Early Morning Open Thread

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Friday February 27, 2009 · 2:21 AM PST

2009/02/27 · 02:21

Just some random rhetorical questions (answer them if you wish) and then a thread on which to post whatever's on your mind in the wee hours of the night, early hours of the morning.

If Ronald Reagan had been accepted into the Communist Party when he applied, would we have been spared the last 30 years of reaction?

Nothing that Obama is doing with the budget or anywhere else is particularly radical in historical terms, and falls into the bipartisan consensus (rightwing fringe aside) of what constituted "good government" in the 1940-1980 period. Given that the mainstream of the Republican Party is now opposing Obama using arguments that were discredited in reality by the Great Depression and politically when Alf Landon ran and failed on them in 1936, does that make the Republicans the party of bad government? We need a safer opposition....

Should I be annoyed when people...well, Americans mainly...ask me where I "got" my daughters, on the assumption they were adopted in China or Korea? And then look skeptical when I say they're my biological children?

The rider and the horse; or Why Fox is Throwing Palin Under the Bus

gracchus

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Thursday November 06, 2008 · 7:32 AM PST

2008/11/06 · 07:32

(This started off as a long comment in a little read diary: I thought it was substantive enough to be worth of separate publication.)

The GOP is run by rich folks, and basically looks after their class interests; low taxes, no estate taxes, helping out business. However, there are not enough rich folks to elect a president, even if you count the toadies, the hangers-on, the wanna-bes and the folks who think they're rich but aren't. So the party has to use the religious right as its actual voters, and this group includes a fair number of folks who AREN'T rich.

To gather this group in, the GOP promises, but doesn't deliver, a return to a simpler age where abortion was done in back allies, gays were closeted family men who could be thrown in jail and the black folks and the Jews knew their place. It's been a 30-year exercise in stringing these folks along. The rich people who pay for the party have neither interest in making good nor incentive; once abortion is made nationally illegal a lot of the religious right probably won't bother turning up to vote.

gracchus

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Saturday March 22, 2008 · 3:59 AM PDT

2008/03/22 · 03:59

The Kuomintang candidate for the presidency of Taiwan, Ma Ying-jieou, has won the election by 16 points, 58-42 over the DPP candidate Frank Hsieh, Reuters and other wire services are reporting (plus Taiwanese satellite news channels, which I'm watching.) This is wider than polls indicated, but polls have been all over the place worldwide recently.

While there have been a number of "pro-green" (pro-DPP) diarists on Daily Kos, I'm actually inclined to see this as not a bad result. In public policy terms, the two parties aren't actually all that different, and in terms of relations to mainland China, both have nominally different aims but are in fact pro-status quo parties, a good thing, in my opinion. Plus Chen Shui-bian ran the DPP and the government as a one-man show, wasn't markedly honest and seemed to make policy off the cuff. Ma seems reasonable enough, and the minor corruption scandal in Taiwan struck me as beaten up to large degree. The DPP needs time to groom the next generation of leadership, imho.

So What Are YOU Doing Up?

gracchus

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Friday March 14, 2008 · 1:09 AM PDT

2008/03/14 · 01:09

It's late: on the West Coast, it's 1 a.m., which is late, and on the East Coast, it's 4 a.m, which is REALLY late. Now, frankly, I have an excuse for being awake at this hour: I live in Asia, where it's the afternoon on Friday (Note to people with friends overseas: learn about time zones, UNDERSTAND time zones before calling on the phone). I will soon migrate to a bar, which I'm reliably told is falling down and needs to be propped up for a good part of the evening.

You folks, on the other hand, mainly have to work or go to school tomorrow. Why are you up so late? Won't you be dragging your ass around? How little sleep can you function on, anyway? And aren't you getting a little old for the teenage rebellion thing of staying up late to annoy your parents, anyway?

Anyway, take the poll, and then tell me why you're up so late.

Update: DemocraticLuntz, Georgia10, consider this diary a call-out to you.

Poll

103 votes Show Results

I'm up so late because

103 votes Vote Now!

