I have nothing left at the moment. Nothing further to say about Clinton, or the primaries, or the Veepstakes, or the War, or Bush the lesser, or McSame, or history being made, or the use of words which may or may not offend, or even BooMan’s vacation photos. I’ve been more physically tired, but rarely more mentally drained than I am right now.
The tide turns, but despite everything it still turns slowly, and unevenly. And I am done thinking about it for a while. Maybe I will have something later today about Obama and what I think he may mean for the future should he win the general, but don’t bet on it. It’s time for me, and perhaps for you, too, to refresh, relax, recharge and reinvigorate ourselves. Yes, we are still in a world of shit, to steal a line from Stanley Kubrick, but that doesn’t mean we have to sniff out each and every stinking turd right this moment (sorry if that visual is a little too scatological for some of you).
So, go to the park. Ride a bike. Play softball. Do all that laundry that’s been piling up. Buy your kid a sno-cone or an ice cream. Catch a movie (Iron Man or Sex and the City, I don’t care) in a nice air conditioned multiplex eating overpriced junk food just because you can. Make love to your husband, wife, significant other or whomever will have you. Take a trip to Italy (nevermind). Hell, do something really radical — read a book that has absolutely nothing to do with politics. Maybe just sleep and dream of a better world. God Goddess Heaven The Flying Spaghetti Monster knows we need one.
As for books, I just started Soul Mountain by Nobel Prize winning author Gao Xingjian. I’m also re-reading aloud to my wife Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. I recommend both to you, though if you’ve never read Murakami before you might want to start with what I consider his best book, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. All of the above are out in paperback editions.
Your post made me smile. Some of your advice I just can’t wait to jump on…!!
Couldn’t resist.
:<)
OK, seriously though: For now, I’m going to savor Obama’s historical moment. I talked to my parents, and you just cannot begin to know how happy they are for him, and for this country.
But you know what? I thank God for them. I am proud of everything my parents have done, have sacrificed for me. And I’ll get to tell them that this weekend.
So the only piece of advice I’d add to your extensive list? Tell your loved ones that you love ’em!
Yes, rest, think and do other things. The internet is a mixed blessing, to be sure. Like the computer in general.
Relax. We’ll carry the ball for a few hours.
Here’s to ponder:
I’m working through Consider Phlebas by Iain Banks, a great science fiction book and Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge by B. Alan Wallace which is hard, hard, hard but very worthwhile.
Plus, I am getting ready for a cross country auto trip from upstate NY to Big Sur, CA (Esalen) for workshops and healings as I motor across the US. The shamanic work is already scheduled.
Life couldn’t be better for this newly minted INTJ.
Sixteen years ago I was the wire. Now, I am the current.
Correction: INFJ
Is there such a thing as INFJ? I think I might have been that. I’ll have to move the cartons around to find it.
INFJ “An Inspiration to Others”
Reflective/Introspective
Quietly Caring – Creative
Linguistically gifted – Psychic
Most Contemplative
Type Talk Otto Kroeger and Janet Thuesen
Idealist (NF)
Author (INFJ)
Please Understand Me David Keirsey, Marilyn Bates.
INFJ here too.
Maybe we can start a club.
But if we all just sat around contemplating and being introspective then the meetings would probably get pretty damn boring.
Naw, we would just tune in our psychic senses and learn all kinds of things like election results, stocks to buy, casinos to frequent etc. Or we could put together a joint poem or make a collective posting for the Tribune.
We could also chant a bunch of OMs. (Om namaya shivayu.)
Pleased to meet another INFJ which, as you know, is a rare type. Cheers.
I just got “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.” That’s the book about the right-wing Christian power cult that Hillary’s been in for awhile. Should be creepy reading.
I’m planning on hiking up in the hills again today. There’s something about putting miles on the personal odometer and working up a sweat that feels good, even if my knees are a little sore afterwards.
