What Would Durkheim Do?

I get that his moderate social liberalism is better than the christian fascism of the John Birch Society-led GOP, but this is the last straw. Obama is actively helping to build a new feudal society. He's just another politician with his hand out, selling policy to the wealthy and powerful. A corporate toady.

Hope and Change? People have lost hope because nothing has changed.

Obama has got to go.

Didn't we already try the dimwitted Texas governor as president thing? As I recall, it nearly crashed the global economy.

I guess these fundamentalists really do want to hasten the end of the world.

It seems to me that the main difference between American and British corporate scandals is that British executives get arrested when they break the law.

Huh?

“I just want to show my appreciation for her class as a person and ability as a footballer.”

So a rich guy thinks that showing "appreciation for her class as a person" is to make a marriage proposal to a total stranger in a public place?

Objectify much?

Female athletes are always subjected to this kind of bullshit (and bullshit reporting), which suggests that many (most?) men don't have a fucking clue how to relate to women.

Hope Solo is a great athlete. Sportswriters should write about her skill and toughness, not her appearance.

I agree with Ian Welsh:

To be specific, it’s nice that Cuomo signed gay marriage legislation, but that doesn’t mean he’s not still an evil fuck who’s breaking unions, who are a core part of the left, and whose destruction will mean a significant decline in standards of living in the middle and working class because they are what pins wages at a higher level.

Cuomo has got to go.

(Via SocProf.)

What has the party of lies and paranoia been up to lately?

* No surprise that Palin and Trump admire each other. Peas in a pod. Both are self-important gasbags with only one recognizable skill: self-promotion.

* Mitt announces, saying the US is "inches away" from not being a market-based economy. Like Krugman, I doubt that he believes his own bullshit, but it is sad to watch someone so utterly without principle pretend to be an extremist.

* AynRand Paul says that people should be imprisoned for listening to speeches he disagrees with. Is there a bigger joke in contemporary society than people who call themselves libertarian?

* Obviously, the GOP is all about defending the corporate oligarchy that is America. What is really depressing, though, is that 25-30 percent of Americans want — fanatically — to be slaves to these corporate masters. Is it the power of ideology at work or just clinical masochism?

So, it seems that God told Bachmann to run. I'm not impressed. "God" seems always to tell Republicans to do exactly what they want.

Now, if "God" told her to sell all her belongings and devote her life to the poor, or quit her job and join the army to fight in Afghanistan, that would be news.

Sometimes, in the rare instance, what they do is actually illegal. But even then, they don't often face justice.

Taibbi deserves a lot of credit for covering this. It should be front page of every paper in the country, but capitalism as organized crime doesn't seem to bother folks, what with the Birchers all over the place.

The only difference between this guy and all the other traders is this guy got caught.

Capitalism is organized crime, where the criminals are in charge. A few token prosecutions doesn't change that.

Michelle Goldberg, on religious extremists:

The idea that women must be cloaked and hidden from display lest they arouse male lust is not unique to Islam. It’s there in most forms of religious fundamentalism. If there is indeed a clash of civilizations in this world, it’s not between the Muslim world and the Judeo-Christian one, or between East and West. It’s between rigid religious absolutists in all societies, and those they’d like to erase from view.

Fundamentalism is an enemy to humanity. (Via dfmgerardi.)

Dear Trustees,
The Board's recent decision to deny an honorary degree to an accomplished artist based on one Trustee's narrow-minded politics has embarrassed the University. I am relieved to learn that the Board has called a special meeting to reconsider this egregious mistake. But it is not enough now to simply correct that error. The Board must commit to dismantle the practices and norms which allowed it to occur.

Members of the Board should be committed to public higher education and qualified to determine policy. It is not, and must not become, a place for political grandstanding, McCarthyism, and bullying. Mr Wiesenfeld’s recent comments in the New York Times – suggesting that Palestinians are “not human” (“A University Trustee Expands on His View of What Is Offensive,” by Jim Dwyer, May 5, 2011) – demonstrates that he is unfit for continued service on the Board. Mr Wiesenfeld is entitled to his opinions, and he is free to circulate them as he wishes as a private citizen. When he represents the Board, and by extension, the University, this kind of bigotry is unacceptable.