I'm up so late because

I got too excited reading Jeff Lieber's diary

3 votes

I own Starbucks stock and was helping out the company by consuming its product all day

0 votes

I have insomnia

20 votes

"Sleep, those little slices of death; Oh how I loathe them"

9 votes

I work nights

7 votes

My upstairs neighbor is playing the trombone

2 votes

I'm self employed, or work at home setting my own hours

26 votes

the orgy was canceled, and I'me trying to eat all the snacks I set out. Dunno what to do with all this olive oil, though.

7 votes

I have to stop going to the gym so late.

1 vote

I have nothing to do tomorrow.

9 votes

other

19 votes

Democrats Abroad Primary (Again) w/Poll

gracchus

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Monday February 04, 2008 · 8:38 AM PST

2008/02/04 · 08:38

I'll keep this diary short. I've just (within the past eight hours or so) received an e-mail from Democrats Abroad with instructions and a password for the online primary that starts tomorrow (well, today for those of us in Australia and East Asia). There will also be in-person voting in major centers with Democrats Abroad chapters. If you're a member of Democrats Abroad and haven't yet received an e-mail, I'd suggest getting in touch with the group headquarters. 22 Delegates are at stake, twice as many as I misreported (and misremembered) in my previous diary. In delegates per likely participate, you're vote will carry MUCH more punch in the DA primary than absentee in your home state primary.

Poll

50 votes Show Results

I'm a Democrat living abroad, and

50 votes Vote Now!

I'm a Democrat living abroad, and

I'll vote for Sen. Clinton in the Democrats Abroad primary

5 votes

I'll vote for Sen. Obama in the Democrats Abroad primary

30 votes

will vote in the DA primary and am leaning toward Sen. Clinton

2 votes

will vote in the DA primary and am leaning toward Sen. Obama

2 votes

will vote in the DA primary and undecided

0 votes

will vote absentee in my home state for Sen. Clinton

0 votes

will vote absentee in my home state for Sen. Obama

6 votes

will vote absentee in my home state and am leaning toward Sen. Clinton

0 votes

will vote absentee in my home state and am leaning toward Sen. Obama

1 vote

will vote absentee in my home state and am undecided

0 votes

am not planning to vote in the primaries

2 votes

other (please explain in comments)

2 votes

Democrats Abroad Primary (w/Poll)

gracchus

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Sunday January 27, 2008 · 1:11 AM PST

2008/01/27 · 01:11

Democrats Abroad will hold its first-ever e-mail based primary on tsunami Tuesday, for 11 delegates. In previous election cycles, Democrats Abroad had held caucuses. This was unsatisfactory because it basically limited participation to major urban centers where there were sufficient populations of Americans...great if you were in, say, Tokyo or Hong Kong, not so good if you were in Kota Kinabalu. Both the new primary system and the old caucus system require you to swear that you're not going to participate in any U.S. primary by absentee ballot. I should get an e-mail ballot some time before election day. I've not seen any polling on DA leanings yet: If you're a U.S. citizen living abroad, please take the poll in this diary.

Poll

91 votes Show Results

I belong to Democrats Abroad and will vote in the primary for:

91 votes Vote Now!

I belong to Democrats Abroad and will vote in the primary for:

Clinton

10 votes

Edwards

16 votes

Obama

48 votes

Leaning Clinton

4 votes

Leaning Edwards

2 votes

Leaning Obama

5 votes

Undecided

1 vote

Will Skip Primary

1 vote

Other (Please make a post explaining)

4 votes

Breaking: Chavez Referendum Fails (for now)

gracchus

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Sunday December 02, 2007 · 9:48 PM PST

2007/12/02 · 21:48

For those of you who have been following the situation in Venezuela, Chavez had been seeking to repeal term limits, lengthen his term in office and take other steps that would allow him to stay in power indefinitely and take more of the economy into state ownership. This referendum has failed, by a very slim margin, 50.7% against to 49.3% in favour. From the reporting surrounding the vote, it's clear a lot of Chavez supporters were queasy about giving their guy that much of a blank check, and stayed home.

While I think Chavez has been beaten up a bit much in the U.S. press, I thought that the referendum/constitutional changes were an overstretch by him, and a threat to liberty, and so I'm happy they failed. Any thoughts from you guys?

Update: Chavez is still speaking, and it sounds like he'll try again. He's saying the constutional plan is `still alive.' Yikes.

