tvashtarkatena

Being a ripe old codger, I know that things can change quite a bit in two years, and that every action has a reaction. I also know that in a country half full of dumbshits, the prez gets blamed for unemployment. Then again, I also know that incumbents have a huge advantage. Then again.... ...we'll see.

Which people? In your work, don't you operate under the assumption that everyone should have equal protections under the law? Maybe I misunderstood you, but your statements on this board implied that you thought everyone should have access to health care. Maybe our fields of should are just more or less wide. As far as politics go, politics (when defined as a field of struggle over power) is all there is, I've never posted anything here that would suggest otherwise. Given you postings, I think we're talking about a difference in attitude, not viewpoint. We worship one thing here: Money, and we're paying the price for that on a very personal level. How do we turn America to a values based society? One issue at a time, I'd wager. Money will always be an important practicality, but it would be nice not to see American's sell their privacy, altruism, satisfaction, and health so cheaply. For example, I was at a fambly gathering this week and heard a tea bagger go on about how we should legalize drugs but allow insurance companies to charge them extra. Sounds really reasonable, right - until you get to the details, which, of course, would involve mandatory drug testing for all insured. Ie, to save a few bucks a year, this 'libertarian' was willing to give up a substantial aspect of his privacy - even down to his bodily fluids. The other side's arguments are invariably weak. It's not an intellectual or fact based movement - hence, its kooky followers. I prefer exploiting those inherent weaknesses to throwing up my hands over them. The difference is a glass half full versus empty one. I see a steady stream of progressive victories over the years that has not stopped - in fact, I believe its accelerating right now. That tempers the obvious disappointments that continue, and will continue, to occur in a country half full of redneck dumbshits. Things go in opposite directions simultaneously here all the time - that's Merka, for ya. I also see that it's never been any different. Fighting for progressive change is more like digging a ditch that floods and partly fills in every winter - what do you do? You just keep digging. It's not sexy, but having the partially draining ditch is better than none. You can take comfort thinking of the day when winter stops coming and you can stop digging. I also don't blame other conspiratorial forces (the media, for example) when, for example, the ACLU loses. Not everything is in our control - we can't force judges to vote a certain way. We do the best we can given what we can influence (and the media is definitely in that category); past that, the chips will fall where they will.

we'll talk about it in 2012 when you shake in your boots because most people (who are progressive on issues) aren't energized to vote for another round of capitulation. Being a ripe old codger, I don't shake in my boots much. The tide comes in, the tide goes out. I do what I can; sometimes my side wins, sometimes not. It's a never ending struggle; the dumbfucks are not in short supply, and I hear they're making more of them. I'm not sure you speak for what 'progressives' will do in the next election. I hope that everyone will weigh the pros and cons of their voting decisions and act accordingly. It's almost always a lesser of two evils choice; the adults among us understand that. I put very little faith in the judgement of my countrymen, for obvious reasons, however. The trick is to get to enough of them to tip the scales a wee bit in our favor on occasion. Still, if there's any country in the world that needs reform, given its stage front position, its ours. I could run away to New Zealand or some such, but it's too fun battling the Kooky Kristians and Libertariofascistas. My viewpoint doesn't involve so much defeatism because of a raft of historical wins my advocacy organization has enjoyed recently - and next year may even be better if we play our cards right.

Well, therein lies the rub. Neither I nor my advocacy colleagues consider anyone their masters. The rich aren't going to make it easy to gang up on them so you can take their stuff, regardless of how necessary it is (and it most certainly is). You gotta be good to pull that one off. But hey, if you just want to party, that's cool. No forfeit required.

what a clueless moron. The corporate media doesn't report on anything that progressives do irrespective of marketing or how many people participate. I don't know if you consider the ACLU progressive or not (I'd wager not), but we get reported on all the time at all levels. Working the media is one of many necessary skills for any serious advocacy organization. If you're not willing to do even that much, then you don't deserve anyone's hard earned cash, time, or energy - there are more productive places for those to go.

