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Saturday, February 28, 2009

From the Anthony Peake Forum: The Theory of CtCW and its Effects Upon Identity

Great Britain's Martin Huxter blogs from his parallel world in London: On Identity and Contradiction ,  Internet Porn ,  and Collapsing the Consciousness Wave. . .  The example of a cat in a box is always a playful one, however when pondering over parts of this theory I can't help but think of a baby being born, but never having any eyes gaze upon it at all, receiving no physical contact and then being left to somehow fend for itself, which, miraculously it finds a way to do. Obviously, usually upon it's birth a baby is observed and this stamp of observation seals it's viewed physical make-up in the world.

Social constructs such as Identity are always thought of to be exactly that, social creations formed through interactions with other observers of reality. But with regards  to, say famous people - celebrities - Is it possible that the more something is observed (collapsed) the more concrete it's identity becomes in existence? In a physical sense as well. Is the way people age, for example, a genetic thing, or is there any room for slight mutation based on the scale of observation they are exposed to?

I recall a conversation with Jake about internet porn. (excuse me for lowering the tone!) But he was making a great argument about how this particular act of ritualised observation is sending power to these particular images and clips making them more and more powerful as an influence. Hence the act of collective observation (obviously shared in separate homes - I hope!) actually gives them a stronger hold in reality.

Make any sense? Probably not. Forgive me, I tried.

DeRosaWorld: Saturday Musing: 'Magic, Alchemy and Divination' Edition

DeRosaWorld: Saturday Musing: 'Magic, Alchemy and Divination' Edition

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Here Come the Conservative and Libertarian Backlashers

 Well,  it stands to reason,  doesn't it?  With the loss of the election to the Democrats,  a counterculture movement is springing up like dandelions across the landscape:  From Wake Up, America:  expository words and pictures,  revealing the American way of fighting for what one considers freedom,  thousands strong and kicking: 

Wake up America: Tea Parties Make A Splash

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Obama's "Radicalism" Not of the Marxist Brand: He is Shades of FDR, Lincoln, Jefferson

Despite the fear of many libertarians and right wing pundits,  Obama in fact has no Marxist stance,  and draws many of his ideas from  former American presidents like Lincoln,  Jefferson and FDR.

To berate Obama for having read Marx,  and for having been interested in socialistic ideas is foolish :  Many young people go through such a phase in college,  especially if one tends toward liberalism.  That we are in economic crisis now demands some form of govermnet intervention, and charges of Marxism are so much whining and howling from those who simply cannot stand to see the GOP in decline.

Classical enlightenment values are akin to  all of which Obama speaks.    There is no facist tone ,  either  in his ideology or in his sensibilities.    His sentiments are often expressed in the innocuous mode of the poet and the dreamer.  He is also reality-based in his actions:   Reverting the tax-structure to pre-Bush Administration days can scarcely be called a clarion call to the red tides of communism.  We are,  after all,  in a democracy,  with free elections every four years,  and checks and balances within our government.  Where does this paranoia issue from?  A secret wish on the part of the bored?  That they will have something big to fight,  some impeccable enemy against which all may unite with zeal? 

The facts are simple:  The GOP ran us off the road and into a ditch.  A free and fair election brought us a progressive pragmatist,  which is about as American an ideal one can find.  Obama is not ending Capitalism.  He is not in the mode of a dictator.  This is not 1930s Germany, with their problems and covert lunacies.   Why does stupidity and its irrational side effect,  bigotry,  continue to receive a fair hearing when it is so blatantly ill-informed?

I wager that now that Obama has not been revealed to be a radical Muslim and in love embrace with the terrorists,  the Marxist angle is all that remains with which to keep stirring the witches brew,   lest we die en masse  of boredom.   During the primaries,  writer Mark C, Eades made a beautiful case for comparing Barack Obama to Jefferson,  who was known as the scholarly president,  and on par with "Renaissance Men"  of the Enlightenment,  such as Voltaire and Locke.  Is this what the dimwits are really mistrusting?  In their howls of "Marxist!  Dictator!"  do hidden strands of the vulgar and the stupid being overtaken by intellectual fortitude and refinement lie in subterfuge,  like so much dank and cancerous material which chokes off their ability to reason,  or simply to shut up?  Obama's oratory skills are amazing:  His rhetorical surges simply stunning.  Lincolnesque? I should say so.   Who pictures Marx when our president thunders in the index?  He is a return to classical liberalism as set forth by the scholars of the Enlightenment and of Kantian universalism .  He is an equity freedom fighter,  with principles stemming from deontological understanding.

Obama says He Knows Special Interest Groups Spoiling for a Fight

President Barack Obama has said that he is aware that lobbyists and special interest groups are not taking kindly to his platform of change in Washington,  and that he is well aware that they are preparing to fight.  His response to them:  "So am I."


Asserting that he works only "for the American people"  Obama has no illusions about those who are used to "holding sway in Washington"  and their vested powerful interests: they will not want change.  But to analysts who consider  the President's plans radical or extreme,  Obama insists that the American people voted for all of these ideas,  spoken plainly of within his campaign format,  and elected him in November for just these extreme shifts in policy.    Acknowledging that he is indeed upsetting the "status quo"  with his "dramatic"  venue of change,  Obama is taking an authoritative and confident stance.  How could we expect less from this fourth turning seeming antagonist whose destiny is to return a unified consensus to the Democratic party and to put a strangle hold on those forces who rode the nation the past decades. 