A David Brooks Column I Don't Hate!

gracchus

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Monday November 19, 2007 · 10:35 PM PST

2007/11/19 · 22:35

For once David Brooks has come out with a column that I, in part, may even agree with a little bit. It's about the fragmentation of music, as part of a great social fragmentation.

Except, of course, this being Brooks he's left out two very important points.

1.) Rap/Hip-Hop IS almost universally popular with youth, white and black, even though it's mainly being made by black youth.

2.) Fragmentation and division are driven in part by economic factors. Greater cohesion probably requires greater investment in public goods, something that's going to require government action and probably higher taxation. Brooks carefully avoids this, talks a lot about foundations. Private charities are helpful but not sufficient for the work that is to be done.

Do we need an atheists' rights movement?

gracchus

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Tuesday October 17, 2006 · 10:33 AM PDT

2006/10/17 · 10:33

I'm told I'm an atheist. I thought I was an agnostic, but kos user Gong, who's a professional philosopher and should know, tells me that my brand of agnosticism is indistinguishable from atheism. For political purposes, he's certainly right, and I really don't want to write a long diary that attracts long woolgathering philosophical comments. I'm also a hard-edged rationalist and in no way "spiritiual."

In most civilized countries, being an atheist really isn't an issue. Religion doesn't actually come up in public discourse in most of Europe, Canada and Australia, and in most of North Asia most people don't care and it's not a major topic of discussion anyway. You do tend to attract a few god-botherers who really want to save your soul, but steering clear of these folks ain't difficult. Read More

Interesting Op-Ed on North Korean Racism

gracchus

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Wednesday October 11, 2006 · 7:58 PM PDT

2006/10/11 · 19:58

Interesting op-ed piece from the New York Times here on North Korea's official ``pure-blood'' racism. I'm not sure if I agree with it 100 percent -- I reckon that the racial purity rhetoric is more of a tool than a basis of ideology in what appears to have turned into an essentiall nihilistic state -- and I'm also suspicious of anyone who studies North Korea at a South Korean university. That said, I'm open to the idea and it does provide a fresh paradigm for understanding Pyongyang beyond Stanlinism. It does explain North Korea's constant biting the hand that feeds it, China.

Beyond that, I have two reactions: one is that Stalinism is basically a reactionary ideology in the guise of a left-wing movement (hell, if the intellectual right tries to call Nazism a left-wing movement, I reckon I'm entitled to call Stalin a rightist.) Any leftists or fellow travelers on Kos who continue to back the Pyongyang regime, or minimize its offensiveness, should reconsider their position. The internationalism of North Korea has always been week, and now appears to have faded to nil. Read More

North Korean Nuclear Test (Political) Fallout

gracchus

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Monday October 09, 2006 · 3:17 AM PDT

2006/10/09 · 03:17

There's going to be some interesting political fallout from the North Korean nuclear test, not all of it directly involving the U.S. -- which really can't be blamed for everything that goes wrong in the world all the time.

One victim of the test may be the remaining relationship between Pyongyang and Beijing, once North Korea's closest ally and still its largest supplier of fuel and possibly of food. While the two sides have never been "as close as lips and teeth" as was claimed, China continued to help out North Korea for ideological and historical reasons tied to the Korean War.

China however, wasn't happy about the underground blast, issuing a warning through its United Nations ambassador earlier in diplomatically strong language that it didn't want North Korea to procede with the test. Afterwards China called North Korea's actions ``brazen'' disregard for world opinion. There will probably be more to come. Read More

Midnight Advice

gracchus

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Wednesday October 04, 2006 · 8:35 PM PDT

2006/10/04 · 20:35

I recently went through a phase of reading interwar left-wing Chicago novelists, basically James Farrell and Nelson Algren (who has a peculiar, and peculiarly American background). Both were Communists who became Trotskyists -- in Farrell's case quite a right-wing Trotskyist who supported the Vietnam War -- and both were essentially pessimists who nonetheless stayed with the left, more or less, and who wrote about Chicago's lower classes.

Both of them fell out of favor in the postwar period when the kind of realistic fiction they produced fell out of favor and critical plaudits fell more on a newer, less-political and more-psychological group of younger writers. Part of this may have to do with the generally reactionary politics of the 1950s. Read More

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