tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85288562024-03-13T15:34:50.947-04:00LumpenlogocracyA Forum of Culture and PoliticsAmbivalent_Maybehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02092354702770501469noreply@blogger.comBlogger259125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-59498281408015490132017-02-14T21:54:00.001-05:002017-02-15T00:02:37.211-05:00Is Trump off to the worst start ever?With only a few executive orders to his credit (and the major one held up by the courts), his approval rating well below 50%, his National Security Advisor leaving his job and probably under investigation for repeated contacts during the campaign with Russian intelligence, it might be that Trump is off to the worst start ever of a US president.
As HowLongHasDonaldTrumpBeenPresident.com Ambivalent_Maybehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02092354702770501469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-63109735090644432152017-01-30T23:55:00.001-05:002017-01-30T23:55:33.016-05:00How bad will next week be?Holy cow, the Trump administration is off to a really awful start. I knew London oddsmakers gave him only a 50% chance of serving at least 4 years, but I never thought he'd bring on a constitutional crisis so quickly.
As awful as the situation with the temporary ban on immigrants from some majority-Muslim countries, I think what we're seeing here is the break up of the establishment GOP and Ambivalent_Maybehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02092354702770501469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-45941364266925775602017-01-21T22:32:00.000-05:002017-01-21T22:39:18.227-05:00Fun Diversion: Political CompassI know that the "political compass" test has been around for a long time now, but I finally got around to trying it out the other day. This is a two-dimensional test measuring economic left vs. right and social libertarian vs. authoritarian views. The scores go from -10 to +10 for each dimension, with minus being the economic left and social libertarian endpoints (minus not being a value judgmentUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-70934596090018575812017-01-20T13:36:00.004-05:002017-01-21T22:35:22.306-05:00What Could Have BeenWho would have predicted just eighteen months ago that Donald Trump would be inaugurated as President of the United States? No one in mainstream public life (although Minnesota congressman and leading reformist DNC chair candidate Keith Ellison presciently warned us it was at least a possibility back then, to derisive laughter from the elite media). Political change sometimes moves in directions Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-18434871274560816492016-12-19T00:02:00.002-05:002016-12-19T00:02:31.662-05:00Let’s Focus on Unconstitutional Emoluments, Not "Russian Hacking"On the eve of the Electoral College voting, it seems fairly obvious that the much vaunted effort to persuade several dozen of Donald Trump’s electors to vote against him will fail. Despite the sincere, well-meaning efforts of a wide spectrum of liberals, the effort seems to have made little headway, at least as far as I can tell.
From my perspective, the greatest rhetorical mistake that liberalsUnknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-76508858874900531962016-12-05T21:58:00.000-05:002016-12-05T21:58:41.384-05:00Working class & billionaires against urban professionalsDrawing on the Jacobin article by Matt Carp, the title of this post I think captures the current political alignment. Why would the working class--especially in this case the white working class--see a political ally in a billionaire real estate developer / serial liar? Partly it's that Trump can mimic signs of tribal membership, like being a class A jerk to women, generally enjoying pissing Ambivalent_Maybehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02092354702770501469noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-33951276958060068032016-12-03T17:12:00.000-05:002016-12-03T17:12:24.899-05:00Does the long arc of history bend toward justice?Despite the recent election, the world--and probably the United States with it--is probably in better shape in most ways today than it has ever been. More people are living better, levels of poverty worldwide are falling, and we've made tremendous strides in protecting the rights of minorities. But I wonder now if we have reached peak civilization. My faith, in Martin Luther King's words, that "Ambivalent_Maybehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02092354702770501469noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-75886732178545161652016-11-28T13:25:00.000-05:002016-12-01T16:44:34.197-05:00A Working-Class Politics Is Inherently DiversePerhaps the most maddening aspect of the rear-guard action of elite Democratic pundits defending the primacy of "identity liberalism" with a focus on language, speech, and symbolism, at the expense of shifting to a more robust working-class politics of common interests against the wealthy and powerful, is that the American working-class is obviously very diverse.
