December 2009 archive

BREAKING: Pearl Clutching Purity Trolls Raise Hypocrisy To New Heights!

Irony and Hypocricy:

“If you’re in a coalition and you’re comfortable, you know it’s not a broad enough coalition” Bernice Johnson Reagon

Daily Kos is Pure and True, other blogs are icky. Other blogs say bad things. I must mount my high horse and say bad things about them! Otherwise, there will be a Bad Things Gap! And we must ignore all the people dying in Afghanistan and for lack of Health Care, we must pretend that foreclosures and homelessness don’t exist, we must forget that there are starving children and that our planet is dying….none of THOSE things are important!

What is important is smearing other blogs….and if there is not enough real evidence to smear them, let’s throw in some nasty pictures of Barack, just to get the outrage pumped and the blood up…..even though those images have NO relation to the Evile Other blogs at all.

What is important is that we get to feel pure and holy, we get to clutch our pearls and righteously condemn Others, for THEIR sins. While assiduously ignoring the beam in our own eye.

THAT will broaden our coalition!

What is important is that Others are not Pure enough, not good enough, not loyal enough, not obsequious enough, what is important is that Others think and act differently than ME, and my ego cannot rest until I have righteously condemned them for the sin of not being me sufficiently.

That’s how you get people to join together for victory!

“If you’re in a coalition and you’re comfortable, you know it’s not a broad enough coalition” Bernice Johnson Reagon

Issues? Coalition? EFFECTIVENESS???

Who cares!

We have PEARLS THAT NEED CLUTCHING, dammit!

You can’t worry about the ISSUES when there are people out there who need condemnation for thinking differently than us!!!!

The Dems are selling out and alienating the base again? Heck lets join in! We don’t do ANYTHING else, we don’t use the community for activism or to make a difference or to pressure politicians anymore, so HEY! Let’s use it to condemn other blogs!

Because that is how you persuade people, and the diary section at Dkos is all about persuasion now, not activism. So let’s persuade people by posting offensive images of Obama and pretend the people we don’t like did that! (Instead of it being us that is posting offensive images)

All while pretending to talk about a broad coalition.

While clutching our pearls and looking down our noses and condemning everyone ELSE in that coalition.

For not being pure enough to join US.

Because THAT is what coalition means right?

Coalition means that WE are pure and righteous and everyone else sucks. So if they want to join OUR coalition, they have to do what we say, say what we say, and think what we think. Any deviation from that and we will give you ANOTHER strong talking to!

So just stop it, just STFU like we keep telling you. Everything is FINE, he’s got this! IGNORE all of that pesky reality stuff and issues and suffering and sing along! The Choir sounds great don’t it?

Maybe then, if you sing loud enough…and PURE enough…maybe then we will let you into OUR coalition.

Maybe. If we happen to like you that day. And if our pearls are not riding up.

“If you’re in a coalition and you’re comfortable, you know it’s not a broad enough coalition” Bernice Johnson Reagon

I think someone needs to change their sig line.

Feeding the Poor: A Tangible Kind of Stimulus

A few weeks back, I wrote about my trials, travails, and tribulations achieving food stamps.  I am pleased to report that due to my own persistence and the fantastic support of an advocacy agency, I was granted an EBT card.  Earlier today I trudged through areas of town which have not seen much in the way of a plow or a shovel.  I literally did have to walk a half a mile uphill in the snow both ways to arrive at the proper place, though I’ll save that lecture for another time.  Since I have joined the ranks of the unemployed, I’ve had to swallow quite a bit of pride, which isn’t always a bad thing, all told.  The complications that went into obtaining food stamps were easily explained, once I met with the proper person, and with resolution I have no further griping to share on that matter.  

A well-designed website imploring those wishing to apply for food stamps to submit their claim by mail, after, of course, entering pertinent information and printing out several pages of a lengthy form sounds attractive enough.  However, I learned that while the mechanism may exist, budget shortfalls prevented the DC government from being able to hire the workers needed to process internet-based claims.  It would not be much of a stretch to deem this situation an glaring example of an unfunded mandate.  Reform cannot proceed without the allocation of funds and while we often are curtly dismissive of throwing money at a problem, granting low income citizens the ability to feed themselves somehow doesn’t seem to be on par with all of these anti-underclass talking points that find their way into the mouths of Republicans and Republican politicians.

If one considers Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs, then food falls right down there at the bottom of the pyramid.  Without the literal requirements for human survival, it’s tough to be a Welfare Queen or milker of the system.  According to Maslow, it’s only after our base needs for survival are met that anyone could ever even entertain the notion to willfully freeload.