I respectfully call on Mr Wiesenfeld to resign his position on the Board immediately. If he values public higher education, and if he cares about the fate of the City University of New York, he will do the right thing and resign. The rest of the Board should reflect on whether or not each of you are willing to place the interests of the University above your own opinions and preferences, and more importantly, to stand up when other members try to do so. If you are not willing to stand up for CUNY, you should also resign.

The students, staff, and faculty of our wonderful institution deserve better.

Sincerely,
Timothy Shortell, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Director of the MA program in Sociology
Brooklyn College CUNY

Politicians are professional liars, of course. But the GOP has made lying such a central part of their platform that you have to wonder why anyone bothers to listen. Is it that conservatives are just that stupid, that they can't recognize the lies? Is it a demonstration of the power of ideology, a la Orwell? Does is reveal the way media framing in our public discourse favors political opportunism or closed-mindedness? Some combination of these?

When will come our moment of truth?

It's not so much a free market as a crime scene.

Welcome to our Randian Paradise, looters and moochers!

Via Professor Pharyngula, here is a new movie from Tim Minchin. You must watch this!

Watch it now!

Now!

Welcome to the new Gilded Age. Without unions to provide some resistance to the upward transfer of wealth, not only will our economy be destroyed, but so too our democracy. Republicans seem intent on proving Marx correct: capitalism leads to the impoverishment of all workers with the state as a tool of the capitalist class.

A new labor solidarity is coming. Workers of the world, unite!

As we approach a government shutdown, I see from Think Progress that Republicans are proactively blaming Democrats. That's not a surprise, as the contemporary GOP is nothing but a bag of lies with some bigotry and paranoia tossed in for fun.

But it made me realize that conservative politicians must think that their supporters are complete fucking idiots. There isn't an adult American living today who hasn't heard some elected Republican or other (or thousands) talk about how government is the problem and how we need to "drown it in a bathtub." Both sides are trying to get the budget that they want, and so the GOP leaders parade before the cameras saying, "Democrats want to shut down the government."

I don't know. Maybe rank and file conservatives really are that stupid.

Republicans don't govern. They used elected office to funnel public money into their (or their cronies') pockets.

So if you vote for them you are either (a) similarly corrupt, or, (b) an idiot.

Three cheers for my union comrades who were arrested today to protest the anti-labor agenda in Albany. Public workers and the poor did not cause the budget deficit. Tax breaks for the wealthy did.

Abandoning public education and gutting public services will not make life in New York better. Fairly taxing the rich will.

The workers united will never be defeated!

As my friend Evrick rightly pointed out, destroying collective bargaining isn't just about hurting workers. It destroys democracy.

With the total domination of money in our national and state politics, workplace democracy is the only actual democracy that we have left. I'm a delegate in my union. I get to vote on the union's constitution, on its policies, and most importantly, on the collective bargaining agreement that determines my terms and conditions of work. I spend around 60 hours a week working—more time than I get to spend doing anything else—so to have this form of democracy is crucial.

We are at a turning point. Either we stop this assault on democracy on the ground, or hello corporate totalitarianism.

Frank Rich summarizes where we are:

The real goal is to reward the G.O.P.’s wealthiest patrons by crippling what remains of organized labor, by wrecking the government agencies charged with regulating and policing corporations, and, as always, by rewarding the wealthiest with more tax breaks. The bankrupt moral equation codified in the Bush era — that tax cuts tilted to the highest bracket were a higher priority even than paying for two wars — is now a given. The once-bedrock American values of shared sacrifice and equal economic opportunity have been overrun.

It will take several generations to win back the rights lost in the new Gilded Age.

All we have are solidarity and the streets. Let's hope it is enough to beat the fascist Koch brothers and their mouth-breathing lackeys.