Four Dead in Ohio
The anniversary of the Kent State shootings. I saw the footage of the LA cops opening up on the demontrators and was thankful they had rubber bullets but reminded of how little else has changed. Mothers still raise their children to wear uniforms and brutalize their fellow citizens and kill people in foreign lands where they don't belong. So the rich can get richer. C'mon Moms!
I will make a prediction: Gen. David Petraeus will someday run for president. Think of the hype, the great genius hero warrior scholar. Colin Powell without the excessive tan and UN lies.
Chavez threatens to nationalize some banks and a steel corporation if they don't start thinking about helping society rather than just lining their own pockets. He completed oil deals with most of the Majors in the Orinoco and told Phillips-Conoco they need to settle quick or leave. Lula tells the Pharma Godzilla Merc to shove it's profits where it doesn't shine, they will manufacture their own generic AIDs drugs. Meanwhile in the US, our leaders lick the boots of General Electric.
I just finished the book by George Lakoff and wonder if the real elephant is the one in the room which he never mentions, capitalism. His progressive politics are all about wording, "framing", linguistics, semantics, blah blah. Nothing but small ideas for a reduced discourse of "values" and a stunted imagination about what might be possible. His "authoritarian father" versus "nurturant parent" model does have some explanatory value. I also finished Government In The Future by Chomsky (more a pamphlet, Ill review later) and am about to give up on Durruti In The Spanish Revolution by Abel Paz. 793 pages is a bit much. Think I need a break, gonna go with What Maise Knew by Henry James.
Labels: Bolivarian Revolution, books, murdered students

9 Comments:
I heard on the news, the Los Angeles Police, beat up a local Fox News reporter.
I used to listen to Michael Savage. I think he's a bit nuts but his "border, language and culture" triumvirate is respectable even if he's not. Anyway, about the time we were getting set to go to war with Iraq, one of the callers suggested that we needed another Kent State on the protesters. Still sits uneasy in my craw.
The same crew watches NASCAR hoping for a fatal crash.
Trout,
I like your writing style. I can come here and get great editorial clips of the daily news as seen in your brain.
In some ways the Lakoff book does seem to perpetuate the status quo. He mentions the splintered ideas of the left wing but never seems to consider what radical groups can do alone. The idea of shifting the entire left farther left seems easier when you have a more marginalized group leading the way creating space. Moderate groups might be scared to associate with the radical group. He doesn't get into that.
The same crew watches NASCAR hoping for a fatal crash.
Hey, I do that too. Does that make me a bad person?
It depends Eric... Do you watch NASCAR, hope for the fatal crash, or both? :-)
Well, I don't necessarily hope for the crash to be fatal. What I really want to see is the great ball of fire from the exploding gas tank. If the driver escapes alive, so much the better.
JG Ballard believed that mankind's most secret desire is for catastrophe. It certainly perks up "lives of quiet despiration." Personally, I'd like to forget Bush and politics ever existed like back in the good old days of last century.
I watch Donna's dogs chase my cats because they always run away. I watch my cats chase the birds drinking from my pond because they always fly away. I watch riot police attack peaceful demonstrations because they've come defenseless against those abuses for which their cause seeks broader recognition.
I liked the Neil Young reference. Cheers.
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