on the beer commercial? Thomas Paine, Samuel Adams, et al never had such discussions. » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 17, 2009 @ 12:13 am I’m probably way more cynical than you about this, in thinking that there are a fair number of Dems (not just Liar Men Be) who want this to pass not as a superficial political victory but as a giveaway to the insurance companies. But whether the majority of the “deal, any deal” lawmakers are merely hapless or truly ruthless, the fact doesn’t change. This thing is starting to stink too much to bring inside. » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 16, 2009 @ 11:58 pm Yes, yes yes! Not all steps are created equal! » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 16, 2009 @ 11:52 pm That’s what I mean too. We mustn’t let this be just another example of Washington railroading people. We have to get out of this fog they are trying to keep us in, stressing out as one “disaster” after another looms on our horizon. The financial bail-out is a case in point. It has become conventional wisdom now that we closely averted a Great Depression. Whew! We were LUCKY! So lucky that Bernanke got to be Time’s Person of the Year. Well, wait a minute. Financial disasters don’t just happen, like North Korean leaders going nuts or asteroids dropping into the Pacific or something. They happen as a matter of bad regulating, bad policies, bad, short sighted bubble creation, and a host of other bads. Smart people connected to the industry, like Bernanke, had as many warnings as they could possibly have wanted; had they chosen to do something earlier, sounded the alarm earlier, they could have. But they didn’t and we were suddenly assaulted with the language of Disaster Capitalism. “Global Meltdown”, “Another Great Depression”. Horrors! We had “no choice” but to let the same guys that should have seen to it that things never got as bad as they did suddenly change into the saviors who set the terms of the transaction. Sure, we wanted to see the money go directly to the people, even if that meant nationalizing the biggest banks, but that would have been too, I forget, what would that have been “too” again? Nope, we had to put the “adults in charge” because the risks were too great. We didn’t like the deals they made, but there was no time to think through other options. Can we NOT do that this time? This is a clear case of needing to take HC back to the drawing board. Let it take more time. Don’t let anyone in Washington turn this into a rush job. It isn’t. Something worth doing is worth doing right, well and fairly. And the reverse is also true, that something worth doing is worth too much to do it stupidly, badly and unjustly. And that, sadly, is what we are seeing here. » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 16, 2009 @ 11:17 pm Yes. » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 16, 2009 @ 10:41 pm People need to see that we are now living in the Age of Disaster Capitalism, as Naomi Klein warns us so compellingly. This HC “compromise” is just another example of people stoked to the point of throwing up their hands and impatiently sighing, “Well, we gotta do SOMETHING!” If we don’t, we are assured, the country will go blooey. » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 16, 2009 @ 10:39 pm The point is not only that there is, what you say, a huge difference in the parties (I’m not sure it’s big enough to merit that description). It is also that we, as citizens, must not let that become a form of blackmail that enables the Democrats to get away with pulling crap on us. People on the other side most certainly feel the same way, that the Republicans aren’t perfect, but ANYTHING is better than those “terrible Democrats”. Thus do both parties behave like the nations in “Nineteen Eighty Four”, using the odiousness of the opposing party as an allowance to behave dreadfully. We become like frogs slowly boiling in a pond, and when some of the frogs start saying they are ready to bail on the pond and go look for another place to live, their fellow frogs tell them, “But you’ll die so much more quickly if you leave! Besides, we need you to stand with us and keep yelling at the sun so that it starts paying attention to us and treats us better!” And the bailing frogs think, “Uh, good luck with that!” » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 16, 2009 @ 10:51 pm My personal feeling is that what is so often characterized as impatience with Obama (and called childish and selfish and even racist) is often (not always, certainly) something else entirely. It is a growing sense that without a viable third party, a truly populist party, this countries is basically doomed. It’s not simply a matter of giving President Obama more time. It is seeing the banks and financial institutions, military and insurance company, and the media, always the media, drive so much of the debate and control so many levers that there is increasingly little evidence that the Democrats and the Republicans aren’t more like Oceania and Eurasia in Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty Four”, self serving entities that seem to hate each other and are really in cahoots – against us! » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 16, 2009 @ 3:20 pm In the book, “Freakonomics”, the authors describe how the KKK was wounded by a couple infiltrators who managed to get the inane language and customs the Klansmen used out in the open. People started to feel the Klan was less like a dark, mysterious “secret society” and more like a bad joke. So membership declined! The authors make the point that it wasn’t so much the humiliation, as it was the removing of the veil of secrecy, the asymmetrical information, that wounded the Klan. We have to damage the IMAGE of Greed Kings. We have to powerfully push the meme that big shots are not true “winners” just cuz they have fancy houses and glamorous trophy wives and mistresses. We have to make them ashamed of themselves, ashamed of the life they are living, selling out the country. They need to become a bad joke. They need to appear more like Elmer Fudd and less like Hannibal Lector in the public mind. Michael Moore is the best person out there doing this, but he can’t do it alone. When screwing the country for personal gain is seen to be as distasteful and humiliating, thought to be beneath real men, as the limp Klan handshake, the Greed Kings will start to change their tune. » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 17, 2009 @ 12:46 am A very dark and depressing day in Montana What a great read that is! Thanks for posting. Capitalism as it is being practiced now, especially in the U.S. it appears, is overwhelmingly predatory. What you are talking about is a symbiotic economic structure, very far from where things are now and where they are heading. We have to switch tracks, fast! » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 16, 2009 @ 12:19 am Thanks, AdLib. I really like the way he talks. Smart, plain, no B.S. and calling folks out for what they are. “beholden to the insurance companies”, it doesn’t get any plainer than that. Liar Men Be (think about the letters), but so do men and women of integrity and grit like Howard Dean. » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 16, 2009 @ 1:19 am It’s Time To Rethink Re-Instituting the Universal Draft I’d say you’re on to something, and I think Robert Duvall, Bruce Willis, and Clint Eastwood should lead you guys into battle. I love the smell of Preparation H in the morning! It smells like…..victory! » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 13, 2009 @ 9:34 pm Really beautiful and insightful work, TRP. And beautifully presented. I don’t read much poetry, but write songs myself, and I appreciate your imagery, meter and the natralness and economy of the language. Or, I COULD lie and say it’s crap…. » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 13, 2009 @ 9:53 pm If the MSM decides that they don’t want you to win, because you will actually challenge the power structure of which they are a key component, they will find some way to smear you, and we all have foibles to be ridiculed. It wasn’t the UFO he saw, but the threat he represents, that brought on the pillorying. In this day, it’s not so much a lie, as a damning characterization, that gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to tie its shoes. » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 13, 2009 @ 8:47 pm I have to head out the door, now, but I am very interested and will definitely read and lie/and/or honestly comment later! » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 13, 2009 @ 6:00 pm I don’t talk about this much, and am not sure many would agree with me, but I truly think it’s downright weird how much time people spend simply being entertained! It defies, and probably thwarts, our evolution as a species. When you hear someone talking about not a television SHOW, but a COMMERCIAL they found entertaining, you know we’re in trouble! » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 13, 2009 @ 5:59 pm I just finished re-reading it. It’s extraordinary how spot on it is in some aspects. And there’s always John Lennon: Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 13, 2009 @ 5:38 pm Wow! What a read that is! It’s chilling. » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 13, 2009 @ 5:30 pm Dennis Kucinich would have pushed hard and fearlessly for that reckoning as president. Which is why he never stood a chance, and the MSM wasted no time in reducing him to a UFO gawking joke who was out of touch with mainstream Americans. That was THEIR story, not the truth, but in this day and age the Media is the Message. A good two thirds of the nation felt exactly as you do now, if not more. The two party system in America has become so self serving its almost Orwellian. » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 13, 2009 @ 3:58 pm Un(der)reported News—Weekend Edition Me too. As a species, we REALLY need to evolve past the point where we overlook the suffering we inflict on animals throughout their whole lives for the sake of the temporary, and dubious, relief that their suffering provides us with. » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 12, 2009 @ 8:23 pm This is such a sickening practice. It brings to mind the words of Isaac Bashevis Singer: » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 12, 2009 @ 7:15 pm Thoughts on the Bailout Reporting—FWIW Department It was another example of what Naomi Klein calls “disaster capitalism”. Do this one thing, NOW, or country go blooey! And of course the people saying that were the ones who had the most to gain from it. This has to be seen and recognized for what it was, because we can expect more. The lines from a Crack the Sky song, come to mind, “When they spit do you wipe the floor and pray that they don’t spit no more?” » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 13, 2009 @ 6:20 am Yeah, I hear that. We all need to stay focused on that early