Open Thread: Angst
It’s the last weekend in February; I think Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ did such a fine job last weekend I’ll enlist another of his works to close this month. This one is called ‘Anxiety’ in English. In Norway they call it ‘Angst’. I think the latter is far more fitting based on definition.
We haven’t yet sunk into madness — March Madness, that is. (Don’t forget to fill out your bracket if you’re into that collegiate basketball-induced insanity.)
But we are definitely suffering from a collective existential dread. How will we climb out of this hole and fix this mess?
In the mean time, dump your burden here. Make light while you can. Remember Tuesday is Mardi Gras, the last guilt-free celebration until Easter for those of who are Catholic or Catholic-by-heritage. Offload your angst in comments and celebrate while you can without a side-eye or shade.
(Sigh) It’s just so, so MEDIEVAL!
Steve Bannon as Bernardo Gui. I can see that.
Rep. King notwithstanding, “screaming” town hall protesters do not diminish “democracy”, they are its epitome. Bannon – Donald’s Rasputin – needs to justify his presence, he needs to heighten the brutality of state excesses, to shut down the public’s access to information, and to reinvigorate the fear without which he and his cohort might lose their hold on power. History is full of such false prophets. Mr. Bannon is welcome to join them in the dustbin.
If Bannon and his acolytes are so determined to cut out uncooperative media from White House “press briefings”, then instead of twitting their outrage, the media should boycott the White House. The last thing Bannon wants is to be without nominally credible outlets through which to launch his jeremiads.
Angst#
1. Return of snow..icecold wind.. after a nice heatwave in the low 50’s last week. Brrrrrrrrr
2. Car breakdown. Must immediately repair in said snow/cold. Grrrrrrrrrrrr
3. Ebay assholes returning merchandise after stealing part. Arrrrrrrrrrrrr
4. Waterheater leak discovered 11pm. Get dressed for Antartic weather, go outside, shut water off for the night. Next day pipes freeze below valve/crack. Turn off pump. Repair valve which is under edge of house, while laying on back in ice cold water/snow. Turn on pump for test. Nothing. Learn pump needs to be primed. Pump down in concrete bunker below ground. Must feed with water from hose. Takes two hours, meanwhile hands freeze. Turn on pump. Nothing. Pressure valve stuck. Buy new one/ install. Temp @14degrees all day. Arrrrrrrrrrrrr Finally turn on water. Wife delighted. All is well…
5. …till 1am. Wife wakes me. Ice cold wind at hurricane force. House cold. Get up, check pilot. Out. Old heater. Get on floor to light. PITA. Go back to bed. 6am, get up. House cold again. But heater running, blowing cold air. WTF? Find heater shut off switch. Shut down. House now freezing. Time for some firewood..unfortunately..not split. 10degrees outside. fuck. Hour later, finally some heat. Now for heater. Know nothing how heater works. Go online to DIY forum. Takes 2 hours for suggestions. Follow all diagnostic tests, nothing. Everything working as should. Scratch head. WTF? Decide to light heater again, let run till house warm and shut off manually. Laying on floor…happen to see small switch. FAN SWITCH. Must have accidentally touched while previously lying on floor. Moved from AUTO to Manual ON. fuck. *slaps forehead* dummy. Day wasted. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrr
6. Need alcohol now. Dress for northwest passage. Drive in blizzard. Buy enough to last till next winter. Get shitfaced.
7. Donald Trump… meh.
No fun Martin, sorry.
FWIW, Auto is where the fan switch should be so it will cycle with the heater. Manual On makes you switch it on when the heater/furnace is running and back off when it stops. Unless something else is wrong too, that likely wasn’t the problem.
Things could be worse. Here’s a link to a Jack London story about the consequences from a chain of events when it is really cold. http://www.loudlit.org/audio/fire/pages/01_01_fire.htm It’s best read around the fire with alcohol.
Arrrgggghhhh The corrupt, greedy, war mongering Dem elites got their choice for DNC chair. Losing the WH, both houses of Congress and nearly 1,000 state Lege seats since ’09 wasn’t enough fun so they’ve decided to have more by strangling reform. Way to go bozos. Not a good start on ’18 or ’20 and the best way to run off the new folks who were attracted to Sanders. Next we’ll start hearing about a Hillary 3rd time lucky run in ’20.
Your sky is falling, eh. Paranoia strikes deep. Perez credible and progressive, jackwad.
Hell, the sky fell years ago. Paranoia? No, just a basic grasp of the obvious. Look at the record from 1/20/09 until today. Dems lost: (1) Presidency & Vice Presidency, (2) veto proof majorities in both the US Senate and House (3) Majorities in both the US Senate and House (4) nearly 1,000 seats in state legislatures, (5) Governorships and state legislatures to the point that there are only five (count ’em 5 = 10%) states with both Dem Governors and Legislatures. But wait, there’s more: In ’18 the Dems are defending 24 Senate seats to the Repubs 10, and in ’21 Repub state legislatures will redistrict themselves even more safe seats in Congress and in state Legislatures. The Dem free fall has not stopped, it has not even paused.