Got into an angry discussion last night with my girlfriend’s daughter. She was an Obama supporter from the beginning, before me, but she was angry about how Hillary was treated. I kept asking what did Obama do, and after talking awhile she admitted it wasn’t Obama but people around him who were raising all sorts of sexist memes. But when I asked her what his campaign did, she couldn’t come up with anything specific. I explained to her how the “divide and conquer” strategy is what the Republicans rely on (didn’t want to bring up corporatism and class analysis) and said that there were lots of Republican trolls on the internet and Obama can’t control what people write. And she then pointed out the media, and said that Obama’s the nominee so he shouldn’t allow it. And again, I said he can’t control it. At the end she said that Obama should acknowledge the sexism, and I said he has.
Really, this is all a bit weird. I’d love someone like Christopher Simpson, if he’s still around, to give an analysis of media and propaganda in this election cycle. The woman is very smart and she’s been sucked in like so many others.
I’m giving you a warning rating Bob. And I’m going to explain why
I can tell from your UID that you haven’t been here long enough to remember the wars that raged here at BT in 2006 about the appropriateness of discussing the clients of lawyers who blog here or anywhere else. And of course it all started with the `outing’ of Armando.
Let’s not start that again. There are many lawyers that post here. We represent a variety of clients. I hope your intent is not to start trouble here at BT between commenters while BooMan is on vacation. If it isn’t, I think you should think twice about pursuing this line of discussion. The group of commenters that are here now seem like a nice group. Why sow division between the lawyers and the others?
Armando doesn’t write here. Armando doesn’t participate here. Most people here aren’t interested in Armando – if they were they would go over to TalkLeft and talk to Armando. So Armando’s biography is irrelevant to any discussion here.
I have no idea why you are compelled to report here on Armando all the time. I won’t tell you to stop because you have to do what you have to do. But I will tell you that discussion of his, or any other lawyer’s, professional life whether it is of public record or not only causes trouble. No good comes of it. Believe me
Bash Armando or any other lawyer for his actions. Bash him for his opinions. Bash him for acting like an asshole. But leave his and any other lawyer’s clients out of it. Even if their clients are of public record.
oops, this was meant to go to your comment below.
Nevertheless, I don’t come here to start trouble because, quite honestly, I’m running out of places to get into trouble.
It had nothing to do with Booman being out of town either, believe me. If everyone else knows Armando, or even knows more about them than me (which is nothing besides his wiki bio), well, I’d like to know, but maybe this isn’t the place to discuss it.
I spent years as a shop steward and while I served labor’s cause I also represented a few sons of bitches and a couple of scumbags, so I understand the difference between client and his representation.
As for reporting on “Armando” all the time, I’m not a regular reader of wherever he came from so I don’t know his history or why he was the center of conversation in 2006 (but anyone who wants can feel free to fill me in via my link). I didn’t know that Big Tent is the same guy until recently, when someone here mentioned it. I was reading and posting a lot over at TalkLeft when the false Durham rape case busted open in the spring of 2006. Jeralyn smelled the phoniness of the case, as did I, so at one point we were copacetic. So that’s why I used to spend a lot of time over at TalkLeft.
There seemed to be a kind of insanity to grip the site around six months ago. Big Tent Democrat appeared to me to be the lamest supporter of Obama I’d ever seen. You know, false flag Democrat. I’m retired, so I’ve spent enough time on earth to have seen seen a lot of false flags, around the peace union, around the union, etc. So why do I report on what I see at TalkLeft? Because when someone pretends to be something that they’re not in order to change minds and influence people, then I take notice. And then the ultimate insult to me, one day I got banned from TL for nothing more than pointing out to Jeralyn that Hillary signed a pledge to neither campaign nor PARTICIPATE in FL and MI.