With their physical needs relatively satisfied, the individual’s safety needs take precedence and dominate behavior. These needs have to do with people’s yearning for a predictable, orderly world in which injustice and inconsistency are under control, the familiar frequent and the unfamiliar rare. In the world of work, these safety needs manifest themselves in such things as a preference for job security, grievance procedures for protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings accounts, insurance policies, and the like.

But until one has the security of knowing he or she will be fed on a daily basis without having to worry about potential financial famine, safety is not a concern.

As for my own situation, my packet of information sat on a desk for over a month, unprocessed.  Because a meeting with a claims associate regarding whether or not food stamps will be granted or denied must, by rule, be granted and scheduled within 30 days, once I was approved I was given a month and one week’s worth of groceries I should have received earlier had everything proceeded in a timely fashion.  Though I received only $200 a month in food stamps, which is approximately half of what my grocery bill is for the same period, I am not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.  In all fairness to the DC Food Stamp program, it has won awards for how promptly and effectively it processes claims and while my situation is uncommon, it is hardly unusual when one considers the food stamp programs in other states.  In a fairer society, I would have had my entire food budget subsidized, saving me from having to rob Peter to pay Paul as so many of us have to do these days, but perhaps someday we will learn that though we have a tremendous amount of financial resources in this country to go round, even in times of recession, we spread them around unequally and in so doing shortchange the least among us.          

Part of the problem is the stigma and the misinformation that still persists regarding accepting government aid of any kind, food stamps being merely one example.  One would think that welfare cheats salivate at the very idea of eating from the public trough, if you’d believe the stereotype.  DC Hunger Solutions, the advocacy agency who so kindly went to bat for me and got my situation resolved, corrects many of the myths and stigmas surrounding food stamps.  

Only 83% of eligible District residents, and 36% of eligible low-income working families, receive food stamps. Every $1 of food stamps spent in the community generates $1.85 in local economic activity. D.C. would gain millions in federal funds by signing up eligible households – funds that would stimulate the local economy. People who work sometimes assume they are not eligible for food stamps, or that time-off from work is required to apply. This is not true. A family of 3 with a minimum wage earner could be eligible for over $3,000 annually in benefits, and working families can complete phone interviews rather than go to the food stamp office in-person.

The true impact of the Economic Stimulus Package has become a political football of sorts, in part because what it promised could not be easily measured or highlighted in concrete detail.  If, however, we shifted at least some of the focus towards fully funding both the programs that provide food to the poor and the monies necessary to provide more assistance, then these would be highly visible symbols of what good government is capable of if it puts its mind to it and does not get distracted with superficial squabbling or red tape disasters.  When close to two dollars worth of gain comes as a result of every one dollar spent, one cannot overlook the overall benefit.  We often believe that reform of any sort ought to be an awe inspiring and highly complicated matter, when sometimes the simplest solutions are the best.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.  

A Pagan Christmas to All!

(thanks for the kind words over at the GOS, TheMomCat!)

Among the mouth-breathingest of mouth-breathing Republicans, it’s a well-known fact that every November or so, we libruls gather in our covens and plot the paganization of Christmas.  In their Left Behind-style fantasies, we are the legions of Satan, come upon the Earth to foist secular ideas and Godless traditions upon the flock of the Lamb.  Only the Bible stands in defense of the faithful against the pernicious attacks of the heathen First Amendment, as we the befouled seek to eradicate every trace of monotheism from our once-God-fearing civilization.  Each year, the scarred veterans of the (self-)Right(eous) stir their zealots to action, and in public squares and mangers throughout the land, battles over the soul of American culture are waged.  

As in all wars, sometimes an enemy’s gallantry on the field of battle impresses even a bitter foe – Napoleon, remarking on the Russian cavalry then crashing into his lines, said “Now these are Kossacks!”.  Rather like the Confederates at Pickett’s Charge, they may be trying to storm a solid position in the name of a dubious set of causes, but we have to respect the temerity it takes to throw oneself into the breach for an issue one really doesn’t understand.

Open Seas

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Bernie Sanders Sells Us Out Too

All the Senate Dimocrats have voted for the health care reform bill, and with little fanfare Bernie Sanders joined them becoming the 60ith asshole.

http://politics.nytimes.com/co…

Did it have anything to do with this? Eh, Bernie?

WASHINGTON, December 17 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture today detailed plans to distribute $290 million to struggling dairy farmers. The assistance is part of a $350 million dairy assistance measure Congress approved at the request of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

The measure that provides $290 million for direct support to dairy farmers will result in a payment of about $8,000 to the typical Vermont farmer.  Another $60 million was set aside nationwide to purchase cheese for food banks and nutrition progr….

http://sanders.senate.gov/news…

Fuck each and every senator.

Fuck You Too, Bernie ! May you all go to hell.

