| Author | Message | ||
| mjp Username: mjp Registered: 10-2006 |
What a juxtaposition. I can't help being emotional when I look at this inauguration. A historic day. In the mean time ... We edge ever closer to national bankruptcy. The two things are not wholly unconnected. But when the Wall went down in 1989 I don't suppose Capitalism ever imagined itself a decade or so later rushing back into the arms of Communism (in the form of bank nationalisation). | ||
| dan Username: dan Registered: 10-2006 |
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/obama_win_ca uses_obsessive | ||
| dave Username: dave Registered: 10-2006 |
As the resident American here I have to say that I can't muster much more than a shrug of the shoulders. I hope Obama's great. But, after today, the economy will still be fucked and an ice age will still be impending. He's just another status quo politician. | ||
| martin Username: martin Registered: 10-2006 |
Hi, Dave: let's hope for some better times, whatever. If not that - well, it's going to be "Asset Death Spiral," apparently. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/ambrose_evans-pritcha rd/blog/2009/01/20/seriously_alarmed  | ||
| martin Username: martin Registered: 10-2006 |
And remember - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xkw8ip43Vk | ||
| mjp Username: mjp Registered: 10-2006 |
If you believe Will Hutton the UK is on the verge of bankruptcy. We are in very serious trouble. (I find him convincing, anyway.) That means that we will find ourselves supervised by the IMF, again, and obliged this time to massively cut public service employment - and join the Euro. That last I don't have a problem with, but there will be alot of pain with people made redundant, possibly civil unrest. Hard times ahead. But, America's first Black President. A cogent intelligent man. America is lucky. | ||
| dave Username: dave Registered: 10-2006 |
Oh I'm hopeful. But you can't eat hope, man. This is great: http://www.counterpunch.org/kampmark01212009.html | ||
| martin Username: martin Registered: 10-2006 |
"The Obama dildo"?? This presidency has already proved its worth ... Good remark about bringing science back into US life, though: I'd like to think this means an end to toleration of creationist tosh, First Amendment or no First Amendment - but with that evangelical minister giving the address, I do wonder. I also thought the reverend pronounced the names of Obama's daughters with *way* too much relish. Someone needs to watch him in future - closely. | ||
| dave Username: dave Registered: 10-2006 |
>>that evangelical minister giving the address I had to shut off the video feed for a bit when he came on. Just couldn't stomach it. This administration can't do any worse than the last when it comes to its relationship with science, but its relationships with cested interests and political expediency will still take top billing. | ||
| mjp Username: mjp Registered: 10-2006 |
"Obama shuts network of CIA 'ghost prisons'. (Guardian headline) Rendition and torture are banned. So the days are numbered not just of Guantanamo but the whole set-up. Seems to me that the way Obama handles these issues is exemplary. He implicitly criticises people or governments, by his actions, but without overtly offending them or giving them room to be offended. It is a one step at a time approach - a not playing all one's cards at once. All is strategic. | ||
| dan Username: dan Registered: 10-2006 |
Well, apparently he dances like Jimmy Carter. That's good enough for me ;) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/22/obama- inauguration-barackobama | ||
| mjp Username: mjp Registered: 10-2006 |
Obama does not criticise Israel. It seems to be a rule with him. It must be disappointing to Arab peoples but at the same time this evidence of his loyalty is unlikely to be the whole story, or so I would imagine. Obama is a strategic thinker which is one of the reasons why he is so interesting. I would guess that his basic strategy is as follows: what he wants to do is to get Arab countries to make explicit or overt gestures towards Israel, that it exists for example, that it has its own legitimate interests, and then once he has this evidence of good will to use it as a lever on Israel to make concessions too. He wants to bring something clearly positive to the table for Israel so they have to do something positive in return so that by stages they get to a point where the sorts of attacks they have just perpetrated against Gaza, or that against Lebanon of a few years ago, become unthinkable. The reason for doing things this way rather than through direct criticism is to avoid Israel raising any kind of defence, shield, guard, against diplomacy. Since, in diplomatic terms, Israel is a basket case. It is at a point where it can't think about talking at all but is turned wholly inward. | ||
