Mark Brolin writes of the state (of disconnect with the real world) of Labour.
This is a superhero origin story.
Like crop circles, except Amazonian and without the crops.
Swedish officials want to know who the heck this guy is.
The fate of Rachel Dolezal, and some commentary from Jazz Shaw.
My god, they do have a superior culture.
St Patrick didn’t actually banish the snakes from Ireland. Here’s how it went down.
Due to problems related to a WordPress update, the site's layout had to be moderately altered. Some of the changes are temporary.
on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForI have little respect for “process” arguments because we wouldn’t apply them in other situations. It… on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForIs Columbia and Trump’s crackdown of the pro-Palestinians the ‘Canary in the coalmine’ (link at bott…
on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForIf they want that then they need to have police prevent the Protesters from shutting the U down and/… on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForIf they don't want politics to matter, then they shouldn't be threatening Jews and insisting that ev… on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForThere is a vast difference between "a single narrative" and "a crack down on the idea that 'No Israe…
on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForI know: Columbia should appeal to the importance of the academy being a place where difficult ideas… on Weekend Plans Post: Pantherine VandalsIt hailed about 5 minutes before we left the theater last night. We walked outside and saw a half in…
on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForThe word that does the real work is "academically." I don't share what you describe, and I haven't b…
on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForAmong the things the administration doesn't understand is that every department is different. Differ… on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForI have little respect for "process" arguments because we wouldn't apply them in other situations. Ex…
The Greatest Strike in History
March 30, 2025
March 28, 2025
They’re Acting Queer in Cleveland
March 27, 2025
A Loaf of Bread, a Container of Milk, and a Stick of Butter
March 26, 2025
on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Weekend Plans Post: Pantherine Vandals on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Sunday Morning! A Working Man reviewed
on Sunday Morning! A Working Man reviewed
on Open Mic for the week of 3/24/25 on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Weekend Plans Post: Pantherine Vandals on Open Mic for the week of 3/24/25 on Open Mic for the week of 3/24/25 on Weekend Plans Post: Pantherine Vandals
on Weekend Plans Post: Pantherine Vandals on Weekend Plans Post: Pantherine Vandals
on Open Mic for the week of 3/24/25
The first link goes to why we still need Economics 101.Report
Fixed.Report
Thanks. I agree with a lot of this and think that liberal and center left parties through out the world are dealing with similar divisions for a variety of reason. In the Democratic Party, the divide is between the Educated Middle Class and Social Justice faction on one hand and the class not identity politics on the other hand. It’s not an exact comparison because realism and idealism exist in both factions but it does come close.Report
The article’s claims about theory over practice have some parallels with the Democrats, but the larger problem is with personalities. Obama prospered while the party withered away below him because he was Obama. Hillary, buoyed by certain expectations about how certain demographics ought to vote, could not fail – she could only be failed by demographic groups who voted “wrong” (I’m looking at you, white ladies).
The reliance of tired lefty shibboleths may be a problem going forward, and it certainly makes some progressive corners of the Internet rather tiresome, but it doesn’t pop up much in elections. The Clinton campaign’s ads were almost entirely about how temperamentally unfit Trump was for the job. All those reams of position papers on her website didn’t amount to a hill of beans when it came down to a personality contest.
Is there an alternative? Perhaps not. Presidential systems rely more on personal appeal than parliamentary democracies. Bernie wasn’t defeated because people disagreed with Scandinavian socialism. They were mostly “with her,” or in the case of Clay Shirky types, following the lead of their intersectional betters.
Democrats don’t have a Militant Tendency like Labour, they just have a constant back-and-forth on which combination of skin color and genitalia is most likely to get the right people to the polls.Report
“Which combination of skin color and genitalia is most likely to get the right people to the polls”
Funny thing, it turns out the biggest thing getting people to the polls is a President with white skin and tiny…fingers.Report
LTL,
Bernie was defeated through blackmail, armtwisting, and good old-fashioned vote rigging.Report
The NY Times has a less positive review of the Age of Anger that is almost libertarianish in its praise of free market capitalism.
