Big Orange has been all over the Birfers and Teabaggers of late, which I’ve found fairly boring and pointless, but then, I just follow for the news and occasional good analysis. They can bitch endlessly about anything they see as threatening to their cause. Whatever that is at this point.
I have been fairly intrigued with what’s happened with Keith O’s getting quashed on his Bill-O-Baiting by GE (which owns NBC) so that Bill-O would quit exposing their corporate hijinks in retaliation for getting his itty feewings hurt by Keith. I also found it fascinating yesterday when Keith, just back from vacation, informed Kossacks that Richard Wolffe wouldn’t be his live-in ‘independent’ analyst and occasional show-sitter anymore, given that Wolffe has been exposed as a corporate PR hack. Today, however, MSNBC’s management has contradicted Keith by stating they don’t mind at all if Wolffe wants to be their live-in ‘independent’ political analyst even if he’s on the payroll of the corporations that are often making the news being analyzed. Hmmm…
This is to elaborate on a previous diary on Gramsci: as I argued there, we need a new historic bloc. I’m updating the argument to discuss the Congressional contest for a “robust public option”; the old historic bloc appears to have partially collapsed, with the deflation of Republican popularity, yet no new historic bloc has arisen. The attempt to create a “robust public option” may have encountered so much resistance, I argue, because it is trying to work with the old historic bloc. We, therefore, need a new one.
I have not abandoned my effort to compete for the title of Happiest Man In The World. To the contrary, I am training more diligently than ever.
An important part of my training is going for long walks as often as I can. I prefer the woods and the beaches. I don’t think it really matters where I go, or how fast I walk, as long as I walk for long enough. Over an hour and a half and less than 3 hours seems about right. I begin early in the morning, hopefully before 6:30 am. At that time, the sun is low in the sky and birds are still singing their morning cantatas. The air is sweet. It’s cool. In fact, it’s perfect. Even when it’s raining. It brings me happiness.
Soon, later in this month, I hope to go on vacation. This is an important part of my training. When I’m on vacation I do very little. I read. I write. I swim. I day dream. I increase my meditation. I increase my walking. Some people have suggested that the sloth might be my totem animal. But they are wrong. I never voluntarily climb trees. I do not hang from my appendages. Instead, I turn my focus more exclusively on the beautiful planet we all live on. I explore my feelings of gratitude. I see where inspiration might be. I do only what I am called to. Mostly, I’m just being. And just being brings restoration and freshness. And yes, happiness.
I’ve been known to rant here. And to argue against what the Government is doing or not accomplishing. That has sometimes made me happy, made me feel that I was speaking the truth to power. Even though in all likelihood power wasn’t reading anything I wrote. But that kind of writing can also be exhausting, and at some point, it can be frustrating. Frustration doesn’t make me happy. Nor does exhaustion. So a change of course might be restorative.
You don’t have to go to exotic places to have a vacation. You don’t have to be rich. You can stay home, and have a vacation. What you need is some time, enough time that you can put your usual, daily life briefly on pause, and collect yourself. Time to refresh yourself. Time to think less habitual thoughts. Time to assess and appraise. Time to care for yourself.
None of this is earth shaking. None of this is particularly controversial. I’m saying it because the season lends itself to slowing down, to disconnecting briefly, to taking a break. I’ll take a break in a couple of weeks. And I hope that will make me happier.
What would make me most happy, I think, is if everyone could take a break and come back in the Fall excited to continue, rested, energetic. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
The NY Times reports Higher costs spur the rise in U.S. consumer spending. “While consumers spent more in June, they did so because prices of food and energy were rising, and not because they were ready to spend freely again. Personal incomes sagged as employers continued to cut wages and reduce working hours. And the personal saving rate, which had been rising, dropped sharply from a month earlier”.
Meanwhile, Team Obama continues to wage the class war against the middle class. The CS Monitor reports Mixed signals from Obama team on middle class taxes. Obama’s economic advisors are considering breaking the president’s campaign pledge of no tax increases for those making $250,000 and under.
In a televised interview on ABC on Sunday, Secretary Geithner talked about the need to make “hard choices” to rein in federal budget deficits. And the president’s top economic policy adviser, Larry Summers, said on CBS that healthcare reform will cost money, and “it is never a good idea to absolutely rule things out.”
Obama pledged during his White House campaign not to raise “one dime” of taxes on Americans earning below $250,000 a year.
“If you make under $250,000, you will not see your taxes increased by a single dime. Not your income tax. Not your payroll tax. Not your capital gains tax. No tax,” Obama vowed.
“It’s a pretty important campaign promise,” said Thea Lee, policy director at the AFL-CIO. But, still Team Obama and Congressional Democrats led by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) are floating a plan to tax employer-provided health benefits as opposed to increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Geithner and Summers are in the White House advocating for their rich friends, while the rest of America still continues to hurt.
Economists, in fact, say income losses for workers who are let go in a recession can persist for as long as two decades, a depressing prognosis for the several-million people who have lost their jobs in the current recession.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reports Antidepressant use in U.S. doubled over decade to 10% in 2005. “The number of Americans taking antidepressants doubled to 10.1 percent of the U.S. population in 2005 compared with 1996, increasing across income and age groups… An estimated 27 million U.S. people ages 6 and older were taking the drugs by 2005… according to Columbia University research.”
Coincidently surely, the LA Times reports Obama gives powerful drug lobby a seat at healthcare table. “As a candidate for president, Barack Obama lambasted drug companies and the influence they wielded in Washington. He even ran a television ad targeting the industry’s chief lobbyist, former Louisiana congressman Billy Tauzin, and the role Tauzin played in preventing Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices.”
