the defeatists!

Well...the party of wealth and obscene power is chosing to eat it's leaders and it's base

Last night, I heard Ariana Huffington suggest as one Oxbridge PhD to another that she and Rachel Maddow  be put in charge of rehabilitating the Republican party because they both are committed to a two party system and because they are women and therefore more compassionate. I thought that was hilarious, but in the cold light of morning, it looks pretty good. Frankly, somebody has got to do something with these assholes.

I'm not talking about Batshit McCrazy. As the testosterone induced high of competition settled down, he's taken a look at what he's done, shuddered metaphysically, and is moving on to do what he has tried to do in his various incarnations -- serve the nation. I'm talking about a particular class of Republicans, a lot of whom seem to be tied to Dixie. We are seeing a bit of regional "Drop Dead" from these guys, and the psuedo-populism aside, I find it instructive. And, maddening -- at times, it strikes me that some of the Republicans are locked into a Pickett's Charge Mentality, only they have no Lee to say, "It's all my fault. We must gather our wounded and return to Virginia..." They have nothing but battle maddened reactionaries, babbling insanely about charging the hill again. If at times in the past 44 years the Democratic party has resembled the Children's Crusade, the party of the rich and powerful have been driven by a "God Wills It!" approach that is bloodier and more destructive but ultimately no less futile.

As I was driving around the installation yesterday, coming back from a government franchised Starbucks that isn't quite for lunch, my buddy and I started talking about my next car. I had been thinking about a Challenger, or maybe one of the new Camaros, or possibly the newest version of the Mustang in 2010. It was kind of sad to think that a muscle car guy had to now think about...BMWs. "Maybe an older 911." "No, but I make enough to easily handle a Boxster.." But, damnit, I don't want a goodamn Boxster! For everything wrong about the US, and anyone who's reading this knows that I'm pretty vocal about that aspect of things, I'm an American. And, if they have something I'd like to drive, I'd rather drive an American car. Frankly, looking forward to driving a Boxster excites me about as much as listening to a Swedish Band covering the Standells...speaking of which, for your viewing pleasure..

You see, they do it well, but they just don't quite get it...

The attitude toward the bailout for the car countries is instuctive. The center-left coalition that is the mainstream of the Democrats is interested in saving the economy from itself, but is not excited about status quo ante. The conservative-extremist-flat earth-troglodyte coalition that appears to be the ruling mob in the Republican party is interested in preaching it's ideology. Bob Herbert  has a lovely (in the very Irish sense of the word, see Barry Fitzgerald discussing the burning of the Squire's house in The Quiet Man )characterization  of the Big Three in today's column:

It’s easy to demonize the American auto industry. It has behaved with the foresight of a crack addict for years. But even when people set their own houses on fire, we still dial 9-1-1, hoping to save lives, salvage what we can and protect the rest of the neighborhood. (AXE emphasis)

Now, a great many of the ideologically driven Republicans are really pissed off at the Bush administration's utterly upgefucked leadership and handling of the $700 billion dollar bailout, and equally pissed off at the indications that they put us incrementally on the hook for a lot more. Well, I don't blame them. However, while I find the banking industry and the finance industry interestingly awful in so many ways, that doesn't really translate to this. I can't feel too sad for the poor bastards at Merrill Lynch who lost a lot of paper wealth; I can feel really bad for some guy in a Detroit blue collar neighborhood who's worked for GM for 40 years and now watches his health care, pension and pride go away...I can feel really bad for the guy in Barstow who's a lead mechanic at the GM dealer who watches his subordinates get laid off and is told he has to take a 20% pay cut. (True story -- guy could come work for me, by the way -- except he has to have a high school degree. He has 20 current ASE certifications, which aren't easy to get. But, 30 years ago he dropped out of school and went to work. Worked hard. Saved his money. Did everything he was supposed to do...and now this.)

Hey, I'll stipulate that I have some self-interest here. My brother-in-law is an autoworker. He gets up at 3:30 in the morning, drives two hours to Romulus and then works as many hours as he can; he drives home, kisses my sister and goes to sleep. He's been doing this since the early 70s; suffered through layoffs until he got some seniority; relocated to Michigan when they closed the factory in Syracuse; has raised a couple of really good kids and gotten them through college and launched on careers. He did everything he's supposed to do...and with almost 40 years seniority and close to retirement, he's sweating about things that the power structure told him not to sweat about. He's been a life-long Republican, trying to hang on to the American dream of being in the middle-class. And, he feels abused and violated, and angry. Yet, he's still proud to make engines. He's excited about some of the innovation. He's disgusted that Pontiac has looked to fucking Australia for its rear wheel drive salvation.His only gripe with me is that I have never used the Friends and Family discount program through his benefits...and, he's proud of his company's products.

