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20110830

Anything on these protests outside the White House?




LOL


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The Candidate...




That's as good a definition as it gets.

Thank you, Paul!

Machiavelli 101, really:



Paul Krugman was speaking very specifically, here, of "one of our two major political parties" (the party Jon Huntsman Jr. referred to as "the anti-science party.")

And his point is well taken:



and



But then again, Democrat or Republican candidates alike (does it even matter anymore?), do we ever know who it is really who's won the presidential election, beyond...



Do you really believe you know who your president is?

They say:



But what end is that?

Who are these people?



Where are they taking the country?

Nobody knows.

There is a word for this:



In this technological age of political consulting, opinion polling, and Machiavellianism on crack, now, more than ever, political and economical obscurantism rules the day.

Not that the pretense of a real political alternation is any more believable on the other side of the Atlantic...



Perception is everything, don't you know?


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20110829

The Reason Greens Do Not Matter


I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't want to demean the dedication and the courage of those people—good honest and responsible citizens (US citizens and Earth Citizens alike), humans with a conscience, each and everyone of them...



And Virginia Kennedy's open letter to Obama is a telling and moving account of where the movement is standing, right now.

But nobody cares—not the media, not the corporatist political elite, and not much of the people in America really.

And here are the reasons why:

1. THIS:

You guys are not members of the Tea Party—and so anything you may have to say, any protest you may stage, simply doesn't exist in so far as the corporate News media are concerned. It's not news, unless they say it's news, right? Besides all the pundits knows you guys are just a bunch of well-meaning but deluded fringe lunatics who don't understand anything to the realities of the world we live in. Furthermore the number of people taking Global Warming seriously has decreased by a whopping 15% [Gallup poll], ever since Obama took office (I wonder why?)

2. AND THIS:

I give you Daniel J. Weiss, a senior fellow with the liberal Center for American Progress Action Fund, and Tony Cani, the Sierra Group’s national political director...



I rest my case.

Where else are they going to go, right?

Obama doesn't have a credibility problem; the Green movement has a credibility problem.

It matters little how softly or how loudly one speaks, when one doesn't carry a big stick.

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

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20110824

Reality 2.0




Where is the counterculture when we need it?

Depends whom you ask...



- Philippe Breton (Le Monde Diplomatique):


- Future Man:


- Sam Smith (the Progressive Review):


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Neoliberalism 2.0










LOL

I kid the neo-libs.

Not that there is anything wrong with that — being a neo-lib, that is.

I mean that's fine if that's who you are.

But, please, do not insult people's intelligence: let's drop the pretense that we still have two parties in this country.

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20110822

Good Cop/Bad Cop


A common dramatic technique in cinema and television...



...and American Politics!







But who cares about "angry liberals", really:



From where the DNC is standing, Obama doesn't have a credibility problem;
liberals have a credibility problem.

The sad thing about it, is that this pollster probably got it right, angry liberals are just experiencing stage 2 of the Kübler-Ross model, right now. Some have been trying bargaining (stage 3), to no avail (as an old proverb puts it, "the prettiest girl in the world can only give what she has," and the DNC already took that from her); others are already undergoing stage 4 (depression); soon stage 5 (acceptance) will follow.

Or as J.R. Ewing would put it:







Until then, liberals' place at the table will be little more than this:



Or this:



Not that there is anything wrong with that. After all, rodeo clown is a respected occupation—better than being a liberal, actually, in many quarters, including the DNC, from what I understand.

Unless, of course, you are one of those who still happen to think that the Democratic party really has a socially liberal and progressive platform (in the tradition of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, John F. Kennedy's New Frontier, and Lyndon Johnson's Great Society) and president Obama truly is a social liberal (and not a neoliberal in the tradition of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher). It's OK, you are only experiencing stage one of the Kübler-Ross model. Nothing wrong with that. You are not alone. Many people do...at first.


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20110818

Careful. Human no like smart ape.






Like the way humans have been living alongside their own kind, no doubt: the same way Hernan Cortes de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, lived alongside the indigenous people of the Americas; or the neo-conquistadors of the 19th and 20th century, alongside their African, Indians, and Far-Eastern brethren; or, more recently, the modern conquistadors of the 3rd millennium and their predator drones, in the Middle East and South Asia.



And intelligence drug that works on human would be nice.

Or perhaps just simply a culture based on individual empowerment, instead of a dystopian society that controls its middle and lower citizenry through fear, ignorance, insecurity, and a suppressive socio-economic order that thrives on making people feel like less than they are.

Sadly, if such a drug were to be found, chances are that it would be immediately suppressed.

An empowered and fully cognizant citizenry is the last thing those who occupy that "exalted place at the top of the food chain" really want right now.

A fearful and ignorant citizenry is easier to control.

To that regard, it has been abundantly clear from day one that the Tea party has been nothing but a boon to the political agenda of the ruling elite on either side of the political spectrum (i.e. the current two parties), and probably more so to the DNC, which has been more comfortable with the Tea party and the non-nonsensical irrelevant day to day welcome distraction (and convenient alibi) the said party provides (e.g. "Obama is a Kenyan," "Obama wants to kill grandma," etc.) than it is with its own progressive base, or any kind of genuine informed debate about anything at all with anyone, for that matter. What the people think (progressives, independents, conservatives, or Tea-party-ers alike), is irrelevant — all the decision (the ones that matter) have all already been taken behind closed doors, in secrecy, by "your betters."

This is how the Republic is ruled.

Careful. The Man no like smart ape.


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Tchi-Cum-Bah!


You gotta love it!



LOL



Superbus comes to mind ;-)



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20110817

Rosie's Honor






Bottom line: He got his way with her . . .



And, thus far, short of a meaningful opposition in the State Senate, the scoundrel is getting away with it . . .



Same ol' same ol' . . .



Where is Rob Roy, when we need him?
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20110813

We all know the bar is a good place for a joke so...

A CEO, a tea party-er and a union man sit down to a plate of a dozen cookies - The CEO promptly takes 11 of the cookies and turns to the tea party-er and says: "Watch it! That union guy wants part of your cookie!"
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20110811

Upton Girl






Ah! I am not sure what the relevance is, either.



But thank you for the pointer.



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