tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81321642008-10-11T23:34:12.147-04:00"Boredom is the desire for happiness left in its pure state."<br>-Giacomo Leopardi<br> <i>"Something that would reduce or enhance the feeling of boredom." - "We're not bored." "We're not capable of it."</i><br>-Maurice BlanchotMatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comBlogger923125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-27271650909905623182008-10-11T13:12:00.003-04:002008-10-11T13:17:36.348-04:00

Matt Taibbi poking some much-needed fun at David Ray Griffin (via): Secondly: what the fuck? What kind of lunatic comes up with this as his "illustrative example"? Your simplifying parable is more fantastic and complicated than the actual story! At first I thought you were kidding, then I had to go back and read it to believe it -- astounding! It should tell the readers of this debate quite a bit

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-5195322626642584472008-10-08T19:47:00.007-04:002008-10-11T12:33:50.208-04:00

In contrast to NPR's shoddy disservice, DemocracyNow gives the real story on how to make your vote count. For instance, DO vote early, but DON'T mail in your ballot without a photocopy of government ID, and DON'T accept a provisional ballot, especially for reasons relating to your mortgage–they are all thrown out. Listen to the whole show here. And for more on the history of the Voter-Fraud

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-10581643777841122682008-10-06T23:49:00.005-04:002008-10-07T00:09:59.237-04:00

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-82717256472772013142008-10-04T18:26:00.003-04:002008-10-04T18:33:05.046-04:00

As anyone can read Firedoglake or DailyKos for themselves...I mentioned this before, but "This American Life" had a great show on the American and world economy sometime back, called "The Giant Pool of Money." It should be required listening for anyone concerned with understanding why things are the way they are, and how to change them.

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-37848380686682335442008-10-03T18:21:00.001-04:002008-10-03T18:21:43.265-04:00

Nevertheless brilliant, here.

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-89216072424020540112008-10-01T23:01:00.004-04:002008-10-04T18:26:31.095-04:00

...how they voted on the Sanders amendment (it didn't pass). A couple interesting posts at Econospeak. Economy of bubbles and campaigns for real change... The whole world votes pretty overwhelmingly for Obama.

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-69138136841577420302008-10-01T08:13:00.011-04:002008-10-03T16:54:18.606-04:00

It appears that for the next three months at least, the democrats are still running to the center-right. Like a bunch of fucking politicians. DemocracyNow covers the revised swindle, and the long-term prospects of a smaller Wall Street, as Paulson picks which criminal friends to reward for their crooked greed and who to sacrifice, all at taxpayer expense, and all without addressing any root

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-5019053941945284202008-09-30T20:41:00.008-04:002008-09-30T22:36:29.349-04:00

I have no idea if this makes any sense or not. It would be nice if people like Paul Krugman and Ezra Klein could stop clutching their heads long enough to recognize the historic opportunity here and actively think creative and courageous alternatives. Anyway, just catching up on events, courtesy of The Nation and DailyKos, where the idea of a Progressive Shock Doctrine and a New New Deal for

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-3588214109805111522008-09-30T10:00:00.004-04:002008-09-30T10:56:47.236-04:00

• Resisting "the core logic of financialization [which] renders real subsumption to come as primitive accumulation now." • Comparing Crises: The 1930s, the 1970s, and Today by Ingo Schmidt • The $700 billion already stolen without Congress seems not to have helped.

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-52099767267415773252008-09-30T09:07:00.003-04:002008-09-30T09:12:06.000-04:00

Mr. Moore: Of course, sane people know that nobody "lost" anything yesterday, that stocks go up and down and this too shall pass because the rich will now buy low, hold, then sell off, then buy low again. But for now, Wall Street and its propaganda arm (the networks and media it owns) will continue to try and scare the bejesus out of you. It will be harder to get a loan. Some people will lose

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-9491772519481414782008-09-30T00:22:00.011-04:002008-09-30T22:50:01.945-04:00

So now that outright scam is over, nearly, and a space may have opened up to think actual alternatives, provided enough constituent pressure is put on democrats in congress to do the right thing (and it will take a significant amount), perhaps the Real Populism can be made to stand up and fight. Some beginnings worth thinking about: • Progressive Shock Doctrine • History of a Liberal Shock

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-86376891038381915862008-09-29T19:30:00.020-04:002008-09-30T21:05:41.305-04:00

He needs to come out for a healthy New Deal-like alternative NOW. Why is he letting the Republicans (that is, the Republican Study Group/assorted lunatics who only oppose the bailout because they want more tax cuts for the rich, more deregulation and private profits) steal all the thunder? Sure he's still only campaigning, and such principled, ideological bravery against his political nature (

