this isn't even the first time obama attempted to replace him
― iatee, Tuesday, 18 June 2013 18:15 (ten years ago) link
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.
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Tuesday, 18 June 2013 18:22 (ten years ago) link
(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.)
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Tuesday, 18 June 2013 18:25 (ten years ago) link
well the problem is that the pressure needs to be applied to senate republicans in safe seats
― iatee, Tuesday, 18 June 2013 18:29 (ten years ago) link
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.
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Tuesday, 18 June 2013 19:15 (ten years ago) link
or, you know, a goddamn recess appointment
ps smash all authority
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Tuesday, 18 June 2013 19:18 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Z S, Wednesday, 19 June 2013 17:17 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 19 June 2013 17:23 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Z S, Wednesday, 19 June 2013 17:37 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 19 June 2013 17:51 (ten years ago) link
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.
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Thursday, 20 June 2013 17:05 (ten years ago) link
great article on Left Unity http://viewpointmag.com/2013/06/13/dead-generations-and-unknown-continents-reflections-on-left-unity/
― flopson, Thursday, 20 June 2013 19:21 (ten years ago) link
yeah thats really really good imo
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Thursday, 20 June 2013 19:24 (ten years ago) link
has anyone read this?
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1016828_380734515371512_871868813_n.jpg
― scott seward, Friday, 21 June 2013 16:05 (ten years ago) link
i have it but have not read it! i'm told it's good.
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Friday, 21 June 2013 16:11 (ten years ago) link
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.
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 21 June 2013 16:32 (ten years ago) link
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.
― scott seward, Friday, 21 June 2013 18:24 (ten years ago) link
i don't really understand what that post is saying, scott.
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Friday, 21 June 2013 18:41 (ten years ago) link
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.
― scott seward, Friday, 21 June 2013 19:19 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Aimless, Friday, 21 June 2013 20:04 (ten years ago) link
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.
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 21 June 2013 21:10 (ten years ago) link
but yeah what aimless said
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 21 June 2013 21:11 (ten years ago) link
I think "true independence" is kind of a ridiculous fantasy, but that's probably something the marketing department came up with right?
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 21 June 2013 21:14 (ten years ago) link
wtf I am pretty sure I know that building
― the Spanish Porky's (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 21 June 2013 21:14 (ten years ago) link
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.
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 21 June 2013 21:18 (ten years ago) link
Also has an epigraph by "E.E. Schumacher" (smh)
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 21 June 2013 21:19 (ten years ago) link
off the grid = a car battery?
― the Spanish Porky's (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 21 June 2013 21:20 (ten years ago) link
and wireless internet!
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 21 June 2013 21:21 (ten years ago) link
there's no grid dude, it's wireless
lol
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Sunday, 23 June 2013 02:05 (ten years ago) link
maybe he just means he pays his wireless bill in cash, or buys re-up cards for it at walmart
― j., Sunday, 23 June 2013 05:52 (ten years ago) link
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
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 9 July 2019 21:45 (four years ago) link
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.
― A is for (Aimless), Tuesday, 9 July 2019 23:01 (four years ago) link