| dave Username: dave Registered: 10-2006 |
MJP: Or it could be that Obama is AIPAC's bitch. | ||
| martin Username: martin Registered: 10-2006 |
Hi, Dave - is it still Obie mania over there, or are folk starting to say they preferred his earlier work? | ||
| mjp Username: mjp Registered: 10-2006 |
'Folk' - Martin, careful with that word! Bush used it and people in general who see the world with a squint and I'm not sure about the sentiment. Folk! That makes things sound reasonable! | ||
| mjp Username: mjp Registered: 10-2006 |
The harness is going to chafe again much too quickly. Life is going to show its mundane edge again too without mercy. Praise will start to taste sour again even after only a few mis-spent evenings for when I gaze out through the dust-caked and torn net curtains at the black night beyond, at what is on the other side of the reflection of the 100 watt bare bulb illuminating the sour nicotined walls and when I listen to the sirens blare in the distance and wonder if anything is possible - no, just a no to everything and all the big broken world out there. | ||
| martin Username: martin Registered: 10-2006 |
"Folk"; "peeps"; "huddled masses"; "the downtown crowd" - whaddya want, fer the luvva mike?! Ahem. Well, good luck with it, whatever it is. Here, we're watching financiers put a gun to their head and the high street slump into perpetual clearance mode. Oh, and Richard Thompson's playing Oxford next week, cheering us all up with misogynistic paranoia and more tales of the gone world. Kind of him to find the time, really. | ||
| mjp Username: mjp Registered: 10-2006 |
Gerry Adams (former IRA frontman) makes a good point in today's Guardian that both sides need to be treated by America on the basis of equality as happened in Northern Ireland, where the same American envoy, Mitchell, played a key role. Very difficult for America to do so in Israel's case. | ||
| dan Username: dan Registered: 10-2006 |
Folk? America? http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00gvk91/Folk _America_Birth_of_a_Nation/ Dock Boggs is ace! | ||
| dave Username: dave Registered: 10-2006 |
>>Hi, Dave - is it still Obie mania over there, or are folk starting to say they preferred his earlier work? I never liked his work MJP, so you'd have to ask someone else! “1/26/05: Obama voted to confirm Condoleezza Rice for Secretary of State. Rice was largely responsible…for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent victims in unnecessary wars…Roll call 2” “2/01/05: Obama was part of a unanimous consent agreement not to filibuster the nomination of lawless torturer Alberto Gonzales as chief law enforcement officer of the United States (U.S. Attorney General).” “2/15/05: Obama voted to confirm Michael Chertoff, a proponent of water-board torture… man behind the round-up of thousands of people of Middle-Eastern descent following 9/11. By Roll call 10.” “4/21/05: Obama voted to make John ‘Death Squad’ Negroponte the National Intelligence Director. In Central America, John Negroponte was connected to death squads that murdered nuns and children in sizable quantities. He is suspected of instigating death squads while in Iraq, resulting in the current insurgency. Instead of calling for Negroponte’s prosecution, Obama rewarded him by making him National Intelligence Director. Roll call 107” “4/21/05: Obama voted for HR 1268, war appropriations in the amount of approximately $81 billion. Much of this funding went to Blackwater USA and Halliburton and disappeared. Roll call 109” “7/01/05: Obama voted for H.R. 2419, termed ‘The Nuclear Bill’ by environmental and peace groups. It provided billions for nuclear weapons activities, including nuclear bunker buster bombs. It contains full funding for Yucca Mountain, a threat to food and water in California, Nevada, Arizona and states across America. Roll call 172.” “9/26/05 & 9/28/05: Obama failed and refused to place a hold on the nomination of John Roberts, a supporter of permanent detention of Americans without trial, and of torture and military