Bouncing the rubble: the pointless destruction of Brand Obama

The progressive blogosphere has been reduced to what Churchill called “bouncing the rubble,” indulging in irrational overkill of the shattered remnants of Brand Obama. What the ProgBlogs don’t seem to grasp is that the truth they are obsessively reiterating is an impossible one: Americans will not abandon a symbol vital to their belief system, no matter how completely shattered its effigy becomes.

Brand Obama is not like Brand Tiger Woods. The unfortunate Tiger was expendable, since there are many other smooth athletic champions ready to carry the logos of the corporations. But Brand Obama is inseparable from delusional America, and no amount of brand trashing can break this delusional psychosis.

Brand Obama is the living embodiment of the invincible folly of American Exceptionalism. We make the rules because we are special. We break the rules because we are special. We are special because we are special. To repudiate Brand Obama means acknowledging that the entire American adventure has been a blood-soaked lie, a terrible, brutal story of greed, oppression, and deceit. This can never be acknowledged, and thus Brand Obama can never be destroyed, no matter how thoroughly discredited Obama becomes as a person, a politician, or a symbol.

The majority of Americans cannot accept that their sons and daughters serve willingly as paycheck killers in an endless war. They cannot accept that they are ruled by sociopathic corporations pushing our society toward a new feudalism. They cannot accept that their lifestyle is physically unsustainable. How can such people be persuaded that their champion is a weakling and that his policies are folly?

The demonstrated failings of Obama are numerous, obvious, and thoroughly documented. But the truth of his failings is the truth of America’s failure, and thus it is an impossible truth. My advice to Progressives is to save your energies for surviving the collapse of the Babel Tower of folly that America has become. Brand Obama is logically dead, but the pernicious, unkillable spirit of Brand Obama lives, and it continues to beckon America towards destruction.

Dear You…….Happy Solstice.

A long time ago, far away, in another galaxy, I read an essay of the almost same name and was egotistical enough to think it about me. Or perhaps, the author was just one of those people who wrote so well every reader thought it about them. That one moment of reading hooked me to blogging more than anything else I had ever read. Whether written abstract, or written about another poster mattered not to me. It became the start of a lasting connection, a friendship as real as those created with a neighbor you see daily. It was just an essay. An essay about truth and connection, about images and mystery.

Still, it lingers for me.



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It is about connecting after all, even should our visions of each other be mythical concepts. Our connections become true if we trust them. You see, that is the only thing they truly fear: Our Unity. I see more and more evidence that despite the Kleptocracy functioning entirely outside our reality, outside our input and will, that people are becoming more and more aware to what we have long been saying. Minds are changing. “We” are doing that. Let those in Washington fuck everything up worse… it will only bring more whispers. Whispers of discontent become grumbles, grumbles become oratory, oratory becomes yells, and yells beget revolution.

The fear the you-and-me. They fear the “we”.  

“Block This Bill”: No Public Option, No Bill

Crossposted from Antemedius

David Swanson, Washington Director of Democrats.com, talks with Paul Jay of The Real News, dissecting the politics of health care reform and the roadblocks in the way of getting to a real reform that serves peoples needs rather than politicians needs and the fact that politicians, even democrats and so-called “progressive” politicians and not just republicans, are the major roadblocks.



Real News Network – December 21, 2009

No public option, no bill?

David Swanson: Will progressives shoot down a healthcare bill that lacks a public option

David Swanson is the creator of ImpeachCheney.org, co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org and Washington Director of Democrats.com A writer and organizer, Swanson has worked for ACORN, the International Labor Communications Association, Dennis Kucinich’s 2004 presidential campaign and many others. Swanson is the author of the new book “Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union” by Seven Stories Press. You can order it and find out when his tour will be in your town: http://davidswanson.org/book.

Docudharma Times Monday December 21




Monday’s Headlines:

Obama’s Guantanamo policy rings a bell

Spanish quest to identify black soldier who fought against fascism in civil war

Labor Data Show Surge in Hiring of Temp Workers

Fed’s approach to regulation left banks exposed to crisis

 China’s quiet satisfaction at tough tactics and goalless draw

Asia’s Las Vegas celebrates 10 high-rolling years

Anger as Pius moves closer to sainthood

Stolen Auschwitz sign is recovered

Iran’s masses mourn the loss of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri

Hamas helping British lawyers target Israel

Late Night Karaoke

Open Thread

Banned again, thank God!

I’ll admit, I had a nasty cold a couple of weeks ago, was unemployed, was bored out of my mind, so …… I rejoined Dailykos.   Other than just to kill time while I was barely able to move, I did it mainly to rec up a few things here and there, and to just see what kind of responses certain ideas would get.   Wow.  

My name was MightyMole.    It’s a type of light we use in Hollywood made by Mole Richardson.