Shelby et al do have a possible dog in this hunt. There are a lot of cars manufactured in Alabama, for example. They just aren't made by the big 3 -- they're made by Honda, Hyundai, and Mercedes among others. These companies pay well, because they are using economics to keep the UAW out. They went to places like Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina to avoid the UAW.  In talking to acquaintances in work force development from Alabama, Honda really has to pay a premium because of the way their company culture conflicts with the Alabamian (the resemblance to Albanian just struck me) culture. Both white and black workers are made to feel inferior to the mighty Japanese. But, the Koreans and the Germans get along fine with the workers...so, I could picture some local boosters saying, hey if GM goes, we'll profit.

Yeah. Well, that's just stupid. Not surprisingly short sighted of course -- the Babbits of the world, the Sarah Palins and the Grover Norquists and the Alan Greenspans are as fucked up as the big 3 have been. The foresight of crack addicts is a marvelous line...ideologues are very close to crack addicts. From Tim McVie or Trotsky Palin or Norquist isn't a big jump. But the flow from Buckley and Goldwater to Palin and Norquist is almost infinite. They say the words, but the words don't mean the same things.

Herbert begins his column with a discussion of the famous "Ford to city: DROP DEAD" approach to NYC fiscal crisis in the mid-70s. It took a woodshedding by world leaders to wake him up; there is a connection between the country and it's largest and most important city. If one fails, the other suffers. Well, in much the same way, there is a connection between our biggest manufacturing industry and the rest of the country. If it fails, then we're probably going to really suffer.

There is an opportunity here but in the financial realm and the manufacturing realm. Equity stakes are not the same as "nationalization." For the loans already outstanding and being misused, call the notes back and take serious equity stakes and conditions that serve the national interests. For manufacturing, equity stakes and serious, serious efforts to focus again on the national interests. Which, I think, are jobs that pay well, innovation, and technological leadership. Herbert's summation is clear and reasonable...

That means dragging the industry (kicking and screaming, no doubt) into the 21st century by insisting on ironclad commitments to design and develop vehicles that make sense economically and that serve the nation’s long-term energy security requirements.

What I would like to see is creative thinking on both ends of the bargain. Let the smartest minds design a bailout that sparks a creative revolution in the industry. Think of it as project synergy. (AXE emphasis: But, I am starting to get a little concerned about the whole Best and the Brightest trend. People who cite it ought to re-read Halberstram's book. It wasn't exactly positive...humility would be a good idea.)

Time’s wasting.( AXE Comment:And, the vultures are circling...)

A Daze in the Life

In solidarity, I proffer my daily schedule:

7:25am  - Wake up to alarm.  Hit snooze as wife hits the shower.
7:34am - Get up.  Brush teeth, wash face, comb hair, apply deodorant,
get dressed.
7:45am - Make lunch for the day.  Pack breakfast.  Apply helmet or coat and hat. 
7:55am - Kiss wife goodbye for the day.  Bike to work.  Avoid homeless.  Discover previously undetected city smell.
8:10am - Settle into chair at work.  Note again how bad this set up is
for my posture. Check Pastis.
8:55am - Finish breakfast.  Try to avoid making eye contact with those
that pass by my cube.
8:57am - Ignore my office "buddy" who won't leave me alone, is uncomfortably friendly, is always too loud in the morning, and when he has a bad
day, mopes so that you're forced to ask him about it.  Spare me from
these people, please.
9:55am - Finish reading google reader posts and updating Facebook.
Think about what it was I was doing for work before I left the night
before.
10:55am - Settle into the "work groove" - basically scour the
Internet, check Facebook, daydream, look at the project I'm billing
this time to, make intentionally furrowed brow faces, and
point-n-click at a faster rate when anyone passes by my cube that has
any authority whatsoever.
10:56am - Get up to make tea.  Eat my snack apple.
11:35am - Is it lunch time yet?
11:59am - Make fun of something or someone at Monsieur's "place."
12:01pm - Lebowski reference dropped at Monsieur's "place."
12:15pm - Ask my Direct Boss what I should do next.
12:30pm - Lunch time: feverishly scour the Internet and hope for some
interesting links or something funny from the GFA51 or Defeatist
Central gang.
1:30pm - Take that dump I've been waiting out on all morning, right as
lunch ends, to avoid the 1:50pm post lunch bowel purge backup in the
Men's Room.  Apparently there is a lot of undiagnosed IBS going on
around here.  (ed. - at 2:30pm today, all 8 stalls were filled with 8 dumping engineers.)
2:05pm - Post lunch coma peak.
2:55pm - Oh shit, it's only 3:00pm.  Frantically scour the Internet
looking for something, anything to take my mind away, far far away
from this place.
3:25pm - The Superficial just uploaded some hot Angelie Jolie pics - SCORE!
3:35pm - Mild arousal dissipates.  Have similar thought from
yesterday: google reader doesn't update fast enough.
3:40pm - Drop another Lebowski quotation at Monsieur's "place."
4:10pm - Step out the back of the office for a breathe of fresh air.
Remind self what it's like to feel sunshine and be human.
4:16pm - Grimace concernedly at computer as VP walks by.  Click mouse louder.
4:21pm - Ignore phone call from my mother.  Thank company for caller ID.
4:35pm - Discover problem with project.  Agree with selves to remind Direct Boss
first thing tomorrow morning. 
4:55pm - Get into heated argument on some blog.  Ramp cynicism to
maximum, belittle other slave, reminding them without an ounce of
self-awareness that this is in fact, just the Internet.  Continue blogging.
5:00pm - Engrossed in blog post comment battle, I forget to leave.
5:15pm - Save blog comment in gmail and head home to work on it later.
5:25pm - Arrive at home, pet cats, kiss wife.  Go for bike ride.

