Friday, October 1, 2010

Rahm Fiddles...

President Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, has resigned his post to seek the mayoralty of his hometown, Chicago, which is arguably the most corrupt city in the U.S. Somehow this seems only fitting. Apparently it was a touching and fond farewell as Mr. Emanuel shed a tear or two during his send off, quite possibly at the precise moment the President of The United States proclaimed that:

"We could not have accomplished what we've accomplished without
Rahm's leadership."

This, of course, begs the question, what exactly do they think they've accomplished? It also makes one ask what they have, in fact, achieved? From where I sit, The Obama Administration have been excellent stewards of entirely too much of the agenda of the last President. You remember him, the one who was supposed to be the worst President in living memory, if not the most dreadful Commander-in-Chief ever. Well, there really isn't any point in ever trying to determine who is worst between dreadful and ghastly. This is especially the case when our two party system, which does little but front for what remains of the FIRE economy, has an octopus like stranglehold on the nation's business, as it were. Still, it is instructive, if not particularly appetizing, to keep a scorecard on just exactly what the combined governmental vampire squid-with apologies to Matt Taibbi- has managed to accomplish. Do write in and tell me what you think they've accomplished, especially if it's different than what I have only vaguely alluded to in this post.

27 comments:

Johnny D. said...

Edwardo, they accomplished exactly this (for me): I'm even more cynical of government. After Bush, I never thought such would be possible. Yet, here I am.

Edwardo said...

So, we agree. Obama has augmented The Bush legacy.

Anonymous said...

Now I see the genius of the health racket bailout and the destruction of reform. Since the dead vote for Democrats in Chicago, they wanted to increase that part of the electorate for Rahm's run.

Debra said...

I was afraid that all the people who went starry eyed over Barack Obama would end up dreadfully disappointed. Looks like I was right...

Debra said...

Is it just me, Edwardo, or do YOU think there is something a little.. ROTTEN (to use one of attempter's favorite words...) about Joe's sound bite on the Alonya show (that I have never seen before, and will never see again...) ?
Over here, we had an outstanding sociologist, called Pierre Bourdieu, who regularly LACERATED television as a media in which one could do NOTHING BUT.. whore and pimp oneself.
I agree with him. HE got lacerated quite a bit for his take on the idiot box...
And to think that I started out starry eyed over Captain Kirk in the original series.
Memories, memories...

Edwardo said...

That's funny, Russ, regarding the health care "master plan" and Rham's, er run.

It's hard to believe how many folks were taken in by the not so Big O., Deb. But you know what P.T. Barnum said about suckers and how often they come into this world.

I must confess I'm not familiar with The Alonya Show. Perhaps you could send me a link.

As for getting starry eyed over a young William Shatner, well, you were just a kid after all.

Debra said...

Just click on Joe's post, Edwardo. It'll come up.

Edwardo said...

I haven't listened to this interview until now. Somehow I'd rather read JB than hear him talk.

I don't know what you feel is ROTTEN in Joe's comments, but I detect a certain racial bias from him. I won't call Joe racist-because I don't imagine he is in practice- but he does seems to skirt with some questionable attitudes when he asserts that whites are the largest block making up the poor in the U.S.

In absolute numbers this is quite possibly true, but what does that really mean? The percentage of ethnic white poor as a percentage of the entire ethnic "white" population in the U.S. is unlikely to be greater than the percentage of impoverished hispanics relative to the total hispanic population. Ditto for African Americans. To suggest otherwise, or, to elide that point, is a bit of a head scratcher.

And JB's comments regarding the (hard) work ethic, where he seems to suggest that it is the (sole?) province of white America, as opposed to that of other groups, likewise, seems curious. I doubt that he intended any of his comments to indicate a racial bias, and perhaps I have taken away something other than what he intended.

Debra said...

I'm a loner, Edwardo, and I've been outside the U.S. for so long now that lots of the time I really have trouble relating to all the tempest in the teapot stuff going on about racism in the mother country these days.
No... I was talking about Joe.. PIMPING HIMSELF on the idiot box, when we know how he feels about the idiot box, right ?
Jesus Christ himself would have come out sounding like a sound bite on the idiot box.
HOW DID JOE IMAGINE THAT HE COULD GIVE A FIVE MINUTE INTERVIEW AND NOT SELL HIS SOUL AT THE SAME TIME ??
Not in character, Edwardo...
If/when the revolution comes (you know my preferences on revolution, now...) it will NOT come in any way, shape or form from the idiot box.
There, now.. I sound just like attempter, huh ?
THIS we probably agree about.

Edwardo said...

If Joe was selling his soul, he was doing it pretty much for free. Anyway, it's a bit late to take him to task for appearing on T.V. as I'm sure he's done it before.