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-89422154773129854052008-09-29T18:02:00.003-04:002008-09-29T18:19:08.098-04:00

Of all the dozens of Senators' and Congresswens' aids I've (uncharacteristically) called and emailed over the past week one has responded, and he did it within days. Hell, he may have even read directly to the Senate. The House on Monday rejected a $700 billion Wall Street bailout that would have been the biggest government intervention in the financial system since the Great Depression. "

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-4930761562579105352008-09-29T07:55:00.004-04:002008-09-29T08:34:25.427-04:00

Well it's nearly official: top managers will continue to receive million-dollar-a-month paychecks under this new bill. There is no direct ownership given to the American people for the money being handed over. Foreign banks and investors will be allowed to receive billion-dollar handouts. ...the reason so many Dems are behind this is because Wall Street this weekend put a gun to their heads and

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-69239057770100080232008-09-27T22:19:00.001-04:002008-09-27T22:22:00.961-04:00

Alistair McCartney: ...in these early days of the twenty-first century, the suicide of a writer does not mark their body of work, does not inflect it, in the same manner in which it did previously, during the epoch of Romanticism. Is literary Romanticism dead? Perhaps, although it is still too early to say; either way, the terrain in which we are writing and living and dying is shifting; the

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-90595870040170548552008-09-27T20:42:00.002-04:002008-09-27T20:45:13.242-04:00

Holy mangled words and sentences, does the NY Times not have a copy-editor anymore?

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-87109233496522091392008-09-27T20:24:00.003-04:002008-09-27T20:27:36.114-04:00

How many opportunities must Obama pass up to appear congenial and non-threatening enough to begin actually confronting and challenging this shit? I counted at least ten of these last night.

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-76894813247349097062008-09-27T19:59:00.001-04:002008-09-27T20:01:25.959-04:00

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-72408146424937072292008-09-26T19:39:00.006-04:002008-09-27T20:21:29.585-04:00

Radical wingnut ideas built and floated by the Chicago School, or fueled by the Republican Study Committee, are of course not only "lying around" as Milton Friedman encouraged, but fiercely lobbied any time we get a rainy day. Or preferably a flood. As Naomi Klein documents, radically unpopular change that hurts most people can only be forced through in a time of emergency. Maybe we should

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-76613888963338236552008-09-26T18:33:00.003-04:002008-09-26T18:48:15.178-04:00

Why argue in the abstract or with slogans when the facts are available? To follow up on this post, I've culled directly from this fine blog here: • 95% of working families would get a tax cut from Obama • 100 million Americans would get NO tax cut from McCain • Most would get a larger tax cut from Obama They also have a handy, non-partisan tax calculator under each plan. And links to

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-30231504718828938992008-09-26T17:56:00.004-04:002008-09-26T18:57:25.203-04:00

Rate the media, that is. Here. Apparently they need it. Incidentally John McCain has already bought ads declaring his victory.

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-92024651903338044222008-09-24T10:29:00.012-04:002008-09-26T18:18:13.541-04:00

So there is no gas for the second day in a row in all of Western North Carolina. Apparently people are convinced the sky is falling. And as the Shock Doctrine kicks into full gear, with Paulson rigging the first stage for either McCain's far worse debt explosion, economic apartheid and privatizing of Social Security or Obama's neoliberal, neo-Clintonian, Robert Rubin trickle-down-light, Karl

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-81698715991916876752008-09-22T08:55:00.001-04:002008-09-22T08:58:11.970-04:00

Josh Marshall, Bernie Sanders, Paul Krugman, etc. etc.

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-1347419171055366952008-09-19T18:35:00.019-04:002008-09-29T08:04:56.821-04:00

I'm a limited fan of Alexander Cockburn because I support the idea of humanitarian intervention. Among other things. But if it's satisfying and self-riteous parrhesia (as in, speaking the distinct truth to power that almost always comes from a position of perhaps glorified impotence), this article should work (sub). May he not get all of this right, yet: In cruder language the operators of

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8132164.post-22942348427587916982008-09-19T18:35:00.017-04:002008-09-22T20:06:23.583-04:00

Sad. Just sad. To be updated... For various reasons, I recommend this. See also: Five Direly Underappreciated U.S. novels >1960 The Know(e):dfw The Uncollected DFW Interviews and Audio Boyd Tonkin: Wallace dramatised the need and urge to keep the proliferating networks of our culture in view and under control, at a time when they have passed beyond the compass of any human mind. Addiction

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336678358977647388noreply@blogger.com