Listen folks, this is blogging, on the Internet.  It is the farthest (furthest) thing possible from actual work.  If you are at home all day and consider yourself a blogger, or a professional blogger, we've got news for you: you are in fact an unemployment number. 

Think that they would have noticed if anyone was paying attention...or gave a shit.

The case of the vanishing Church.

Well, so much for the resurgence of religion in modern Russia...

Orthodox priest Vitaly of the Ivanovo-Voskresenskaya diocese says officials last saw the two-story Church of Resurrection intact in late July. Sometime in early October, however, people from the nearby village of Komarovo, northeast of Moscow, dismantled the building, he said.Villagers apparently sold it to a local businessman, one ruble (about 4 cents) per brick, Vitaly said. Orthodox priests use only one name. "Of course, this is blasphemy," he told The Associated Press. "These people have to realize they committed a grave sin."

Yeah. Actually, it's probably larceny; kind of the mirror image of selling indulgences, which I don't think the Orthodox do, but still...I also dislike the idea of one name, "Orthodox priest Vitaly" "rock star Sting"..."Holy" the Ghost.

Fucking hobbits are doing in their own, ehh?

The Church of England, particularly in Bath and Wells, has decided to take on a subject that Jesus was really, really clear on and do the truly Christlike thing--ban gnomes from graveyards in Coventry. ...Gnomes. Obviously they are Priceline afficiandos... I can think of no better example of the irrelevance of Church hierarchy.

Now, I find garden gnomes repulsive. This is not a pro-gnome sort of blog. Look to Shakespeare's Sister and related sites for that. But, this really comes under the heading of "who gives a fuck?" Dad died, and liked gnomes. Actually, this is a great argument for cremation and scattering of ashes. Or, making the ashes into a sculpture. Of a gnome.

Part of their argument is that gnomes are not real, so why depict them in a cemetary? Well, dragons aren't real, but tell that to St George. Angels are pretty interesting; I've seen a lot of them wandering around, wings aflutter? And burning bushes...well, a marvelous thought, but not lately.

One of the many advantages we have over Britian is that we have, despite the best efforts of the Bush administration and allies, no established Church. The idiots worrying about this as opposed to -- I don't know, the poor, hungry, alone, suffering, naked, afflicted, those people -- are civil servants, in fact. Clerical bureaucrats...so, when you go to the UK and buy something and pay their VAT, you are financing this kind of nonsense.

Feel better about the bailout? No? While I think Keith Obermann needs to get on to heroin or something to calm him down, he is probably dead on -- we call it a bailout, but in the future it will be known as "why daddy went to jail!"

Hey America! Yeah, Over Here.

Take a fucking look at the COUNTRY that some reckon would bring America to its knees:

Are those MUD HUTS?

I think the goat is mocking you.

Was it an ARMED GOAT?

Ah the suburbs.

He went this-a-way!  No, he went that-a-way!

Ok, so it's kind of pretty.

But seriously, are you fucking kidding me?  We know you can't place it on a map.  We know you can't spell it, and likely can't pronounce it.  But really, take a good hard look at the 3rd World Hut Farm we've gone and invaded.  It seems so worth it.   

Overwhelming attack of the obvious

I used to say that if you can't explain your business plan in five minutes or less to high school freshman, you had no idea what you were doing, or what you were doing made little if any sense. These guys kinda get it...

The Flintstones was a documentary...

Breaking NEWS! The Religious-Right-Neo-Con-Reactionary version of  Shakesville and related sites has done us all an amazing favor. Bishop Ussher's account of the beginning of ancient history from the Creation on October 4, 4004 BCE is finally available in English, ...for homeschoolers and pastors and similarly enlightened folk everywhere. Or, should I use VOLK? You can get it by mail, or at any creation, Dinosaurs and Us-type Museum, right next to the Triceratops Petting Zoo.