Certain right wing blogs are charging Obama with imposing his own quasi-Marxist vision on the American people,  but this accusation does not hold water.  The season for change is upon us;  it came naturally as a consequence of prior actions and inactions of a former party.  Obama is not cause of the shift;   he is an effect and rides in on it.   The real causes have subterreanean roots and have been incuabating throughout the 90s.  "When something reaches its height,  know that it is about to reverse"  says the ancient scholar,  and why would the GOP and the powerful wealthy escape this dicate?




Friday, February 27, 2009

Facing the Military, and Speaking to America as One Nation : Obama Holds His Own

Our American Orator:  Bringing Back the Spirit of An Old American Tradition
      Obama is proving himself to be a strong and inspirational speaker;  confident,  charismatic,  and projecting Presidential strength.  His address Friday before US Military troops and his words on troop withdrawal from Iraq have proven that in all dilemmas and on all issues,  Obama can hold his own:(see link below).  The soaring rhetoric and the authoritative stance,  fused with speech which is poetic and sensitive to rhythm and cadence is a formula for success,  and for empowering unity and bipartisan ideals.  A return to a consensus again seems possible,  as it has not since the days of JFK,  FDR,  and Lincoln.  He is a Fourth Turning president,  with the fourth turning spirit and intuition.  It is ironic that so many tried to downplay the importance of his great oratory skill during the campaigns.  What they seemed intent on missing or ignoring is that America has a rich history of oratory men:  William Jennings Bryant,  Emerson,  Thoreau, Hawthorne,  the James brothers,  Abraham Lincoln,  FDR, JFK,  among many others. . , 
 

Michael Kinsley - Words for a Shaken People - washingtonpost.com

Michael Kinsley - Words for a Shaken People - washingtonpost.com

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Thursday, February 26, 2009

Jindal Blew Obama Away with Resounding Response, Delusional GOP Claims

The GOP has sunk to a new low,  now clearly  delusional as they declare a victory for Jindal,  whose speech fell flat after Obama's  inspiring and brilliant address to the nation the other evening.    The Buckeye State Blog : Pampleteers of the Revolution  has correctly and shrewdly ascertained that the Republican Governors Association is making itself seem ridiculous and "out of touch with the American electorate"  in its insistence that Jindal scored a GOP victory, and signifies a comeback for their party.  It seems the GOP is in fact going the way of the satirical skit depicting its senility on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart ,  just after the election victory of Obama.  In the skit,  Samatha B was saying that she was sure that the GOP could yet make a comeback,  if only it would be more edgy and innovative.  The response was an elderly and senile Republican rapper,    who had a huge Abraham Lincoln hat on,  and Civil War "bling"  around his neck,  rapping out:  Aint no party like the grand old party/Let's pop a cap in the death tax. . . before finally keeling over in full cardiac arrest.  It appears to be coming true. 

Obama is Experimenting

In Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish today there is commentary by Kleiman,    who points out that Obama is adhering to the FDR style of experimentation:  Try it,  see if it works,  if not, scrap it and move on.  This is part and parcel of Obama's progressive pragmatism.  Pragmatism is the way of America:  William James had declared us a nation of pragmatists in the early 20th century. 

Howe and Strauss,  authors of The Fourth Turning :  An American Prophesy (Broadway Books,  1997)  had predicted that in the election of 2004 or 2008,  a Generation Xer (Obama is between Boomer and X,  a Jones,  actually,  but close enough)  would take the helm with a Nike slogan attitude ("Just Do It").  Obama is fulfilling exactly that which he ought to be.  He is right on time. 

David Sirota: Nationalization: It's Not Scary, It's All Around You

David Sirota: Nationalization: It's Not Scary, It's All Around You

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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

" America Will Emerge Stronger": President Obama Addresses the Nation




"It is time;  it is time. . . We stand at the crossroads of history. . . we will meet the challenges of the 21st century. . . "


  ". . . In the midst of a Civil War,  we laid railroad tracks that stretched from one end of our nation to the other.":  President stresses reinvestment,  innovation,  and national pride


 " I am pleased to say the the Recovery and Reinvestment Act is law."  Obama gave a stunning and most impressive address,  speaking frankly and soberly about the economic crisis,  and asserting  that his administration will "move swiftly"  to address it.  His message was optimistic,  regarding his housing plan,  his plans for small business, auto, and college loans,  and for general reinvestment.  His Recovery.gov was spoken of proudly,  as a place where "every American can see how the government is spending the money.",  and is in line with his ideal of transparency and accountability.  "Those days are over!"  was his message for irresponsible bank executives as the audience cheered.

Obama's  demeanor was calm and his voice was forceful,  and taken together with his detailed analysis and mix of caution and optimism,  was one of his best speeches,  and marked him indeed as the "progressive pragmatist"  and healer of the middle class.  "It's not about helping banks;  its about helping people!"  is something that struggling Americans want to hear.  "Slowly, confidence will return,  and our economy will recover. . . we must ensure that this crisis does not happen again. . . "  said the President,  and the cheering swelled,  and all seemed like it just might be okay, after all.  Members of both parties rose to their feet to applaud the President during the resounding and inspirational address,  which Chris Matthews of msnbc  called "spine tingling".

Monday, February 23, 2009

Project Savior: Obama’s a Homosexual Darwinist from Outer Space

I am of the opinion voiced by a blogger on the right:  That even if he is proved to have been Kenyan born,  the will of the people will not be over-ridden.  He won by a sweeping majority;  easier to amend the constitution to accomodate him,  than to put millions into an uproar.  


Project Savior: Obama’s a Homosexual Darwinist from Outer Space

Andrew Sullivan calls on Obama to release his birth certificate

 This is not going away!


