Soon, our saline-fueled minions will rule the world! It's been so different these last couple of years since I started using it, being able to close my mouth in the winter without suffocating.
a higher-up
I thought you were a drummer? Is this how you refer to the lead guitarist, or what?
2: No way. That guy's cocky enough already without me giving him ideas.
The neti pot is a big deal in Wisconsin.
2 was actually a serious question. Do you have a day job or something?
It's also an incredible testimony to the power of positive reinforcement. The actual neti-potting process is kind of gross and not particularly pleasant. But on days when I have a cold, I'm tapping my feet and fidgeting until I can get home and do it -- I feel like a junkie.
And, if you ever wanted to see a video of guy with a ceramic spout up his nose standing at his kitchen sink next to a drying rack full of pans, you need to look at the link.
5: Yes. I haven't yet landed that sweet, cushy tenure-track drumming gig, alas.
I opened up a work-related 3-ring binder and found a necklace that's been missing for a couple of years!
I had a consumerist achievement. A new camera, just released, that I've been after and which nowhere has in stock, and everywhere is listing it as available in March: I found one. Picking it up tomorrow. They told me they'd ordered 10 but only 1 had been delivered. And it's going to be mine. [You can insert the cackling and hand-rubbing here].
I hate it when musicians have day jobs.
You're just mad because Brian Wilson always forget to give you the fries you ordered.
11: So you hate approximately 99.297% of all musicians then?
If 11 is sincere, it goes in the pantheon of Urple's Earnestly Held if Awfully Oddball Opinions. Maybe he should publish a book of aphorisms.
9: I just did a lot of back filing, including getting a giant messy case file that's been piled in a drawer since the case was dismissed last spring in order so I could use the freed up drawer space. In one of the file folders was a baby picture of me in my first pair of shoes -- my daughter had brought it in for "Take your child to work day", and I'd somehow accidentally filed it.
I'd read 11 as saying, "Man, it sucks that Stanley has to do grunt work like the rest of us schlubs. In a just world, musicians would do nothing but devote themselves to their music all day. Devoted themselves to their music and rinse their nasal passages with saltwater."
My one publication was cited by someone this month, albeit by someone in a totally unrelated field, citing it for trivial reasons.
Stanley, have you seen this neti pot demo?
Be sure to have your higher up watch this important neti pot instructional video.
So you hate approximately 99.297% of all musicians then?
I don't hate the musicians, I hate the fact that they have to have day jobs.
Oh, and my minor accomplishment for today -- I've been in a happy, healthy relationship for a full MONTH.
Also, neti pots don't tend to work on me. My nasal pasages are simply too clogged.
17: citing it for trivial reasons.
Your rediscovery of some piece of 18th century mathematics?
Oh, and as far as accomplishments, I finally beat the Bowser dude at the end of the first world in New Super Mario Brothers Wii. Been working on that for days.
I got to work on time today for the first time this week.
I took my bike into the shop to get a new cassette and chain, which I'd been putting off because I hadn't been riding in the winter.
I'm looking forward to getting back out on my bike.
to get a new cassette
Your dedication to ancient recording media is laudable.
Well, there are definitely some musicians who I wish did have day jobs. It would keep them from making so much godawful music.
But not Stanley, of course. I want him to be free to make as much godawful music as his heart desires.
On the OT, yesterday when I got home from work there was a stray dog running around the neighborhood. I was able to successfully corrall it and luckily it had a tag with a phone number on it so we got it returned to its owner inside half an hour.
Also, I got to play a good bit of fetch the tennis ball with said dog. Her name was Lucca.
How'd she get loose from the second floor?
Her name was Lucca.
She lives on the bottom floor.
Shit. Pwned and apparently I got the floor wrong.
And, this morning there was a new hire stranded outside our building who had shown up late for training and couldn't get in (we have these swipey card things) and didn't know what to do (there's no reception desk or anything so no-one she could talk to). I was coming back in from a break and she looked upset so I asked if I could help and she told me her story and I was after long effort able to find someone in HR to go out and let her in and get her to the training class.
I feel like I'm racking up the karma points something big these last two days.
37: You couldn't let her in yourself?
You should have tried bring the dog to HR and playing tennis with the new hire.
