prole

Singapore being a great model for the closet-authoritarian "fixing broken windows" crowd...

Fuck it, why couldn't we just get unpaid interns and Bangladeshi call-center workers to fill government positions?

Check out the TSA security checkpoints at SeaTac.

Perhaps you're right, capitalism may not be on its last leg yet, but its brief on again/off again relationship with liberal democracy certainly is.

Ah, always with the fear... Yes, the "road to serfdom" is always the philosophical fallback/boogeyman (talk about faith!). Never mind that so many are virtually bound to it already and that the implementation of your prescriptions here of late would consign even more to it. What's it like knowing that the only dynamism left to wring out of late-capitalism is through lowering people's expectations for a "good life", increased environmental exploitation and destruction, more powerful means of control and surveillance, and eroding social institutions? You can only filibuster people with "road to serfdom", "mob rule", "clinical efficiency", and "economic freedom" so much before they realize they're being served a shit sandwich. You might not like Sarah Palin or the Teabaggers much, but you've only the effects of your own economic faith to blame for their existence.

The Republican positioning of increased financial regulation as Democratic pandering to Wall Street as the basis for GOP opposition to such measures may show that Dumbshits and Elitists could work quite well together for a time. That time being over when Republicans actually have to govern and they need to find a new (old) narrative to justify their corporate cocksucking. Enter: "Economic Freedom".

If you're not ready to admit you have a problem, you're not ready to get well. What does rock-bottom look like for the neoliberal fundamentalist, I wonder?

This is funny 'cause our health care system like sucks, right?

You two are perfect for each other: the morally bankrupt fundamentalist preacher and the congregation he secretly holds in contempt for stupidly believing the lies he sells them.

Yes, please try to keep your pathological prescriptions neutral, value-free, and clinical.

Another classic from Grandpa's Inbox...

The field narrowed significantly today when Mike Huckabee decided to remove himself from the short list of legitimate contenders...

He's the Antichrist, according to 24% of 'Mericans.

Don't forget the stunning success of the neoliberal project in Iraq!

...and a Communist!

It's fascinating how, in typical fashion, corporate America, finance capital, their politicians and intellectuals have shifted the narrative towards public debt and away from their own responsibility in the catastrophic meltdown and the policies (deregulation, tax cuts, casino economics) that helped lead to and have made the budgetary crises in advanced economies so acute. Just as breathtaking, but not surprising, is their own willingness to bite the hand that saved, and continues to save them from themselves, the State. But of course it's only a particular kind of State or policies that are under attack here: those that haven't gone far enough to peddle and pander to corporate interests and that still maintain some measure of responsibility to its citizenry, the hallmark of a legitimate governance. Neither Olyclimber's sarcastic but appropriate suggestion to "slap some duct tape on this jalopy" or the resident sociopath's to double-down on neoliberal capitalism (the two competing mainstream narratives) address anything that might look or smell like a viable way out of what is a global and systemic crisis. At this point, I'll certainly take duct tape over a continuing descent into barbarism.

Next...

Rising...

The Bush administration was far too the right, which explains the hyperbolas and a good deal of truth from some left wingers. The Obama administration is center right, which doesn't explain at all the loony rhetoric of the right wing. Wait, so he was too far right so they called him a Nazi? Not only is your 9th grade history teacher spinning in his/her grade but so is your 6th grade English teacher. This is one for the ages!

Are we having fun yet?

Slander, death threats, sabotage, domestic terrorism, whatever it takes. I hope the Teabaggers are emboldened by this victory! WE'RE FIGHTING COMMUNISM, PEOPLE!!! BROOK NO QUARTER!

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!

I'm not panicking!

Mild Spicy Injury Inducing

Could've used his bat tonight. Milton's Mad Rage Gauge: Low