tribunals for Guantanamo detainees.” “10/07/05: Obama voted for HR2863, which appropriated $50 billion in new money for war. Roll call 2.” “11/15/05: Obama voted for continued war, again. Roll call 326 was the vote on the Defense Authorization Act (S1042) which kept the war and war profiteering alive, restricted the right of habeas corpus and encouraged terrorism. Pursuant to his pattern, Obama voted for this.” “12/21/05: Obama confirmed his support for war by voting for the Conference Report on the Defense Appropriations Act (HR 2863), Roll call 366, which provided more funding to Halliburton and Blackwater.” “5/2/06: Obama voted for money for more war by voting for cloture on HR 4939, the emergency funding to Halliburton, Blackwater and other war profiteers. Roll call 103.” “5/4/06: Obama, again, voted to adopt HR4939: emergency funding to war profiteers. Roll call 112.” “6/13/06: Obama voted to commend the armed services for a bombing that killed innocent people and children and reportedly resulted in the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi… Michael Berg, whose son was reportedly killed by al-Zarqawi, condemned the attack and expressed sorrow over the innocent people and children killed in the bombing that Obama commended. Roll call 168.” “6/15/06: Obama voted for the conference report on HR4939, a bill that gave warmongers more money to continue the killing and massacre of innocent people in Iraq and allows profiteers to collect more money for scamming the people of New Orleans. Roll Call 171.” “6/15/06: Obama, again, opposed withdrawal of the troops, by voting to table a motion to table a proposed amendment would have required the withdrawal of US. Armed Forces from Iraq and would have urged the convening of an Iraq summit (S Amdt 4269 to S. Amdt 4265 to S2766) Roll Call 174” “6/22/06: Obama voted against withdrawing the troops by opposing the Kerry Amendment (S. Amdt 4442 to S 2766) to the National Defense Authorization Act. The amendment, which was rejected, would have brought our troops home. Roll Call 181” “6/22/06: Obama voted for cloture (the last effective chance to stop) on the National Defense Authorization Act (S 2766), which provided massive amounts of funding to defense contractors to continue the killing in Iraq. Roll Call 183.” “6/22/06: Obama again voted for continued war by voting to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (S 2766) for continued war funding. Roll Call 186. “9/7/06: Obama voted to give more money to profiteers for more war (H.R. 5631). Roll Call 239 ” “9/29/06: Obama voted vote for the conference report on more funding for war, HR 5631. Roll Call 261.” “11/16/06: Obama voted for nuclear proliferation in voting to pass HR 5682, a bill to exempt the United States-India Nuclear Proliferation Act from requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. Roll Call 270.” | ||
| martin Username: martin Registered: 10-2006 |
Barry's captured the kennel, but Halliburton still holds the whistle. Get the picture? Yes, we see. Dock Boggs: banjo instead of an Uzi. As Greil Marcus wrote, Boggs hated his in-laws, but then hit on an answer to his problem: he decided to kill them. Who needs Relate? | ||
| mjp Username: mjp Registered: 10-2006 |
Dave that list of yours presents an interesting question, one I have been thinking of. It's a cliche. How do you square the circle? This issue of responsibility, this seems increasingly clear to me, wont be ignored: one has to work in such a way as to bring things about. It is fundamentally impractical to - to take the example of my father - sit on the sidelines complaining about what isn't done. He writes to his MP constantly. Because my parents moved recently, they now have a new MP, a Labour MP. My father got a clear response from him, which to his evident consternation, actually voiced agreement and put forward the suggestion that they have a meeting about this concern (Israel). This was not part of the tenor of my father's thinking: the MP was supposed to play the role of guilty party to allow him, my father, to continue to stand on the sidelines and complain. When I put this to him, he responded that this letter of agreement from the MP was no more than a cynical ploy to keep him quiet. When I suggested that such a response wasn't good enough and that he should take him at his word and have a meeting (a request the MP voiced three times in his letter), my father seemed strangely reluctant, put off his stride ... Now I am not saying I don't have a great deal of respect for my father's passionate sense of engagement, but it does start to seem just one note after a while: as my mother says, the note of complaint. Some kind of balance has to be struck - that would make his position much stronger, more convincing - practical even. A great deal of the history of the last four or five decades in this country can be written in those terms, I think. | ||