That is not paranoia, that is cold hard reality. It is the corrupt, greedy, Wall St, warmongering Dem elites that are delusional. Insanity is doing the same failed shit over and over again and expecting a different result. Perez, endorsed by Obama and most of the Dem establishment is more of the Same (credible, progressive and supports TPP are the essence of cognitive dissonance for those who are not brain washed).
The Dems are at their lowest ebb in a hundred years. Have they had enough fun yet? Apparently not since they have followed up corrupt Wasserman-Schutz and interim corrupt DNC Chair Brazil with another elite choice, Perez. How many more offices do the Dems have to lose before what remains of the party comes to its senses, cleans house and gets back to its New Deal roots? Those New Deal roots, based in working class America, formed a governing majority that lasted for nearly 50 years. In comparison, the right wing, corporatist, greedy & corrupt, DLC, elite New Dems have nearly destroyed the party in the 25 years since they came to power in ’92. “The sky is falling”? Yep sure has, years ago. “paranoia?” Nope, reality.
lefty,
With your “basic grasp of the obvious,” what’s your 2018 strategy for Virginia and nationally?
Could you be more specific about “New Deal roots?”
Should government buy up all surplus labor, as it does surplus agriculture? That was a “New Deal” policy.
What about re-scheduling marijuana?
We’re done jerk. I told you that last time. Grow up, then come back for a reasonable discussion. Until then you can put your silly questions where the sun don’t shine.
Should government buy up all surplus labor, as it does surplus agriculture?
Answer: Yes.
Brad,
Agree, “The Job Guarantee: A Government Plan for Full Employment:”
“There is no economic demand more urgent than putting Americans back to work. The government can do this by creating an “employer of last resort” program.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/job-guarantee-government-plan-full-employment/
I for one am Happy. New F-1 season starting and the cars look so much better and hoping Honda has figured out the their problem so FA can get near the front roll.
9ers new GM and brought some great people with him. New HC bring all new coaches except two. They have already signed DE to help stop the run.
Warriors keep wining and Kerr has been resting the main 4 for the finals.
Giants working hard in the off season plug the holes and we’ll see how that works out.
The demodogs do what they do best lose. They even voted down the money trough so they can except more money from the 1%. I was truly worried they might do the right thing, silly me.
This from a commenter at Ives Smith NC. Nails the demodog party.
http://www.byebyedemocracy.org/p/the-democratic-party-apology-handbook.html?m=1
Stopped raining in Calli for a while. There’s flooding around me but I’m high dry. The roads have taken a beating and sometimes you can’t get there from were ever you might be.
really just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
seems silly to worry about conflict between state/fed laws when nuclear obliteration is so possible.
i thought republicans were pro-business?
why can’t they mind their own fucking business?
why are republicans pro-opioid?
(that angsty enough for you? if not, go back to the nuclear obliteration part…)
Yeah, the DNC Chair thing has made me really angry, more angry than I thought I had in me, but it’s clarifying.
https://newrepublic.com/article/140901/establishment-democrats-just-won-needless-proxy-war
By choosing Perez, the party is once again saying it doesn’t trust progressives….the fact that the role of DNC chair is not as all-powerful as some assume only makes the case for Ellison stronger—that he was denied the role suggests that the party is unwilling to make even relatively minor concessions to progressives when it comes to party power.
good analysis, absolute best article I’ve read:
https://medium.com/@MattBruenig/be-clear-about-what-happened-to-keith-ellison-78e31bad6f76#.ri3iw6i5i
Before this gets turned into another thing where the establishment Democrats posture as the reasonable adults victimized by the assaults of those left-wing baddies, let’s just be very clear about what happened here. It was the establishment wing that decided to recruit and then stand up a candidate in order to fight an internal battle against the left faction of the party. It was the establishment wing that then dumped massive piles of opposition research on one of their own party members. And it was the establishment wing that did all of this in the shadow of Trump, sowing disunity.
Ian Welsh’s reflections: http://www.ianwelsh.net/perez-chosen-as-dnc-chair/ Neoliberals are truly enemies and they make it very clear.
But yeah, I really wanted and hoped to unify with Clinton supporters as some of those (not her and not Obama) are OK and I agree with them on lots, but it won’t be under the aegis of the DNC.
For any good government, the policies of BOTH the Republican and Democratic Party must be opposed persistently and relentlessly.
Angst: Tyrion in Game of Thrones spreads 3 different stories of where he may send his niece Myrcella in order to determine who is leaking to Cersei. Bannon sends out 5 different stories. Perhaps his motivation is to have MSM come out with 5 different stories and discredit them.