US POLITICS SPRING 2011: Let's just call off this country.

on a general level my issues with industrial capitalism are primarily that since it's large-scale implementation we have got 1) a century of massive, previously impossible levels of genocide, and 2) after we got the genocide over with, we just switched to wholesale destruction of our ecosystem. All accomplished in roughly 150 years! amazing. In return we got some neat digital gadgets and extended lifespans for a small minority of the population. way to go, industrial capitalism.

Don't forget complete oligarchic manipulation of the political process.

eh that's nothing new

LOL true, true

What?! Genocide predates industrialization! The Americas from 1492 or Africa from around the same period readily spring to mind.

killing millions of people in a single day, THAT was new

rendering the planet uninhabitable for our own species, also a completely new innovation

good morning, everyone!

Dude, even Australopithecus knew that that's bullshit. The food belongs to the guy with the biggest club.

Yeah, let's go ask how that worked out for him. Nevermind, the last of his kind died off 2 million years ago. Guess it's not a good long-term disposition.

genocide definitely predates the 20th century, no argument there. But the scale and time-range of mass murder was exponentially increased and compressed, respectively

xp

lol @ Alfred

Nevermind, the last of his kind died off 2 million years ago.

Worse, his descendants evolved into consultants.

Yeah, pay no attention to that tree-hugging ecosystem stuff. Just buy more gadgets (and give more tax breaks to the billionaire CEOs of the gadget factories.) It'll all work out fine.

http://jalcorn.net/weblog/uploads/flammable.gif

Or look like Obama, according to the GOP.

xpost

we generally didn't care about the ecosystem before the industrial revolution either - we just were much less efficient at tearing it up.

LOL. I loved her apology/non apology, alfred

Dan has anyone suggested that we do anything along those lines, here?

we generally didn't care about the ecosystem before the industrial revolution either - we just were much less efficient at tearing it up.

^^^exactly. industrial capitalism just gave us the tools to magnify our shitty habits a billion-fold

right. it also gives us the tools to fix them, if we actually wanted to.

Michael, no, just sarcastically trumpeting the GOP party line. Wasn't W's prescription for the recession "go out and spend?"

"I am a banker. Give me your money. Give me your money"

Wasn't W's prescription for the recession "go out and spend?"

It's not that he was entirely wrong about 'patriotic spending' post 9-11, it's that as Presidential actions go, that's not very likely to be successful.

Genghis Khan to thread

It's okay for Americans to spend. It's wrong for the government to spend. Of course the government is made out of Americans but that part always gets lost in translation.

WOW A 40 YEAR OLD PHOTO OF THE CUYAHOGA RIVER HOW CONVINCING OF EVERYTHING YOU SAY.

I can see the fucking Cuyahoga River from my office, hardly need a lecture.

good morning, everyone!

― My mom is all about capital gains tax butthurtedness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 21 April 2011 16:15 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

srsly this guy killin me

rly don't get people sometimes.

here's rep. thaddeus mccotter (r-mich), playing stones licks, talking bout how great berlusconi is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4GrClpp5RE

Too much reverb!

Hoos you should check out the 90s one hit wonder poll thread; Alfred brought serious lolz there...

starting right here:

best song in VH1's Top 40 One Hit Wonders of the '90s

Obama Sends Armed Drones to Help NATO in Libya War

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/world/africa/22military.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Obama is sending in these drones.....to help! What could be better than helping people?

"If I were Barack Obama, my mantra on this week's debt tour and in the months ahead would be that we should lift the debt limit only by as much debt as is needed to accommodate Paul Ryan's budget."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-shining--national-debt-edition/2011/04/20/AFnfSICE_story.html

The House Republican budget adds $6 trillion to the debt in the next decade yet the GOP is balking at raising the debt limit. The House Republican budget adds $6 trillion to the debt in the next decade yet the GOP is balking at raising the debt limit. The House Republican budget adds $6 trillion to the debt in the next decade yet the GOP is balking at raising the debt limit.

so (via thinkprogress) the gop really does coach town hall attendees

http://www.youleadnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/recess-card.pdf

curious what a democratic action sheet would look like

BREAKING NEWS

The depressing story of how the White House surrendered the fight to close Guantanamo.