Aren’t we supposed to obsessed about German not Finnish words?Report
Twitter has made our attention spans too short for German words.Report
Finnish words don’t seem that shorter than German words.Report
Do the germans have a word for drinking at home alone in your skivvies?Report
The easy going Bavarians probably do. It’s whatever the German for weekend is. ;).Report
That’s the beauty of German – you can have any word you want.
Like Zuhauseunterwäschensaufen.Report
To Mark Twain, it was “The Awful German Language.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Awful_German_LanguageReport
Somehow “Home Underwear Booze” doesn’t strike the right tone, but I applaud the effort.Report
It’s unwieldy, but it wouldn’t be a good German compound word if it weren’t.
kalsari = underwear
kannit = get drunk (kanni = drunk)
Note that saufen is a verb – “to booze it up” or so – not the noun “booze”Report
I have seen the Anger book around and the review but the review made the book seem cliched. The zings on the enlightenment are true enough but only in a superficial way. Plus as a Jewish-American, I feel like my existence and civil liberties are directly connected to the enlightenment.
I feel pity for Rachel Dolezal. No one should be homeless and her kids are suffering too but she is incapable of reflectionReport
Volcano: Folks transformed into a super hero shouldn’t need “help” to get out of a volcano.
Amazon: I’m sure there’s lots buried under the jungle. More than just geoglyphs.
Sweden: Sounds like the show’s producers screwed up. FAKE NEWS
Rachel Dolezal: Yeah, “transrace”? Nah, this chick is just emotionally screw up. Who wouldn’t given that childhood.Report
I’m still waiting for the spirit of the forest to rise up like a psychotic Don Cheadle.Report
It’s funny how Rachel describes how unworldly her parents were but then how she read National Geographic at the same time.
Also, did I misread this?? Did this article fail to mention the fact that she FAKED all the hate crimes and supposed threats and that they were all investigated thoroughly and found to be completely bogus?Report
A rather interesting take from Salon of all places
http://www.salon.com/2017/02/25/outgrowing-the-cosmetic-left-a-liberal-plea-for-fake-liberalism-to-grow-the-hell-up/Report
That’s certainly an interesting take from Salon. I’m not sure if I entirely agree with all of it. Politics has become intensely ideological that dualism seems unavoidable. When you have one side that believes that the government can’t do anything right and another that believes certain goods like healthcare must be administrated through government than little compromise is possible.Report
Well yeah but that really doesn’t apply very well to our current situation. If anything the reverse is happening. The “Gummint can’t do anything right” faction is getting whipped within the body of the GOP as we speak. Trumps budget proposals yesterday were: more defense spending, large tax cut and cuts to the parts of the government that don’t provide services to the elderly. That’s certainly no Democratic or left wing agenda but it’s not remotely libertarian. It remains to be seen, though, whether Trump wins out.Report
It might not be Libertarian but neither are the Republicans. Tough law enforcement, massive defense spending, incredibly large tax cuts, and providing social services only to senior citizens is what they believe in.Report
Well yes.. it’s basically like Trump is peeling off all the libertarian veneer and saying “to hell with pretenses” and marketing the right wing populism that’s always been at the heart of the GOP. But that’s a really big change from the endless fan dance of small government republitarianism that they’ve had going on for the last decade or two.Report
It does seem like a repeat of the 1980s though. Weren’t Reagan’s budgets basically the same thing? It is seems like uncontrolled Reaganism because Reagan never had both houses of Congress to work with. He never got the House and lost the Senate in 1987.
Fashion writers were saying the 80s would make a comeback this year.Report
We’ll have to see if it turns out that the person in the White House and the people controlling the House and Senate are actually from the same party and which one it is.Report
Reagan had a much more legitimate foreign security threat than Trump. Gorbachev didn’t become the leader of the Soviet Union until 1985 and the Cold War was still looming for most of Reagan’s administration. Reagan also did govern more moderately than his rhetoric because he was hobbled by Congress.Report
4 killed and 10 wounded in Chicago over weekend as violence continues to outpace last year.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-violence-shootings-wkroundup-20170227-story.html
Nothing to see here, let me get back to my popcorn (munch, munch, munch)Report
Wave of Neo-Nazi terrorism against Jewish centers.
