A Trend?

Check this out at Daily Beast.

There are a lot of program directors whose radio ‘spider-sense’ is tingling,” says Randall Bloomquist, a long-time radio executive and president of Talk Frontier Media. “They're thinking ‘this conservative thing is kind of running its course. We're saying the same things from morning 'til night and yes, we've got a very loyal core audience—but if we ever want to grow, if we want to expand, we've got to be doing more than 18 hours a day of ‘Obama is a socialist.’”

This could be pretty interesting.  Though I think if their ratings continue to drop, they'll just get even more rabid.  When the marketing dweebs are consulted, they're likely to tell these guys to stick with the formula.  Radical Clown Radio doesn't differ much from the GOP.  In fact, the business of wingnut radio and politics are practically the same thing.  So when you start to lose market share, the instinctive reaction is to "rediscover your core competency" and concentrate on solidifying your base.  This is all well and good, but eventually, you have to widen things out a bit.  Unfortunately, the effect is usually the opposite - you can easily end up narrowing your appeal to the point where your market niche is no longer a real factor.

Anyway, we've been alarmed at the growing bombast from guys like Beck and Limbaugh, thinking it means they're getting more powerful (or feeling more powerful).  But it could easily mean just the opposite.

More Bio Mimicry

One of the problems we continue to have is that we've allowed some not very honest people to convince us that there's friction between our economic interests and our need for a clean and healthy environment to live in.

We end up talking past each other. Here's a guy who can talk about "saving the environment" by linking the need to take good care of the biosphere directly to huge business opportunities.

Bio Mimicry And Closed-Loop Sustainability

This kinda shit just amazes me.

Hoping (update)

A few days late, but it's still a good thing.

Hoping (update)

Mubarak has resigned, but he hasn't split the country.  No idea what that means, but I'm thinking he's not quite done yet.  Governments and financial houses are busily freezing his assets, so that should make it harder for him to fuck with things, at least 'til they get all that sorted out.  So anybody who tries to tell me it's all gonna be swell needs to get called a moron.

The Press Poodles are still gushing about Freedom Fever while DumFux News is flacking the threat of The Muslim Brotherhood.  Meanwhile, nobody (either in The Kennel or at Fox) has said thing one about any efforts by anybody's diplomatic services - zero, zip, zilch.  The only thing I've heard so far is the standard meme about how Obama got caught flat-footed.  Are you fucking kidding?  Am I really supposed to believe we've spent something like 1/3 of a TRILLION dollars on intel and counter-intel, and anti-terrorism shit - aimed specifically at the middle east and that we got nothing out of it!?!  We didn't see any of this as any kind of possibility at all!?!

Anyway, for now it's all a big smiley-face celebration - I'm bettin' a lot of happy protesters  are gettin' laid tonite - and tomorrow or Sunday we might start to see if we get any clues as to how the Egyptian military intends to spend its political capital.  This ain't anywhere near over.  The really dangerous part starts soon.

Hoping

I just get a bad feeling about Egypt.  Mubarak is in a tough spot, and unfortunately, when guys like him start to feel cornered, they tend to listen to the kind of advice from some of the assholes they surround themselves with, who almost always advocate a get-tough-show-'em-who's-boss approach.  We saw some of that earlier when the Camel Goons attacked.

Anyway, here's hoping it doesn't come to this.

Cartman Speaks

The Press Poodles in the US are finally starting to look at who the protesters actually are.  It's been a nice little narrative so far, about a genuine grassroots uprising; that there are no real leaders; that the whole thing is spontaneous - as if to say, "The noble Egyptian people are just trying to express their Inner American".  It's a big steaming pile of Newsie bullshit.

Hat Tip: Sully

Just Make Shit Up

It's not like we didn't know this already, but I think it's important to make an effort to keep score, and to remind ourselves that an outfit like DumFux News is not a news organization at all.  So while this article is from the "terminally librul" MediaMatters, and the source is anonymous, we can at least see that it's consistent with practically all the other reports of how DumFux News operates.  Have we ever heard anything from any former DumFux'er that didn't sound a lot like this?

