Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
"The poor are simply wannabe rich people"
(just left comment about SOTU at yesterday’s posting)
I am not so pessimistic Mickey.
This is what I think most people want (yep. a rerun):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bls1ahTJOPI
Quote of the week (Dr. Michael hudsen at Guns and Butter, also a rerun):
“A banker told me… there had been an intellectual breakthrough in understanding for the banks… that changed the whole way they did business...we found the poor are honest!”
Posted by Robert B. Livingston on from San Francisco, California 01/29 at 04:59 PMMickey...your Mom lives on in the hearts of many. All who have read your account of “the conversation” will never forget her.
Hi Robert.
Today’s topic is right on. There was a letter to the editor in today’s paper. The writer says that there should be no assistance to the poor for heating oil. He calls it Socialistic and says that the poor should get chain saws, wood stoves, wood lots and go out and cut wood. The implication is the commonly held belief that the poor deserve their plight because they are lazy, immoral, and stupid. Recently I have been seeing more of that spirit of meanness. The poor need a press agent. The Tom Joad dialog is one of my favorites.
Posted by RMJ on from Mickey Z 4 Prez Hdqts 01/29 at 05:26 PMI’m iffy about the poor/rich thing. Yes, the illusion of wealth is sold without shame or pause, but is human nature really like the World Bank says it is? I’d like to think not, though there are exceptions.
A more accurate telling is when equality (social or economic) is forestalled against the chance of a slippery slope: if sweatshop workers get a bathroom break, pretty soon we’ll have socialized medicine. That’s the logic of the wealthy and their servant corporations, whose records of limitless appetites are well-established. When faced with the McCain or Watson (Paul Watson? WTF???) calculus of domination, the best antidote is a long, hard look in the mirror.
Tom Joad is here: http://tinyurl.com/yqly7a
The comments note that Woody Guthrie wrote a Joad song in 1940: http://tinyurl.com/38heghPosted by Zen Prole on from Urth 01/29 at 05:35 PMI hear what you’re all saying and everything, but… I’ve been buying lottery tickets more often lately. Seriously, I think I’m about ready to be rich. It stinks not being able to go out to eat at whatever vegan restaurant NYC has to offer whenever the heck I want. Let alone needing to show up at this office to do whatever it is that I do here all day. It’s not all that bad, I’ve just had enough. I’d gladly accept the burden of free time that might possibly accompany independent wealth.
Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 01/29 at 06:46 PMGreat links Zen.
An anonymous frenchman once wrote about artists: “No fancy residence, only a mind furnished with fantasies.”
Confucious once said that the “wealthiest is the one who can live with the least"-- try it; not easy.
Rich, poor, or in between-- everyone has their share of problems.
I think Roseanne Roseannadanna said it best, “If it’s not one thing it’s another. It just goes to show ya, it’s always something.”I’ll never forget her.
Posted by Robert B. Livingston on from San Francisco, California 01/29 at 10:31 PMHello Expendables...from drizzly Astoria. for the sake of clarification (and looking in the mirror), I said there was “some truth” in Watson’s statement and that “many” (as opposed to “all") oppressed strive to be like their oppressors. And, for the record, I play Lotto sometimes, too. It’s called desperation.
It’s not so much “human nature.” It’s more like “manufactured consent.”
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/30 at 08:33 AMI know what you mean about “many”, as in I’d like to be rich, out of debt and all that but oppressing people just seems like so much work.
Hey wasn’t it fun watching Rudy’s concession speech? Though I wish he’d stick around for more national humiliation. We’ll see.
Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 01/30 at 11:07 AMRudy will surely get a decent time slot to speak at the convention and should the Republicans win, he might even get considered for a Cabinet slot. He’ll be a player of some sort for a while.
As for McCain, he’s looking like the 2008 version of Bob Dole, circa 1996.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/30 at 11:16 AMGood morning Mickey, James, Zen, Robert, and all… Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind being rich. My heating oil company just informed me that I have a past-due bill of $80. for a furnace cleaning. Yes, Robert, it’s always something. We live in a country where dental care, eyeglasses, furnace upkeep, and for some even food has become a luxury.
Right now AG Mukasey is testifying before a Senate Committee. He still is not willing to condemn waterboarding.
Today the AP is reporting that our fellow citizens are now making death threats against those who support the arrest of Bush/Cheney.
Posted by RMJ on from Mickey Z 4 Prez Hdqts 01/30 at 11:38 AMThis was interesting, the comparison of Rudy to former NYC mayor John Lindsay:
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?&aid=77937&search_result=1&stid=245Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 01/30 at 11:44 AMMZ, I didn’t mistake your post for advocacy. My reaction was purely allergic.