"Using the Bible as his timeline, Ussher began with the death of Nebuchadnezzar as a reliable date and worked backward through the genealogies of the Old Testament to arrive at the date of creation — 4004 B.C. Integrating biblical history (around 15% of the text is from the Bible) with secular (around 85% of the material is from non-biblical sources), Ussher wrote this masterpiece. ( AXE snark: I'm confused...how is the date of old Nebuchanezzar's death reliable? On what sort of specious logic did JU base that? Carbondating? Hardly...and, this period of "research" predated modern geology, palenthology, and things like the discovery of the Rosetta Stone or the Dead Sea Scrolls. Ussher was working from the King James Bible to prove the authenticity of the King James Bible. As a work of history it ranks right up there with...fuck, I don't know, the Aeneid.)

"Considered not only a literary classic, but also an accurate reference,(AXE Snark: By whom? Bob Jones? Sarah Palin? William Jennings Bryan? ) "The Annals of the World" was so highly regarded for its preciseness that the timeline from it was included in the margins of many King James Version Bibles throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, calling to mind the fact that the earth is only around 6,000 years old. The fact that Ussher’s chronology has been deleted from Bibles is evidence of the Church’s backsliding into the deceptive ideas of evolution. (AXE Snark: Once again, circular logic and just irritation. There's no more reason to cite Ussher as an authoritative reference in a published edition of the bible than to cite Mallory in a history of England. By the early  20th century, there had been over 150 years of biblical criticism including advanced linguistic and historical theology. Ussher was no more relevant than Mallory, and no where near as fun as Mallory.)

"The Annals of the World" is a necessary addition to any church library, pastor’s library, or any library — public or personal. The entire text has been updated from 17th-century English to present-day vernacular( AXE Snark -- The King James Version of the Bible is a marvelous piece of poetry and literature; one of the abominations of the 20th Century was applying contemporary "vernancular" to it. Frankly, if you get the translation right -- and translating from 18th Century Latin can be as tricky as translating from the 2nd Century Greek if not more so! Particularly since the majority of folks writing and thinking and speaking in Latin from the 18th Century onwards were Catholic and largely Jesuit! who have problems with bullshit, unless they're writing it themselves.) in a five-year project commissioned by Master Books. Containing many human-interest stories from the original historical documents collected by Ussher, this is more than just a history book — it’s a work of history."(AXE Snark: Yes it is. But, it's like reading Ptolemy for astronomy or Galen for medicine -- it's an interesting part of the history of ideas, but that's all it is. It tells more about the enlightenment and the effort to understand things and put them in context as opposed to blind belief. )

Thanks to Ed Brayton and Dispatches  from the Culture Wars for this one. As one of his commentators put it,

"Ed's afternoon routine:

1) Scan Wingnut Daily."

He sacrifices himself so the rest of us don't have to actually go over there ourselves. Just like everything you really need to know about Fox News you can get from The Daily Show.

Our sins will go with him when they put him in the hole...See!

Tertullian  was an early, North African father of the church and theologian who really captured the essence of Christianity's view of itself...Interestingly, the dude became an early version of the end-timers, pissed that Rome was delaying the arrival of the anti-Christ.

We are a body knit together as such by a common religious profession,  by unity of discipline, and by the bond of a common hope. We meet together  as an assembly and congregation, that, offering up prayer to God as  with united force, we may wrestle with Him in our supplications. This  strong exertion God delights in...But it is mainly the deeds of a love  so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they  love one another, for they themselves are animated by mutual hatred.  See,they say about us, how they are ready even to die for one another, for they themselves would sooner kill.

But, as Matthew cites the poor guy that gets blamed for all of this, "By their deeds shall ye know them..." In a piece of irony worthy of Evelyn Waugh tossing back Carlsberg with Kierkegaard and bumming smokes off Chris Hitchens, there's this bit of rock and roll opera :

JERUSALEM -- Israeli police rushed into one of Christianity's holiest churches Sunday and arrested two monks  after an argument between monks erupted into a brawl next to the site of Jesus' tomb....

The story provides an overview of the nonsense associated with this over the decades. More detail of the history of the place is here. The Ottomans got tired of the nonsense between the Franciscans and the Greek Orthodox, and cut the baby. poorly and ultimately into six shares. As a result, riots have occurred over such substantive issues as moving chairs into the shade, leaving doors open or closed, or the placement of a fucking ladder.