...a former Fox News employee who recently agreed to talk with Media Matters confirmed what critics have been saying for years about Murdoch’s cable channel. Namely, that Fox News is run as a purely partisan operation, virtually every news story is actively spun by the staff, its primary goal is to prop up Republicans and knock down Democrats, and that staffers at Fox News routinely operate without the slightest regard for fairness or fact checking. 

“It is their M.O. to undermine the administration and to undermine Democrats,” says the source. “They’re a propaganda outfit but they call themselves news.”

And don't forget these little gems:
Leaked Memo
Climate Science

Mr Reagan, 1948

Charlie Brooker

...is a fucking genius.

Part 1


Part 2

Socialism On The March

I'm hoping certain people will be reminded of what happened yesterday in Super Bowl 45  whenever they start waxing rhapsodic about the wonders and the majesty and the supremacy of free-market capitalism.  I don't know exactly what our 'system' should be called, but whatever name you come up with, it sure as hell ain't free-market capitalism - not when the biggest annual Celebration-Of-All-Things-Totally-Awesome-About-America ends with a team owned collectively by the good folks of Green Bay being crowned champions of a business consortium which has thrived since adopting some very 'socialistic' principles.

Climate Change

The Reagan Myth(s)

The big 5 as per Will Bunch at The Washington Post:

1) Reagan is our most popular president
2) Reagan cut taxes
3) Reagan was a hawk
4) Reagan decreased the size of the federal government
5) Reagan was a conservative culture warrior

Tell Me Somethin' Good

First time I've heard a high quality full-length cut since the old days of KFML.

Feels Like Spring Today

Warning: This song could cost you your virginity

Way Smart

From Juan Cole.

Capitalism, Kinda

The closing rant by Bill Maher on Friday's show bordered on brilliant.

The Arab World

In a post the other day, I predicted a certain bit of crowing about Jr Bush and NeoCon policy because of the revolts that are happening in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen and even Jordan.  This was not a hard thing to figure out, so don't give me any credit for my amazing foresight - I was definitely not alone.

But, here's one of the aforementioned 'told-ya-so' articles by none other than Elliot Abrams (one of the pricks who should still be in prison because of Iran Contra).

So how long did it take?  A coupla days?

Now let's see how long it takes 'em to pretzel all this 'wisdom' when it becomes clear that the old autocratic secular regimes in these countries are going to be replaced with new  autocratic sectarian regimes.  That's right - we've destabilized the region; we've taken ourselves out of the game by chasing phantoms in desert shit-holes; we've crippled our military; and we've left the doors wide open for the Islamists to waltz in and take over the joint.  Yay, Bush.

The Arab World

Tunisia, and then Egypt, and then Yemen.  The Arab street is finally rising up to throw off their oppressive regimes.  It's interesting and unsettling and impressive.

It's also NOT cut and dried.  It's not clear what anybody's really after.  And it's not at all clear that we'll see anything remotely resembling democracy pop up in any of those countries.

But how long will it take DumFux News to decide about praising Jr Bush and their own cheerleading for the Iraq invasion for starting this glorious march to freedom?  It might be a tough call for them.  They've been hedging on Bush since they started pandering to the Tea Partiers, so they'll have to figure out how to put some nuance into their pronouncements, which suddenly makes it all a lot messier than their audience likes it to be.

SOTU

My basic reaction: Obama just lost the 2012 election.

He said a lot of the things we needed to hear; he wants us to do the things we really need to do; but he's trying to lead us in a direction that's always been seen as a threat by practically all of the big money interests.

Just by pushing for Clean Energy and an end to Corporate Welfare, Obama set himself up to get slammed.  Large piles of cash are sitting in the coffers of Big Business and PACs and Trade Groups, and the execs at those places will not sit idly by waiting for somebody to pinch off the flow of tax dollars out of our pockets into theirs.  They have huge amounts to spend and no limits on how they can spend it.  We're about to see the real effects of the Citizens United decision.

Ya heard it here.