by William Skink
where once this Blackbird liked to fly
the sky is empty, clouds all gone
the sun is blazing, heating rocks
lizard soaks it up and runs
where to run? no where to hide
Jaybird squawks and pecks at flies
buzzing round a pile of shit
marked with flecks of politics
dismember tail, colors change
lizard even changes names
Jaybird’s beak is long and slick
and lizard knows where it can fit
by William Skink
It’s good to see jhwygirl with a new post up at 4&20 Blackbirds. I hope she can adhere to Jay’s vision, because she cited feelings of anger being one of many reasons she has been a virtually non-existent presence there for 3 years, leaving the heavy lifting of producing nearly daily content to myself:
There were less than a dozen reasons why I sort of dropped off regular blogging about three years ago. It coincided with a period in my life where I think I decided I didn’t want to be angry all the time.
That’s understandable, and I hope commenters lay off for a bit (I’m looking at you Mark) because there are real-world consequences for those of us who still need to work day jobs to pay the bills, yet feel compelled to write about things we see happening that needs attention. jhwygirl’s perspective is one I have missed, so hopefully the grind and the continued hostility doesn’t outweigh the desire to write.
I certainly don’t enjoy hostility, but I’m even more annoyed at passive-aggressiveness. Jay’s smear of writers like me who kept the lights on at his place is typical of the criticism I received from day one of blogging there. It comprises tired conspiracy ridicule and the implication that our anger is irrational. From Jaybird’s post:
There’s still a need for a good progressive voice, though. Now, instead of having to cut through the bloc of mainstream media, it needs to rise above the cacophony of angry, irrational voices.
I’ve been away for awhile. I stopped writing for the Montana blogosphere in 2012. Recently, I’ve had my attention somewhat forcibly drawn back to this site. Imagine my surprise when I saw the discussion here — fantastic plots equating Bernie Sanders with Hilary Clinton’s conspiracy to….what? Well, it’s hard to say. Only that the international Jewish conspiracy is involved somehow. And Vladimir Putin is a hero.
Jay is referencing this post I wrote a few days ago featuring a Counterpunch article exploring why the DNC is sending out email blasts supporting Bernie Sanders. What follows is only fantastic if one’s imagination has been retarded by incuriously consuming mainstream news. Wondering what implications may lurk behind the DNC’s support is just too much for some, I get it. It’s much easier to ridicule and attack straw-men than to challenge one’s core assumptions about a preferred candidate.
Declining readership is one reason Jay wants to reboot the site. I will take full credit for that. But as he plans his reboot, I can already see a challenge in his intended focus:
We’ll try to recruit new writers, and we’ll keep some of the old ones. But we’ll redirect the site to opinions and news that people need and like. Maybe there’ll be a redesign. Maybe not!
The problem? There is a BIG difference between news people need and news people like.
This may be subjective, but I believe people need to know the truth behind American foreign policy. People don’t like hearing that truth, though, because it runs counter to the myths and fables we are fed about American exceptionalism and our dangerous perception that America is destined to play the role of global enforcer wherever its alleged interests are perceived to be threatened.
Those interests align with US elites, the 1%. They DO NOT align with the interests of the American People. That should be obvious by now. But for some reason too many “progressives” continue to believe in fairytales, like “humanitarian interventions” in places like Libya. That Hillary Clinton is even being considered to run the Executive branch of government after what her State Department did to Libya shows just how deep our sickness goes.
I don’t claim to have a cure, but a good start to addressing this sickness is to take the goddamn blinders off and start looking at America’s role in the world for what it truly is: hegemonic madness.
by William Skink
I’m not sure how invested I am in maintaining a new blog space, but for the time being this is it: Reptile Dysfunction.
For my first post I would like to process the way in which I was cast aside from the other blog space I kept alive for years, 4&20 Blackbirds.
Unlike Jay Stevens, I don’t have some grand vision of providing a platform for progressive voices because frankly I don’t even know what that term means anymore. The definition, as it applies to politics, is this:
(of a group, person, or idea) favoring or implementing social reform or new, liberal ideas.
Within the political realm, being progressive is too often just a rhetorical stance taken for effect. Once elected, the practice of exercising political power takes hold, and absent a well-organized social movement, maintaining power and influence becomes the priority.
On Friday we saw a rare victory against the corporate push to destroy our national sovereignty. The House vote dealing a significant blow against the Obama regime’s fast track authority to negotiate destructive trade agreements happened because people organized a ground-swell of opposition Democrats couldn’t ignore. Here’s Richard Trumka on the victory:
Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, the main US labor federation, was uncharacteristically ebullient after the House voted down fast track on trade Friday, delivering a sharp rebuke to Barack Obama.
Trumka called the vote “a marvelous contrast to the corporate money and disillusionment that normally mark American politics today”. He added that “this was truly democracy in action”, a nod to the millions of Americans who had sent emails, met with lawmakers and marched in the streets to oppose fast track and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation pact that is being negotiated.