That place has gone so downhill since I was banned last time that it was almost completely unbearable to be over there.   Yet it sucks you in, there’s “action”, instant responses, you can’t even keep up half the time, and I type over 100 words a minute.   The energy is bad, but it’s hard to break away from once you’re in it.  

But holy shit that place is populated by a bunch of idiots.   Some of the people are smart and informed, but seriously it’s only maybe in the 5% range.  

And what’s so annoying about the rest of them is how they THINK they have a clue.  When they don’t.    People who are completely ignorant —  who think they know everything — are absolutely no different from the dumbest fucking Republican ever.

One of the smarest things a person can ever do is realize how informed they AREN’T.   In fact, that’s what I tell people now what a college education is for.   A college education is not to really teach you that much stuff, it’s to let you know how much stuff you DON’T know.  

What has happened to the average American “Democrat?”   It’s scary.  

I don’t put up with rudeness very well.   I’m done with rude people.   And that place seems to have turned into nothing but a big toilet-hole of rudeness, a place where people can go to get their rocks off abusing each other verbally.  

Weird.

I once dated a girl who admitted to me that she would drive to distant shopping malls, where she planned on never going back, just so she could be really nasty and rude to the woman workers in the stores.   It’s kind of like that.   What is it with these peoples’ need to be nasty to other human beings?

My rule is that if someone is rude or nasty to me, I come back at them ten fold, or more.   I just don’t have any patience for that shit any more.   People in this country will put up with anything, including really abominable behavior on the part of each other.  

Anyway, here’s the best comment I saw, by one of the rare needles in the haystacks of ignorance:


Yeah, the GOP failed alright (8+ / 0-)

They worked it so that everyone on the individual market is required to pay exorbitant premiums to private companies for crappy insurance that doesn’t actually cover anything, with no regulations or oversight; essentially the largest middle-class tax increase in history; the insurance companies get 30 million new customers that they don’t have to service because everyone is going to be required by law to buy their horrible product.

And the Republicans won’t bear any of the blame for it despite the outcome essentially being better for them and their benefactors in the health insurance industry than anything Bush could possibly have dreamed of passing.

Let’s all laugh at those failures in the GOP.

by eg4190 on Sun Dec 20, 2009 at 11:25:33 PM PST

These people are cheering on their own party’s suicide.  

No wonder this country’s in such a sewer.  

These people couldn’t give a crap that Obama’s blowing up civilians willy nilly in, say, Yemen right now.    Murdering completely innocent people.   Doesn’t matter.

Obama can literally do anything Bush did, but because he’s got a (D) after his name, it’s just A-OK and he’s “My” President.  

Blows my mind.  Just completely blows it.

Oh, and don’t even think about primarying him in 2012, apparently Democratic Presidents are entitled to a single eight year term.   That was news to me.  

No IDEA about political power.   No IDEA about how to use it.  

Maybe I’ll just delete this whole thing in a while.   I know I have told people here over and over to just avoid that place.    I meant it, I really did.   I was bored.   Sure, I knew how I might react over there, but my perusals of that place in the past few months have been superficial, in fact I have avoided it for months at a time, so I didn’t really have a feel at ALL as to how that place has gone downhill.  

Wretched.  

Hair-splitting purity tests, my ass.

There’s a coalition of “progressive” unity-schtickers lamenting the sudden loss of support for the President and his policies.  United we stand, divided we fall, they say, and all that crap we have been hearing since well before Democrats took Congress.  These Democratic appeasers are united behind a person and party, not the issues, and therefore take issue with those who prefer the “principle” to the “man” or “tribe.”  To them, people like myself are purity trolls, like Republican Tea-baggers, regardless of what the tribe stands for.  Thus, they will tolerate any and every thing, as long as it’s served up on a plate.

This rapid loss in support for Obama has occurred for several reasons.  First, this was a very important election after eight years of neoliberalism on acid.  Second, due to a certain psychological pre-eminence of various crises at this particular time in history, we have been keenly aware of the importance of all this promise for hope and change, including the specific issues and policies that would indicate change.  Third Barack Obama has signaled in all major areas of crisis, from warfare (Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and now, Yemen), the political crisis off giving welfare to deranged profit-takers ($12 trillion dollars and counting to casino gamblers), social welfare (this fucked health care bill), the Unitary Executive and civil rights (blocking judicial activity surrounding Bush era war crimes, torture, human rights, etc.), to environmental degradation (Copenhagen), and boy howdy that’s a lot of signals, that his promises of hope and change are full-on bullshit.  If you want to call questions of war & peace, basic human rights, clear-cut questions of law, rampant and encroaching crony capitalism and fascism,  and environmental crises “purity tests,” be my  guest, you retarded fucking gink, but it shows zero intellectual honesty.

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