Sick, not dead. Open thread.
I made a poem! Woo hoo.
Since I don’t feel up to writing anything much, here are some excellent posts from around town that I really like:
- From Glenn Greenwald: Barack Obama is gutting the core principles of the Democratic party. A précis:
Therein lies one of the most enduring attributes of Obama’s legacy: in many crucial areas, he has done more to subvert and weaken the left’s political agenda than a GOP president could have dreamed of achieving. So potent, so overarching, are tribal loyalties in American politics that partisans will support, or at least tolerate, any and all policies their party’s leader endorses—even if those policies are ones they long claimed to loathe.
…Obama is now on the verge of injecting what until recently was the politically toxic and unattainable dream of Wall Street and the American right—attacks on the nation’s social safety net—into the heart and soul of the Democratic party’s platform. Those progressives who are guided more by party loyalty than actual belief will seamlessly transform from virulent opponents of such cuts into their primary defenders.
And thus will Obama succeed—yet again—in gutting not only core Democratic policies, but also the identity and power of the American Left.
- But if you thought the current state of affairs might have put a permanent kibosh on the Pink Fuzzy Heart school of Obama worship, no such luck. Just this month Esquire published a sticky essay suggesting that we take time to appreciate Obama as the glorious masterpiece he is, like a fine Vermeer or something. The Atlantic tears that shit up in Don’t Romanticize Obama (via Susie Madrak).
- Lambert applies the evil/stupid calculus to Obama’s Number One Fan in Amanda Marcotte: A shallow-ender drowning in an inch of water. As for evil vs. stupid: both, actually. Look, Amanda is a fangirl and tribalist of the first order. Even more to the point, she is completely unwilling to unpack her own prejudices. She started out worshiping Obama with a zeal that makes that Esquire guy look like a neutral bystander; now she’s incapable of admitting that she was wrong. Defending Obama has become the same thing as defending herself. That’s why she’ll back him to the death, that’s why she’ll never acknowledge that our current nightmare is anything other than yet another iteration of Republicans=Bad, Democrats=Good (and Obama=My Dream Pony Barack). What she’s doing in the post lambert fisked is what she always does: projecting her own failings onto those she disagrees with. And so perceptive critics of Obama become, in this model, irrational tribalists operating on a kneejerk us-them paradigm, while Amanda herself is the grand Elder Wizard dispensing maturity and wisdom to the masses. Personally I find it hilarious, but I can understand the frustration of seeing her foolishness linked by Krugman of all people. But such are the rewards of tribalism. Amanda has been cultivating the Blogger Boy network for years now (and notice how politely I’m putting that, considering that said cultivation has frequently involved dishonest anti-feminist attacks on other women), and eventually that shit pays off.
- And now for something completely different: Zuska goes on an ElevatorGate-inspired tangent in What Constitutes Blatant Sexism of the Most Egregious Sort? Zuska doesn’t post very often (I should talk), so enjoy it when it happens!
P.S. If anybody wants to contribute to the surgery fund:
A HUGE thanks to everyone who has contributed. Goddamn but this shit is expensive.
43 Responses to “Sick, not dead. Open thread.”
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angie says:
The donation is done. Wish it could be more, but if you remind me again around 8/20 I’ll be happy to give again. (I can’t rely on my own brain to remember; getting old sucks). Good luck.
July 22nd, 2011 at 7:14 pm EST -
Violet Socks says:
Bless your heart, angie. You are wonderful.
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Ciardha says:
Look at this and see that Marcotte sinks even lower- as does fellow Obama fawner fauxgressive Katha Pollitt:
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albrt says:
It’s less expensive if you don’t pay.
Seriously, as someone who could afford to pay quite a bit, the for-profit health care system goes to the absolute back of the line when it comes time to divvy up the liquid resources.
Work with your regular physician, maybe even bring him or her a chicken if necessary. But as for the rest of them, inability to pay backed up by a bankruptcy judge is the only reliable safety net we have left.
I have donated. I would donate more if I were confident it would go to you instead of HCA.
