Dead at 74. I always loved the “Tulsa sound”, the songs “Masquerade” and “Superstar”, and that crazy Joe Cocker tour he masterminded.
Morning Reads
There’s a lot of talk about the White Working Class (WWC) but I thought this piece by Joan Williams, who’s written a couple of books about the work life of women, and who teaches at UC Hastings School of Law, was worth a read. I’m not going to excerpt it, but her explanation of why WWC members resent the poor, and why class trumped gender, are worth reading.
Here’s a DNC member writing to Josh Marshall about why the new DNC chief needs to be full-time. I think it makes sense.
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Respite
More photos from commentor Watergirl (see last Sunday’s post for backstory).
My own never-very-kempt garden has suffered badly this year, not least because I’ve been so distracted by politics. Trickster meteorological gods willing, I’m planning to start rectifying that neglect later today — at least to the point of breaking down the tomato ladders and moving the planters out of the way of this winter’s projected snowpiles…
What’s going on in your garden(s) this week?
Late Night Open Thread: Propertied White Grifters
2. to say that this is a red country. What they're pointing to is land, which we already know. But you should think about that.
— Fames Jallows (@FamesJallows) November 13, 2016
4. And now the media is looking at a graph of land, of essentially physical property, to convey political power.
— Fames Jallows (@FamesJallows) November 13, 2016
7. Which is basically, do you have land, do you have property? Then you are a person who has a vote.
— Fames Jallows (@FamesJallows) November 13, 2016
There is a long “Constitutional” tradition, going back to Thomas Jefferson and his fellow slave-run plantation owners, aping the worst European-aristocracy men-of-property kleptocracy. Our most perilous historical era came when the propertied “flower of Southern manhood” attempted by force to ensure that their title to outsized tracts of valuable land should not be imperiled by “stealing” their right to hold other humans in slavery. It is not a coincidence that today’s American neo-Nazis still aim so much ire at rootless money-grubbing cosmopolitans — people who don’t own land, property that can be milked for resources.
It’s unclear how much property Donald Trump actually owns, but it’s clearly important to him that his name be slapped on every physical ‘development’ for which his mortgage-holders allow him to stand as a figurehead. It’s also significant that some of his nastiest court battles have concerned his “right” to despoil such properties as he will, regardless of regulation, nuisance to his neighbors, or safety of his guests/clients. In such cases, his assertions somewhat resemble those of the Bundy clan — another bunch of dole-dependent grifters outraged at the idea that “tha gubmint” wants to prevent them from using “their” (our common) land however they will.
A slumlord like Trump’s old man, a real estate developer knocking together cheap McMansions and jerry-built office parks in hopes of a quick turnover before the basements start to subside or the parking lots to flood, is never a sympathetic figure. But a reality-tv “star” with a far-flung chain of celebrity properties — big-city skyscrapers, Palm Beach mansions, Scottish golf courses — there is a man who might gamble on becoming the closest thing America has to aristocracy. Assuming, of course, he can attract the support of the xenophobic, bigoted, socially inbred “Heartland”‘s revanchist white peasantry, living resentfully off government-paid agricultural support and federal welfare programs, and slobbering over (cosmopolitan media elite professionals’) fairy tales about the return of the Good Old Days, when only white men of property could act with impunity.
Late Night Open Thread: Propertied White GriftersPost + Comments (246)
Everything is Shit
Saturday Evening Open Thread
TS says:
November 12, 2016 at 8:28 am (Edit)2008 – Republicans lost the house, the senate and the presidency – they then proceed to impede in any way possible (with the help of a few dems) anything that the President tried to do. They stated it was their goal and they voted 100% in unison. The Media helped them with their non stop attacks on the new President – and the support of the birthers.
Democrats now need to stop talking about why and how & who won the vote and what is wrong with the electoral college & who should lead the party & how they can attract the undesirables. Democrats should be working as a united group to impede each and every thing this government wants to do. Don’t assume they can just “do it” – didn’t work that way in 2009/10.
This lot have NO idea what the President does – nor how he does it. Time to work non stop to show them up every hour of every day.
WereBear says:
November 12, 2016 at 9:46 am (Edit)@Enhanced Voting Techniques: What are Republicans? CUT TAXES AND SERVICES.
What are Democrats? TAKE CARE OF PEOPLE.
There. Done. You’re welcome.
New tag: Election 2018. Should get a lot of use, I suspect.
Ya Think?!?!?!?!
Geniuses!
This is dead on https://t.co/s47kWp7VCY pic.twitter.com/HCHiFjTgf4
— Matt O'Brien (@ObsoleteDogma) November 11, 2016