Trump/Bannon Administration oddly silent.Report
Oddly silent? You are wrong again.
Spicer: Trump Strongly Condemns Recent Hateful Anti-Semitic Threats, Vandalism
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/27/donald-trump-sean-spicer-anti-semitic-philadelphia-cemetery/98488540/Report
VP Mike Pence Helps Clean Up Vandalized Jewish Cemetery
http://patch.com/us/white-house/mike-pence-helps-clean-vandalized-jewish-cemetery
Clearly the Trump/Pence admin has not been silent.Report
Yes, they have.
Trump sits atop the massive machinery of law and police power, and instead of taking action to mobilize it, he personalizes the issue, assuring us of his personal goodness and virtue.Report
Wrong again.
FBI Joins Investigation Into Vandalism of Jewish Cemetery in Philadelphia
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/FBI-Joins-Investigation-Into-Vandalism-of-Jewish-Cemetery-in-Philadelphia_Philadelphia-414916953.html
Maybe you mean the other secret police that hasn’t started an investigation?Report
Jeff Sessions: Bomb threats against Jews ‘very serious’
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/225787
Isn’t he like the Attorney General guy and maybe in charge of the DOJ thingy?
Maybe Trump should unleash his secret police?Report
You will understand my skepticism, so long as a neo Nazi continues to sit in the Oval Office advising the President.Report
Your petulant attitude doesn’t befit someone of such apparent intelligence.
Although maybe you just know a lot of words, and what we think of as eloquence is just vocabulary.Report
You mean Bannon? I thought he was only a white supremacist? When did he become a neo-Nazi? Or has Richard Spencer joined the admin without me knowing?Report
OH!
I’m so sorry I called him a neo-Nazi.
He is merely someone who believes white people are a superior race.
My apologies.
I should also apologize to actual neo-Nazis as well, since Trump helpfully suggested that the bomb threats may be a false flag attempt by Jews to make neo_Nazis look bad.
He should probably give Ivanka and Jared a closer look, don’t you think?Report
Chip,
Faked bomb threats are generally designed to Increase Publicity and get people to Buy Stuff.
They are in the PR Handbook for a reason, after all.
And because of this, it’s significantly less likely to be faked when it’s a shul.Report
If Bannon really is a neo-Nazi, then have at it. I’m just wondering if you have any proof that he really is one or if this is BS. As for the other, we have seen instances were folks on the both the right and left have falsely claimed they were victims of hate crimes. The FBI is investigating so clearly the threats are being taken seriously.Report
On Rachel Dolezal and the notion of a ‘transrace’ person – I don’t know what to make of it. We say gender is a social construct and we can choose where to place ourselves with respect to gender, our genetics be damned. The only person who matters in determining our gender is ourselves.
If there’s anything that is socially constructed in this world, then race is among those things.
And we also insist that the only person who doesn’t matter in determining our race is ourselves.
We insistently deconstruct gender, but cling to the notion that an octoroon is black, one drop racial purity by another name. Michael Jackson and Rachel Dolezal never get to decide their race, only we do…
I don’t have answers, just a feeling that the answers we’re using now aren’t going to be up to the task much longer.Report
df,
Fads are fads. People will come up with really stupid shit to tell each other.Report
Race as a social construct created by colonialists that we nevertheless have to treat as immutable because politics demands it really is “using the master’s tools,” innit?Report
There is a much longer history of people playing or bending gender and sexuality than ethnicity or class. For some reason all except the most arch-conservatives seem more comfortable with gender fluidity than ethnic fluidity. The history is more complicated with ethnicity. I think a big part of this is that race or ethnicity forms the foundation for the most powerful political unity in the world, the nation-state. To allow people to be fluid in their ethnicity poses political challenges.Report
Billy Joel is a fake Italian and must be denounced for it!Report
“Captain Carrot, I know dwarves. Some of my best friends are dwarves. And you, sir, are no dwarf.”Report
Deconstruction is an answer. Unfortunately few people like that answer, and even fewer are willing to pursue it.Report
There is almost certainly some neurological basis of one psychological sense of sex/gender, whereas I doubt there is anything similar for race. After all, humans are fundamentally sexual beings. It’s how we make babies. It’s central to how we’ve organized societies from day one. Race, on the other hand, is quite a different thing.