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Carmonn says:
She started out worshipping Obama with a zeal that makes that Esquire guy look like a neutral bystander; now she’s incapable of admitting that she was wrong. Defending Obama has become the same thing as defending herself. That’s why she’ll back him to the death, that’s why she’ll never acknowledge that our current nightmare is anything other than yet another iteration of Republicans=Bad, Democrats=Good (and Obama=My Dream Pony Barack).
Exactly. Democrats aren’t such rabid, unthinking partisans that they’d endorse any policy embraced by their party leader. They’d be screaming bloody murder if it were Biden, or Ben Nelson, or Harry Reid, or Hillary Clinton, or just about anyone else. Obama only gets a pass because the Hillary-hate was so strong that they embraced the alternative with religious-like devotion.
It didn’t take a genius to envision what would happen. Once they turned it into a morality play and went all-in for Obama, it became impossible to abandon him without appearing incredibly foolish and being forced to field a lot of unanswerable questions about the nature of his appeal.
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Sameol says:
O, good Lord (no pun intended). Why do members of the rational/skeptic community constantly parrot the same insipid, cliched, nonsensical anti-feminist non-arguments, continuing to repeat them over and over regardless of how many times they’re corrected on the most basic facts? Is there some rationalist licensing process proposal somewhere?
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Sameol says:
Ciardha–please tell me I’m reading that wrong and Amanda is not actually attacking the eleven-year-old. God, I actually feel sorry for her, it must be incredibly soul-sucking to sink as low as she does and get almost nothing out of it. Where’s her daily hour-long MSNBC show?
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lambert strether says:
For a fine analysis of the nature of the debt crisis (totally manufactured and by the Ds) and its likely effects (more wealth transfer upward via Shock Doctrine tactics), see Yves Smith. This is also an implicit critique of Marcotte’s post, since in Marcotte’s world (and, sadly, in Krugman’s) the crazy Rs are the real problem, which is, and ever shall be, forever and ever, amen.
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lambert strether says:
Oh, and the calculus I run is “evil and/or stupid.” Since we can have both/and as well as either/or in these cases.
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Violet Socks says:
lambert, that is an excellent post from Yves. Thanks for mentioning it.
Everybody go read it: Get Ready for TARP 2.0
albrt, thank you very much for the donation. Fortunately all the hospitals around here are non-profits, though I’m not sure that really makes any difference in terms of price.
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angie says:
Sameol — I’m not Ciardha, but you are reading that right. Amanda mocked/chided an 11 year old girl for crying about receiving an incorrect vaccine. Whadda a$$hole.
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Sameol says:
Unbelievable. Female genital “nicking” could not ask for a more compassionate advocate.
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votermom says:
Marcotte has turned into an enforcer whose goal is to keep unruly, wrong-thinking women in line.
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Carmonn says:
“A single tear shed over this causes everyone else to wonder if you don’t have real problems… I mean, I have real shit to deal with in my life… If that’s the most awful thing you’ve learned at 11, you live in a big time bubble….”
I’m sorry, what? That might be one of the weirdest things I’ve ever heard. Talk about living in a bubble, it’s almost as if she’s not acquainted with children, in concept or in actuality. Remind me to use that next time a kid has a meltdown.
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Jeff S. says:
Defending Obama has become the same thing as defending herself.
This is why, as a secular conservative/libertarian, I keep your site bookmarked. I do wish to hell we could all please keep from projecting our own internal demons and wishes onto the external characters who we’ve elected to run our lives. God knows they’ll go astray quickly enough on their own.
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angie says:
Carmonn — truly weird. I almost cried with frustration when a new vet gave my cat the feline leukemia vaccine without my permission (because it makes him really sick & my old retired vet told me that since he was exclusively an indoor cat, he didn’t need it). And I was 25 years old at the time!! I believed (and I’m right about this) that the vet needed my approval to give my cat any and all shots. It was the callous disregard for my input that bothered me. Unreasonable, huh? Can you imagine the doctor giving you a shot that you didn’t ask for/approve? I’d cry right now if that happened to me — and I’m way, way older than 11. Really, I’m appalled at her reasoning — because Amanda thinks this vaccine should be “mandatory” anyone who questions getting it — including an 11 year old girl — is a hysterical crybaby who should “suck it up and STFU” because SHE knows better for YOU what’s good for you. Great feminist message that./snark
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votermom says:
Violet, I really wish I could help financially right now. Being unemployed is the pits. I am keeping you in my thoughts and hope your health returns to 100%.
