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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 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 November 19th, 2011
I don’t know what to say about this other than that I thought it was a joke because I first saw it on America’s Third Finest News Source. Now it’s only sad.
Say goodbye to the United States of America. Say hello to “the United States of Awesome Possibilities” as it looks to visitors from abroad to help lift it out of the economic doldrums.
By soft-pedaling patriotism, the newly-formed US national tourism board tasked with getting more tourists — and their money — onto US soil is reinventing the nation as a hip new land of diversity and possibilities.
Continue reading “The United States of Awesome Possibilities”
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 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
By Weldon Berger, on October 7th, 2011
This country is in trouble. Our economy is on life support; our foreign policy is on autopilot and there are mountains dead ahead. What the country needs now is a proven winner, an economic innovator, a foreign policy genius, a man who knows how to more or less end pointless and interminable wars.
Now more than ever, that man is Richard Milhous Nixon.
Continue reading Tanned, resurrected and ready: Nixon’s the One in 2012
By Weldon Berger, on September 27th, 2011
That’s Jim Messina, Barack Obama’s campaign manager, speaking to me. Actually, not so much speaking to me as billing me.
I’m chronically insecure so I feel as though there’s some truth to his accusation. I’ve tried to annunciate the ways in which I think the president’s rhetoric and policies are destructive and in some instances of the latter, blatantly illegal. I’ve tried to demonstrate the remarkable continuity this administration has maintained with the previous one, particularly in the endless war and national security arenas but, to no little extent, in domestic policies as well.
But have I done enough? Jim Messina thinks not, and I have to agree. Still, I resent being pressured for a contribution. I’ll do what I do when I’m good and damned well ready.
Continue reading “Our records show you aren’t one of the people who have stepped up for 2012.”
By Weldon Berger, on September 20th, 2011
Sometimes people chastise me for focusing so much on Obama’s sins, and Democrats in general, and hardly ever on the loyal opposition’s.
My current understanding of the roles of everyone who holds elected federal office is that they’re all the opposition. My goal these days is to try to alter the perspectives of . . . → Read More: Yes, they’re despicable, and so are they
By Weldon Berger, on September 18th, 2011
All of your woes can be traced to that one moment of missed opportunity.
President Obama said the day of the 9/11 anniversary that in the decade following the 9/11 attacks, Americans have preserved our values and our character. He’s right. America’s history is of a whiny, over-privileged, self-aggrandizing and self-victimizing bully, and the decade since 9/11 has been clarifying.
Continue reading If you really loved America, you would have died on 9/11
By Weldon Berger, on September 17th, 2011
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Word of the Decade Ignoranus: An ignorant asshole.
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