Posted by floatingbridge on April 21, 2011, at 1:52:37
In reply to Re: I wish I was left handed » floatingbridge, posted by sigismund on April 20, 2011, at 23:26:12
> We get all this news (I think) because there is real anxiety about political gridlock in the US.
What does the gridlock look like from where you are? Gridlock is an interesting word. It implies a potential functionality.
>And there are refugees from the US who then make it a subject in their various fields. I'm thinking of Chip someone or other who is the director of the Sydney Writers Festival and who made that the theme of last years festival. And I've noticed it in other papers and magazines such as the Telegraph (London, straight conservative) and the Economist (pretty free market).I had once planned to be one of the escapees in Australia. I still imagine it as an o.k. place to raise a kid. I could be wrong. Plus, please tell me it hasn't been torn up in an industrial free for all.
>
> When I reflect on the fortunate but complicated hand the US possessed after WWII I am more willing to feel that even interventions like Vietnam made some sense and were honourable in their intentions if not in their execution (stopping communism, stabilising France and protecting its sense of honour). Whereas now I truly wonder if attention is being paid to the world outside the US. Clearly this can't be expected from Mr Trump about whom I know only that he fires people, owns buildings, has a lot of hair and is very rich. Sort of like Elvis but without the charm and the drugs but
with much more money. Decline, that's what it is.
>O.K. So I finally Google Trump. I'm trying to not stroke out. I mean oh. my. god. He is talking about the presidency. I completely understand your alarm. I wish I wish this was silly rubbish. But I
thought, after what Reagan did to California as governor, after listening to his debates--I even analyzed sentences because they really were gibberish while the press lauded his rhetorical talent, I thought surely no way will he be elected.
Then George Bush Jr. Sarah Palin. The tea party.California actually spent oodles of money to hold a special election to oust a very good fellow who's only problem was he could actually do math and felt some responsibility toward the state. To elect Arnold Schwarzenegger.
There was an earthquake that damaged a
small town in Southern California, and Mr Schwarzenegger toured the damage. There were also casualties. People drove hundreds of miles to this beleaguered town to take pictures of Arnold. Unbelievable. It was not about the town. At all.> Australians tend to be concerned--because they can see it spreading here. I think. Anyway a program remarked that he had made Sarah seem like a public intellectual.
Oh god.
>
> I wonder how much that hair cost? It
*could* be genetic.
>
> How do you stop being alarmed about this? Ever since I read it on Tuesday I have been in a state.Well, I just don't pay attention. Really. I live in a news blackout. See? I had no idea about this thing with Trump. Celebrity will destroy my country. If I pay attention, I am absolutely beside myself. Because even though it is absolutely ridiculous, it is absolutely real.
And when we, the US, engages in war, it is played out through real bodies, real lives. We have become incredibly invasive and engage in war without integrity or honor; hear me say that this is not what the people actually serving may believe, and that is itself tragic. Then our government has behaved disgracefully to this same service people.
O.K. I'm ranting. But sigi, it is very serious. You know.
Just putting Trump and election in a sentence. I thought he might be talking governor. He can't run. Please tell me. And how is it looking for Palin?
This is incredible news. I'm shocked. I'll have to ask my husband.
Thing is, most citizens here are very beleaguered. Inflation, such fear in the workplace about layoffs. Who has time to care?
I do wish people would unplug their t.v.(s).
I did read a writer named Chris Hedges a bit, but so, so bleak. I lack resilience right now.
Hollywood did a real mash-up of his work and called it The Hurt Locker. It won the Oscar last year or the previous.
The US seems to think war is o.k. Let's say, I feel the nation is being used and will be discarded. The real wealth is international.
I've said way too much. I'll regret this in the morning.
But, see. That's also the climate right now. I was teaching when September 11th happened. No one could speak. I mean we could, but some of those who did had their tenure challenged (I was never tenured). It was so weird. Everything really did change here.
*a rose by any name
poster:floatingbridge
thread:983275
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20110407/msgs/983403.html