Bear with, cause it’s about to get rambly up in here.

I’ve heard, hell I’ve said, that what we need right now is an FDR, not a BHO. We need a new New Deal, a new WPA, a new social contract to break the strangle hold Big Money has on us in every single aspect of life. But if we look at things with a cold, hard, historical eye then we’d have to admit to ourselves that just having an FDR wouldn’t bring about the changes we desperately need.

We’ve all heard the Gandhi quote “Be the change you want to see in the world”. Sometimes that seems a bit trite when such powerful forces are using every effort to keep squashed. But if we think back to what kind of push back the elites were receiving when FDR was president, then we can see concrete examples of what be the change means.

FDR was able to get his progressive policies passed because in the world at the time there was a MASSIVE push from the underclass. There were socialists and communists and anarchists on every corner. There were strikes and pickets and rallies and speeches. There were average people making the elites afraid.

And the elites ONLY EVER ACT IN THEIR OWN BEST INTEREST. FDR could be a progressive capitalist because to the elites progressive capitalism was preferential to straight up socialism, or god forbid, communism and state seizure of property and capital. But, and this is a big, questionable but, part of the fear the elites were feeling was physical. I love Emma Goldman and all her big, bold ideas, but she was a proponent of actual physical violence.

It is long past time that us progressives started acting offensively instead responding defensively to the increasing levels of state violence. I’m not a pacifist, I do firmly believe in the right of people to defend themselves. But I also know that when we let revolution come at the hands of violent uprising, the philosophy of the winning elites may change in tone but the violent tools used to contain the populace do not change. And quite frankly I am tired of the prison industrial complex and the military industrial complex and economic blackmail of us peasantry. I don’t want those things to be part of my world anymore.

So how do we make the elites afraid enough to let change happen without becoming brutal hooligans? The first step is to strip the system of it’s veneer of legitimacy. Legitimacy is a huge part of political theory. It is the main tool used for distributing power, political and economic. Legitimacy has been established through the divine right of kings, or the brute force of military dictatorships, or through the simple act of voting. When we vote, we grant the political class legitimacy to govern us. For decades we’ve been told to vote based on defensive fear. Vote for one side of the binary or the other out of fear of what the other side will do if they win the horse race. But politics, like many things, is not a simple binary system. There are more, many many more, ways to distribute power and resources in a society than just Neoliberal and Neoconservative. By voting for the lesser evil, we guarantee a system that is still evil and we give that system legitimacy. We put our actual mark of legitimacy on things that we abhor. 

The first step to creating fear in the elites is to stop giving them legitimacy through elections. Vote for anyone other than a legacy party politician (even the so-called good ones) or don’t vote at all.  It doesn’t matter if you vote Green or Socialist or even for the damn Libertarians. Just don’t give either of the two big parties the legitimacy they need to keep stealing from us. Be the change by being the person who commits the single, radical act of not voting for your own demise.

Without that kind of change, the powers that be will continue to have the permission of the populace to squash and crush us. Without that kind of change, there is no mechanism for creating the fear that the elites need to allow positive change to happen. Not voting for evil is simple, cheap and non-violent. It doesn’t even require us to risk jail time for protesting. It can be done by just about every citizen (excluding, of course, those citizens and residents that the state has already decreed dangerous to the system by purging them from voting rolls). It was fear of lost legitimacy that made a rich man like Roosevelt the champion of the poor and disemployed. We have to put that same fear in the heart of every democrat and republican, every banker and insurance exec. Once they realize that we no longer consider them legitimate, change can happen. But not before then.

I started writing a BIG IMPORTANT(ish) POST about Roosevelt. But today is the day I get my bits cracked open with the jaws of life (speculum and cervix stabilizer) and I just can’t concentrate long enough to get it right. I”ll think about it while I’m in the stirrups, for sure.

Actually, I am freaking the fuck out about this little gynecological adventure. Yes, I’ve had a baby. Yes I’ve had worse procedures done. But the idea of anything pain creating near my bits makes me nauseous. The plus side is, if this works- no babies, no more awful week long communist invasions. These are the good things that have kept me from just canceling the appointment altogether.

So enjoy this song by the Black Keys. Yes the video is problematic in that it does that overplayed and BORING love triangle, boys fighting shit. But I like the song. There’s whistling!

I’ve been thinking about Obama and his “do nothing” stance on disemployment. I know that a lot of us lefties pine for a New Deal leader ala Mr. Roosevelt, but if he were around today FDR would probably do the same things Obama is doing.

What? Heresy! Sacrilege! Not our FDR!

We’ve got to remember a few things from history. When FDR was president, there was nearly 30 years of socialist/communist/anarchist organization. There were poor people who weren’t afraid of committing acts of political violence against the elites (then, as now, the elites have NO problem committing acts of political violence against the peasantry.) Whether you are the staunchest pacifist or not, that created a legitimate fear of violent upheaval in the minds of progressive capitalists like Roosevelt.