Andrew Sullivan calls on Obama to release his birth certificate

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Posthumously, Ledger Wins Oscar

Posthumous honor and in memoriam Heath Ledger was awarded a posthumous Oscar last night at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards ceremonies,   for best supporting actor for his Joker role in Dark Knight.  This is a fitting in memoriam for his complex,  stunning,  and sublime treatment of the role.   In my own opinion,  this was his best role ever;  his performance inspired through its mix of transcendence,  high camp humor,  fine nuance,  subtlety,  and profundity.  Accepting the award were Ledger's family from Australia,  who will give the statue to his daughter as a lasting tribute souveneir.  Ledger is only the second actor to be graced with a posthumous Academy award in the ceremony's history.

From Outside and Within U.S., A Call to Obama to Drive the Wedge in, Nationalize Banks

Is Nationalization of U.S. Banks Becoming Inevitable?


Memo to Obama: Nationalize the Banks; Fire your Advisors - Pravda.Ru

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and from within the U.S.: http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/02/more-on-possible-nationalization-of.html 



 and from Huffington Post,  "Bank Nationalization is Essential":  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raymond-j-learsy/trust-the-reason-bank-nat_b_169030.html

In FDR Moment, Obama Needs to Address America's Fear

 "Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself":  From Washington Post online,  E.J.  Dionne on why President Obama needs to address our nation's raw fear,  as he steps into the FDR moment: 


E. J. Dionne Jr. - Barack Obama's 'Nothing to Fear' Moment - washingtonpost.com

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And the Oscar goes to...



Our British Film Critic Hurlyburly (aka the Illustrious Martin Huxter )  blogs from his parallel world in London:  Couldn't have been more deserved. The man is one of, if not the greatest, actor of our generation. I feel for Rourke, but it's hardly a complete snub in light of the tremendous performance by Sean Penn in Milk.  This film is so timely as regards California's Proposition 8.  SMK

So incredibley deserved

So great to see the beautiful Robin Wright Penn crying in the background.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Obama and Lincoln and Howe and Strauss

Abraham Lincoln,  16 th U.S.  President,  and Barack Obama,  44th.  Two tall and lanky men from humble Illinois backgrounds;  both studied law, and became great orators,  relying on classical Republic ideals to surge in their poetic speech.

From the historical saeculum theory of authors Neil Howe and William Strauss,  both men came to power during a catalystic period of stress and transition,  leading from an UnRavelling period into the Fourth Turning.  ( The last Fourth Turning was under FDR;  these occur approximately each 8 decades. )  The generational constellations of each period were the same,  shifting in the same order. 

All of the signs of this period of crisis  -   economic,  political,  cultural,  generational  -  appear to be there.  What is unclear is the direction and shape of things to come,  in their living, concrete details.   It is odd that John Kerry also was Lincolnesque,  and appeared almost to foreshadow Obama.    These are strange times we live in.   Interesting times:  Isn't that what the curse says,  "May you live in interesting times"? 

EconomicPolicyJournal.com: A New Low for America: Hillary Begs China to Buy U.S. Debt

EconomicPolicyJournal.com: A New Low for America: Hillary Begs China to Buy U.S. Debt

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From WRSA Blog: The Winds of Civil War



The Coming Crisis?   I post this piece from the right for 3 reasons:  1.  It is intelligent and well written.  2.  It includes possible scenarios which link closely with ideas expressed by Howe and Strauss in The Fourth Turning:  An American Prophesy.  3. It is important to know positions which may run counter to one's own,  but may be so urgent and well-stated that they modify one's own perspective.  Although I am largely in disagreement with certain of its premises,  the idea of our Civil War history rising again,  as thought the former were a precedent and pre-history,  compelled to reassert itself in the eleventh hour,  is so in lime with the saeculum theory of Howe and Strauss,  that I feel an urgency to post the link  : 



Western Rifle Shooters Association: The Winds of Civil War

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Of Collective Transference and the Social Unsconscious

Obama:  Not Just "Cult of Personality", but an Evoker of Collective,  Unconscious Transference


 So much has been made of Barack Obama's "Cult of Personality",  but there is much that remains to be explored in terms of why it is that he has tapped into the collective unconscious,  and caused deeply buried longings to catch fire there,  transferring all hopes onto him.  He is an icon for the post-Boomer Generations:  X, Jones, and Millennials.  He is young,  handsome,  charismatic;  inspirational;  speaking less as a politician and more as an orator,  poetic;  sexy,  edgy,  global, biracial.  He is a "nomad",  growing up without a father,  unsure of where he fit in geographically and racially.  He dabbled in drugs and rebellion.  He is philosophical:  Steeped in the writings of Reinhold Niebuhr.  He is quasi-socialist;  he has the messianic aspiration  to change and new direction.  He is pragmatic:  "Just Do It",  see if it works,  figure it out as you go.  He has an optimistic progressivism. 



He has charisma:  Eyes that can sparkle,  brood,  dream,  flash with anger.  There is a swagger to his gait,  and yet an understated modesty in his mannerisms.  His voice is deep and commanding,  but can be soft and drawling.  When Henrietta Hughs spoke to the President at the economic town hall meeting in Florida,  telling him of her plight of homelessness,  he asked,  "What's your name,  sweetheart?",  and when she told him,  he approached her,  cooing,  "Come here,  darlin'", and kissed her on the cheek. 


He is the father archetype of generations who were fatherless:  symbolically,  or literally.  He looks like what all men would look like, had they been good and deep and solid,  as he is.  At he Inaugural Ball,  the song played,  At last,  my love has come along:  It seemed to speak for all who felt they had found a "Daddy"  in Barack:  a hero and someone to emulate and strive to be like.     He is a compass for the lost,  a direction for the directionless.  Moreover,  when people project onto him,  he receives those projections,  easily and happily.  He is willing to bear the good and ill effects of his own power.  