Under the status quo, no part of what is designated as common territory may be so much as rearranged without consent from all communities. This often leads to the neglect of badly needed repairs when the communities cannot come to an agreement among themselves about the final shape of a project. Just such a disagreement has delayed the renovation of the edicule, where the need is now dire, but also where any change in the structure might result in a change to the status quo disagreeable to one or more of the communities.                  

A less grave sign of this state of affairs is located on a window ledge over the church's entrance. Someone placed a wooden ladder there sometime before 1852, when the status quo defined both the doors and the window ledges as common ground. The ladder remains there to this day, in almost exactly the same position. It can be seen to occupy the ledge in century-old photographs and engravings.

And, Crusader AXE was wondering if there was going to be enough to write about. Tiffany is a kind mistress, and the Christian orders better hope that she's in charge and not their guy; she wouldn't care, but Joshua ben Joseph will be PISSED at the nonsense done supposedly out of love of him.

Have a jolly jolly Christmas, Wal Mart!

I'd just gotten home last night and started eating when the doorbell rang. Sal Esparza, a Barstow guy who does landscaping was offering me the installation of 7 tons of decorative rock for $400. I've been needing to get it done, and doing it myself would cost about the same. So, Sal, a skinny Chicano with a big Dodge Truck, four kids and a wife and a mobile home who's been busy as hell for the last six or seven years now can pay for the truck and maybe buy food for another week...and, I get to feel lucky. For a minute .

About 10.1 million people were unemployed in October, the most since the fall of 1983. More people have jobs 25 years later, since the population has grown, but it's still a staggering jobless figure. With employers slashing jobs every month so far this year, some 1.2 million positions have disappeared, more than half in the past three months alone. That portends a sad holiday buying season for retailers, not to mention troubled Americans without jobs.

What amazes me is that the administration did all sorts of ideological and practical backflips to get Wall Street feeling chipper, albeit unsuccesfully. But, the auto makers may be gone sooner than later. While I'm not to concerned about Bill Ford, Bob Nardelli and the guy from GM are in danger of having to knock on doors in the evening, begging for work to feed their families, I am concerned about everyone else in the industry. Things are going south on so many fronts...To paraphrase the Chief's line from Men of Honor, "I don't know why the hell anybody would want to be president..."

Couple of thoughts strike me: jobs and tax credits. Give people a tax credit for new cars made in the US equivalent to the cost of operation per year. Puts money back in pockets but is tied to purchasing where there are already taxes in place. Another approach would be to put interest on consumer loans and credit cards back into the mix for deduction time. Just a thought.

Only way to say goodbye, to Sarah...

First the dark haired girl on the way to boystown, than things aren't so wonderful...Don't you love it when infatuation meets light of day?Love the McCain-Palin stuff. Marvelous speech by Batshit McCrazy, by the way; the old Greek thing about the gods destroying those they love through madness and pride showed through. He showed the class that a lot of us expected for the last six months. But, I air kiss executrix's I despise with more fondness than he showed Palin. So, to show how things can go south when you should have stayed north, and a cautionary tale north of the border but south of the 49th state, here's Walter Trout and the Free Radicals discussing what needs to happen with all that crap from Nieman Marcus...

Depression? Wonder why...

Well, despite the hysteria emanating from various parts of the liberal world, Crusader AXE is reasonably sure that Barrack Obama will win the election tomorrow, that the sun will both rise and set and rise again, and while things may ultimately change for the better, ultimately is a long time.

I'm recovering from a very nasty bout of food poisoning; most bothersome is that it kicked in late Saturday, and the only place I'd eaten that day was at home. I still feel like crap, and will have to head into work tomorrow feeling like death. But, that's ok. I have a job.

Have you looked at the figures from Detroit? We are this close to being out of the car manufacturing business in this country. Oh, there will be cars made in the US -- Hyundais, Hondas, BMWs, Toyotas, Mazdas, and so on -- but the big three are very close to being the big two and then nothing. GMAC has supposedly limited its credit to folks with credit scores above 700. That is troublesome, since the average credit score is in the low 600s. This means that if you want to buy a car and have decent credit, you're going to pay too much in interest.

News from away is not good either. Granted, Sarkozy didn't try to call Sarah Palin for real, and if he does now, we can be pretty sure he won't get through. But, Africa is continuing to blow up, OPEC is babbling about cutting production again, we've forgotten about Iraq even though the Iraqis haven't and continue their murderous ways, and...Afghanistan now has cops working with the Taliban to screw up Americans. Great.

Of course, the Bush administration still has time to fuck things up some more. I think Obama will have an easier time turning things around than McCain, all things being equal...he hasn't signed on to the Bush agenda. In fact, I think the beginning of the end for McCain occurred when he hugged Bush...but, I'm still feeling like slow death and don't know if I have any perspective on this at all.

