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By Weldon Berger, on January 25th, 2012
I didn’t get around to reading the State of the Union speech until this morning because the idiot White House didn’t post a transcript on their web site before I went to bed last night, and be damned if I’m going to subject myself to the audiovisual torment of a major political speech ever again. So I apologize to both of you for not responding immediately, as I hear that some malevolent homunculus from my former home state, Indiana, did.
The speech can be divided into two parts: the part that recognized and cashed in on all the pressure toward economic justice that Occupy created* during the past four months, and the part that didn’t.
Continue reading So Tu, Bluto?
By Weldon Berger, on January 22nd, 2012
Now that Newt Gingrich has won the first round in the Confederate States primary contests—and O! what a victory it was; America’s demons are on the prowl and Newt is their advance man—it’s time to look at the various possible fates of the Soul of America depending upon who wins the battle for it.
Continue reading Scenarios for various outcomes of the Battle for the Soul of America
By Weldon Berger, on January 19th, 2012
A quick word (two, really) for liberals incensed that other liberals and leftists are attracted to the anti-imperialist, anti-authoritarian soundings of Ron Paul: fuck off. If you don’t like that people are praising a guy they would otherwise regard as just another demented freak filling out the field of demented freaks (and the one . . . → Read More: Why panicked liberals hate Ron Paul
By Weldon Berger, on December 31st, 2011
A blogger in Philadelphia catches what nobody else has: Barack Obama finally, finally owned up to being a Socialist.
President Obama recently told America what he really meant by supporting “fundamentally transforming America” during the 2008 campaign. Obama stated that free-market Capitalism and individual entrepreneurship does not, and never has, worked successfully for America and its people.
He went on to say that the only way that America can truly prosper is to embrace his ideology, his BIG IDEA activist, centralized control, Socialist government.
I know I missed it, and I’m attuned to these things. I guess I can relax now: the general election more than ever looks like Obama’s to lose, as the Republicans variously gnaw upon one another’s nether regions or collapse weeping by the roadside, so come January 21 of 2013, the workers paradise awaits us all.
Meanwhile, what can you say about Mitch McConnell?
Continue reading Obama the Socialist confesses; McConnell gives up on elections
By Weldon Berger, on December 29th, 2011
The latest scam spam in my inbox is a letter from a high-ranking official of the International Monetary Fund telling me to deal only with him in recovering my money from Nigeria. What is it with Nigeria?
Okay, so the war in Iraq is over, according to Obama. This is because the Iraqis rejected his energetic pleas to let him keep some troops in the country—”Okay, not 30,000. How about 10,000? 5? 3500? Okay, fine, we’re leaving, but don’t blame me if we have to come back in with guns a-blazing …”—rather than observing the exit plan humorously agreed upon by the Bush administration.
But even with that we’re not leaving, not if you count the 16,000-strong crowd manning the murder holes in the State Department’s gigantic downtown Baghdad bunker. By way of comparison, that’s almost as many people as staff every other US embassy in the world combined, minus Afghanistan.
Continue reading The IMF wants me, plus, Iraq Who?
By Weldon Berger, on November 5th, 2011
I held my nose, I closed my eyes, I took a drink …
— “Love Potion Number Nine”
A few weeks ago I signed up for emails from several candidates in the GOP presidential primary freak show. Nobody is bringing any noteworthy crazy in their private notes to their strongest backers, like me, so I’m reduced instead to reporting on the humanity of it all.
Newt Gingrich, for instance, is in far deeper trouble than anyone knew. He’s picking fights not with the Washington Post or the New York Times or even whatever newspaper is still standing in San Francisco, but with Mother Jones Magazine. We have to think Mother Jones was previously unknown to most of his supporters, as it is unknown to most people in the country—no offense intended, just saying the numbers aren’t huge—but now they’ll be slinging the name around with knowledgeable contempt.
Continue reading The Batrachian Candidate squares off against Mother Jones
By Weldon Berger, on October 25th, 2011
In recent years, both the civilian government and the military leadership have made a serious effort to elevate the cultural station of military personnel from that of citizen soldiers to the loftier and more separatist “warrior.” They’re all warriors now, and heroes. The end result is that both soldiers and civilians increasingly view the former as a breed apart.
That’s not a good thing. For obvious democratic reasons, one wants the military to identify and empathize with the populations whence they spring. Identifying common experiences is one way to do that, and one experience a lot of military personnel have in common with a lot of civilians is that they’re making crap money and the people signing their paychecks don’t seem to care much about them. Another is that if they lose their jobs, they’re in deep trouble almost instantly.
I ran across a couple of items yesterday that suggest an avenue for amplifying the Occupy protests within the U.S. by involving military personnel. One was a comment by my pal Schmutzie over at his place about a plan announced by Senators Carl Levin and John McCain to inflict some serious Bad upon veterans benefits, and the other was the first truly useful Twitter message I’ve received during my limited relationship with the service.
Continue reading Occupy the Military
By Weldon Berger, on October 25th, 2011
There is always a certain amount of tension in a democratic society between the right of citizens to know what their governments are doing and the need for governments to preserve vital secrets. The Obama administration, in pursuit of its announced intention to become the most open administration ever, has announced prospective new rules seeking to advance the free flow of information.
Continue reading Obama administration Freedom of Information Act rules are fair and balanced
By Weldon Berger, on October 25th, 2011
The Obama campaign has drawn a line in the tar sand, and if you’re reading this you’re probably on the wrong side of it. A former lobbyist for TransCanada, the giant energy company desperate to build a pipeline from Canada’s oil tar sand fields through the US to Gulf Coast refineries, is the latest high-powered addition to the campaign.
Continue reading Reaching out to underserved communities, Obama hires bank, pipeline lobbyist
By Weldon Berger, on October 22nd, 2011
I just completed a frank exchange of views with a devout Obama supporter who believes her president is curbing his liberal impulses from respect for the views of the losing voters on the right (they did lose, didn’t they?) and in order to establish a dynamic in which subsequent right-wing presidents will moderate their own ambitions from respect for Obama’s example and the voters who support it.
Well. Not exactly her president. She’s Canadian, although also Floridian. Hot Sun Bakes Canadian Brain. In the end we agreed that when Rick Perry invades Iran in five years after taking office by winning 45% of the popular vote, I will deserve to be drafted and sent off to fight and presumably die in that war because I think Democrats should pursue big projects like universal health care, the cramming of which down American throats led George W. Bush to invade Iraq. Damn you, Harry Truman!
Continue reading Let’s trade Obama to Canada for players to be named later
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Word of the Decade Ignoranus: An ignorant asshole.
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