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Feb 11, 2019
The War On Socialism
Cult45 believes the old formula of assigning scary wording to the Dems is how they'll bulldoze their way through and stay in power.
Call it whatever your fragile little ego requires, but Socialism is a pretty great thing when it shows up and arrests the guy trying to rob your liquor store.
Or when it makes sure a homeless veteran gets a hot meal and enough medical care to keep him from attempting suicide.
Or when it sends a helicopter to rescue your neighbor and his family, who're stranded on their roof because of a flash flood.
Or when it takes some of the burden off some old guy struggling to pay for the 12 or 15 pills he has to take every day to stay alive.
Or when it comes in after a big snow and clears the streets so we can all get to our jobs.
Or when it gathers a few bucks from lots of different people so you can get your car fixed after some dumb fuckin' drunk sideswipes it in the parking lot.
Or or fucking or.
So first off, we have to stop being afraid of words, and start using them to turn this shit back around.
EJ Dionne, WaPo:
“We socialists are trying to save capitalism, and the damned capitalists won’t let us.”
Political scientist Mason B. Williams cited this cheeky but accurate comment by New Deal lawyer Jerome Frank to make a point easily lost in the new war on socialism that President Trump has launched: Socialism goes back a long way in the United States, and it has taken doses of it to keep the market system alive.
Going back to the late 19th century, Americans and Europeans, socialists and liberal reformers, worked together to humanize the system’s workings and to find creative ways to solve problems capitalism alone couldn’t. This has been well documented in separate books written by historians Daniel T. Rodgers and James T. Kloppenberg. “The New Deal,” Rodgers wrote, “was a great, explosive release of the pent-up agenda of the progressive past.”
Capitalism is the closest approximation of the "natural order of things" - and that's good - it works really well. But once in a while, we have to reassert the rules to keep the capitalists from ruining capitalism.
Call it whatever your fragile little ego requires, but Socialism is a pretty great thing when it shows up and arrests the guy trying to rob your liquor store.
Or when it makes sure a homeless veteran gets a hot meal and enough medical care to keep him from attempting suicide.
Or when it sends a helicopter to rescue your neighbor and his family, who're stranded on their roof because of a flash flood.
Or when it takes some of the burden off some old guy struggling to pay for the 12 or 15 pills he has to take every day to stay alive.
Or when it comes in after a big snow and clears the streets so we can all get to our jobs.
Or when it gathers a few bucks from lots of different people so you can get your car fixed after some dumb fuckin' drunk sideswipes it in the parking lot.
Or or fucking or.
So first off, we have to stop being afraid of words, and start using them to turn this shit back around.
EJ Dionne, WaPo:
“We socialists are trying to save capitalism, and the damned capitalists won’t let us.”
Political scientist Mason B. Williams cited this cheeky but accurate comment by New Deal lawyer Jerome Frank to make a point easily lost in the new war on socialism that President Trump has launched: Socialism goes back a long way in the United States, and it has taken doses of it to keep the market system alive.
Going back to the late 19th century, Americans and Europeans, socialists and liberal reformers, worked together to humanize the system’s workings and to find creative ways to solve problems capitalism alone couldn’t. This has been well documented in separate books written by historians Daniel T. Rodgers and James T. Kloppenberg. “The New Deal,” Rodgers wrote, “was a great, explosive release of the pent-up agenda of the progressive past.”
Capitalism is the closest approximation of the "natural order of things" - and that's good - it works really well. But once in a while, we have to reassert the rules to keep the capitalists from ruining capitalism.
Anyway, the short and sweet version is: I have to take in a number of calories sufficient to fuel the work required to go out and find my next meal. ie: I have to make some kind of profit to sustain my existence.
So I'm a capitalist because god's a capitalist.
But part of the deal - the part always ignored by the Unfettered Free Market pimps - is that god also insists on appropriate regulation to keep things in balance. And also too, god gave me a brain that I can use to sort these things out.
But part of the deal - the part always ignored by the Unfettered Free Market pimps - is that god also insists on appropriate regulation to keep things in balance. And also too, god gave me a brain that I can use to sort these things out.
- Blood sugar - Insulin
- Adrenalin - REM sleep
- Shivers - Sweats
These are all really great things, but too much of one &/or not enough of the other makes me - uhh - dead.
Capitalism is a good thing, but without a good regulatory system in place, it becomes exactly the problem this country was founded to defeat.
What's so fuckin' hard to understand about this?
Feb 10, 2019
Today's Tweet
Fun with Photo Shop
I wanted to see what would happen if I took the natural skin color from around his eyes and applied it to the rest of his face and took away the comb over and hair dye. So I guess this is what donald would look like if he was a normal man. pic.twitter.com/nnMTC1fNJc— Stone Cold (@stonecold2050) February 9, 2019
It All Ends Up In The Shitter
Virginia has great history - and unfortunately, way too much of that history is all about how fucked up America can be.
We've been working pretty hard to move ourselves away from the shittier parts of our past.
Then things like this come up and we have to deal with the reality of having not properly confronted those shittier parts - how we still just try to sweep them aside and hope the wounds won't fester too badly.
This continues to be a real embarrassment, but at least SNL can find some funny. And that helps a bit.