There are always dangers to tranference,  especially collective projection:  disillusionment,  disenchantement, when the object fails to make actual the longing which he evoked.  Placing hope in an icon can be an excuse for forgoing individual responsibilty and action.  Thronging millions in awe of a leader may be the clarion call to state control on some level.  Although,  we have had so much of that in a subtle,  crafty, and underhanded manner,  I hardly think the type that Obama could enact would be anything but a vast improvement.   A transference reaction produces a dialectic:  Like a long-dormant tendency which is a powder keg waiting for a lit match,  wild and whirling yearnings are ignited.  The object must then address those yearnings,  and watch for the response.  His response itself will guide and direct the counter-response.  Only a very strong man can take the helm of such a back and forth.  Obama did remarkably well throughout the primary and general election season.  His skill and craft won him  the 44th U.S, presidency.  So many had called him "a flash in the pan";  a comet who would light up the sky,  only to sputter out;  a trend of the moment,  to titillate and  be discarded.  If one were watching him closely,  listening to his rally speeches,  you knew it would not be so.   There was an urgency,  a seriousness of tone,  combined with a  rythm and cadence which did not have the mark of a trivial,  passing phase or fashion.  




Throughout the '80s and '90s,  that splintered time of the interest group,  the walled off enclaves of individuality and unaccountability and new age quasi and pseudo spirituality;  of riches and preferences and trends and demands;   of vulgar sex and fitness crazes,  of  wealth worship,  taken together with  the fragmentation of gender and identity:  All had become  a cauldron of seething forces which boiled and boiled to no avail.  A  period which Howe and Strauss astutely call "the Unravelling" ,  it produced  undercurrents of a longing for community and consensus which were stirring:  muted but persistent,    repressed but the rumblings would only grow stronger for the delay.  What was needed was the fatherly touch:  The voice speaking in a tone more serious,  more sober,  no longer addressing the glitz and greed  of a fragmented people,  but the earnest group concerns  in a time of crisis which demands unity:  Obama was this voice,  and when he spoke,  inner longings which had been repressed for decades suddenly found expression.  

A fatherless generation will seek a father:  "I love you!"  a young male voice once cried out to Obama from the crowd,    as he strode to the podium.  "I love you,  too."  was the unhesitating response from Obama.  Stated simply,  as a father would do.  In a split second,  there was a return to a consensus which had been submerged in the swamp waters of the '90s:  Fathers are needed.  Feminism had been wrong,  had been divisive,  had robbed us.  "He is not a robber;  he will woo at the right time":  these words of Wang Bi came to life in Obama,  and the transcendentally ideal,  in a flash,  became the emprirically real. 



The human psyche has inherited its binary aspect from biology and evolution.  There is always a waiting period,  a time of dormancy.  Ideas and longings  are not produced piece-meal and do not arise spontaneously.  Rather,  there is a process of symbiosis,  where urgent responds silently within the dark recesses of the substratum to the call of he who is urging.  This back and forth is silent and unseen for a long,  pregnant period.  The surface expression is revealed as the consequence of a long process,  and is secondary.  

I am in agreement with Jung,  that dangers are always present,  when the constellation of social and cultural forces activate the collective unconsious.  But there is an even greater danger when this does not occur:  The natural process is short-circuited,  and then you have the sort of anarchy that we had in the '90s,  which led to the howling discord of the culture and gender wars.  Obama in this sense was sorely needed:  Like a sun which the planets can revolve around,  and which anchors their movements.  


There is a slow-building effect of this collective and subterreanean process,  similar to the gathering force of a weather phenomenum,  a storm from the skies.  Street artist Shepard Fairey beigns to paint Obama's face,  or graphically render it sublime:  This begins to roll across the states of our nation,  and produces a sort of moral suasion,    similar in kind and degree to the john brown's body is a 'lyin' in the grave  song of the pre-Civil War area,  which took such deep root within the collective American conscious that it produced the Harper's Ferry Rebellion and the War of the States.    In another essay on this site,  I had compared Obama to the Rush song,  Today's Tom Sawyer:  ". . . though his mind is nor for rent,  to any god or government,  his reserve a quiet defense,  riding out the day's events. . . the world is the world is love and life,  are deep,  (maybe as his skies are wide?). . . The words are apt,  and honor the phenomena. 

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Writer David Sirota Understands Obama's Unconscious Tendency to Symbolism

 An excellent piece,  fusing understanding of the psyche in the style of an Earnest Jones,  with political analysis: 


Obama's Choice to Sign the Stimulus Bill in Denver Reflects the Steep, Jagged Road Ahead | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet

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Conventional Folly » Need a stimulus? Get a lobbyist.

Conventional Folly » Need a stimulus? Get a lobbyist.

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Pics from Barack's Youth: Revealing the Lostness Which Formed an Inner Resolve


 






Fear not,  O child infirm!
There's no god dare harm a worm.
Have not thy portion;
have lost thy share?
Fear not,  'tis no defeat:
Lo!  on wings it rushes thee to greet.

