Is rebellion possible?

only when the senate sez so absent a recess appointment

xp

this isn't even the first time obama attempted to replace him

Yeah, I remember the other dude from like late 10, right? But this is precisely the sort of opportunity where grassroots power building and pressure application can come into play. Building a movement that makes it politically untenable to continue to oppose the change. We haven't done it yet, and obviously the ballot box is part of the fight, but I think we're working in this direction in the national level and trying to make the appropriate connections from the local upward.

(I don't believe it's a contradiction that I'm defending black blocs and arguing for the confirmation of Boss FHFA 10 posts apart, but, lol.)

well the problem is that the pressure needs to be applied to senate republicans in safe seats

it's like i said, i don't think this is an easy problem to solve. but i don't think it's unsolvable--it just takes hard work that's worth doing.

or, you know, a goddamn recess appointment

ps smash all authority

heya hoos, have you read Graeber's The Democracy Project yet? I was reading the bookforum review of it last night (which also featured David Harvey's more neomarxist-influenced Rebel Cities) and it seemed well worth reading. i'll take my answer off the air.

The wealthy and powerful certainly spend plenty of time and money to identify every lever of power and every avenue of influence they can use to pursue their goals. There is no contradiction between occupying public parks and banks or marching in the streets, and filing briefs with the SEC or lobbying Congress for friendly appointments in federal bureaucracies, if any of these steps can get you closer to your goals.

yep. it's always frustrating to see people arguing for one avenue over the other when they're both necessary for change. it seems like a common structure of a breakthrough on an issue is 1) tangible and growing public protests, 2) people with access to the current framework of the institution working on realistic alternative policies, and 3) a highly visible event or series of events - financial breakdown, a scandal, a disaster - that draws media and wider public attention to the issue.

There's no doubt in my mind that the big Bonus March on Washington DC during the Hoover administration was useful for pushing FDR into more radical actions when he took over in 1933.

ZS I haven't read Graeber's new one yet, though I've read a few reviews & am considering it. Trying to finish working my way through Black Flame first.

great article on Left Unity http://viewpointmag.com/2013/06/13/dead-generations-and-unknown-continents-reflections-on-left-unity/

yeah thats really really good imo

has anyone read this?

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1016828_380734515371512_871868813_n.jpg

i have it but have not read it! i'm told it's good.

Sounds interesting. Is there any evidence of a genuine uptick in people moving "off the grid"? There was a pretty big movement toward that kind of living in the 70s too.

in general, people need to stop thinking about how hippies did things. cuz it seems like a rebuke or something. not you, hurting! just in general. like, people shouldn't try new approaches cuz people did something like that once and now look where we are.

i don't really understand what that post is saying, scott.

i just meant if you mention "living off the grid" a lot of people immediately tie it to 60s/70s/hippies/etc. and it doesn't have to be like that. or worse they tie it to militias/survivalists/cults. it doesn't have to be any of those things.

Living off the grid does require a broad skill set that replaces being plugged into systems that are self-managing. Acquiring that skill set doesn't have to happen all at once, if you don't dive straight into the deep end, but instead select skills you are interested in, one at a time, and learn them as you go along. A lot of the failures among hippies and back-to-nature types in the 70s, when this was big, was a failure to recognize how much they didn't know before they committed to the project. It's more sensible to ramp your way up to it slowly and intentionally.

I think that the "oh that's a 70s thing" comes largely from the widespread failure of most of the people who tried to live off the grid to stick with it.

but yeah what aimless said

I think "true independence" is kind of a ridiculous fantasy, but that's probably something the marketing department came up with right?

has anyone read this?

wtf I am pretty sure I know that building

He edits the Web site Off-Grid.net in back of his RV, using a laptop plugged into a cigar lighter (and a wireless modem plugged into a laptop).

Ok, not gonna bother with this one.

Also has an epigraph by "E.E. Schumacher" (smh)

off the grid = a car battery?

and wireless internet!

there's no grid dude, it's wireless

lol

maybe he just means he pays his wireless bill in cash, or buys re-up cards for it at walmart

Jul 4 70 I have become so obsessed lately with the hopelessness of any rebellion against authority that I can only assume that I have come to a sort of climacteric. I read the political page every day and am continually astounded by what I read.

— Richard Burton (@BurtonDiaries) July 4, 2019

I was around in July 1970 and old enough to see and appreciate exactly what Mr. Burton was reading. Yes, the political state of the USA especially, but much of Europe, was plenty astounding and equally dispiriting.