And, the Hobbits at Typepad appear to have gone on strike. Or, they're trying to improve something. I'm going to take a hot bath, whimper, and go to bed. Hopefully, tomorrow will not be as lame as the final OPUS cartoon, but hey, that's all been down hill since Bill the Cat lost the 84 election...

America Embraces Defeatism!

Paul Krugman's latest column: When Consumers Capitulate

the end is nigh!

New Frontiers in Science

"Now -RIGHT NOW!! -- is a great moment in the history of furniture, because “the investigation of furniture behaviour itself and its components under a given load is just beginning”.

John McCain Fucks Little Children.

Ask her, she'll tell you:

Shorter John McCain: Obama, He's a Fucking Nigger:

Trivial pursuit of the prize...or nothing concentrates the mind like the prospect of hanging

Paul Krugman's column this morning is right on target with where a lot of Americans are feeling and thinking today. This actually might be a bad thing for the blogosphere -- but a good thing for the country and maybe the world. Probably not, because of the AXE oft-complained view of the attention span of the American people. But, maybe not.

In a way, you can’t blame Mr. McCain for campaigning on trivia — after all, it’s worked in the past. Most notably, President Bush got within hanging-chads-and-butterfly-ballot range of the White House only because much of the news media, rather than focusing on the candidates’ policy proposals, focused on their personas: Mr. Bush was an amiable guy you’d like to have a beer with, Al Gore was a stiff know-it-all, and never mind all that hard stuff about taxes and Social Security. And let’s face it: six weeks ago Mr. McCain’s focus on trivia seemed to be paying off handsomely.

But that was before the prospect of a second Great Depression concentrated the public’s mind.

I was talking to my sister in Michigan yesterday. Blue collar, hard-working family hanging on by their finger-tips. She said something that amazed me -- " Bobby and I have always voted Republcian. We're ashamed..." She said that her sister-in-law isn't talking to her husband, because when she asked what Bob thought about Sarah Palin, he said "She's a Bimbo. McCain's a moron..." Peg's a working mom, through kids through college and getting up at 4AM to go work in a donut shop in southeastern Michigan while Bob is an autoworker, who gets up at 3:30 to leave by 4AM to be in Romulus for the start of the only remaining shift at the factory.  They're the epitome of Reagan Democrats...and, they've had it.  She said something interesting, and telling -- "We don't mind paying taxes for things we believe in -- but, Iraq?"

While we all should have diminished expectations going forward for a while, I find this optimistic. That's about as mainstream American as it gets. When I told her the tale of Joe the Plumber not being licensed and not being able to think about any business making $250K on his income, she just laughed, and to channel Bugs and put words in Peg's mouth, "What a maroon!" Common sense may actually triumph over conventional wisdom. I'm not taking bets, of course, but sheesh, that would be nice. To give Krugman the last word:

Will the nation’s new demand for seriousness last? Maybe not — remember how 9/11 was supposed to end the focus on trivialities? For now, however, voters seem to be focused on real issues. And that’s bad for Mr. McCain and conservatives in general: right now, to paraphrase Rob Corddry, reality has a clear liberal bias.

So, we'll see.

Flow on, Flow on, River of Shit...

Bob Herbert's columns trouble me. And, they trouble me for a good reason -- they remind me of how in so many ways we are not the City on the Hill so much as the slums and warrens and hovels at the bottom. But of the many sayings of Joshua ben Joseph, the one that he often makes me think of is "Whatever you do for the least of these my brothers, you do it to me." So, when Herbert reminds us not of the perils of the middle class but what's happening at the bottom -- the poor, the dispossessed -- we need to frankly listen and pay attention. We can shake it off and say "It's their fault that they are poor, hungry, unemployed, unemployable, disease-ridden, homeless, bankrupt..." but as the poet-twit put it 40 years ago, "Instant Karma is going to get you..."

I've been twisting this problem in my head for a while -- the collapse of the ownership society -- and I frankly had been as guilty as John McCain in not thinking lately or enough about the fate of those who would like to be able to aspire to the middle class, but can't get there from where they are. It's just another part of the whole, and in the United States, since the depression, the poor have been The Other America. However, shit does roll down hill...and you're safe, higher up on the hill, unless you slide down.

Few Americans have noticed, but a tremendous number of hospitals, from Boston to Los Angeles, are in serious, even dire, financial trouble. A survey of 4,500 hospitals by the New York consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal found that more than half were technically insolvent or at risk of insolvency. The current economic downturn, combined with an anticipated surge in patients without health insurance, will only worsen what is already a crisis.

The nation’s financial system was all-but-overwhelmed by the mortgage crisis because none of the nation’s leaders paid serious enough attention to the widespread symptoms of what turned out to be a metastasizing disease. A similar situation exists on a number of important fronts right now: the deteriorating national infrastructure, the woefully inadequate public school system, our self-defeating energy policies, health care. Symptoms of serious trouble are staring us in the face, but no one is mounting an adequate response.