Meanwhile, with the H. Clinton campaign we see a lot of overlap with Republican tactics and Republican memes. And as others have pointed out, DLC is Republican lite. I look at the Clinton Presidency as pretty sweet for the corporatists and laying the groundwork for the screwing that we are now experiencing. I see Clinton functioning as a Trojan Horse. She even prays over in Arlington with them. If she wins, it’s good for them. If she loses, she pulls Obama down. That’s my theory.
So why I raised Armando’s wiki resume is because I want to know why someone who claims to support Obama has spent the last six months tearing him and his campaign down.
So that’s my story. Sleep well.
Bob,
Share this with her.
The JJP post is at:
http://www.jackandjillpolitics.com/...
Superdelegate Rob Andrews Knocks Clinton on Racial Campaign Tactics
More proof that the Clinton Campaign’s “kitchen sink” strategy led by bad, sad Sister Maggie Williams purposely included a racially divisive tactic. From: http://www.nj.com/...
A Democratic superdelegate from New Jersey says he is worried that unifying the party behind Barack Obama may be difficult because the Clinton camp “has engaged in some very divisive tactics and rhetoric it should not have.”
Rep. Rob Andrews, who supported Hillary Clinton throughout the primary season, disclosed he received a phone call shortly before the April 22 Pennsylvania primary from a top member of Clinton’s organization and that the caller explicitly discussed a strategy of winning over Jewish voters by exploiting tensions between Jews and African-Americans.
“There have been signals coming out of the Clinton campaign that have racial overtones that indeed disturb me,” Andrews said at his campaign headquarters in Cherry Hill Tuesday night after he lost his bid for the U.S. Senate nomination. “Frankly, I had a private conversation with a high-ranking person in the campaign … that used a racial line of argument that I found very disconcerting. It was extremely disconcerting given the rank of this person. It was very disturbing.”
Countdown to my family’s trip to Grand Teton and Yellowstone at 7 days. No work cell or beeper, no TV, just me, the wife, and 2 young boys who love nature (and a few Europeans, no doubt).
one last time!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5FvyGydc8no&feature=related
So this is who Big Tent Democrat is? An attorney for Walmart and Clorox? From wiki:
“Armando Llorens Sar writes on TalkLeft as Big Tent Democrat. He joined TalkLeft in July 2006. From late 2004 to mid-2006 he was a front-page poster at Daily Kos writing under the name “Armando.”
“He is a litigation attorney in San Juan, Puerto Rico with a practice focused on intellectual property, media and Internet matters and antitrust and trade regulation (including for Wal-Mart, Shell and Unilever as well as smaller local companies.)
“Armando won a precedent-setting case in the First Circuit Court of Appeals for The Clorox Company in which the Appeals Court reversed the dismissal of a Lanham Act false advertising action brought by Clorox against Procter & Gamble. This decision, The Clorox Company Puerto Rico v. The Procter & Gamble Commercial Company, 228 F.3d 24 (1st Cir. Oct. 3, 2000), was the first false advertising case decided in the First Circuit.
“He also won a landmark case in 1998, garnering a permanent injunction against a company illegally using the name of former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres in the first “right of publicity” action brought in Puerto Rico.”
This explains why I never saw him down at the union hall.
Steven,
I’m with ya. We’re all exhausted by all this garbage. Hillary has been a constant pain in the ass over the past few months. But gotta let it go. No matter what we try to do to change the world, there will always be idiots with crazy agendas. But can’t let that take our eyes off of the prize. We finally got a guy who represents us who may be the next prez, who may be able to start making incremental steps to change the world. Hang in there, knowing there are lots of folks like you with the same level of exhaustion. And enjoy your weekend.
I am so glad you wrote this and I’m even more happy that I took you up on it this morning and made a 2 hr trek up into the hills with the dogs. Rained last night. We’re in a drought with dirt cracked & scorched, but this morning there were happy critters everywhere. Sun out, last of wildflowers still here, orioles everywhere. Yes, my friends there is life after this primary.
Have a great weekend everyone!