May 3
Tent_Liberation_Army commented on An Interview With the Man In the Hat (Upon His Release from Jail After His May Day Arrest).
Thanks for actually interviewing the people involved, instead of turning May Day into an extended disaster story like the rest of the media.
Apr 20
Tent_Liberation_Army commented on I Hate the Beacon Hill Library, and You Should Too.
Good stuff, Charles. Seems like you've struck a nerve with the white, liberal Stranger readership based on the comments. Strike away.
Mar 7
Tent_Liberation_Army commented on More Evidence of Global Economic Recovery.
@6 God that would be beautiful. You've given me hope for a better(or at least more schadenfreude-fueled) future.
Mar 7
Tent_Liberation_Army commented on More Evidence of Global Economic Recovery.
@2 ...that really, really wasn't the point of this article. It was more that the entire growth-based paradigm is looking increasingly suicidal for our species. Yet neither of the two major political parties are proposing any other construct.
It's actually kind of nuts to think about. "Growth" has replaced any sort of articulated societal goal in America. But growth is largely illusory, fueled by externalizing hidden costs in production, such as environmental damage. As the externalized damage becomes more noticeable, economics increasingly turns into a zero-sum game, with wealth being transferred to a small oligarchy.
Someone asked Bill Clinton a few years back how to fix the economy. His reply was that we'd have to come up with a technological advance as great as the internet. While that would certainly kick-start our growth model again, it's indicative of how the elites seem incapable of examining the larger assumptions our society is based on.
It's actually kind of nuts to think about. "Growth" has replaced any sort of articulated societal goal in America. But growth is largely illusory, fueled by externalizing hidden costs in production, such as environmental damage. As the externalized damage becomes more noticeable, economics increasingly turns into a zero-sum game, with wealth being transferred to a small oligarchy.
Someone asked Bill Clinton a few years back how to fix the economy. His reply was that we'd have to come up with a technological advance as great as the internet. While that would certainly kick-start our growth model again, it's indicative of how the elites seem incapable of examining the larger assumptions our society is based on.
Mar 7
Tent_Liberation_Army commented on Morning News.
Re: the legalization headline: Cascadia just keeps sounding better and better.
Mar 1
Tent_Liberation_Army commented on America Is Number One.
@5 Slavery, genocide against Native Americans, annexing half of Mexico, and invading Canada all happened within the first 100 years of our benevolent nation being founded. If we seem relatively benevolent at this point, I'd assert it's because we obliterated any thing or one who would get in the way of the exploitation of the entire North American continent.
It's not that I think there aren't significant positive aspects of America. If you're comparing us to Rome or the USSR, though, that's setting the bar pretty damn low. Also very different circumstances with regards to external threats. I'd actually argue that we're extremely similar both in tactics and effects of imperialist policy to the British. By using militarized trade and proxy rulers, we do a lot of our damage indirectly (see: Irish Potato Famine in the case of U.K. or U.S. support of Pinochet as examples).
It's not that I think there aren't significant positive aspects of America. If you're comparing us to Rome or the USSR, though, that's setting the bar pretty damn low. Also very different circumstances with regards to external threats. I'd actually argue that we're extremely similar both in tactics and effects of imperialist policy to the British. By using militarized trade and proxy rulers, we do a lot of our damage indirectly (see: Irish Potato Famine in the case of U.K. or U.S. support of Pinochet as examples).
Feb 22
Tent_Liberation_Army commented on The Decline of Government.
@4 Food stamps are means-tested, which means they're directly tied to the poor state of the economy for most Americans.
Personally, I have a problem considering Obamacare in the same social democratic category as say, Social Security or Medicare. The vast majority of the actual administration is passed to for-profit enterprises, which is why a lot of leftists had big problems with it. So I guess technically you could say it's a social welfare program, just one with many incompetent aspects that is a huge monetary boon to certain industries.
Actual welfare was gutted during the Clinton Years. Basically we've seen effective social democratic mutual aid programs phased out and replaced with programs that encourage precarity, anxiety, and concentration of wealth instead.
Personally, I have a problem considering Obamacare in the same social democratic category as say, Social Security or Medicare. The vast majority of the actual administration is passed to for-profit enterprises, which is why a lot of leftists had big problems with it. So I guess technically you could say it's a social welfare program, just one with many incompetent aspects that is a huge monetary boon to certain industries.
Actual welfare was gutted during the Clinton Years. Basically we've seen effective social democratic mutual aid programs phased out and replaced with programs that encourage precarity, anxiety, and concentration of wealth instead.
Feb 22
Tent_Liberation_Army commented on The Decline of Government.
I get a queasy feeling when examining the political-business elite structure in America. It reminds me too much of what I read about the sclerotic Roman imperial aristocracy/bureaucracy alliance. For hundreds of years, things would change just enough to keep the elites in power and the whole imperial game in motion, while everyone else ended up progressively worse off.
The whole rotten organization may need to break apart before anything better can be built in its place.
The whole rotten organization may need to break apart before anything better can be built in its place.
Feb 20
Tent_Liberation_Army commented on Volitility Vanishing from Markets: After Neoliberalism.
@1 That was the year Nixon took America completely off the gold standard.
Feb 20
Tent_Liberation_Army commented on Volitility Vanishing from Markets: After Neoliberalism.
Another important question is 'what is causing the stability?' It seems to be related to the Fed's quantitative easing policy, which is essentially printing unlimited money and handing it over to major financial institutions with the goal of producing confidence in the economic order. We're talking about massive relative wealth reallocation (because the sum of all money should hypothetically equal the some of all available goods) with the goal of creating stability. It's trickle-down economics, plain and simple.
The Stranger
RSSSeattle Art & Performance Quarterly
A complete guide to Seattle's current art, film, dance, and theater season.
Facebook
Twitter