When a new president takes office in January, the temptation will be to delay bold action on these fronts until the overall economic situation improves. That is the kind of mistake (like ignoring the housing and credit bubbles until it was too late or refusing to heed the pre-Katrina warnings in New Orleans) that opens the door to additional crises.

Ultimately, comes the kleptocracy, and chaos. What Herbert points out today, focusing on the health care infrastructure, is that we have an underlying systems problem, not a crisis. The crisis exists because of short-sighted solutions, thirty years of greed, exploitation, and the return of the Robber Barons. He concludes by saying that at no time since World War II have we required a president who can lead on so many fronts.

Ultimately, Ronald Reagan sold snake oil, and George H.W.Bush was right in 1980. Ever since then, we have had a national addiction to...snake oil. Whomever leads going forward has to wean us off snake oil. Yeah, the marginal tax rate needs to go up, probably higher than 39% on income over $250K. Payroll taxes need to go up, in that they need to cover income earned up to $250K. We've been spending like drunken idiots and we need to pay down the debt while at the same time spending money where we need to spend it. Infrastructure, health care, education, basic research (Fruit Flies, I kid you not) and defense. I see a massive jobs program as one possibility.

But, it's easier to call the other guy a Muslim. Kerry's campaign, and Gore's to a similar extent, were about complex solutions to complex problems. "Nuance, and complexity -- fuck, no. We're 'Muricans. Got a problem cuttin' that diamond. Sheetfuck...just get me a bigger fuckin' hammer, Clem."

"Never thought about tomorrow..." We're lost, and I have no confidence that we can find ourselves again. In fact, I'm pretty sure we won't -- that's the reason I'm a defeatist. Jesus isn't the answer; Alan Greenday Greenspan has admitted he's clueless. Joe the Plumber is a fucking idiot. We got lost at some point, and we'll see about tomorrow...

Metaphysically, I expect we're going to end up like Peter Wolf, doing what looks like a wedding in a tent someplace Lost in America. But, Herbert indicates a different fate if we pay attention and take action. Me, I'm willing to give it a try, but I'm having problems seeing how this ultimately works.

I thought Richard Wolfe was incredibly restrained on Countdown...

Thanks to IOZ.
Why did Batshit McMadman choose Sarah Palin? ? Current right wing intelligentsia thought is sexually laden. She seduced McCain...damn you, Delilah! If it weren't for her, we could have Joementum really adding joy to the campaign!

Occam's razor certainly makes sense in this case -- the simplest explanation is usually the best, and most of us are damned confused coming up with a reasonable explanation for this choice. Sex is a good one...of course, I happen to think Cindy is more attractive, but I could escape from big John. Todd would run me down with a snowmobile...Still, given his habit of bouncing airplanes off various unyielding surfaces, McBatshit has a short attention span.

I thought Richard Wolfe was incredibly restrained about her comments on special needs kids. He refrained from sputtering, and avoided calling her an insensitive, ignorant cunt-demagogue bitch. He must be in league with Shakespeare's sistern...We're gonna help them, dagoneit, by letting the ignorant idiots that have their water break and then fly back to Alaska from fucking DFW to Juneau or Anchorage or some weasel infected place and have the kid -- we're going to let them decide what's best for their child. And, research -- why spend money on scientific research. Maybe if that preacher prayers over little T and casts out the witchcraft in his life, things will be better.

That ultimately is the Palin program. Import crazed loonie preachers from Kenya and have them cast out the demons. Picture that guy casting devils out of the ATM...

We ain't never gonna change/we ain't doin nothin wrong/ we ain't never gonna change/ so shut your mouth and go along

Or not. One's safer, one's probably more fun.

While I was in Shanghai, one of the teaching assistants asked me if I had ever read Our Town by Thornton Wilder. No, managed to skip that. She was amazed -- I was an educated American, how could I not have read Our Town? Luck, I said, and sly animal cunning. She asked if I would mind reading it over the three weeks so I could discuss it with her. Sure. Our Town doesn't take any three weeks to read in English. If she had handed me a Chinese copy, of course, I'd still be Pu Dong, figuring out the whole mess. Or, probably not. Nothing but Winesburg style prose to get me on a plane. But, she asked, she was lovely and I was there to be the American business expert...so, why I wasn't reading some awful economics tome was sheer luck.

Bloom and his ideas about what we all should read aside, My-Ling had an excellent point from her perspective -- you say you're educated and you haven't read this classic? Well, no. I say I read for knowledge and pleasure, and this doesn't fit any other criteria. Because I was a big reader, I got to skip a lot of tripe that people who weren't big readers had to read. I was reading John Le Carre as freshman in high school while other folks were stuck with The Red Pony. The Red Badge of Courage. The Scarlet Letter... if you read enough awful shit with the color red in the title, you'll never be a communist.