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Simon Kenton says:
At least Bernie Sanders recognizes the importance of mustering a primary opponent for Obama:
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albrt says:
Violet – you’re welcome.
I don’t mean to sound like a jerk, but the business model of a non-profit hospital isn’t typically all that different. If you let the bills pile up and then offer to pay what you can afford, they will often accept it.
Has the hospital set you up to talk to a social worker about payment? Sometimes the hospital’s own social worker will tell you something pretty close to what I’m saying.
In any event, don’t take money out of a sheltered retirement account and don’t take money out of a house that is sheltered under your state’s homestead law. If you have any assets at all you really should consider talking to a bankruptcy attorney about what you can keep even if you declare bankruptcy.
Good luck.
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Jessica says:
I hope you feel better soon, Dr.
I don’t get what primarying Obama is supposed to accomplish. Bernie’s just trying to save Obama’s bacon. He admits that the challenger can’t win, so Obama either gets to run to the right against his base and get their votes anyway, or he lies and pays lip service and then just does whatever he wants. It’s too little too late to try for leverage at this late date, Obama owns progressives’ votes, and he knows it. Even as a transparent stunt, nobody could stop gazing at him adoringly long enough to pretend to run against him.
Plus, primarying the first African-American President would not look good. That would cause a lot of hard feelings.
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Simon Kenton says:
I admit primarying him seems futile. But how to be happy with the alternative, which is admitting to him that no matter WHAT he does, he gets the progressive vote? African-American or not, the man’s major policies continue to be Bush’s, and the chief differentiator is that he has a sonorous voice and (so far) a much less irritating demeanor.
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Jessica says:
I agree, but it’s all about giving us a chance to exorcise our concerns, regain our faith in the system and come to believe that our principles are being taken onboard. Bernie voted for Obamacare to prop up his Presidency, he’s certainly not come round to the idea of a credible primary challenge, and frankly I doubt he actually believes that Obama could be scared into changing course by even a 49-51 contest. Ideology trumps math.
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Cleaver says:
I keep seeing people say it’s a bad idea to primary Obama because he is half black. What about primarying his white half?
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Simon Kenton says:
Ideology trumps math? Ah, Jessica, say it ain’t so. But that’s what CNBC appears to be saying:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/43854224
“For Fundraising, Obama Relies Even More on Wall Street”
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Nina M. says:
Here’s something to cheer you up – real sciency scientists stepping up to debunk evolutionary psychology.
“Darwin in Mind: New Opportunities for Evolutionary Psychology”
http://www.plosbiology.org/art.....io.1001109I believe “new opportunities” to be a polite euphemism for “place in a trunk at the bottom of a river.”
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anna says:
Feministe is pro-sex work legalization: http://www.feministe.us/blog/a.....ish-model/
What do you think Violet?
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K.A. says:
Marcotte has turned into an enforcer whose goal is to keep unruly, wrong-thinking women in line.
You mean there was a time when she wasn’t like that?
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K.A. says:
Marcotte has always, first and foremost, cared more about the way the wrong people perceived her and feminism, toeing some imaginary line so as not to turn off the precious liberal boys whose respect she wants more than that of anyone else. She is very much like Obama in this way. Obama cares about how he and his party’s admin is being perceived by all the wrong people. Whatever their beliefs, whatever their politics, they are both psychologically stunted narcissists with deeply immature social needs that must be met first and foremost.
But clue in: it’s about getting shit done, not sucking every third cock every four days so as not to rock the boat too much.
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Sameol says:
Old article about David Wu’s history of attempted rape:
http://www.oregonlive.com/poli.....edir=false
Note that not only has this been publicly known for years, it actually worked to his advantage as voters felt sorry for the poor ol’ persecuted guy.
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votermom says:
K.A.
Hah! Good point!
Great insight into the similarity between the Marcotte & Obama. I had not seen that, but it does seem true. -
angie says:
David Wu is another example of the dangers of tribal thinking — “who cares if he’s committed sexual assault, at least he’s not a Republican!” It happens on the other side too — that perv David Vitter (R-LA) comes to mind. What I *don’t* understand, though, is why their respective PARTIES support them. Obviously, the Democrats & Republicans can’t tell people they “are not allowed” to run, but they certainly don’t need to give people like Wu & Vitter the $$ & backing of the Party & they certainly *could* back another candidate during the primaries.