~Ralph Waldo  Emerson 

The Child is Father of the Man:  Obama's Own Troubled Youth still exudes its energy,  calling out to others in the dialectical transference of reciprocal inspiration. . . The Swiss psychoanalyst and human pscyche scholar CG Jung once said that  a certain measure of alienation actually serves to make a youth become more wholly individuated.  This is turn serves as a sort of "transference hook"  for the hidden hopes and passions of others.  Kierkegaard says similar in his Journals.  Adversity in the formative years makes strong;  it is enobling.  I recall watching msnbc 's political news coverage the day Ted Kennedy endorsed then Illinois Senator Barack Obama in the primary season.  Chris Matthews would later remark that the electricity of Obama's energy as it filled the air and spanned across the crowds was palpable, and hearkened back to the days of Bobby Kennedy's presidential run.  

 Nietzsche spoke of that pain which in the end gives one "winged feet".  There is an awesome power associated with the lost child;  he who overcomes in western wilds to earn by his wits alone what others had lavished upon them as the Christ-child.  The author Nancy Friday,  herself a lost child,  said that she would rather be that,  than the Christ-child who has all handed to him by parents:  self-esteem,  love,  guidance.   If her readers wondered why,  Friday said,  it was simple:  The lost child,  once found,  comes into a golden inheritance which is fully his own. 


As I watched Barack Obama head toward the podium,  dark eyes flashing,  lanky legs taking wide strides,  a young male in the crowd cried out,  "I love you!".  Without missing a beat,  Obama turned his handsome head,  and called back in a clear,  firm voice,  "I love you,  too."  It was a stunning moment.  The fatherless generation had found a father in Obama,  himself a fatherless boy.  And a little child shall lead them. . . 
 

Santelli and Other Right Pundits Cannot Discern the Signs of These Times

Having been slammed by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs for his insensitive,  boorish, and untimely remarks regarding President Obama's Mortgage Aid Plan,  CNBC pundit Rick Santelli should be clued in.  Santelli had accused Obama of helping "losers".  What he seemed not to be grasping is those days of glitz and wealth worship are over.  It is a new era,  and calling struggle Americans "losers"  is not going to fly anymore,  not in this new culture of Obama.  Using Howe and Strauss terminology,  Santelli has come dressed in summer beach ware at a crisp and cold October event.  He is post-seasonal.  He is out of synch with the times.  And nothing is so foolish nor so futile as that. 

In fact,  the whole rant against the needy has become distasteful.  It simply will not pass muster,   now that we are no longer in the pursey '80s and '90s.  To hear Rush Limbaugh ranting on and on is to hear a loud swan song;  a last whining,  gasping croak of a breed who is now as out of place as a thin summer dress at an autumn apple picking weekend.  We all like to flatter oursleves that our time will last;  that our rule is never-ending, and that time will not overtake us.  But the generations are shifting, and today's Obama -supporting grassroots youth are not the jaded Generation Xers who would tolerate a Santelli,  a Limbaugh,  a Glenn Beck. 



Sorry guys: High tide has come up  on you,  sweeping your towels and chairs away.  While you were sleeping,  the tides of Obama were rising. Fiddling while Rome was burning,  you lost your place in the sun.  Like the foolish virgins in the parable of Jesus of Nazareth,  you said,  "our lord tarries"  and did not light your lamps,  but fell to slumbering,  and did not awaken when the midnight hour tolled.  And so the bridegroom came,  and the doors were shut upon you,  so you may play the fool nowhere but in your own domain. 

   As the ancient Chinese sage,  Wang Bi,  says:  When he sings,  he sings alone,  and no one answers his tune.  He who occupies a high place but is not in accord with the time,  is surely headed for a fall. . .

Obama Praises Stimulus Plan, GOP Grumbles



President Barack Obama is praising his stimulus plan,  calling it "the most sweeping economic recovery program in history"  and saying that its effects will be felt by April 1st.  Meantime,  GOP members continue to grumble and complain,  insisting the Democrats have produced "lousy work"  with the bill. 

Obama has stated repeatedly that the stimulus money belongs to the American taxpayers.   In line with his ideal of transparency,  the President is urging all Americans to log onto Recovery.gov in order to track the progress and spending of the stimulus federal money. 

Obama is adhering to Keynesian Economic Recovery theory,  which has as its basic premise the idea that government is the solver of economic crisis, and presupposes the idea of social recovery bills. 

Friday, February 20, 2009

David Fiderer: Time Rewrote History With "25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis"

David Fiderer: Time Rewrote History With "25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis"

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Obama Issues Stern Warning to Nation's Mayors: "The American People Are Watching."

" I will call you out."  Saying that he will tolerate no waste and no inefficiency,  and invoking his presidential powers as an impetus to change,  President Obama has issued a stern warning to the mayors of America:  They  are  not to squander or take lightly  this badly needed stimulus money.   And he intends to watch them closely. 

With his ideology of "transparency",   Obama has pledged to keep a keen eye on just  how government funds are utilized.  Reports are said to be viewable in the near future on Recovery.gov.  Miami Mayor and head of the national conference of Mayors,  Manny Diaz has said that mayors are used to getting "called out daily at the local level"  and said he "absolutely"  welcomes this challenge from the president.

To anyone who might say that Obama's tone hearkens back to FDR's,  I would say you may be correct.  There is a time and a season to everything under heaven,  including a big government recovery program.  What would be intolorable in times of prosperity ought to be viewed liberally during a catostrophic crisis.    Howe and Strauss in their epic,  The Fourth Turning:  An American Prophesy ,  expounded upon this concept,  which they called the historical saeculum.    Comparing the cycles of history to the four seasons,  the two authors foretold of a crisis which would come in the first decade of the 21st century, and call for unity and sacrifice on a level unimaginable in the 1970s-90s. 

Gov. Quinn calls on Burris to resign :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Roland Burris

Gov. Quinn calls on Burris to resign :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Roland Burris

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Sour Grapes Keep Fueling Alan Keyes














Former Presidential candidate for the conservative independent liberty party  Alan Keyes,  apparently  bitter that he lost  to Obama,  is at it again. 