As for the revolution, well, "The Revolution will not be televised", observed Gil Scott-Heron, and I would tend to agree, since the most revolutionary act these days might be going off the grid. The thinking here is that going "off grid" lacks much if any sort of drama, and is anti-commerce to boot. And since commerce is T.V.'s pimp "going off grid", scenes at 11:00, is a non starter.

Debra said...

I haven't had a TV for years.
I think... not having the TV separates.. the men from the boys.
Don't think that I'm preening, because I'm not.
But I'm more and more sure that the TV contributes in a massive, but subtle way to our alienation.

Edwardo said...

"I haven't had a TV for years.
I think... not having the TV separates.. the men from the boys."

Deb, didn't you, sometime back, rave about a T.V. show that you and one of your children watched?

Debra said...

"When I was A CHILD, I reasoned as a child, but now that I have become a MAN... I have put aside childish things".
That said.. by THE MAN, who definitely knew that it was sometimes good to be childLIKE but childish ??
Na.
I have a computer that I watch.. the very very occasional TV show on..
I leave the hard core TV watching to my daughter.

Edwardo said...

If you watch a T.V. show, even occasionally, you are watching television, whether it's on your laptop or on a "proper" T.V.

Debra said...

But I don't HAVE a TV, and I don't watch the series.
Come on, now, Edwardo... on this one you're managing to sound EVEN MORE FUNDAMENTALIST than I usually do, and THAT'S SAYING SOMETHING.
(I NEVER watch TV news, for example, and you know... most of the major Hollywood actors, I don't even know who they are. By the way.. this IGNORANCE is what contributed, among other things, to getting me kicked off of Street Rat.)

Edwardo said...
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Edwardo said...

Fundamentalism has nothing to do with it. The T.V. is just a device, a mere tool for delivering content of a certain sort. Whether one watches said content on an old Sony Trinitron, a new Sony flat screen, or a laptop is irrelevant.

As for major Hollywood actors, well, by definition, major H-Wood actors do not earn their crust via the small screen, though a number of them started out there.

Debra said...

You are almost as stubborn as I am.
I don't think that the TV is a "mere device".
The TV was designed to inculcate a national identity of the lowest common denominator variety (not for William Shatner, obviously, and at the beginning, when everything was new and fresh, it may not have been designed for that either.).
And all that free floating money from ADVERTISING has significantly perverted the medium.
Filthy lucre. The root of all evil...

Debra said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Edwardo said...

My key point still stands. As for T.V., I'm not exactly sure what you would like to imbue it with, but it's nothing more than an electronic billboard conveying a less gaudy version of The Vegas Strip, albeit one that exists in one's very own home.

The money from advertising may be free floating-whatever that means- but it sure isn't free, since, at least in the U.S., the function of the "cool medium" is to sell product. The delivery mechanism for selling product is "the show", and the production costs of making the T.V. shows are, in effect, budgeted by corporations. It goes without saying that the values, such as they are, of the shows, must comport with the product(s) being advertised during the commercial breaks. As you would say in French, voila!

Debra said...

That's why in a consumer society... your TV eventually reaches heights of conservatism. No rocking the boat you want to sell from, right ?

Edwardo said...

I think that's true, and conservatism, or what passes for it on these shores, also has the advantage of not admitting for complexity in human affairs. This comports better with the medium of T.V., whose stock and trade, like any visual medium, is black and white literalism.

Debra said...

I TOTALLY agree with what you just wrote above, but you know me and my stubborn provocativeness..
I wouldn't want to leave you thinking that "conservative" in a consumer society equals... "Republican" because that just is NOT TRUE in my book.
Another example of those black and white boxes, eh ?
Yep, complex thought is not one of our virtues right now...

Edwardo said...

Yes, best not to conflate the two. Republicans like to posture as if they are conservatives, but their brand of conservatism is impoverished if it even exists at all.

Debra said...

Nitpicking..
"any visual medium" ??
Those Renaissance painters were mapping out Catholic dogma (a much maligned and misunderstood word...) THROUGH and IN their paintings. In addition to the evolution of Catholic dogma.
There was nothing.. conservative or black and white in some of Raphael's masterpieces, Edwardo..
Popular education, as I say.
One of my ideals...
Too bad the idiot box has NO pretension towards popular education. Except maybe PBS, if it still exists ?

Edwardo said...

You had to bring the papists into it, followers of a dogma that is more concerned with contraception than child molestation. I deliberately said any visual medium because some portion of " great art" notwithstanding, all visual mediums are limited by their very nature in their ability to communicate ideas. Visual mediums do certain things very well, and others not so much.

Debra said...

Hmmm.... over here I say the word "Catholic" and the bell rings, and over at attempter's place the word "aristocrat" does the same thing...