In fact, I'm sure everyone in Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-77358347815902561202016-11-27T18:31:00.004-05:002016-12-01T16:53:22.699-05:00Thanks, Obama!Before the end of Thanksgiving weekend, I did want to post a link and brief response to a really great recent Salon article by the ever-reliable Paul Rosenberg: "Giving thanks for the Barack Obama we had — and imagining the one who could have done so much more"
Rosenberg captures very well my own "glass half full and half empty" sentiments about the Obama years.
As he points out, the greatest Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-62603187420677130972016-11-26T00:23:00.000-05:002016-11-26T23:03:47.202-05:00More Thoughts on the Future of Left and Liberal Politics after Trumps Electoral College VictoryI just wanted to share some of my favorite links I have been reading lately in the wake of the recent political disaster, in addition to those that were posted already in previous posts. The common theme of most of these is the struggle to understand the discontented voters who handed Trump his electoral college victory, despite the potential for them to be part of a Left coalition.
I really do Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-37164595266438214672016-11-25T01:18:00.001-05:002016-11-25T01:21:08.875-05:00What Does the End of Identity Liberalism Really Mean?A fitting saying about academic politics is that the fights are so bitter because the stakes are so low. I don't think that applies exactly in the argument among lefties about identify politics--because the potential stakes are whether or not the party succeeds in ousting a group who, besides its authoritarian and white nationalist tendencies, is intent on undoing not only the small advances of Ambivalent_Maybehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02092354702770501469noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-47972020445918129192016-11-22T20:39:00.004-05:002016-11-22T20:39:39.086-05:00Poetic InterludeA poem by Ogden Nash that speaks to our age:
Everybody Tells Me Everything
I find it very difficult to enthuse
Over the current news.
Just when you think that at least the outlook is so black that it can grow no blacker, it worsens,
And that is why I do not like the news, because there has never been an era when so many things were going so right for so many of the wrong persons. Ambivalent_Maybehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02092354702770501469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-24054196592046336912016-11-21T12:33:00.001-05:002016-11-21T12:40:40.067-05:00From my corner of the world...A post from still small voice, from up in North IdahoHere, in North Idaho, an active, progressive faction of our community worked hard for many years to rid this corner of the world from white supremacists like the Aryan Nations, Ku Klux Klan, and Christian Identity adherents as well as the Militia of Montana, the Posse Comitatus and Holocaust deniers. Members of these various groups used to Ambivalent_Maybehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02092354702770501469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-36458700596643263412016-11-20T02:39:00.000-05:002016-11-21T12:48:02.730-05:00The Intense Moral Urgency of Option Two: Some Further Links I posted a brief comment on the recent post by ambivalent_maybe, in which he outlined two possible paths forward after the disastrous election results in the USA. As I said there, I strongly believe that Option Two--building a populist and progressive coalition around shared economic and social goals--is the only realistic way to build an effective coalition to challenge Trump. We might call thisUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-2675571258600200292016-11-14T23:07:00.000-05:002016-11-14T23:11:55.848-05:00What to do next?First, some basic points to keep in mind.
However much the Trumpists might pretend otherwise, this election was really close. Just one or two percentage points here and there would have turned his into a victory for Clinton.
Turnout was low compared to 2012 and 2008, especially in states that Clinton won.
Clinton won the popular vote, and only the archaic electoral college put Ambivalent_Maybehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02092354702770501469noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-75043977471315460672016-11-12T11:54:00.000-05:002016-11-12T12:01:43.504-05:00Why Did Trump Win?Hell if I know, if the short answer. But here, courtesy of Christian Left, is a short list of articles looking at the question.