You couldn't let her in yourself?
I'd expect that's increasingly SOP at most office buildings in the US. It's certainly the rule where I am. Whether or not it gets followed strictly at a given workplace probably varies, though.
Do you have a card or something to get in?
I am leaving my depressing job today! Hello, unemployment!
My thoughts are with the demonstrators in Cairo, of course. I hope they can accomplish some non-trivial things.
And the other cities in Egypt too. Sorry Suezites and Alexandrians! Didn't mean to detract from your heroism!
Do you have a card or something to get in?
Maybe. Alternatively, I'd like to leave you imagining there's an elaborate obstacle course one must traverse to get back in the building. There's a reason I pack a lunch most days...
41: I do, but letting someone else in using your card (known as "piggybacking") is a fireable offense in my line of work. Especially someone who doesn't have a card of their own.
Even if a group of employees is entering the building at the same time, each one has to scan their card separately before entering. The only time this is waived is after fire drills, when simply showing your ID Badge to the security guard holding the door open is okay, otherwise it would take hours.
a fireable offense in my line of work
I had no idea you were a custodian at the White House.
My stationery porch is all papered-over.
49: Do I have to come all the way down there and ream you out?
51: I really pushed the envelope that time, did I?
To be fair it's not like it came white out of the blue or anything.
||
It looks like the military is siding with the demonstrators in Egypt. Live coverage is making it hard to be productive at work.
|>
It's the kind of thing that's really obvious, of course, but I still find it jarring -- that the big factor in what effect a popular uprising is likely to have is which way the military jumps.
Even if a group of employees is entering the building at the same time, each one has to scan their card separately before entering. The only time this is waived is after fire drills, when simply showing your ID Badge to the security guard holding the door open is okay, otherwise it would take hours.
Occasionally someone flies in, though.
My building is open, but the bathrooms are locked, probably to keep out hobos.
57: Consultants should definitely be permitted to use the restroom, even if they're vagrants.
56: Not a nosflow indiscretion error, I assume?
It's the kind of thing that's really obvious, of course, but I still find it jarring -- that the big factor in what effect a popular uprising is likely to have is which way the military jumps.
The 19th-c French historians I used to hang out with distinguished a riot from a revolution by two factors: whether the people on the street could flee into the houses (popular support for the protest) and whether the troops fired.
61:Listening to MSNBC for the 1st time in years. According to them this is in large part an economic revolution. That's encouraging.
I linked in a lower thread to Lambert who is doing good liveblogging. I say there that I have no doubt that, as opposed to Tunisia and Egypt, American troops would fire on civilian protesters. That is not necessarily their fault, this is I think a desired result of their brutalization in Iraq and Afganistan.
I thought M/tch worked on a farm or something.
I hate it when farmers have day jobs.
I reformatted my resume using the modern cv class.
Lambert also quotes from the Egyptian protester pamphlet that discusses strategy and tactics. He probably shouldn't.
The question here, for the insurgents and the US gov't pigs etc is can Mubarek just wait them out. Mubi pulls back, gradually arrests, tortures and kills leaders while Obama & Clinton beg everybody to stay peaceful and non-violent. Then Obama blah blahs about Mubi calling a commission to think about reforms someday. Over and done.
Changes must be forced And fast. Sitting and waiting loses. Immediate costs and decisions must be forced to win.
I gotta say, this reformatting resumes stuff has been driving me a little crazy. Partly it's because my work history is so weird and spotty (leaving and returning to the same job 3 times will do that), but I just feel like everyone is expecting to see super-tailored resumes nowadays to justify a second look.
67: Yeah, that's about how I read it too.
I have no doubt that, as opposed to Tunisia and Egypt, American troops would fire on civilian protesters
Usually one has to have an Ivy League law degree to say something this stupid. Thanks, bob.
Usually one has to have an Ivy League law degreeMBA to say something this stupid.
I have no doubt that, as opposed to Tunisia and Egypt, American troops would fire on civilian protesters.
That's not a hard statement to prove.
79:Look the repeated rotations into horrific conditions were themselves an outrage, and those not broken by PTSD are very likely alienated and brutalized.
If it wasn't intentional it was certainly predictable, and the volunteer professional military was a disaster waiting for the first extended war.
