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Monthly Archives: January 2016

Seven Stages

Glenn Greenwald traces the Seven Stages of Establishment Backlash, demonstrated completely in the case of Jeremy Corbyn in Britain, and in process here in the U.S. in the case of Bernie Sanders. Other than the numerical quantities, there isn’t much parallel with the Seven Stages of Grief, particularly at stage 7. In the case of […]

Is that an echo?

I have to admit that I’m always gratified when I read something by someone who is basically saying the same things I’m saying, and sometimes I feel the need to pass these things along, for after all, if they are saying what I’m saying, they must be spouting profound thoughts indeed. Today, I point the […]

The Moving Center

Riffing slightly on a few recent posts. I can’t help but comment on the rapidity with which the “center”, as defined by our media, moves ineluctably to the right. This post at Hullabaloo, in which it is noted that the Times characterized the George Bush administration as from the “comparatively moderate” wing of the Republican […]

In politics, you can’t get what you won’t demand

If you read a range of left wing blogs you know that one of the knocks against Bernie Sanders is that, given the present makeup of Congress, there’s no way that he could get his proposals through even if he wins. It follows, therefore, as the night the day, that he shouldn’t be advocating for […]

The limits of our discourse

One of the better news sources out there is Consortium News, which gives an informed but dissenting view on current affairs, primarily focusing on foreign policy. The reporters know their stuff. When I read their pieces, I call to mind the few voices that dissented from the Iraq invasion that were allowed on traditional media; […]

What the Fates allowed

Regular readers know that I’m not much for religion, but if I had to choose a faith, I’d probably go with the Greek gods, or some similar pantheon. They made no pretensions to being anything but arbitrary and capricious, unlike a certain Hairy Thunderer, who shall remain otherwise nameless. All this is by way of […]

Blogus interruptus 

If I do any blogging for the next week, it will be to put up pictures, as we are presently in Mexico on vacation. I hear with immense satisfaction that it snowed in Groton today. We are at a resort near Puerto Vallarta. Herewith a few pictures of the environs. Later in the week we […]

Another lesson in linguistics

We live in a world in which the word “literally” now literally means the opposite of what it means, so it is not surprising that words are constantly misused. However, the ways in which they are misused can be instructive. The New York Times published a story this morning about the Western land issue that […]

Rainy day pessimism 

The Real News Network recently ran an interview with some British Economists who think that the new Labour Party Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is steering the party’s policies where they ought to go. John Weeks, a Professor Emeritus at SOAS, at the University of London, had this to say, and it struck me that there are […]

Thank you, Canada 

Or, more accurately, thank you TransCanada: TransCanada has filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration and plans to file a claim under the North American Free Trade Agreement over the U.S. government’s rejection of the company’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline. The company said Wednesday it has filed a notice of intent to initiate the NAFTA claim on […]