Tag Archives: Politics
1966
“The trouble with government as it is is that it doesn’t represent the people, it controls them. All they seem to want to do– the people who run this country– is keep themselves in power and stop us knowing what’s going on… I’m not saying politicians are all terrible men. It’s just the system of …
Are You Really?
“Are you really going to hand over the White House to a real estate agent?” ~John Lydon, on Donald Trump Politics is the only field where inexperience and ignorance are considered to be positive qualities. Apply for literally any other job in the world and tell them, “I’ve never done this before, but that’s a …
Uh-huh.
Joe Biden is exclusively emphasizing the infrastructure bill now. He is positioning himself to take a victory lap over a bill that was never in question. He doesn’t seem to want to talk anymore about the Reconciliation Bill. That’s the one that would have made health care more accessible and affordable, lowered the cost of …
Don’t Be Afraid, Ever
“The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it’s very brightly colored, and it’s very loud, and it’s fun …
The Jugular
Excerpted from John Lydon’s autobiography Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, ©1994: That’s the trouble with working-class people throughout the world. They always try to spur their hatred onto what they see as being lower down the scale, rather than going for the fucking jugular of the upper- and middle-class bastards who are keeping …
Agenda
Now that Republicans have pushed Black voters to the back of the bus and reduced the status of women to mere fetus incubators, I look for them to force gays back into the closet.
Wonderfully Chaotic
John Lydon on politics, excerpted from his his autobiography Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, ©1994: Around the time of the punks, socialism wasn’t working in England. The Labour party were unimpressive and tedious. The Conservatives, the same. It fluctuated from one party to another, four years of this, four years of that, and …
An Escape from Personal Responsibility
In this excerpt from Scoundrel Time ©1976 by Lillian Hellman, the author discusses the difference between a “radical” and an “ideologue”: The popular image of the radical is of the wild and irresponsible “bomb thrower.” But most radicals I have met were extraordinarily civil. They oppose the general degradation, not with a programmatic “solution,” but …
The Winner
The United States just passed a massive spending bill to boost the tech industry (source). I thought the beauty of Capitalism was that the Free Market would take care of these things. I thought that a centralized economy was a bad thing. I must have it confused with something else. I wonder who will reap …
Competition
“We’re in competition with China and other countries to win the 21st Century.” ~Joe Biden (source) No we’re not. There is no “competition.” That’s stupid. We have enough already. Let’s take care of the sick and elderly, house the homeless, feed the hungry, educate the young. Somebody else can “win,” whatever that means.
Amateur Hour
“Yes, of course, I’m voting for Trump. I don’t want a politician running this world anymore.” ~John Lydon (source) I think politics is the only profession on earth that people believe could be better performed by an amateur. You would never go to a doctor who advertised that he has no idea what he’s doing, …
The Catcher
“I was trying to be the catcher in the rye. I was trying to keep him talking to the leadership.” ~ Senator Angus King, on persuading Senator Joe Manchin to support the stimulus bill (source) I don’t think Senator King has actually read The Catcher In The Rye. I wonder what he thinks it is …
15
I remember what happened the last time they raised the minimum wage. Every apartment complex in town, all at once, raised their rents by an equal amount– and all of the money that was meant to help the working poor instead went to the leisure rich. Upping wages, while important, is not going to repair …
Call It Kindness
Every time someone tries to do something to help somebody else, some grinning gargoyle of a conservative jumps up and shouts “SOCIALISM!” and everybody runs away in horror at the bogeyman they just created. It’s absurd. I want to live in a country where hungry people are fed, sick people are healed, and everyone has …
Mitch
When Wall Street wanted trillions of dollars to cover their bad investments, Mitch McConnell came running. When rich people wanted a tax break to make themselves even richer, he was happy to oblige. When corporations realized they could make even more money by compromising worker safety and destroying the environment, he rushed to get his …
“The Science Of?”
“The left will have to understand the science of ‘meet you in the middle.’” ~Matthew McConaughey (source) I’m going to need some details before I take this line as anything but condescending. How do I meet racism “in the middle?” How do I meet science denial in the middle? How do I meet homophobia in …
Burn It Down
From Chris Rock: I had my father get sick when I was 22. And I was poor, alright. And my father had an ulcer, and it exploded and you know all these toxins get in your blood. And basically, my father died, whatever, 50 days after his ulcer. So I had a father get sick …
And That Applies to Anyone
“The reason women are critiqued for being too loud or too meek, too big or too small, too smart to be attractive or too attractive to be smart, is to belittle women out of standing up publicly. “The goal is to ‘critique’ into submission– and that applies to anyone challenging power.” ~Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Or All Four
“However sugarcoated and ambiguous, every form of authoritarianism must start with a belief in some group’s greater right to power, whether that right is justified by sex, race, class, religion or all four. However far it may expand, the progression inevitably rests on unequal power and airtight roles within the family.” ~~Gloria Steinem (1980)
Abbie's Tree House 