We've been working pretty hard to move ourselves away from the shittier parts of our past.
Then things like this come up and we have to deal with the reality of having not properly confronted those shittier parts - how we still just try to sweep them aside and hope the wounds won't fester too badly.
This continues to be a real embarrassment, but at least SNL can find some funny. And that helps a bit.
Are You Sorry?
What will you say when she calls to tell you about her diagnosis of cervical cancer, that could've been prevented, but you were afraid to get her the HPV vaccination as a teenager?
How will you justify your decision to skip the vaccination that would've kept your son from becoming infertile now that he's contracted mumps as a young adult?
And how do you break the news that their grandma won't be coming home from the hospital because you refused to get your kids vaccinated for the flu?
Will you still insist that those "childhood diseases" aren't all that serious; that your gluten-free home-cooked organic cuisine should've been enough to protect them - and it's all Monsanto's fault anyway?
How sorry are you?
Feb 9, 2019
Podcast
Episode 479
- Governing Magazine
- Story-telling
- Celebrity Blogger Feud
And BTW - looks like even Bill Maher is catching up with Driftglass and Blue Gal:
Today's Tweet
Also Today's Grammar Nazi Award (and a bit of a stealthy burn too).
I realize this is a minor point in the grand scheme of things, but dear grammar gods people, it's "dick pics" not "dick picks." We're talking PICtures, not a smorgasbord. #BezosBlackmail— Shelly King (@shelbelle94) February 8, 2019
Feb 8, 2019
Take Me Back
...to the good ol' days when we had to think a little in order to make shit up - the good shit anyway. I would trade it all for the chance to send Cult45 back to the comic books.
Cuz speaking of shit we can just make up -
When Lex Luthor became president, he announced a policy of moving the government away from the use of fossil fuels, and then severed all ties between the government and his own companies.
Donald Trump lacks the foresight and the integrity of a fucking comic book villain.
Oh Those Crazy Rich Guys
Let's just agree that sometimes, the whole Reign Of Terror thing seems like a pretty good idea.
But at least I can say Jeff Bezos seems to be taking his stewardship responsibilities seriously.
That doesn't make him the good guy in the overall drama of How These Rich Pricks Ate My Democracy, but it scores him a few points. I'm just not going to praise him for being less than a complete asshole. The guy works hard, and he's done some good things, but when just a few people win dominance over too much of our economy, it always ends up up being very bad for everybody.
Here's the take on Jeff Bezos vs David Pecker via The Medium:
Something unusual happened to me yesterday. Actually, for me it wasn’t just unusual — it was a first. I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse. Or at least that’s what the top people at the National Enquirer thought. I’m glad they thought that, because it emboldened them to put it all in writing. Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I’ve decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten.
AMI, the owner of the National Enquirer, led by David Pecker, recently entered into an immunity deal with the Department of Justice related to their role in the so-called “Catch and Kill” process on behalf of President Trump and his election campaign. Mr. Pecker and his company have also been investigated for various actions they’ve taken on behalf of the Saudi Government.
But at least I can say Jeff Bezos seems to be taking his stewardship responsibilities seriously.
That doesn't make him the good guy in the overall drama of How These Rich Pricks Ate My Democracy, but it scores him a few points. I'm just not going to praise him for being less than a complete asshole. The guy works hard, and he's done some good things, but when just a few people win dominance over too much of our economy, it always ends up up being very bad for everybody.
Here's the take on Jeff Bezos vs David Pecker via The Medium:
AMI, the owner of the National Enquirer, led by David Pecker, recently entered into an immunity deal with the Department of Justice related to their role in the so-called “Catch and Kill” process on behalf of President Trump and his election campaign. Mr. Pecker and his company have also been investigated for various actions they’ve taken on behalf of the Saudi Government.
- and -
Here’s a piece of context: My ownership of the Washington Post is a complexifier for me. It’s unavoidable that certain powerful people who experience Washington Post news coverage will wrongly conclude I am their enemy.
President Trump is one of those people, obvious by his many tweets. Also, The Post’s essential and unrelenting coverage of the murder of its columnist Jamal Khashoggi is undoubtedly unpopular in certain circles.
(Even though The Post is a complexifier for me, I do not at all regret my investment. The Post is a critical institution with a critical mission. My stewardship of The Post and my support of its mission, which will remain unswerving, is something I will be most proud of when I’m 90 and reviewing my life, if I’m lucky enough to live that long, regardless of any complexities it creates for me.)
President Trump is one of those people, obvious by his many tweets. Also, The Post’s essential and unrelenting coverage of the murder of its columnist Jamal Khashoggi is undoubtedly unpopular in certain circles.
(Even though The Post is a complexifier for me, I do not at all regret my investment. The Post is a critical institution with a critical mission. My stewardship of The Post and my support of its mission, which will remain unswerving, is something I will be most proud of when I’m 90 and reviewing my life, if I’m lucky enough to live that long, regardless of any complexities it creates for me.)
I think the main point that comes of this is that we'll be able to concentrate a lot of fire on the truly shitty practice of Politically Weaponizing The Press.
We need to get back to understanding how damaging Yellow Journalism is, and I find it hard to believe I'm the only one who seems to remember learning about this shit back in high school.
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