Kula's Litter Box

[AA0]

Modern farming has needed a kick in the ass for quiet some time now, it is very wasteful. But I also disagree with idea of going back to manual labour, we just need to use natural, sustainable methods to grow whether it involves using the best of nature to our advantage or high technology either could work.

[Kulamata]

A longish article from The New Yorker, on the Koch brothers. The NYer is one of the very few publishers that still meticulously fact check every word.

The Koch brothers have spent tens of millions promoting far right causes; anti-warming, anti-cap and trade, etc. etc. They own Georgia Pacific Lumber, one of the nastier lumber companies out our way.

www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer?printable=true

[Kulamata]

The New Deal; the Depression of 1929-41 is the closest analogue to our current situation. FWIW, I feel that there is a great deal to learn from it; and I wish we had not forgotten so much in the last 20 years.

www.newdeal20.org/2010/08/30/the-real-lesson-from-the-great-depression-fiscal-policy-works-18751/

[Kulamata]

Given the title of the thread, I'm not at all sure that I should applaud out-of-the-box...

Not that I agree with everything here, but refreshing just the same;
swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/09/14/election-road-trip-day-9-bye-pink/#more-31735

[Kulamata]

www.theoildrum.com/node/6961

With the disappearance of inexpensive oil, can economic growth be resumed? I'm not as pessimistic as the author, but we, (the US) are not facing up to doing what might help nearly as much as we might. As a result, other countries are forging ahead in the needed new technologies, which we may be importing. (As we are now. )

[Kulamata]

Rare earths; why they matter, and why China's near-monopoly on their supply matters... But they may have erred by playing that card.
www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/09/29/you-dont-bring-a-praseodymium-knife-to-a-gunfight?page=0,0

Late edit: Coincidentally, found this too: www.businessweek.com/news/2010-09-29/pentagon-losing-control-of-bombs-to-china-s-monopoly.html

[Kulamata]

Two from the New York Review of Books.
Macroeconomics; a topic of interest, with a lot of misinformation floating around.
www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/oct/14/way-out-slump/

I've recently started watching The Wire. DirecTV has a bonus channel, and reruns notable shows; The Wire, Deadwood, etc. I see what the very strong reviews were all about. Amazing that it never got an Emmy. Right up there with my all-time "best" choices; Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, with Alec Guinness, and in a different vein altogether, the Nero Wolfe series from A & E, from back when they were trying.

Long, excellent.
www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/oct/14/life-wire/?pagination=false

[Kulamata]

A sense of anger which I share; short term political gains and simple, blind ideology leading us over the cliff.

climateprogress.org/2010/10/17/is-this-what-america-faces-if-the-tea-party-triumphs/#more-35106

[tantalyr]

A few weeks ago, on the FoxNews Sunday morning newstalk show, Mara Lyerson (a regular on NPR) said that while she couldn't really predict which of the two parties would dominate the upcoming mid-term elections, she was absolutely certain of one result--the death of any even glimmer of bipartisanship in Congress. She predicted that the vast majority of the folks elected to office this November will be on the farther end of their respective political spectrums and, thus, completely obstinate in their views and unwilling to compromise.

I fear I have to agree with this terribly dim prospect.

[Darkwater]

Think the moderate middle, if it exists, just doesn't give a shit anymore?

Or is the upcoming election victory for the repubs basically exactly what they want? Nothing done and perpetual deadlock? Just sorta muddle along until the whole system falls apart, or a third centrist party rises up and crushes the other two? I find that scenario unlikely to happen though, given the obsticles involved.

I'm more inclined to beleive the don't give a shit answer. Dancing with the stars, and the latest MMOs are too important to pay attention to stupid politicians anyway.

[Pharcellus]

The problem goes even farther than that.. in many races, there just aren't any real alternatives. All the whackjobs are running for office; the criminals and the insane are the only ones running.

I have been studying the various candidates in the local races and I honestly can't find any of them to vote for without my conscience bothering me. So, I can relate to that feeling of helplessness. Does it even matter IF I vote? It most certainly doesn't feel like it. If I don't vote, we'll get incompetent retards and IF I vote, we'll get incompetent retards, because I would have voted for one of them.

Oh, don't worry, I'm still going to vote, and vote my conscience the best I can. However, I can identify with the average voter; even armed with the best information I can find about the candidates, I don't feel any more capable of "voting smart" than someone who votes randomly, or votes based on how well the candidates' names rolls off his tongue.

[Deleted]

Here in Missouri there is so much disinformation being spread that its crazy and they are all trying to link each other to Obama or Bush or the Wall Street bailouts or something. So much mud, so little truth, and absolutely no honesty or true platforms anymore.

I agree with Tant, this election will mark the end of bipartisanship (though I think we've already mostly been there for at least a decade).

[sheral]

I don't know why they don't 'get along'. There doesn't seem to be a left in this country. To me, left means socialism, and socialism appears to be a very dirty, scary word to most people. The liberals seem to bow to the 'corporate' overlords just as much as the repubs, and everyone worries about the middle class and up, but no one seems to give a shit about the working class. So from my perspective it's like watching the right argue with the farther right. I truly can't see a lot of difference. Maybe it's just that its different to the politics I grew up with, but I'm personally glad I don't get to vote. I could not vote for any of these chumps with good conscience.

[AA0]

I agree the US has no clue what left even means, if you take a look at our NDP party you'd be shocked in comparision. I could also say this country hardly has a right wing though, definitely no major party is in the extreme right, just some moderates.

[Pharcellus]

Yeah, no one has a clue, but more and more, it appears to me that the Republicans are a lost cause. I'm sure my folks are going to vote Republican, but after what's been happening over the last year in this campaign, I don't think I can, in good conscience, vote in a way that supports the Republican party. I just can't see it helping anyone at this point.

When you have the few moderate, rational Republicans left that are chastising their own party, and you have complete and total ineptness displayed time after time to national media, like this:





Including the absolute wingnuttery represented by the Tea Party, one can't help but think that they are completely and utterly a lost cause.

At this point, I'd be so bold as to reject the common wisdom that "buyer's remorse" will be able to overcome the absolutely mindbogglingly bad crop of candidates this year, and predict a big Democratic win across the board. It shouldn't happen, but I think there's a really good chance of it happening.

If it doesn't, I think we're beyond screwed. We will get the government we absolutely deserve.