Time to Reactivate This Blog

Sorry I was gone...

This is absolutely the last sociopolitical post. Our new focus will be music!

"It was not Obama who deluded the left; the left deluded itself. His rise to the presidency was the product of a disoriented conception of politics that elevated race and gender into the central and defining issues in American life. Along with this went the repudiation of social class as the essential analytic category. The historic problems of social and economic equality seemed to disappear from liberal discourse. Sadly, liberals did not really care what Obama really thought about the concentration of wealth in the United States. They cared about the fact that he was African-American. But that is only part of the story. The sort of liberal constituency that existed in Roosevelt's time -- which favored a substantial redistribution of wealth in the United States -- is not to be found. In reality, liberals (as that term is used today) are distinguished from conservatives largely by secondary cultural issues. The liberal elite and its affluent constituency have no interest in any significant economic restructuring of American society. They are for "reform" to the extent that it does not affect their stock portfolios and personal wealth.Obama's empty rhetoric -- which consisted of stringing together cliches about change that lacked, upon examination, any significant social content -- appealed to wealthy supporters who enjoyed indulging their self-satisfied illusions in their own "progressive" intentions. The failure of Obama reflects the bankruptcy of the sort of identity-politics liberalism that raised him into the White House." -----somewhere in the NYT

click on the image for more detail...

An excerpt from the Spartacist Manifesto (published in 1918):

The question today is not democracy or dictatorship. The question that history has put on the agenda reads: bourgeois democracy or socialist democracy. For the dictatorship of the proletariat does not mean bombs, putsches, riots and anarchy, as the agents of capitalist profits deliberately and falsely claim. Rather, it means using all instruments of political power to achieve socialism, to expropriate the capitalist class, through and in accordance with the will of the revolutionary majority of the proletariat.

Virtuosos Becoming a Dime a Dozen

An article in the NYT covered the breathtaking technical and interpretative skills of the current crop of concert pianists and young classical musicians in general (Virtuosos Becoming a Dime a Dozen). I submitted the following response:

Sir:

Interesting article. Indeed, when I studied clarinet in the early 60s, it was unusual to encounter a fellow 16-year-old playing the Nielsen concerto, much less the Francaix. As I approach my mid-sixties, I find the solo piano works of Liszt, the entire output of Paganini, and arrangements of Flight of the Bumblebee for inappropriate instruments (contra bass, theremin, etc) to be simply irritating. Musicians push the envelope to pay the bills. The results may stink to the ear.

Can You Detect A Difference?

NYT,tonight:

President Obama acknowledged the challenge in his Saturday radio and Internet address, saying the country’s “urgent mission” now was to grow the economy and create jobs.

“Our job right now has to be doing whatever we can to help folks find work,” he said, “to help create the climate where a business can put up that job listing; where incomes are rising again for people. We’ve got to rebuild this economy and the sense of security that middle-class families have felt slipping away for years.”


Roosevelt 1st Inaugural Address:

Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.

I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.

But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power- to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.

For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less.

Old, old school...(pre KAPD!)

Krugman, NYT today

In the long run, however, Democrats won’t be the only losers. What Republicans have just gotten away with calls our whole system of government into question. After all, how can American democracy work if whichever party is most prepared to be ruthless, to threaten the nation’s economic security, gets to dictate policy? And the answer is, maybe it can’t.
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I give up. Last time America reached this point, the South seceded and we had a civil war. Time to fly my true colors... remember Rosa Luxemburg!

Vote Communists

KPD Spartakusbund

The Legislative Process

NYT, today

Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said she was pleased with what she had heard about the contours of the potential agreement.

“This provides an opening to a very broad sweep of changes,” Mrs. Feinstein said. Referring to the tortuous legislative process, she said: “Sausage making is not pretty. But the sausage we have, I think, is a very different sausage from when we started.”

Wobbly

This comment appeared on a NYT discussion board today:

Republicans stand firm.
Pass the "Cut, Cap, and Balance" bill again with one change.
Separate the bill into two parts and have the Balanced Spending as another bill.
Keep passing the same bill and sending it to Reid and remind everyone of his "intransigence" in not passing the bill in the Senate.
As a great conservative once said to a RINO, "This is no time to go wobbly"

Hiuh??

NYT, today:

Members of the House Republican caucus said after a morning meeting that Mr. Boehner opened by urging the rank and file to “get your ass in line,” but then listened as many of them voiced lingering concerns.
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I've never been a fan of capitalism...now, I'm wondering about democracacy.