spirit, that we were taking our country back and not a minute too soon. I can understand your disappointment. » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 13, 2009 @ 5:00 am That’s a valid point. But the counterpoint to that view is that if the previous administration’s behavior taught us anything, it is that we should be very skeptical of the actions of our leaders, and the justifications and rationales they give for them. Unlike Britney Spears speaking about Bush and saying, “I think we should just trust our president”. Why, for example, won’t the Obama administration sign on to the landmine ban agreement, which even without the US signature saves thousands of lives per year? To protect South Korea? The thugs who rule North Korea don’t want to really invade South Korea, they just want to use it as a way to hold their people in thrall. They don’t even know how to run their OWN country, much less take over and run another. Their main interest is most likely to keep a steady supply of caviar, champagne and women flowing into their lives. And if landmines were eliminated, the agricultural output of Vietnam and Cambodia would greatly increase, bringing revenue to impoverished people in those countries which have suffered so much. I don’t see it as selfish to raise objections to decisions such as that. » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 13, 2009 @ 1:43 am It’s a point worth sticking to! But I continue to disagree with you, and feel that I DO understand why people had higher hopes, and so suffer a greater letdown. Perhaps his slogans should have been, “Slow, Incremental Change that sometimes doesn’t even SEEM like change, that we can continue to believe in for a long time until it manifests towards the midpoint of my term!” and “Yes, We CAN, but we won’t, always…” although I think I can understand the rationale behind not doing so. » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 12, 2009 @ 10:50 pm I do disagree with that point, that he is “no different”. Although I dislike the use of the word “betrayal” in the title, I think this article from FDL puts it far more eloquently than I could. http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/18450 » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 12, 2009 @ 10:27 pm I argued against her rhetorical style, which, to me, included sweeping generalizations and straw men argumentation (at least the original post I commented on). I’m sure you will agree it is appropriate to take issue with that, regardless of whether or not you think I’m right about what she wrote. » Posted By whatsthatsound On December 12, 2009 @ 9:46 pmComments Posted By whatsthatsound
Thou Shalt Not Kill, Unless it Be-ith to Win Some Stupid War
Thou Shalt Not Vote For a Democrat, Whom I Loveth Not
Thou Shalt Observe the Sabbath, So that Thou Shall Be Able to Watch NASCAR, which I Holdeth in High Esteem
Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery; Indeed, Thou Shalt Not Even Act Like an Adult
Thou Shalt Bear Arms
etc,
Lieberman be thy name;
Thy principles none, thy will be done
in the House as it is in the Senate
….
We were assured by Bush and Condi that if we didn’t do SOMETHING (attack the country that produced not a single 9/11 killer), we might see an American city do a Dr. Strangelove.
We were assured by Obama’s financial advisors that if we didn’t do SOMETHING (which turned out to be a no strings bailout of Wall Street, and a no dice kiss-off to Main Street) we would end up with a Great Depression on our hands.
We are now assured that if we don’t do SOMETHING (starting to look like that means letting the insurance companies lick the plate of what’s left of the American middle class), we’ll be in big trouble, and (for Dems only) Sarah Palin can start picking out her ’12 WH curtains.
Notice how the SOMETHING these memes present us with seem to somehow always serve the elites, the militarists and arms producers, the financial overlords, the corporations. Notice how the media spreads the memes that there is no time to think, something must be done NOW, something disagreeable but necessary, so hold your noses and sign on the dotted line.
People felt, however naively, that Obama’s election would offer convincing evidence that this was not the case. And the evidence so far has been less than convincing, assuredly.So if the choice is to continue to “have his back” and convince ourselves that Democrats are our best hope, or to begin to think outside the box about that, and envision a true anti-status quo, people-serving party for this country, then I personally feel that those who choose the latter should be respected and encouraged.
Another book worth reading is “The Ugly American”. It describes how people in totalitarian dictatorships were able to get certain information out that damaged the image of the leaders.
and you think you’re so clever and classless and free
but you’re still f***ing peasants as far as I can see
I think part of it has to do with the ascendancy of the entertainment industry. People in colonial America and Bourbon France had more time and less distractions. Nowadays, people move from day to day with shows to watch, music to listen to and teams to root for. And then all of those things to talk with friends about. It’s like Huxley’s “Brave New World”, where the masses have been lulled into inactivity. Not with a bang, with a remote control.
“”In relation to [animals], all people are Nazis; for the animals, it is an eternal Treblinka”
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