The elites have nothing to fear from us now. They’ve turned the most violent among us into tea partiers, basically kapos who keep us in line in exchange for tiny advantage from the ruling class.

There is one way to non-violently endow some fear into one section of the elites, the political class. That way is to not vote for them. Not for Democrats. Not for Republicans. Not even the “good” ones. Vote for anyone else, third parties- doesn’t matter which one. It’s the only chance we have at agenda setting, to break up the control of the legacy parties. It doesn’t even matter too much which 3rd party you pick. Make up a party called the Nose Pickers of America and run a giant nostril.

The elites don’t need us. Not as workers. Not as consumers. We are in their way with our little, base demands for things like food and shelter and jobs and healthcare and education. But they keep their veneer of legitimacy by allowing us to cast a vote every now and then. It’s like dating a guy (or girl) who says from the very beginning “I’m going to cheat on you and take your wallet” and every 4 years we take them back because they changed their shirt or hair color.

I know, I know. This administration has become the Adherents of the Repeated Meme

(They’re from Doctor Who people! And spoilers- they turn out to be the empty suits delivering badness for the actual baddy of the episode)

Oh sure, tax cuts to get businesses to hire people. Yeah, that works., McDonald’s, fucking Mickey Ds, was responsible for HALF of all the hiring done last month. Yay! Crappy minimum wage jobs. Things are looking up! Fuck that.

You can’t normalize this shit. You can’t put the blame on us poor jobless folks. There’s a lot of us, we talk. We’re kinda over the whole bootstrap shit.

I’m not even a tiny bit surprised that Obama and his crack economic team can’t be assed to think about unemployed folks on the bottom. He never even hinted that he gives a flying fuck, and was the first Democratic president since FDR to NOT MENTION POVERTY ONCE in the state of the union. But just because I’m not surprised, doesn’t mean I’m not angry as hell.

Now for the folks at the bottom just waking up to how bad the President is for them, lemme remind you of that when voting season hits again. They don’t give a shit about us, because we’re going to vote for them anyways. What other choice do we have, let the Republicans win? We are a sure thing for them. No need to even get us liquored up.

The only way we get a government that is actually less evil is by not voting for evil period. The longer it takes people to figure that one out, the longer this dark and mean period lasts.

interviewer: What if no one voted? What would happen then?

Lupe Fiasco: I don’t know. Let’s try it out and see.

(FWIW, I still think we should just draw social security numbers out of a fucking hat. At least we have a chance of having a government that is actually representative of the population)

Shamelessly cribbed from Davidly

I posted this on Facebook

Oh second day hair!
Unwashed but not dirty
tomorrow oil slick

I’m worrying a bit about something, and can’t quite concentrate well enough to form serious thoughts. So I’m writing haikus about random household shit instead. Like

Damn dirty kitchen
Cleaning is pretty damn dull
Domestic Goddess

Teenage boy funk reeks
Of hormones and promise
Buy air freshener

Care to share?

I had one of my little bouts of insomnia. They happen, less frequently since I’ve gotten awesome meds, but they still happen. I finally passed out about 3am while watching Dorian Grey on Netflix. I then proceed to have the most fucked up dreams, horrid nightmares of awful. I was being chased and hunted and oh just so many bad things.

This is why you shouldn’t fall asleep infront of the compy, folks. At least if you are part of the non-cable class and you fall asleep in front of the tv you just dream about infomercials.

Lots o’ blogs that I read do regular link farms. I quit doing them a few years back because it seemed like I was reading the same stuff in the same places over and over and just posting it again seemed BORING. And y’all know how I hate to be bored.

But maybe with a gazillion things in my google reader that are awesome I should be sharing the love here. Let’s see how this goes and if you peeps like it, maybe I’ll do it as a regular thing.

Found via Tata, this site is all about social psychology and it is ah-maz-ing.

More on France and feminists and DSK and chambermaids and protests

From McClatchy: Is high unemployment the new normal? we’ve been talking about this for a long time, but it’s still nice to see a major wire service pick it up.

Also McClatchy: Climate change not just fucking with the price of bread, but also the price of cotton. What will us naked, starving peasants do with that. Pitchforks!

Jack Crow’s Letter to Principal High Muckety Muck reminds me why I homeschool.

Sasha gives us another example of how just being poor is a criminal act.

What are you all reading, writing, or thinking about. Shameless self-promotion is always welcome. 

Also, this is why she and I can NEVER live in the same city. You all would get daily My Drunk Kitchen videos from us.

Also, this was me a few hours ago. Shhhhhhhhhh.

Also, I have made jargaritas. And I may have a friend (or 3) who are only allowed to drink red wine out of coffee cups in my house now. You all know who you are.

Also, I am likeing this repeating also meme.