  In 2004 Keyes lost the Illinois Senate race  to Obama,  who won by the biggest landslide in Illinois history,  getting 70% of the vote.  This was the point where he became Keyes' nemesis.  

  In October Keyes  filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court over Obama's citizenship.   Now that Obama is our 44th president,  Keyes can barely contain his rancor. 

  Today, on MSNBC news,  he is calling Obama a "radical communist"  who will "destroy America"  and  insisting that if not stopped,  Obama will cause our nation to no longer exist.    Nothing like envy and resentment to fuel hatred and turn a person into a certifiable lunatic.  It was not in vain that Nietzsche called envy and resentment among the most pernicious driving forces within the human psyche. Addendum,  Feb 21, 2009 11:03 PM:  I was just trawling the 'net,  and came upon "Open Left"  blog's piece on Keyes ("Return to Ridiculousville")  and was struck by a blogger's comment: "This would be funny, except [in stating that Obama,  if not stopped,  will destroy America]  for the fact that it is A CALL TO ASSASSINATION."  YES!  This was in the back of my mind,  like an alarm going off in the basement of the brain,  yet I dared not let myself think it.  He is pernicious and dangerous,  Keyes,  to speak as he is. 

The New Pornographers: Salon.com Asks What Sense it Makes To Brand Teens as Sex Offenders

"Sexting," teen culture, technology, scandal | Salon Life

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After Bush Hitler Prophesy went Unfulfullied, Now Voices from the Right Start in on Obama

 Had to post this piece from Firedoglake,  as the sarcasm and ironical tone is just the right way to deal with this.  For 8 years,  voices from the left insisted that Bush was using Hitler as his ghostwriter and inspiration,  that he would cancel the '08 elections,  that we would look back and wonder how we had allowed it to happen.  Now,  the   exact same speculation  is being replayed about Obama,  from the right.  I think America has a secret hunger for the Hitler moment,  but it never comes. 


Firedoglake » BREAKING: Obama Set to Declare Totalitarianism, Leading Right Wing Morons Agree

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Thursday, February 19, 2009

Will Obama Save Liberalism? - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

Will Obama Save Liberalism? - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

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Our Founding Fathers Were Radical and Free









It seems to be the Right and the Libertarains who speak of our founding fathers,  as though they alone understand them;  as if they alone have a right to them.  But it is difficult to pigeonhole our founding fathers into any one camp.  Independence,  equality,  freedom of religion,  and of speech:  These were liberal and even radical ideas.  The birth of our nation came from the depths of these thinkers,  these rugged and robust free wheeling men of the 18th century. 

When I was in college,  one of my first courses was a U.S. History and Politics course.  I recall the professor saying that James Madison had said,  when speaking of the free flow of ideas and action,  "Ambition will counteract ambition.".  A radical idea!  A willingness to share the stage with those who differ,  with those whose ideology and passions run counter to our own. 

Let us  not put these very UN-dead white males in a box.  Let them be free to inspire us all.  Patriarchal in their living,  yet hot-bloodied warriors of a new culture in their thinking,  they live on in our public discourse, and in our national pride.  Of course,  I am in full agreement with many Libertarians that a smug political correctness and a bureaucratic socialism is not the liberal freedom intended by our founding fathers.  Neither do oil and pharmaceutical companies so beloved of Bush and the GOP,  with wars in the middle east and occupations of strange people who are no kin to uis,  bear any resemblance to the nation of gentleman farmers envisioned by Jefferson.  Both parties have soiled the idea of the true Republic.  NeoCons and Libertarians wind up focusing on certain hypocrisies of the Left,  while not really evoking the spirit of the founders,  either.  I found Ron Paul peevish,  irritable, and totally uninspiring.  But I most certainly do agree that classical equity liberalism is the only kind to be endorsed, and not the splintering partisan agendas of postmodern feminists and health nuts and men haters and those who have no respect for our roots. 

Protest Rocks Rupert Murdoch's NY Post for Racist Cartoon | Rights and Liberties | AlterNet

Protest Rocks Rupert Murdoch's NY Post for Racist Cartoon | Rights and Liberties | AlterNet

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Eric Holder's Speech on Race Missed the Mark

Instead of praising the wonderful strength,  resilience, and rich variety of African Americans,  Eric Holder,  the first black US Attorney General,  called America "a nation of cowards"  when it comes to our discourse on race.  But this arrow fell to the ground as soon as it was shot:  It is divisive,  confrontational,  and speaks from another era.  At least Obama is very good at hitting the mark,  elegantly,  again and again. 

It is odd,  too,  that Holder looks a lot like my father,  who was Italian.  His skin is no darker,  his eyes, hair,  features are very similar.  I would assume he was Mediterranean if I were meeting him. 

Many in the blogospheric community are offended,  as a.  There in fact has been an increase in dialog about race within academia for years  b.  Obama was elected by a predominantly white nation of voters.

Addendum:  It just hit me:  Perhaps Holder was referring to the disgraceful New York Post political cartoon depicting Obama as a bullet-riddled ape.  It this is in fact the case,  then it all begins to make sense.  SMK 

Obama is Consequence, Not Cause of Capitalism's Dire Crisis and Decline

Although the Nevada Policy Research Institute says that progressives have dabbed perfume on the stinking corpse of socialism,  in fact capitalism in global decline has been an urgent cry among many scholars,  increasingly since 2002.  Obama is symptom,  consequence and incident of this decline, and not its cause.  