War fucking hardens.
62: I have no doubt that, as opposed to Tunisia and Egypt, American troops would fire on civilian protesters
Yeah, having a hard time seeing what is controversial about this, except to say that I think it is overly optimistic about the ultimate response of Egyptian and Tunisian security forces. US cops deploy chemical weapons at the drop of a hat nowadays. The National Guard doesn't always kill people when they're deployed during riots and stuff, but they do it on a regular basis.
I guess the thing is that, if we had a situation where 2 pounds of tomatoes was equal to 5% of the average cop's monthly pay* in THIS country, things would be WAY more fucked up than they are in Egypt right now.
*I dunno what the actual ratio is. Point holds.
I linked in a lower thread to Lambert who is doing good liveblogging.
Watching "Lambert Strether" regurgitate news stories must provide a unique perspective on these events, I'm sure. I'll bet Lambert even welcomes Mubarek's hatred.
Blah blah Television news still worthless.
Republicans already bringing up the Shah of Iran & Carter.
That America has nothing better than propping up brutal dictators should be enough to prove Empire.
Is there a difference between the Mubarak and the Mubarek spelling? I see that Conservapedia has the latter, but I'd only seen the former till this thread.
I see that Conservapedia has the latter, but I'd only seen the former till this thread.
If "Mubarek" is what Conservapedia uses, then it means I've spelled his name wrong, probably.
The National Guard doesn't always kill people when they're deployed during riots and stuff, but they do it on a regular basis.
Baloney. Not to say it is all flowers and candy, but after Kent State the National Guard got better crowd control training. I'll let gswift comment on police training for riot control, but I don't remember anyone being shot by troops even during the LA riots.
The cops didn't shoot anybody during the hard hat riots. Social distance and the like play a large role in this stuff. In other words, who riots matters as much as who anti-riots.
As for minor accomplishments, this week I lost a favorite hand-knit scarf. Yay me.
I am enjoying the fact that Mohammed El Baradei, who, as head of the IAEA, was famously hated by the right wing/neocon/jingoist blogosphere in the runup to the Iraq War, now seems actually poised to genuinely bring democracy to an Arab country.
82: Maybe they think he's going to find the WMDs there?
but after Kent State the National Guard got better crowd control training.
Yes, army units now always have good training and clear operating orders that prevent abuse.
79: Well, I'm not finding anything on exact numbers of people killed by Nat'l Guard soldiers. If they have been more sedate since Kent State*, it is because regular police have become massively more militarized. Also, it has to be said that there are a lot of very serious woundings and maimings that have taken place which don't get the same kind of coverage that actual deaths do. So, you know, gun control means hitting your target and all that.
*And it wasn't like Kent State is the only time the Nat'l Guard has killed anyone. Lots of killings of labor protesters back in the day were either by the Guard or done with the complicity of the Guard.
Kuwait has announced a citizens' basic income. Well, more in the line of "Serve the People - with the People's Currency" as the Chinese say. The NDP HQ is apparently no longer burning because it's burned out. Private jets are in demand.
And Bob blames Obama.
that the big factor in what effect a popular uprising is likely to have is which way the military jumps
It is jarring, yes. I usually think of the military as being on the side of the powerful, but that's really not right so much as whoever's side the military is on thereby become the powerful.
And Bob blames Obama.
Traditional values were threatened, times were hard for farmers, etc.
Yes, army units now always have good training and clear operating orders that prevent abuse.
Did you put roller skates on those goalposts? I thought we were discussing the likelihood of American combat troops firing on American protesters somewhere in the United States, as a result of the troops becoming so hardened by combat in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Natilo, I would have gone with Douglas MacArthur using tanks to disburse the Bonus Army myself.
Too bad historical awareness blows these days (slacking historians and all). "Bonus Army" would have been a good anti-Wall Street slogan thing.
Yeah, I knew my second link was a strained analogy when I posted it.
Still, you started by implying that something could never happen, when in fact it very famously did happen, and happened during a time that was a lot like ours. I think bob's original point stands.
86:And Bob blames Obama.
Say what? I probably do, but what am I blaming him for?