Aye, McCain is looking like Dole. But if Obama somehow derails Clinton, McCain suddenly becomes viable. (punch line goes here)
I dunno, RMJ. It might be just as easy for the lazy, immoral poor to disassemble other people’s houses for heating fuel. Ecologically it works (why should hardworking trees have to sacrifice?) and it might be more economically efficient. If the poor had to go a further 100 yards to reach a wood lot, that would increase their opportunity cost and Patriotic, Market-Loving Americans wouldn’t approve.
Like liberals’ taste for social change, I find that social darwinists observe a NIMBY clause.
James gets my vote for today’s Iron E award.
Posted by Zen Prole on from Urth 01/30 at 11:56 AM-
Captcha sez: moral
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/30 at 02:03 PM For some time I have been excoriating Alexander Cockburn for promoting the falsehood that Nader had endorsed Edwards (Nader never did)-- which Cockburn taps again today at Counterpunch. Nader had said he would run if Hillary becomes the Democratic Party nominee-- and that truly looks more likely with Edwards out.
I do not see Obama or Hillary winning-- and I think Nader is deeply concerned about the direction the country is taking. Mumia Abu Jamal clearly describes how the horserace is about money for the media. http://tinyurl.com/2g9uyh
I cannot yet sign the exploratory form as much as I would like to. I am committed to my personal hope that McKinney will eschew the lack of democracy in the Green Party and find a way to ally with Nader. I fear that Democratic Party accomodationists in the Green Party are the stop in the door that must be removed. If Nader and McKinney do not unite in some fashion-- both will become extremely marginalized I fear.
Excellent video recommended by a friend:
http://tinyurl.com/2tjgavPosted by Robert B. Livingston on from San Francisco, California 01/30 at 02:42 PMVery interesting. I have been waiting for Nader to make the announcement. ABC has a blog up about it. Things just may get a little more interesting now. The Press will try to keep him out. The voters will fail to demand that he get fair treatment. In the end 95% will vote for the status quo because they are afraid of change (in spite of what they say), BUT IN THE MEANTIME THIS IS STARTING TO FEEL LIKE A PARTY.
Posted by RMJ on from Mickey Z 4 Prez Hdqts 01/30 at 03:30 PMI rarely vote but would happily pull the lever for McKinney or Nader (or, as Robert suggests, both on one ticket). Also, as was the case in the last two presidential election (sic) cycles, I’ll watch in awe as my pro-Nader articles are ignored by major lefty sites and ripped by so-called progressives. I’m still getting e-mails from “lefties” who say folks like me are to blame for the Iraq War.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/30 at 03:38 PM“LONDON (Reuters) - More than one million Iraqis have died as a result of the conflict in their country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to research conducted by one of Britain’s leading polling groups....”
and this does not include all of those who died since the bombing started in 1991.Posted by RMJ on from Mickey Z 4 Prez Hdqts 01/30 at 03:40 PMRMJ #16: I guess we’re blame to for all those deaths because we didn’t buy the ABB line.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/30 at 03:42 PMMickey, yep, Nader supporters get blamed for everything. I bet today the dems are getting really p!$$ed, and just when Hillary thought that she was home free. How is “The Nation” magazine going to handle this? Oh, what a conundrum for them. I wonder if Chris Mathews can think outside the box long enough to understand why some people support Nader. Mukasey playing duck and cover with the Senate, and now Nader is in. This is really fun. It is a good day after all.
Posted by RMJ on from Mickey Z 4 Prez Hdqts 01/30 at 03:57 PMWhat’s hilarious is that the limousine liberal crowd is already torn in half over whether to support the woman or the black man.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/30 at 04:02 PMThey could support Angela Davis.
Posted by RMJ on from Mickey Z 4 Prez Hdqts 01/30 at 04:17 PMNot sure if I understood-- did you mean that Nader would run only if Hillary gets the nomination? But h e won’t run against Obama? That’s not right, is it?
Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 01/30 at 04:47 PMJames- don’t speculate like that! That is the sort of thinking that made many people think he was endorsing Edwards!
Nader in interviews has said at most he would really consider running especially if Clinton is the nominee: http://tinyurl.com/yoyjka.
He has praised candidates like Edwards for showing some spunk (talking about corporate influence)-- I think hoping to influence them to show more.
Mickey-- I am with you about the limousine liberals and the fecklessness of the alternative media.