Now, Tauzin is Obama’s partner having been to the White House at least 6 times and where he says he’s “secured an agreement that the administration wouldn’t try to overturn the very Medicare drug policy that Obama had criticized on the campaign trail.”
“Drug companies — Washington’s leading source of lobbyist money — now have ‘a seat at the table’ at the White House and on Capitol Hill as healthcare legislation works its way through Congress.” Six months ago, Obama “criticized drug companies for greed now praises their work on behalf of the public good.”
Meanwhile, The Hill reports Liberals protest Speaker Pelosi’s comments on health deal. Pelosi (D-CA) said to reporters on Friday: “Are you asking me, ‘Are progressives going to vote against universal, quality, affordable healthcare for all Americans?’? No way.” Her response triggered laughter.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus have formally protested her remarks. “Progressive Caucus Co-Chairwoman Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) said Monday she was unhappy at the idea that liberals were being ‘laughed at’ and not taken seriously.” The Progressive Caucus has vowed to oppose legislation that weakens or excludes a public option for health care.
Four at Four continues with Guantanamo inmate trial proposal and Obama’s Appalachian apocalypse.
So while we’re all chortling over the useful idiots that the corporatocracy sends out to distract us (Orly Taitz, Glenn Beck, et al), the ongoing coup will not be interrupted.
We won’t even know that the coup occurred. We’ll be too busy laughing at the jesters and going “gosh, it’s a good thing the Dems are in power, because if they weren’t, these nutjobs would be! Whew!”
I’m getting close to another birthday too! And since you are a bit younger than me, I thought this might be a good day to have a little chat, maybe even pass along a little wisdom gained with years that you may not have arrived at. Yet.
First of all….just in case you haven;t noticed….The Republicans are assholes. Professional assholes, in point of fact.
And despite your considerable charm, you just aren’t going to win them over. Yeah I understand the political theater of bipartisanship, but you have pretty much milked that for all it is worth, right? The midterms are coming up, and as always, and certainly as we see on the HCR tactics, if you don’t kick their ass, they will kick yours. Iow…..it’s time to stop pretending they are reasonable partners and being nice and start really exposing them for who and what they are. Assholes.
Hey who wants to work up a cool banner? UPDATE! Done! Yay! Thank you, On The Bus!!
Okay Part One of the brainstorming of this was here yesterday. I’m picking up with Part Deux today to give everyone a week’s notice in advance, and get into some details. Don’t worry, it’s not that big of a deal, it’s just my OCD showing. heh.
DD Writers Jam Fest… a five days Docudharma exclusive (!) Writer’s… uhm … focus group? no… er, Workshop? well, sorta, maybe. Free For All? hmmm, yah.
Okay the main thing we’ve agreed to do is a Round Robin. We’ll see if some of the other stuff comes together…. it’s up to us, you. Shake it up in the comments.
DATES: Wed through Sunday, August 12 – 16th, 2009
WHERE: Here, mostly, but also in your Brain, CPU or Journal
WHO: You. Everybody. Dharmanoids. Whoever wants in, jump in (as long as you play nice). You don’t have to be a “Writer”, no ID card or credentials art the door required. No Registration Fees either
HOSTED BY: moi but it’s a community thing
REWARDS? PRIZES? MEGA BONUSES? Er, no. Free ponies though!
So what’s this Round Robin thing? Fun. Da Rulz below. Well. I forgot where I was for a minute. “Rules” are just the standard issue Rules of Docudharma: “be excellent to each other”. The rest (below) is more like Guidelines really.
No one following the health care debate can fail to know the Conservative movement in this nation is doing everything they can to stoke the level of fear of their base in an effort to spread the disease of fear to the nation as a whole and the Members of Congress in particular. Their overall goal is to keep any major changes in how health coverage is sold (which is what we are really talking about in this round of reform) from happening.
How long have you been waiting for this? Well it was worth the wait. For 8+ minutes Unkle Pat is on the ropes, on the defensive, and the tool he is attacked with is the pure, simple, inconvenient truth that the fantasy world of Conservative politics can not co-exist with.
And now that fantasy world is falling down all around them.
I could have titled this diary Death by Stupid. It is really getting that bad, and the GOP just doesn’t get it. They have begun to believe their own spin.
In order to grok fully the utter totality of this beatdown I have broken this video down into it’s Nonsense and Smackdown componenets.
Go below the fold to see the brutal beating explained.
Bill Clinton in North Korea to Seek Release of U.S. Reporters
By MARK LANDLER and PETER BAKER
Published: August 4, 2009
WASHINGTON – Former President Bill Clinton landed in North Korea on Tuesday to negotiate the release of two American television journalists sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for illegally entering North Korean territory, according to a person briefed on the mission.
Mr. Clinton flew into Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, in an unmarked jet early Tuesday morning local time, Central TV, a North Korean station, reported. The White House declined to comment.
Citing television footage from Pyongyang, The Associated Press said Mr. Clinton was greeted at the airport by North Korean officials including the chief nuclear negotiator Kim Kye Gwan and Yang Hyong Sop, vice parliamentary speaker. The footage showed him smiling and bowing as a young girl presented him with flowers.
New Leader Tries to Get Toyota Back on the Road
By MICHELINE MAYNARD
Published: August 3, 2009
DETROIT – General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are not the only ones working through wrenching restructurings. Toyota is, as well, though with a much lower profile.
The results have yet to show, and in fact, no one at Toyota expects 2009 to be anything but dismal. (On Tuesday, the company reported a loss of $819 million for the first quarter.)
Its new president, Akio Toyoda, has moved quickly since taking charge in June, when he declared his dismay at the company’s financial crisis.
“Like everyone in the company, I am extremely frustrated” about the automaker’s decline, Mr. Toyoda said at his first news conference as president. “So we must start again from the ground up.”