This victory has created a very awkward space for Hillary Clinton. While the Clinton campaign launched the lie that her candidacy is a populist one, the reality is Hillary Clinton is the epitome of what is wrong with Democrats. While all the other Democrat candidates have come out against these terrible trade agreements, the Clinton campaign is desperately trying to avoid the subject. An Atlantic article back in April details the challenge Clinton faces when it comes to trade. From the link:
Obama’s biggest hurdle in getting the trade deal approved was always his own party, as my colleague Russell Berman pointed out last week, when negotiators reached a deal to fast-track the TPP. What’s changed is that the TPP has collided with the presidential race—in ways that are risky for Hillary Clinton. The problem for Clinton is that she has historically backed free-trade deals, and as secretary of state called the TPP “the gold standard in trade agreements.” Yet her campaign’s big push over the last week or two has been to prove her liberal bona fides. Many progressives still don’t like NAFTA, a product of Bill Clinton’s administration (actually, many Americans don’t like NAFTA), and while Hillary Clinton still looks like a prohibitive favorite in the Democratic primary, rivals like O’Malley and Senator Bernie Sanders oppose it, as do the labor unions that are a major part of the Democratic coalition.
When Hillary Clinton opens her mouth to unload the deceitful rhetoric necessary to bamboozle Americans into voting for her, extreme skepticism is warranted. At yesterday’s rally on New York’s Roosevelt Island, her deceit was in full bloom:
At a rally on New York’s Roosevelt Island, she invoked the memory of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, saying FDR brought “a wider and constantly rising standard of living” to all Americans, a promise, Clinton said, “that still sounds good to me.”
The former First Lady, senator and secretary of state attacked the “trickle-down” economics that began with President Ronald Reagan and remains a mainstay of the Republican philosophy, calling it a failed policy.
“Democracy can’t be just for billionaires and corporations,” she said. “Prosperity and democracy are part of your basic bargain, too. You brought our country back. Now it’s time, your time, to secure the gains and move ahead. And you know what? America can’t succeed unless you succeed.”
It astounds me that people actually believe this crap. There is a good reason Gore Vidal referred to America as The United States of Amnesia. To believe Hillary Clinton is a populist one must consciously suppress the reality of how the Clintons sold out the Democratic Party during the 90’s. And then there’s Obama’s economic policy of infusing the criminal syndicate known as Wall Street with enough liquidity to re-inflate the stock market, hoping that keeping the banks afloat will “trickle-down” to the plebes.
Amnesia is a critical component of supporting Democrats. Without it, reality may intrude and shatter the illusions Democrats need to justify their support.
Jay Stevens exemplifies this amnesia when he tries to provide a little historical context for starting 4&20 Blackbirds, describing the long-gone days of 2006 like this:
When I started 4 and 20 blackbirds — what? — nine years ago, I had a vision for the site. It was simple. I’d create a blog that would give a platform for progressive voices in a media environment that shut out all but the most saccharine of “conventional wisdom” and grating right-wing voices on cable television and talk-show radio. And it was in the context of some crazy times — we were in the middle of an ill-conceived, poorly planned, poorly run and unethical war in Iraq. Republicans ran Congress and beat down all opposition voices with the club of 9/11 and specter of terrorism.
The blog was also started, then, to tout the candidacy of Jon Tester for Senate.
How things have changed.
Jon Tester is a US Senator. We’re no longer in Iraq. We have a Democratic president. And there are still plenty of issues that should energize us, unite us.
The ignorance in claiming “we’re no longer in Iraq” is astounding. 4 days ago NPR reported on the Obama regime adding 450 troops to the already 3,100 troops on the ground in Iraq. From the link:
President Obama has authorized the Pentagon to send up to 450 additional troops to Iraq in an effort to beef up the training of local security forces in their fight against the self-proclaimed Islamic State.
In a statement, press secretary Josh Earnest said the military personnel will “train, advise, and assist Iraqi Security Forces at Taqaddum military base in eastern Anbar province.”
He added: “The President made this decision after a request from Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi and upon the recommendation of Secretary Carter and Chairman Dempsey, and with the unanimous support of his national security team.”
The U.S. already has 3,100 troops in the country. They’re deployed at four established training sites. The additional troops will be deployed to Anbar province, an area just west of Baghdad that is reportedly now under Islamic State control.
Instead of dealing with reality, like I’ve been trying to do for years, Jay Stevens wants his blog to get back to the original vision of shilling for Democrats. Good luck with that.
While Stevens tries to reboot 4&20 Blackbirds, I will plod along with my reptile dysfunction here. I’m not trying to get anyone elected and I won’t blow Democratic sunshine up your ass, dear readers. I’m just trying to understand this fucked up world the best I can.