Paul Ryan Hands Cold War Victory to the Ruskies

Well, there it is folks.  Plain as day: Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan's "Roadmap to Ruin" austerity program sh*tcanned the U.S. Spaceshuttle program and left us dependant upon the charity of ex-KGB chief Vladimir Putin.  No you wouldn't hear much about that from the Fox News(tm) Politburo.  Seems that we have to rely on our Aussie cousins to get the scoop.

It's true.  Now without an independant space program of our own, we'll be at the tender mercies of the aparatchiks in Moscow to support our telecommunications satellite infrastructure.

Now I don't have definitive proof yet that Paul Ryan is a sleeper agent for Uncle Vanya, but all signs point to yes.  In debt ceiling talks this week his lot are trying to force American-born grandmothers to give up their cat food money in order to support the vodka habits of his Wall Street buddies like Frenchman "Fabulous" Fab Torre.

Do You Smell The Chum?

Well, this past Tuesday certainly was freaky.  In case you hadn't noticed it, a massive disturbance rippled through the Force with enough power to knock the shoes off of anyone paying attention.  It's unclear to me precisely what it all adds up to, but I suspect that the universe just passed through a Paradox Inflection.  Just possibly the forces of Right Wing Corporatist Perversion have actually begun to turn on themselves.  Here's just three examples of what I mean:

1.  Rupert Murdoch retreats on his bid to monopolize Britain's largest satellite service BSkyB.  In the wake of the recent phone hacking scandal where person's in the employee of Murdoch's flagship publication News of the World was forced to close up shop for illegally eavesdropping on the survivors of terrorist attacks and bribing police officials.  Many initial reports saw that as a savvy move to divert attention from Murdoch's attempt to acquire control of a much more lucrative and influential television market, but apparently British politicians are reacting more like a shark sensing blood in the water.

2.  Mitch McConnell, leader of Republicans in the U.S. Senate publically sh*t upon himself by begging Obama to release Republicans from the responsibility of actually acting on the looming debt crisis.  Mitch did act with characteristic fascist flare, however, by structuring it as an end to the Constitutional "Separation of Powers" principle whereby Congress holds responsibility for the nation's purse strings.  Is there any principle of democracy that Republicans aren't willing to throw away?

3.  In the Wisconsin recall primaries, Real Democrats scored shattering victories (i.e., almost all 66%+) over fraudulent candidates set up by Scott Walker's black op's department.  The state Republican Party rationalized its attempt to deceive the voting public as an attempt to buy time to campaign in races they do not feel they could win honestly.  Frankly, there's no way of recapping that last bit without them outright admitting that they are in thrall to the Master of Lies.

Yeah, it's bizarre alright, folks, and the best seems yet to come.  But it calls to mind nothing so much as RNC chief Rancid Priebus diving into the Pacific waters of Shark Alley wearing a pair of chum-flavoured speedos.

Millions for Defense; Not One Cent for Tribute

Oh how the times have been a changin' since Robert Goodloe Harper coined that gem in 1798.  In the 21st century, apparently, patriotism means stealing hundreds of billions from the U.S. Treasury to bailout incompetent bankers, as "minute man"[1] Paul Ryan begged the House to do on September 29, 2008.



Okay, so as a nation we're totally cool with recasting tribute to greasy financial fatcats as "investment"--even if it doesn't exactly pay a huge return. [2]

But since "far left socialist" Barack Obama proposed cutting Social Security benefits during recent talks to increase the nation's debt ceiling (to much Republican enthusiam), making sure Granny gets her catfood money has also been redefined as "wanton profilgacy".  Ah, sure, the ol' gal only had another ten years left in her TOPS anyways, right?

America, you are a pack of perverts.[3]

Footnotes
[1] Not a quote from Ryan's wife, mind you, but my personal interpretation of the guy's attention span.  Not only does he seem never to have bothered considering the negative consequences of diverting billions from high multiplier government programs to line the pockets of his already bloated buddies at AIG, I'm not sure that he even knows what the term "fiscal multiplier" means. 

[2]  The Bureau of Labor Stats today showed that our nation of 300+ million managed to increase jobs by a lousy 18k.  Which I figure is about 80k short of even keeping up with the increase in the work force.  But of course the fantastically inept media will fail to report the numerous predictions that enactment of Ryan and Obama's tax cuts in December would lead to job losses not gains, so in the public mind the policy's continued failure will remain a mystery.

[3]  Feel free to let your representatives and senators know how obscene you find highjacking old age pensioners to pay for Goldman Sachs bonuses:  right them NOW.

Soul Train Hits The Big 4-0

Wow.  The popular music program Soul Train celebrated it's 40th anniversary at the Lincoln Center recently.  Funny how you only see the disparate threads of your crazyquilt life coalesce into a coherent pattern when the grave comes into sharper focus than the cradle.*

As an awkward whiteboy sporting a buzzcut in the upper Midwest during the 1970's, Soul Train was a HUGE catalyst to my way of thinking.  Maybe not in the sense of being a springboard into some lifelong commitment to Black culture and art, but definitely in terms of providing a reliable frisson of contrast and excitement. 

Sure, I would live out the '70's and '80's as an extremely awkward and conventional white kid, but watching what was for me the totally unprecedented display of unabashed sybaritic revelry and an aesthetic that could leverage bold emphasis as much as understatement really blew open doors in my mind.  As exciting as the Beatles' excursions outside of the 4-piece pop paradigm were to a boy raised on Johnny Horton's "The Battle Hymn of The Republic", the O'Jays represented an even more interesting departure.  They could be more conventional than the Beatles in terms of instrumentation, harmonic and melodic structures, but offered way more rhythmically novelty, and with a much warmer timbre.

Jacques Derrida

I truly believe that this was the subjective frame of reference that allowed me to handle Derrida.  Without the inimitable flare of Don Cornelius' glowing, mellow tones guiding me, I'm not sure how I would have been able to develop subtle enough distinctions between 'enthusiasm' and 'reserve', 'formality' and 'cultivation' to appreciate alternate ways of looking at the world, the difference between "Deconstruction" and "Destruction."  Thank you, Soul Train.


Footnotes
*How's THAT for a mixed metaphor?