Lately, I have been raising a tempest-in-a-teapot about how Google’s news page keeps Cindy Sheehan’s campaign news spammed and clotted with old and distorted news. It’s a my teapot, because what I have found out doesn’t seem to go anywhere:
At least Cynthia McKinney is on the ball: at her website she notes the only major article (to my knowledge) that came out of last week’s “Emergency Conference of Journalists” that met in Santa Cruz this past weekend (sponsored by Project censored)-- is a slim description coming from a New Zealand paper! http://tinyurl.com/23kfzh You’d think our journalists who attended would have already been pecking away!
What is wrong with this country?
I just finished listening to Michael Hudson ask the same question in a second program on Guns and Butter (to be archived soon). He talked about Alan Greenspan. Hudson was a consultant to Dennis Kucinich because Kucinich was the only major candidate in favor of a real national health plan. A very worthwhile program-- stunted by Pacifica, unfortunately. And I won’t say more about Kucinich, though I have much to say. http://tinyurl.com/39sxr8
I am sorry I go on like I do: but the SOTU is galling to me!
I would go to Canada, except http://tinyurl.com/2jbwbx
That’s probably all from me today-- don’t want to spam your site Mickey.
Off to work.
Posted by Robert B. Livingston on from San Francisco, California 01/30 at 05:37 PMHello, Robert B Livingston, Rosemarie, Zen Prole, James, Mickey (love the Springsteen quote in your main entry, and this: ‘It’s not so much “human nature.” It’s more like “manufactured consent.” ‘ All those intelligent comments - I’m back from another one-day visit to Melbourne where I watched ‘Sweeney Todd’ - not for the squeamish, but Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are great in their roles, as is Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin. Then there is the music, which means that the actors turn into singers - they don’t sound bad at all.
And what is it about John McCain and the love affair the corporate media types have with him? Unfortunately Australian journalists simply repeat what they have read/heard from their American counterparts on that subject and every other subject.
Captcha ‘finally’ - finally we are having some rain, but not enough.
Take care, all of you!
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 01/30 at 05:42 PMRepubs debate tonight at 8.
NADER ON DEMOCRACY NOW TOMORROW MORNING !
Posted by RMJ on from Mickey Z 4 Prez Hdqts 01/30 at 06:40 PMOh, someone mentioned Alexander Cockburn. Now my day is ruined.
He did an interview on Spiked Online recently about his campagining against the existence of man made global warming.
What you all must know is that Spiked (formerly Living Marxism) say they are ‘left’ but in reality are nutjobs who contribute to right wing think tanks including those set up by Thatcher.
Posted by Andy on from Shanghai 01/31 at 02:51 AMAh that was the wrong tinyurl site, opppss.
Interesting point - Spiked is an example of a very unpleasant fact.
In the USA and UK we have groups of reactionary conservatives who specifically and conciously set out to confuse ‘liberal thinkers’ and ‘lefties’ and to scupper progressive action - by running pretend sites and mags. They have whole ‘left wing’ careers and are funded by the government.
This further reinforces the obvious view that our democratic governments are profoundly un-democratic.
Posted by Andy on from Shanghai 01/31 at 02:59 AMMeant to stay away… but just can’t help myself.
I really admire Alexander Cockburn.
He is sincere. He has a hyper-kinetic mind, a passionate devotion to social justice, a weakness for intrigue, a good sense of humor, a judicious understanding of how we all place in the big scheme of things: all great qualities for an iconoclastic journalist. He is indeed frustrating (on 9/11 and global warming-- as well as a myriad of other subjects among many many MANY subjects-- thank goodness we are all not shoe-horned into dogmatic thinking. Too, I think he rather enjoys keeping his readers on edge.) Always learn something from him.
My recent encounter with Cockburn: I was broke and he shoved me a copy of his book when no one was looking. I promised to review it, still getting around to it. Gotta keep my promise. So far so good. Lately I need a better chair and light. http://tinyurl.com/2nyg9o
Also today’s Michael Hudson program is now archived. Great listening at: http://tinyurl.com/2xo6kn
I think I’ll listen to it again.
Adios!
Posted by Robert B. Livingston on from San Francisco, California 01/31 at 05:04 AMHello Expendables. Just wanted you all to know a new post is up.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/31 at 05:23 AMi admire paul watson. he does more than most of us in the service of things that matter. but the truth is, as far as things regarding society and class go, he is utterly fucking clueless. long live the ship he commands as it attacks the whale hunting vessels of japan. but #### watsons simple minded bourgeious understanding of modern human social relations.
Posted by tim on from la 02/01 at 06:10 AM
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