People who are serious about progressive change don't pay much attention to a program that describes the way the world should be. Providing a feasible, step by step plan go get to that world, one that takes politics into account, packs a lot more punch. This requires a long game, serious fund raising, a professional level of organization, getting feedback from the voting public, and negotiating with the enemy, however. Otherwise, it's just another groovy idea.

That would actually be a good start. You gotta work with the world you got to make the world you want.

Quad posting. Definitely crazed.

BTW, the Progressive Caucus needs to update it's marketing materials...50 years is a long time for one campaign. It might learn a thing or two about the connotative meaning of titles from its foes. The 'People's' Budget? Might as well included a Che T with each copy. "Nobody Listens!" No shit, Sherlock. Hire a PR firm that knows what its doing and play the game at the pro level or just stay home and renovate the yurt or something.

Of course, if you're just setting ole j_b up for a roasting, game theory teaches us that it'll take about 2 postings for the j_b/KKK stream-of-incontinence to start flowing again.

So that is your "platform"? Exactly the contents of that link are what you propose, with no deviation or exception to anything? You might try dropping your content-less stream of insults and babbling-terminology-spew and actually state a solution for once, j-bot. You could, of course, pre-emptively do the same. It might just be a bit more persuasive.

The Gubmint Good/Gubmint Bad arguments typically presented here here leave me a bit dumber. The idea that an organization's charter - gubmint agency v corporation, for example, is, on its face, moronic. Certainly historical context and the people involved wouldn't come into play. 'The Issues' are similarly dumbed down here. Take 'obesity'. First of all, obesity is only one aspect of a much larger metabolic syndrome - hypertension, inflammatories, diabetes, obesity, insulin resistance, and high triglycerides. It's caused increased consumption of sugar, particularly fructose - a substance our bodies are not evolved to metabolize without significant damage. Government and corporations have played on both sides of the field here. Corporations market both very healthy, environmentally sound, and socially responsible foods, as well as Cherry Coke. Trader Joe's is awesome, Kroger Foods blows. Government launched the cheap shit food movement under Nixon (along with the War on Drugs...thanks, DICK) - agricultural subsidies, subsidies for the fast food and shit food production industries, relaxed regulation, a pro corporate FDA - in addition to mandatory labeling, a national food ingredients database, and public health education, and research grants; all of which have enabled those who give a fuck to live healthier. Ie, please STFU already unless you're going to intelligently discuss something that isn't so meta-generically ideological that information exchange actually sucks perfectly good neurons out of the body and flushes them down some great and smelly swirling asshole that also operates in the reverse. This must be the mechanism behind the obvious retardation of the United States.

Private prisons and pet care.

"Seal Team Six, Seal Team Six, we have a Red Sleigh down..."

Just another Gay Weed issue, really.

Miss has an extensive and growing private prison system, too. Hmmm.....

I was chatting up one of my colleagues from Mississippi. They're trying to reform the state's "training school" system - basically, they're version of juvy. 3 fights, 3 joints, or 3 cases of truancy will land a 13 year old girl in a green jumpsuit, shackled to 4 other 13 year old girls, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Sometimes a little discipline is all a kid needs.

I'm smarter than God.

Canuck fans: 100,000 tools in need of a box.

A 1:1 scale model of the Bone's cerebral cortex, or a visual rrepresentation of the nutrition content in a metric ton of any Kroger Foods product?

You're welcome for a well deserved thanks. I'd love to discuss Citizens United (and what the ramifications for free speech would have been if it had gone the other way, the path to legislative campaign reform the SC left wide open, the narrowness of the decision, and the fact that you just didn't like message versus the principle involved) but you'd have to actually know something about it first to make that anything less than a complete waste of time. Pass....

Hey, I don't choose their posters for them....

Its funny how the anti Big Government health care folks seem to forget about the Big Corporate cocked lodged firmly up their ass. Of course, there really isn't any forgetting involved in reality.

Adorning the security trailer at the refinery entrance:

12 inches!