That he has made his appearance now,  at this historical moment,  comes as no surprise to those who were heeding the signs of the times.   The World Socialist Web Site has a chilling analysis of how America's internal decay has suddenly,  in the housing  market and banks failure  and in the bursting of the credit bubble,  been seen across the globe,  without any concealment of the horror of its features.  

Why speak now of "Barry the Marxist agitator"  or of the stealth agenda of liberal socialists when the preconditions of all this were allowed to progress unchecked and unhindered for the past decade?




Robert Scheer in his opinion column at the Creators Syndicate,  entitled  "Republicans Brought Socialism to America"  is right on the money:  http://www.creators.com/robert-scheer/republicans-brought-socialism-to-america.html

This Was Sorely Needed: Mirror on America Calls to Rude Pundit

Mirror On America: For all those GOP Hypocrites, I give you Rude Pundit

Traficking in Racial Symbolism: Hufffington Post's Fauntroy Cries 'Foul'

Michael Fauntroy: The Cartoon and Trafficking in Racial Symbolism

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"Shock and Smut": New York Post Political Cartoon Deeply Disturbing


Op-Ed news online rightly cries, "shock and smut".  A political cartoon appearing in a recent edition of the New York Post has created outrage,  and rightly so.  The cartoon,  depicting Obama as the chimpanzee who recently went psychotic in Conneticut and had to be shot by local police,  taps into racism,  hysterical fears of a socialist uprising,  and conveys that assassination may be the true answer.  Those who defend it as "clever"  and say that it "foreshadows that which is coming"  -  as a recent press release by BB's Conservative Wisdom,  (which proports to continue the Reagen revolution  - a revolution  now thouroughly dead in the historical moment within the  inevitable saeculum seasonal shift)    -  has done ;  ought to see that it is less the chimpanzee aspect,  and more the suggestion of violent assassination,  which is highly suspect and deeply disturbing. It is pernicious and irresponsible in the extreme.    I am among the signers of the protest petition being circulated by the color of change. org.    Below are some pro-Obama political cartoons which were my favorites:  



The Winds of Change are Blowing

The winds of Change are blowing through America; Obama is aiming his mortgage relief at the most afflicted homeowners: those least able to pay. This is ideology finding the historical moment, and considering our antecedents, who can take issue with it? It is not a question of socialism or capitalism or liberal versus conservative or libertarian perspective:  It is seasonal,  and "things are in the saddle,  and ride our nation.". In the American blogosphere,  there has been much protest;  much howling about a socialist takeover.  Politico.com ran an essay,  and among the remarks from bloggers:  ". . . The greedy take the needy for a ride;  the needy are not too bright. . . "




On the contrary,  many of the needy are very bright.  Perhaps they were desperate?  Perhaps a nation in which the greedy take the needy for a ride needs some rebuke,  some punishment?  Is this not what Jesus of Nazareth was berated for?  Obama is too hard,  not too soft,  for many who want a world in which the rebuke never comes.  Obama is feared, and rightly so.  Yes,  fear Obama.  It would be foolish to do otherwise.  He has ideology behind him;  he has the power of the presidency;  he has a global economic crisis,  he has the winds of change at his back.  Man of the people,  he rides in on the winds of change.  


"But I played by the rules,  and this does nothing for me!"  comes the howl of protest.    Why is is that to see others getting help arouses the sibling rivalry  in all of us?   No fair!  He gets help when I do not need it,  as I was smarter/better situated/etc.   I gave up my Starbucks,  I did not get that new laptop,  I forestalled my vacation:  And they get help!   Robert Bly has called us a sibling society,  and he was correct.  Blame the greedy.  Blame them for your current resentment ,  when big Daddy has to come in and whip things into shape.  Did not Jesus of Nazareth say that "many of the first will be last,  and the last will be first."?  "As in the days of Noah,  they drank and ate and married,  until the floods overtook them."  Well,  we saw the flood waters of nihilism rising,  didn't we?  If Obama were in fact the "stealth socialist" which those on the right have called him,  wouldn't the natural question be,  "Then who opened the door for him?  Who created the pre-conditions for his coming?".


Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Obama's Ambitious Plan to Rescue Millions of Homeowners: Niebuhr's Ideology Stands Him in Good Stead

President Obama has an ambitious plan to help at least  5 million homeowners refinance their mortgages,  as falling house prices have burdened these owners with mortgages which now outstrip the price of their homes.  75 billion federal dollars will be spent on the plan,  which Obama will speak on this  Wednesday.  His rescue and redistribute philosophy has found an opening in the current crisis, and the way was well prepared before him.  

Steeped in the writings of the philosopher Reinhold Niebuhr   -  whom Obama has called his "favorite philosopher"  -   Obama's ideology has been poised,  one might say,  to step in and take command in just such a crisis of capitalism.  Fiscally conservative caution was lacking during the 8 year Bush reign,  and Republicans ought to see the connection between those GOP years and Obama's unique opportunity in this historical moment, and the philosophical teachings of Niebuhr will stand him in good stead now.  




Reinhold was an American Protestant theologian and philosopher who was born at the close of the 19th century,  and died in the early 1970s.  He had socialist leanings to his ideology,  and believed strongly that collective social groups were the cause of human evil,  as opposed to individuals.   He attempted  at one point in his career as an author and philosopher  to fuse Marxism with Christianity.    Martin Luther King said he owed much of his own ideology to the writings of Niebuhr.    Politically,  Niebuhr was a liberal pragmatist much like Obama himself.    An exceptionally good piece on Obama's connection to Niebuhr can be found at this link:http://www.thestar.com/News/USElections/articles/443383 
and is from thestar.com June 14,  2008;  "The Obama Niebuhr Connection". 