My point, “transracialism” doesn’t exist, except for the claims of this one weirdo. On the other hand, there is a long history of cross-gender identity. Gender dysphoria is certainly “a thing,” similar to how clinical depression is “a thing.” “Race dysphoria,” felt by whites who have an internal sense of “blackness” — it doesn’t seem to exist, except this one weird lady who came up with the theory after getting caught.
Look, trans folks have enough hatred stacked against us. If “transracialism” exists, well fine, but can we have some evidence before we start down this path.Report
v,
I’m pretty sure there’s some inbuilt thing for race, as it’s one of the first things about a person someone visually perceives.
http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v15/n10/box/nrn3800_BX1.htmlReport
Wendy’s Installs Robots in 1,000 Stores to Counter Minimum Wage
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/robots-wendys-minimum-wage-mandates/
Keep fighting for $15!!!Report
I think the Rage Against the Present article is right on.
I’ve quoted Rebecca West here before:
Report
“This fight can be observed constantly in our social lives.”
There ya go.Report
Nice Rebecca West quote but I am still highly unconvinced by the review posted. The whole book sounds like lots of half-true clichés.Report
Amazing pictures of the damage to the Oroville Dam.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4263640/California-dams-outflow-stopped-clear-debris.htmlReport
A 100,000 cubic feet per second release is just a massive amount of water. I’m surprised the downstream banks and bridges held with that much flow.Report
Yeah, water with a bit of kinetic energy is a hell of a thing. That’s a big damn hole.Report
100,000 cubic feet per second is within the range of natural flows in the Feather River that occurred before the dam was built. The banks didn’t hold — there’s lots of flooding going on in the traditional flood plains of the river. Bridges shouldn’t be a problem — they’d be designed to survive the pre-dam flood levels.Report
“Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.”
For anyone interested in the Repeal/Replace debate, this article on the gubnas’ views is worth a read. What a mess. I mean Trump and the GOP, of course. (But signs of hope, too!)Report
So. The Steve Beshear thing.
While, of course, Steve Beshear is a great person to give this particular response, I can’t help but wonder if there wasn’t a couple hundred people who would have been even more great.Report
I’ve had it explained to me that this is about the WWC and that I should dig it.Report
Who are you thinking?
I just rewatched it and thought it was decent work for a tough job (the postbuttal is always difficult). I mean, part of me thought… yeah, if the previous campaign had Basheared it up, enough folks would have stayed home and stayed put for an Electoral College win. Then the other part wondered if Bashear has a place in the National Democratic party. Then the remaining part wondered if this is what it means by going local and regional… and what that will do to the National party.Report
I suppose that going for someone who was term-limited out and, arguably, “would have won” had he run another time was a decent choice, but I would think that it’d be an opportunity for someone that we could actually *VOTE* for. Or, heck, root for if they were running for something in another jurisdiction.
It’s not just a response speech, it’s a commercial.
We got an old White Guy (who wasn’t Bernie) and an undocumented Dreamer giving a speech in a language that was not English.
I’m not sure which scales were tipped, if any. But maybe it communicated to the Trumpistas out there “come home, all is forgiven”. Maybe. If it did that, it succeeded… I’m just wondering if it did that.Report
I get it… so you mean someone like John Bel Edwards? 😉Report
I was thinking “Cory Booker” (but not Cory Booker).Report