| dave Username: dave Registered: 10-2006 |
You know what else is a cliche? Daddy issues. | ||
| mjp Username: mjp Registered: 10-2006 |
Whatever else happens, the world is changing dramatically. That is a certainty. One can say with certainty, it is not going to stay how it has been over the last forty or fifty years of relative stability and continuity. The financial crisis is creating a deep discontinuity with that period and of course we are still in the throes of it; I mean in the throes of political change; it looks likely to deepen for years to come. The more one looks at finance, the more it all seems like a giant Ponzi scheme itself. Meanwhile I live and work, my opinions count for nothing, people (including me) behave in bewilderingly irrational and grotesque ways that really make you wonder at the state of human well-being and *nothing has changed*! The stories I could tell. | ||
| martin Username: martin Registered: 10-2006 |
>Stories I could tell ... And?  Over in Oxford, scarcely more than 1cm of snow seems to spell the utter shutdown of known life at present. You don't want to think what would happen if a real winter arrived. http://www.lcrw.net/fictionplus/duchampkavan.htm | ||
| mjp Username: mjp Registered: 10-2006 |
Stories I could tell ... Let's see. Well, there was this Anarchist, this Capitalist and this Socialist, and, see, one day they all were in the pub drinking beer and whisky as normally they did, and chewing on the occasional cheese and tomato sandwich, and this dog came up to them and said, "My owner's got no nose." So the Anarchist, the Capitalist and the Socialist, they all asked, as in one voice: how does he smell? And the dog said: "Terrible." | ||
| martin Username: martin Registered: 10-2006 |
Oh, well. I did ask! Chaos goes on: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-236 32831-details/More+commuter+pain+on+the+trains%2C+ Tube+and+buses/article.do This calls to mind Bill Hicks's routine on the pathetic level of UK gang violence. Maybe some of them Shaftsburys got at the signals! Dave - you snowed in, or is it just a normal NY winter? | ||
| mjp Username: mjp Registered: 10-2006 |
We had 8-10 inches of snow in London in 24 hours and things did come to a halt. However, we did have plenty of warning about it so it was a bit of a shock that on Monday and even to an extent on Tuesday, nothing worked transport wise. An outright shambles: what is that line from Othello ... ? | ||
| martin Username: martin Registered: 10-2006 |
"Othello, Dolly, this is Satchmo, Dolly -" It could be. We just don't know, do we? | ||
| mjp Username: mjp Registered: 10-2006 |
"as summer flies are in the shambles that quicken even with blowing" Othello is describing the kind of honesty he thinks Desdemona has. As shambles blacken in the summer heat we but spots of soot in a snow of green banknotes make our bootless voyage into a phantom city on an imaginary barque. I think it's a national embarassment. Obama is amazingly untested as yet. He apologises for the gross error of asking someone with unpaid taxes to work for him! | ||
| mjp Username: mjp Registered: 10-2006 |
There was an Anarchist, a Communist and a Capitalist. See. And the Anarchist wrote a novel. When the novel began to sell, the Capitalist phoned the Anarchist and offered him a free car on the condition that he should endorse the Capitalist's line in cosmetics - no cheesy stuff, don’t even think about it; just a literary allusion as it were on a Parisian café sidewalk. The Communist, seeing he was missing out, in turn offered the Anarchist's novel the use of an editor if the Anarchist was willing to spend time in jail. In response to this unresolvable dilemma the Anarchist threw his novel off a bridge and bought himself a shabby blobby tabby. He called the tabby Penny Halfpence. Then he moved to Italy and opened an Ice Cream parlour & divorced his wife. She was the only one competent enough to make ice cream so it was soon a refuge for nothing but the beach sand after that. |