Democracy Now covered that a bit this morning and discussed the background issue of how the Bush admin military leaders quickly sent whoever they captured to Guantanamo with little research into who the people were. Amy Goodman and a guest were talking about an Al Jazeera reporter who was there for years. NPR quickly mentioned the New York Times story (based in part on Wikileaks) regarding who is there and then mentioned that 42 people (I think that's the number) released from Guanatanamo returned to the battlefield. Sadly, that gets interpreted as "we should detain anyone captured and never charge them, put them on trial or release them."

I was reading a stupid Dan Balz Washington Post piece on Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, who gets mostly the same coverage Paul Ryan once got(serious thinker, cares about the budget blah blah blah). The article has one little mention of how Daniels was a part of the Bush Administration that took us from surplus to deficit and debt. Balz then quotes Daniels as saying that Obama made it worse and that Obama's recent speech was partisan and not helpful (unlike Ryan's). Naive me would love to hear a follow-up question to pols like Daniels regarding the use of the term "partisan".

yeah, i was listening to bbc last night and the entire wikileaks affair coverage concerned the 100+ who were detained with little or no reliable evidence. npr and every other news source i've encountered has solely concerned the release of those believed to be dangerous. quite a contrast. xp.

Silly me expected a more balanced and thorough report from NPR than they gave. Their coverage this morning that I heard was more like a stereotypical local tv news channel short uniformed recitation.

I see that Ezra Klein asked various experts about the Progressive House Caucus budget. In an ideal world it would be as much a part of the equation as the Obama one, the Ryan one, and anything the Gang of 6 are planning

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-house-progressive-budget/2011/04/15/AFJCMrhE_blog.html?hpid=z2

from Qualmsley's link:

If left untouched, in 30 years we will be borrowing $2 for every $1 we spend

I read this as a pretty evocative and slightly erotically charged freeform haiku

If left untouched
in 30 years we will be borrowing $2
for every $1 we spend

Haley Barbour's not gonna run...Oh well

from our own Gorge. URL says it all.

http://michiganmessenger.com/48487/foster-children-would-be-allowed-to-get-clothing-only-from-second-hand-stores

^^^I posted that on my FB the other day, with the comment, "Like, there are apparently people who just sit around thinking, 'Are there new ways that we can think of to further humiliate disadvantaged people?'"

there is an extra level of wtf in the comments on that article

I think the comments are by and large great. "Darn it! I KNEW I should have tried harder to be born to rich parents!"

I take it you didn't get down to the weird story about corrupt CPS social workers who allegedly stole a commenter's grandchildren...?

I mean, I just keep reading more and more details about it and thinking "there isn't a single part of this that doesn't sound like a Lifetime movie"

I did get down to the part where ze was outed as a troll.

I wonder if St@rmak3r666 (or whatever) is the same St@rmak3r who is a well-known Usenet dickhead.

Oh no, I got there, but there are like eddies of wtf in a larger current of reasonable human feeling, I think. I'm grateful for even that much, in Michigan.

in terms of giving something in return, that day will come ten or more years down the road when these kids grown into adults. A little compassion now will help determine the course that's to be followed. It sends the message that they are valued members of a community and can go a long way towards helping these kids (who are already behind the eight ball) to grow into the kind of men and women you'll want living next door.

Do you know how happy it makes me to hear even that much sense? Deliriously.

Knucklehead David Brooks is sad:

Moreover, the two parties are about to run utterly familiar political campaigns. The Democrats are going to promise to raise taxes on the rich to preserve the welfare state, just as they have since 1980. The Republicans are going to vow to cut taxes and introduce market mechanisms to reform the welfare state, just as they have since 1980.

The country is about to be offered the same two products: one from Soviet Production Facility A (the Republicans), and the other from Soviet Production Facility B (the Democrats). It will react just as it always has.