A video.
From Justice.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Afterthoughts.
A Moment of Clarity.
Words.
"...The political debates on free markets or the privileges of the 1 percent seldom touch on the actual struggles of citizens — say, living in the shadow of foreclosure, or attending a failing school, or surviving in a gang-occupied neighborhood. Ideology is abstract. Hardship is lived concretely.
...But many Americans are being overlooked in this bipartisan conspiracy of economic abstraction. A significant and growing portion of the population lives in poverty. In 2007, the rate was 12.5 percent. By 2010, it was 15.1 percent. The share of Americans in extreme poverty — with an income less than half the poverty line — is the highest in the 35 years that the Census Bureau has kept such records.
...a debate on poverty is needed..."
THE WASHINGTON POST: The Americans no one wants to talk about
"...The political debates on free markets or the privileges of the 1 percent seldom touch on the actual struggles of citizens — say, living in the shadow of foreclosure, or attending a failing school, or surviving in a gang-occupied neighborhood. Ideology is abstract. Hardship is lived concretely.
...But many Americans are being overlooked in this bipartisan conspiracy of economic abstraction. A significant and growing portion of the population lives in poverty. In 2007, the rate was 12.5 percent. By 2010, it was 15.1 percent. The share of Americans in extreme poverty — with an income less than half the poverty line — is the highest in the 35 years that the Census Bureau has kept such records.
...a debate on poverty is needed..."
THE WASHINGTON POST: The Americans no one wants to talk about
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Blue.
Words.
"...Until the day she releases a solid record, or at least more material than there is analysis of her existing three songs, I’m mostly disinterested. But it’s only fair that if I hate the hype when things are going Del Rey’s way, I should hate it just as much when somewhere she’s probably got her head buried under a pillow, wondering, miserably, if her career is over before it began.
It’s the breathless, and less-than-substantial, analysis of what makes her music great that alienates me. The equally breathless but also pitiless criticism now being heaped on her comes from the same place, and should be equally alienating. Hype is the megaphone for our basest tendencies. We can’t just “like” something. It needs to be the most meaningful experience ever. Likewise, we can’t dislike something. It must be destroyed.
...With social media, the reaction to Del Rey’s performance has grown from curiosity to schadenfreude. I don’t like Lana Del Rey’s music very much. But today, for Lana Del Rey the person rather than Lana Del Rey the product, I feel pretty bad."
COKEMACHINEGLOW: An Attempt at Real Empathy: Lana Del Rey on SNL
EARLIER:
QUESTION!: SALON: Was Lana Del Ray really that bad?
WHERE HAVE ALL THE COWBOYS GONE?
An Ongoing Discussion/Moment of Clarity.
Words.
"Members of the Tea Party insisted they were turning the GOP into a populist, anti-establishment bastion. Social conservatives have long argued that values and morals matter more than money. Yet in the end, the corporate and economically conservative wing of the Republican Party always seems to win.
...What’s remarkable is that Romney seems to be closing in on a victory at the very moment when he is painting himself as the anti-populist and a tone-deaf economic elitist. Not only did he suggest Tuesday that he pays a low 15 percent tax rate (because most of his income derives from investments); he also dismissed the money he made from speaking fees as “not very much.”
...Think about Romney’s rise in light of the overheated political analysis of 2010 that saw a Republican Party as being transformed by the Tea Party legions who, in alliance with an overlapping group of social and religious conservatives, would take the party away from the establishmentarians. If I had a dollar for every time the new GOP was described in those days as “populist,” I suspect I’d have more than Romney made from his lectures.
...“Romney is as establishment as they come,” said McAlister. For many conservatives, he added, a fall campaign between Romney and President Obama could thus be a choice between “which of the two establishments do you hate most.”
That’s not where the Tea Party’s promoters said we were headed."
THE WASHINGTON POST: Where are the Republican populists?
Words.
"Members of the Tea Party insisted they were turning the GOP into a populist, anti-establishment bastion. Social conservatives have long argued that values and morals matter more than money. Yet in the end, the corporate and economically conservative wing of the Republican Party always seems to win.
...What’s remarkable is that Romney seems to be closing in on a victory at the very moment when he is painting himself as the anti-populist and a tone-deaf economic elitist. Not only did he suggest Tuesday that he pays a low 15 percent tax rate (because most of his income derives from investments); he also dismissed the money he made from speaking fees as “not very much.”
...Think about Romney’s rise in light of the overheated political analysis of 2010 that saw a Republican Party as being transformed by the Tea Party legions who, in alliance with an overlapping group of social and religious conservatives, would take the party away from the establishmentarians. If I had a dollar for every time the new GOP was described in those days as “populist,” I suspect I’d have more than Romney made from his lectures.
...“Romney is as establishment as they come,” said McAlister. For many conservatives, he added, a fall campaign between Romney and President Obama could thus be a choice between “which of the two establishments do you hate most.”
That’s not where the Tea Party’s promoters said we were headed."
THE WASHINGTON POST: Where are the Republican populists?
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