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| Newman working on the cement bolts |
We got the aluminum sculpture up. I helped out Tuesday night, finally finishing all the surfaces at about 1:30 am. I was not there for the installation, but I feared all my weld seams on the skin would split under the tension of the bolting of pieces together (which happened on one surface as we ground/sanded it smooth, forcing an emergency weld job at 12:30 am). The installation went with only a few problems, none of them my fault, so, cool.
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| "High Beam" installed in Old Town |
I've been thinking about a Romney presidency, and frankly, it depresses the hell out of me. It does so because, if those boneheads are allowed to steer the ship of state again, we are almost guaranteed a Depression under his/Paul Ryan's economic plans - which promise to slow the economy to a crawl without reducing the debt or the deficit (considering Republicans have a way of cutting taxes before cutting spending, and then either not cutting spending - to the tune of adding 12 trillion in debt over the course of 2000-2009 - or cutting the wrong things, while favoring all of their parasitic billionaire masters). The behavior of the Republican house over the course of the past two years would, had it been intentional, could only be called the worst form of creative destruction. I suppose Republicans in Congress will not be satsified until the only job opening available here are Third World ragpicker and shipbreaker positions. Apparently, we aren't allowed to be smart and savvy in this country anymore. All that science and technology, why, it's for godless heathens, not for right-thinking God-fearing white Real Americans.
If you wonder what a Romney presidency entaisl, I think it worth you while to consider what a McCain Presidency would have accomplished over the past four years. If there were any impetus for a communist takeover, John McCain, and that shrill dingbat running mate of his, would have done their best to take us to the threshhold of revolution. 33% unemployment rate, anyone? My best guess where we would be right now. And all the while, McCain would be waiting for free enterprise to do all the heavy lifting for him. But consider the following link: http://www.politicalaffairs.net/election-2012-alternative-history-and-its-real-world-lessons/
This is not counterfactual stuff. These are solid trends based upon real policy making and political choices on the part of conservatives. Do you really think we'd be better off than we were four years ago under a McCain/Republican Congress administration? Only if you've taken complete fucking leave of your senses.
First, the hateful rhetoric – that disturbing nexus of claims that President Obama's race, national origins and supposed religion marked him as lying outside of and possibly being a threat to the interests of "hard-working" (code for white, Christian, native-born) Americans – that characterized the McCain-Palin campaign would have been victorious. It cannot be underestimated the extent to which right-wing forces that rely on such claims would have felt empowered and emboldened, and indeed would have extended their control over the machinery of government. Instead of a concession speech announcing the "end of racism," McCain's victory speech would have been a lengthy white supremacist gloat.
ReplyDeletebut wait...,
none of that happened under G-Dub and his eight years of fustercluckery? McCain actually repudiated the majority of the racist anti-Obama talk too, jess sayyin.....
? G-Dub was full of that stuff. The whole damn country shifted its weight in a sharply more racist direction in those eight years.
ReplyDeleteA Romney administration depresses you? It scares the fucking shit out of me. If Romney gets in, we will be a third world country by the end of his first term.
ReplyDeleteHelp me out here Tom. Aside from gutting the EEOC (which has never been particularly strong or brilliant), pulling apart the civil rights division in the DOJ, NCLB, and a level of military industrial stridency unseen for decades, what exactly did he do or say that qualifies as racist?
ReplyDeleteLooks to me for all the world like he was up to equal opportunity fuckery.
Ellen, based on his governance record in Massachusetts, what exactly do you expect Romney to do that's substantively different from Obama?
Seriously, I wish somebody would point out to me the progressive policies and agenda of this administration as distinct from its clearly aggressive pursuit of every single nefarious agenda put in motion by the Cheney administration?
CNu,
DeleteWell, in fact the spaying of the CR staff of DOJ was a big one for me because of some stuff I had gotten involved in. But my point above was actually that the jingoism and "clash of civilizations" drumbeat seemed to drive the whole white community to greater and greater heights of xenophobia, which seemed to spill over onto most minorities. Maybe that's too hypothetical.
I can see the equal opportunity fuckery; and clearly he learned at Yale to work well with a multicolored cabinet. If only US progressives could get to where Bush was in 2000.
I don't see Bush as particularly out to get Black people. But allied with people who were.
One final thought, I've been pondering ever since I turned Chomskyoid in the early 1990s, what if 80% of Black folks just all voted Republican in one big election. Teach the Democritters a lesson they wouldn't forget.
John btw thanks for the Prometheus review I was hoping it didn't suck. Guess I gotta see it then.
ReplyDeleteWell, I cannot deny it was pretty much a mess with big plot holes in it, but I was able to overlook that stuff and just enjoy the experience, which is what movies are for. If I want philosophy, I don't go looking for it in TV shows or rock lyrics. I read a book.
DeleteThat said, and avoid this as it contains spoiler, but here is a funny critique: http://youtu.be/-x1YuvUQFJ0
Thinking about it, I think I've rationalized all the inconsistencies, and quit reading now, if you don't want to hear this.
Atlantic lists all cultural influences: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/06/decoding-the-cultural-influences-in-prometheus-from-lovecraft-to-halo/258357/
Problem is, Gonvidini Murty, who compiled the observations, is too clever by half, and misses the most important influence, which is Ridley Scott's Bladerunner. So, here's the straight poop about why this movie makes no sense. The Engineers, the giant white aliens who create us out of their own DNA, are themselves replicants - androids of the actual aliens. Once this is realized, all the irrational behavior falls into its proper spot.
Well, I saw it. It kept my mind off my own problems for 2+ hours. I did like the line "it's not exactly a traditional fetus."
DeleteFirst, the sculpture you did the welding on looks wonderful. I love the contrasts of sharp angles and rounded form, and also the contrast of angles in its legs. Beautiful. Wish I could see it in person.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I agree completely with your horror t the prospect of a Romney White House. His support of the continuing privatization of government services -- prisons, schools, medicare, social security, the military, etc. -- is nightmarish. The purpose of our government and country is not to help corporations to be profitable, and it is not a business. To my way of thinking, the purpose of our government and country is to help and protect all the people. All of them. Not just the donors with the deepest pockets. Not just businesses who don't want to pay taxes or be held accountable for what they do to the environment or its customers. Profit and the free market does not necessarily lead to prosperity for all. Take a look around...see?
Also, on a more personal note, he's such a truly strange individual. It really seems like he has absolutely no conception of what life is like for anyone here who isn't him. His lack of empathy, lack of human radar, makes him peculiarly chilling.
Romney seems to be an artificial moon stuck in his own peculiar orbit - surrounded by vacuum and the glittering space junk and astronaut pee of the past 10 years of failed capitalism. 2000-2010 has been the Fail Decade. Fail for the majority of Americans, great for Romney and his space battalions - who, eventually will find they cannot escape the gravitational pull of the Earth.
DeleteSecondly to first, thanks for the comments on the sculpture. I can't take any credit except for the construction and finished surface, but I will pass them on.