Obama Deploying First Troops of his Presidency

More Troops Headed to Afghanistan - washingtonpost.com

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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Obama Birth Certificate Controversy Going Too Far: TN GOP: Batshi*t Insane | Lean Left

TN GOP: Batshi*t Insane | Lean Left

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Burger King Needs its Crown Knocked Off

Just got notice from Robert Greenwald et al that Burger King, after receiving its bailout, chose to give huge bonuses to its financial executives, while leaving its daily workers with nothing: They had enough to give them all a bonus of $18,000.00. It is indeed time for this top-heavy econmy to be broadly based at the bottom. Giving generously to the people is the mark of a refined civilization. This is vulgarity and really calls for Obama-ethics. The GOP and Libertarians cannot have their illusory glory days of Reagen back. Not for several decades now. Good riddance.

There is a natural chronology to history. Ortega y Gasset, surely the most superb historian of all time, was correct in this, which he asserted boldly in his Revolt of the Masses (1933). If things get too bloated and glitzy at the top, rebellion will come, as the bottom grows ever restless, agitated, and resentful. Whispered to all Republican Reagenites: Submit to the law which you yourselves proposed; deal with the effects which you yourselves are the cause of.

Mr. President, They're Just Not That Into You

Mr. President, They're Just Not That Into You

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NYPD Targeting Older Gay Men?

NYPD Targeting Older Gay Men?

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The Beginning of the End for Senator Burris | The New York Observer

The Beginning of the End for Senator Burris | The New York Observer

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Some Obama Art

Just found this French blog displaying Obama in art.  Some are really lovely:
Obama in art | Cerium’s blog

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And I cannot believe the number of American artists from all over the nation who felt compelled to paint him.  He truly is that numionou historical figure spoken of by Jung,  who has charisma which is transcendent and receives the projections of others.  On this page art   by Valerie Wolf,  Scott Davis,  bruni,  Justin Bua, Cbabi Bayoc, Nanette Harris,  Ze Zhao. 

Monday, February 16, 2009

The Devil in the Details: Why the Right's Birth Certificate Meme will Backfire

In Obama birth certificate mania,  the devil is in the details ( and in the changing culture of America).   With all the talk which has been fanning flames of near-hysteria regarding Obama being a usurper,  because he must have been born in Kenya,  and thus inelligible for the office of US President,  I have finally found a voice of reason,  and this voice speaks from among the overthrowers:  It is Warner Todd Huston of the blog,  Stop the ACLU,  and he is replying to Michael Gaynor as per Huston's original post,  "Jefferson and Obama's Birth Certificate".  

Huston says correctly that the will of the people in so sweeping a victory as Barack Obama had on November 4,  2008,  will surely have supremacy over those who are such sticklers for the Constitution that it becomes a collective "suicide pact".  He also holds to the view that rather than trying to cover up a Kenyan birth,  President Obama is more likely an illegitimate child whose mother married to cover up the fact.  This would mean he in all likelihood was American born, and born of an American father,   and would lend  a  sort of Cinderella-at-the-ball  charm to him,  which people would probably love him the more for.

  I think those who would continue to thrust the constitution at the issue would be viewed by the vast majority as "bowing to the letter of the law,  and violating the heart of it.  "  The same would hold true if rumors were to somehow be verified that he is the illegitimate biological son of Malcolm X  -  indeed,  pictures show a stunning and eerie similarity,  and certainly his mother was sympathetic to the black revolutionary cause.   This   too would seem to many as "ordained",  "divine justice",  etc.  and he would be the more popular for it. In today's culture illegitimacy does not carry the stigma it once did.  Many are having children without bothering to marry.  This is not good,  but it is a fact that many would relate to Obama.  Single parent households,  fatherless children,  the entire vagabond exitence of the post-Boomer generation :  All part and parcel of the postmodern U.S.  

No,  I am afraid the right will see that there is no getting rid of him this way.  And to make a martyr of him. . . well,  I will not allow my thoughts to go toward the Lincoln and JFK scenarios.  Heaven protect him. 



Mr. Huston says:   " If we are to apply . . . stark black and white logic to the Constitution there would never have been. . . a legitimate reason to attack slavery. . . "   . . . "In fact Jefferson himself obviated the constitution several times when in office. . . [as did] Lincoln,  FDR,  Wilson. . . " 

and further he adds:  "The state of education on WHY the foreign born should not be president is so deficient in this country at this time that the argument would more likely result in the Constitution being change to acommodate Obama than in the issue getting him kicked to the curb. "

This is true and indicative of the global and multicultural times in which we live.  In this age of the Europeanized America whose frontiers are now everywhere and nowhere,  and in which the regionalism of the founding fathers now seems a quaint and vanished dream,  who even understands national loyalty anymore?  The colleges and universities have indoctrinated all with "new global order"  and "the ethics of multicultural society".  


Four Tennessee legislators have recently joined the litigation which demands to see Obama's cerificate of live birth.  

Associated Press Not Pleased with Shepherd Fairey's Lawsuit

Associated Press versus Frank Shepherd (Fairey):


  Last week,  the Associated Press  -  the backbone of our national news since 1846  -  issued its statement regarding Shepherd Fairey;s filing of a lawsuit.  Frank Shepherd aka Shepherd Fairey is the street artist whose Hope and Progress posters became a national icon of the Obama 2008 campaign.  The posters used an AP photo of Obama.  I fail to see why this cannot be amicably settled by both parties.    The link: 


pr_020409a.html

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Under New Influence