Thomas Frank, "Donald Trump is moving to the White House, and liberals put him there"
Glenn Greenwald, "Democrats, Trump, and the Ongoing, Dangerous Refusal to Learn the Lesson of Brexit"
Dean Baker, "The High Price of the Trans-Pacific Partnership"
Krystal Ball, "The Ambivalent_Maybehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02092354702770501469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-72540867108806419412013-03-26T14:34:00.000-04:002013-03-26T14:34:08.173-04:00Perhaps We Should Ban Marriage Between Christians Instead?On this day, when the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to uphold a California ban against same-sex marriage--which would have a good chance of losing if it were to come up for a vote today, given shifting views on this issue--I propose an interesting thought experiment. As the opponents of gay marriage descend ever deeper into more illogical and convoluted justifications of their bigotryUnknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-8118706766564464572013-01-12T14:15:00.001-05:002013-01-12T15:04:04.634-05:00Mint the Coin or Be Impeached?I just had a thought, which is a bit too long for twitter, so I'm putting it here: Doesn't the President HAVE to "Mint the Coin"--i.e. the $1t platinum coin, or whatever combination of coins is necessary--in order to prevent default of the U.S. government, if the Republicans in Congress refuse to raise the debt limit? And, if the President won't do it, is that not grounds for his impeachment?
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-18146147075488727052012-12-18T14:28:00.000-05:002012-12-18T15:44:15.163-05:00Let's Ban (Most) Guns, Repeal Second AmendmentAfter several days now of reading about and reflecting on the horrific Newtown massacre and the various commentaries thereupon, I have come to the conclusion that we need to abandon the incremental approach and instead advocate for a more drastic shift on gun policy in America: the banning of most guns except appropriate and limited firearms for hunting and other strictly regulated purposes. Yes,Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-79394131350925173962012-12-08T18:40:00.001-05:002012-12-08T18:51:20.057-05:00A $140 Billion Solution?Let's assume for the sake of argument that the whole "fiscal cliff" debate isn't just about rich people trying to force the mass public to accept an awful "grand bargain" compromise to shred the social safety net, and let us further assume that those participating in this discourse are trying in all sincerity to simultaneously achieve long-term deficit reduction while propping up economic growth Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-50743918331366429552012-04-20T13:13:00.000-04:002012-04-20T13:13:44.149-04:00The "Buffett Rule" RuleI would like to humbly propose a new political rule, which I am dubbing the "Buffett Rule" rule. Given all the whining from Republicans, such as Mitt Romney, about how "little" money the Buffett Rule would raise by taxing the very rich--$46.7 billion over 10 years--here is the new rule: Anyone who opposes the Buffett Rule on the grounds that it doesn't raise a significant amount of money and is Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-56156784965851249882011-04-09T13:55:00.001-04:002011-04-09T13:55:22.238-04:00In the comments to this NY Times The Caucus blog post about the wonderful budget compromise, FF writes:Wait -- I thought compromise meant that each sides gets some of what they want. So Republicans get nearly $40 billion in spending cuts and Democrats got... single payer health care? Increased social security benefits? Tax hikes on the rich? Oh yeah, that's right, they got nothing, except Ambivalent_Maybehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02092354702770501469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-56654278324042824172011-03-26T16:13:00.001-04:002011-03-26T16:13:18.302-04:00Cracking down on fraudulent loansFinally, the government has put someone in jail for one of the masses of fraudulent loans perpetrated during the housing bubble. You remember, the one that helped destroy the world economy? Of course, this country being run by and for the rich, it wouldn't do to have someone who made millions selling those loans go to jail. Heavens no. Jail is for little people, like this guy from California, whoAmbivalent_Maybehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02092354702770501469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-59634359140548611192011-03-06T20:33:00.001-05:002011-03-06T20:38:00.010-05:00Teachers vs. Wall StreetIf you haven't seen this Daily Show clip yet, I recommend watching it. It's a good example of how different the rules are in the US these days for the rich than they are for everybody else. http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-march-3-2011/crisis-in-the-dairyland---for-richer-and-poorer---teachers-and-wall-street?xrs=share_copyThe Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cCrisis in Ambivalent_Maybehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02092354702770501469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528856.post-72719793055912237522011-02-18T17:49:00.003-05:002011-02-18T17:55:32.850-05:00Is Wisconsin Labor's Waterloo?I think Kevin Drum is right on the money here:I won't pretend to be the world's most full-throated defender of public sector unions. If I could trade ten points of union density in the private sector for ten points in the public sector, I'd take the trade in a heartbeat. But that is, obviously, not the trade on offer. Nor is what's happening in Wisconsin merely hard bargaining during tough Ambivalent_Maybehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02092354702770501469noreply@blogger.com0