This author puts it in perspective. We learn an alphabet, some phonics and away we go. Character based, tonal languages are far more a pain in the ass for those who are being educated in it. If a dash or a slash is the difference between 'Mao our glorious inspiration" and "Our glorious inspiration is a cat turd," well, you have to get it exactly right or the consequences are daunting.

Forget the harmony guff for a minute, and the philosophy of education for that matter. If you’re learning a character-based, rather than alphabetical language, as you would be in China or Japan, there’s a hell of a lot more rote learning and memorization involved: it’s unavoidable. So are the tests that go with it. And that’s before you get into tone grammars, which require pitch perfect tonal expressions. On top of that, the teaching style is just more authoritarian, as it used to be generally and as it used to be here. None of my teachers would have welcomed a question that raised doubts about their authority over their subject. I suspect none would now, either.

Well, mine did. And, this Tiffany piss in their mouths, is what they got. However, I'm grateful. Yet we all know that there are a lot of folks like this one cited in RBC this morning...A few years ago, a young student complained about the readings in our introduction to American social policy. She wanted to know the right answer, and our syllabus just confused things by including conflicting readings...

One of the reason the young go in for cults is because they want the "certitude" of knowing what is correct...I remember the shock on my Chinese students faces when I encouraged them to practice their English and if they made a mistake, learn from it. Didn't fit -- so from China to the boys from South Alabama...

Let me venture an analogy from biology...

Let me venture an analogy from biology: A patient arrives at a hospital in serious condition. Now, it may be that the patient has simply fallen victim to one of those debilitating ailments that go around from time to time and can be cured by a massive dose of antibiotics. In this case we have a macro problem with a macro solution. But it could instead be that the patient is suffering from a decade of serious abuse—smoking, drinking, overeating, lack of exercise, a fondness for crystal meth—and that it has not only taken a catastrophic toll but also left him open to opportunistic infections of every kind. In other words, a buildup of micro problems has led to a macro problem, and no cure is possible without addressing the underlying issues...

Read it and weep, or learn. If you're due to retire in 40 years, pay attention. If you're due to retire in six months, don't. Continue to pay attention.

Random reflections--Be right, or have your life work

The last time I was this sick, the spouse and the significant other were existentially wrestling over whom it was going to be to put crap up my nose. While I was praying to Tiffany for the blessed release of an OD and sweet death based on equal parts crank and heroin, they were struggling with Qtips covered with Aloe Vera and similar stuff. Naked. In a mud bowl...or, maybe that was the drugs. Cynical C's spouse is using some Haitian potion brewed tealike on him...and, Mrs. AXE, given that she has the field to herself, has taken to brewing tea for me. Is it a women thing -- excuse, wyrd Sisters of Shakesville, wymyn thing -- to pour tea down the throat of suffering men and Qtips of crap up the nose of the sufferers? Momma AXE used to put together a concoction of milky tea with honey and a shot of whiskey. We weren't so well off to have it have been Bushmills, I assume it was something awful like Canadian Beaver Musk, but I can recall the taste.

Is doctrinaire Republican conservatism the new "New Left?" Culture Wars has a piece basically repeating things from Kathleen Parker about what happened to her and to Chris Buckley over Sarah Palin and McCain. Now, the NR crowd never really liked McCain, so if he's all they got going for them at this point, they're fucked anyway. Barry Goldwater supposedly wasn't that high on McCain. Hell, the people who were highest on McCain were anti-government intrusion Democrats back when he had ethics, integrity and benefited from not being George Bush. So, the fact that Parker and Buckley, and Powell, and on and on and on are all opposed to this ticket and the party as presently manifested should cause some thought.

However, the Left consumed itself back in the day. Bill Ayers and Tom Hayden make an interesting contrast here. Hayden married Jane Fonda and has been a semi-mainstream liberal ever since, serving in government and running for elections, trying to change the system from within. Ayers came up with the Weathermen, which morphed into the Weather Underground ( The forecast inside the the salt mine is -- dank, damp and cold? Power to the People) and then discovered that bomb throwing had some problems...he got a PhD and is a professor of Education at a state-funded university.

Hayden and Ayers confronted a simple, existential question --Do you want to be right, or do you want to make your life and ideas work? Effectiveness versus some form of ideological purity? Hayden chose making his life work; Ayers has vacillated. He still wants to be right; he's done some very good things. But, he's still dealing with the idea that a bigger bomb might have done better. Which frankly is absurd...a bigger bomb would have done worse. The average