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Jessica says:
Assume most have seen this, but as it’s an open thread. Still in shock that Newsweek had the guts to publish:
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Grace says:
I personally would like Obama to be challenged in a primary, for people to get a sense of how far he has moved to the right.
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Ugsome says:
Jessica, I’m absolutely flabbergasted that appeared in a major media outlet.
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K.A. says:
Good on Newsweek. That was so hard for me to read, even though it’s that very topic which initially pushed me to seek out feminist reading online years ago (I’d previously had no background whatsoever). The article really took me back to my early rage during that time.
During my initial exploration of the feminist presence online, the first sites I found, naturally, were funfeminists’ blogs, a kind of misogynist-feminist oxymoron I was not psychologically prepared to handle. I’d sought refuge and found women who hated women in the name of loving women! I thought, I want NOTHING to do with feminism now if this is what it looks like! It seemed I did not know any right-thinking person in the whole world. Serious alienation, desperation, rage, despair overtook my life during that period. I’d read the funfeminists’ “insightful” pieces and think:
Prostitution is not abusive?
Porn hasn’t made men hateful fucking abusers in bed?
This is not my experience of the world, unfortunately.
Luckily, I found Nikki Craft’s site after that, which featured Dworkin pieces that resonated with me and validated my own observations and analysis of misogyny as well.
I’m optimistic about movements against prostitution, but I can say with certainty that I will never have sex with men again, because porn has fucked them up irreparably, as that article also alludes to. Being anywhere on a misogyny spectrum is not good enough for me, no matter how far you are from the worst side of it. In my view, men chose between actual sex with women and hating them violently/erotically, and they get more out of hating them. They try to have their cake and eat it too by doing both, but I’m not going to fall for that shit. They made their choice. They blew it. I will not subject myself to their sexual sadism ever again.
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the15th says:
Tina Brown just took over at Newsweek. I never thought of Brown as particularly feminist, so I guess this is just one more example of how representation of women really does matter. (Although she also seems to have brought on Kathleen Parker as a columnist.)
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Carmonn says:
I was amazed that it didn’t devolve into a treatise on how feminists think sexual exploitation is a super duper fun and hawt option and isn’t it great that righteous liberal dudez like those at the Voice can make so much money off of it. I kept waiting for the switcharoo but it didn’t come. I actually think Ashton Kutcher deserves some credit, he may have started this off by really taking it to the toxic idiots at the Voice and saying some things that never get said in the MSM.
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Cynthia Ruccia says:
Hi Violet—-I’ve been thinking about you and hope you are coming along. I’m doing better—have had a year worth of treatments and surgeries for the breast cancer and should be done with it all by the end of February. You’re a better person than I—-I had to stop blogging for awhile.I’m glad yo see you’re still up and running (walking?). I’ve made a small donation, wish I could do more.
I’m blogging again at:
http://www.womenwintoo.blogspot.comI guess will need all of our voices to keep people on the straight and narrow. Looks like sexism will be the most popular item on the menu once again!!!!
Anyways—-hang in there girlfriend!!!!
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propertius says:
and (so far) a much less irritating demeanor.
George Bush never told me to eat my peas.
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Richard Johnson says:
Plus, primarying the first African-American President would not look good.
So you recruit a progressive African-American to be the progressive challenge candidate. Cynical? Maybe, but since the central purpose of such a challenge is to send a message, you pick someone who sends the right message. Barbara Lee would be ideal, if she were willing to run.
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Sameol says:
I really don’t think that would help. Not all African-American candidates are equal, Barbara Lee would be vilified as the puppet of the white establishment and much, much worse. Obama plays dirty, even a man, even John Lewis, would be demolished for a primary challenge.
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Jeff S. says:
Just checking in. Sending you best wishes for your good health. Hang in there!
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Daisy Deadhead says:
(sigh) Yeah. The bloom is waaay off the rose for me too, jumped ship some time ago for the Green Party.
I didn’t know you’d been ill, my best to you!