"Who lost Egypt?" I was mostly saying the the Rightish foreign establishment will blame Obama, as they blamed Carter for Iran, or "x" for the lost of China. Believe it or not, "x", the guy that McCarthy went after, is right on the tip of my tongue.
I have never had any good ideas about managing our client states, other than not having such.
I blame Empire. Let me know when Obama publicly joins me.
I didn't know MacArthur let the terrorists win.
"Disperse", surely? The Bonus Army was hoping for disburse...Gibbs gives the strong impression that there's no support from your side for Mubarak. Aid under review, not talking to the man.
93. OOps. My face is red. I feel shame.
Lattimore mostly, and Service were who I was trying to remember.
I was mostly saying the the Rightish foreign establishment will blame Obama, as they blamed Carter for Iran, or "x" for the lost of China. Believe it or not, "x", the guy that McCarthy went after, is right on the tip of my tongue.
Well, you could say that! (And you're thinking of George C. Marshall.)
I'm now looking for a virtual-radar site with coverage in the area. Obviously no hope there, but if they run towards Europe or the Levant anyone with one in Crete or Cyprus should show it.
has little to say himself about Egypt
So I'll offer a link to my colleague Brian Katulis who's actually knowledgeable about the region and has some tough words about the Obama administration's overall approach to the area:"...the United States should seek to use all of its leverage to achieve progress on core security interests while encouraging pragmatic reform. Otherwise, staying the course in a path dependency on current U.S. policy could lead to greater instability."
Tough words, huh? "Encourage pragmatic reform" This is the radical good guy? Such is Empire.
I think Dean Acheson was also in on "losing China".
Can anyone find anything that substantiates 54?
Well, if the army didn't feel like opening fire they could always import some Louisiana sheriffs. They have no problem with shooting down crowds of unarmed refugees - they'd lay protesters low like corn before the reaper.
Egyptian soldiers friendly with demonstrators
see 20:38
100:I think it is mostly tweets, or whatever.
And the facts that the most recent videos and reports show protesters still on the streets, defiant of the curfew, the police and Security Services mostly missing, and the army tanks and APC's just sitting around watching.
protesters still on the streets, defiant of the curfew... and the army tanks and APC's just sitting around watching
That's the extent of what I've been able to find anywhere, which seems to me to be a few very significant steps short of the military "siding with the demonstrators".
104:Wrong.
AFAIK, the protesters are still burning shit down, and in fact are trying to protect the Cairo museum from destruction. The police and Security, with the military not between, would be shooting, gassing, etc.
IOW, the military is not directly involved, but is enabling the protests by providing passive protection. The police, intelligently are backing down from testing them.
105: Bob's deep and intuitive understanding of the Egyptian people going back to the Old Kingdom allows him to make these assertions with confidence.
Well, let me rephrase comment 100: can anyone find anything that substantiates 105?
I think it is mostly tweets
Anything from Tweetankhamun?
Could this really be true ?
Could this really be true ?
Any anonymously sourced story in the Telegraph is presumptively false until independently verified. Doubley so for stories about the Middle East. Triply so for stories involving alleged leaks regarding U.S. intelligence services or covert activity. Quadruply so for stories sourced as "The Telegraph has learned".
Who gives a shit what Ilegyass thinks? I can't think of anyone who is less likely to say anything interesting.
Anyway, Mubarak finally, four hours late, gave his speech. Loads of pointless guff, promised to change stuff, tried to take credit for the revolution(!), whined about damage to public property, and eventually announced that he'd just fired the entire government including the minister of defence-cum-chairman of joint chiefs of staff.
Al-Jazeera is showing people pouring back into the streets - like a John Ford flick. Lions after slumber, unvanquishable number, oh yeah.
112:Yggles linked to a supposed expert, Brian Katulis
and Here pdf
The diplospeak is pretty thick.
Apparently the police have vanished since the military turned up. Bob's 105 is entirely accurate as far as I know.
They eventually managed to find two fire engines. I wonder if they're regular firefighters or volunteers - in Northern Ireland in '69 a big problem was that being a fireman was a pork barrel job given to Protestants. When things kicked off they either wouldn't turn out for the wrong side, or else feared that The Day had arrived and didn't turn out at all.
Republicans already bringing up the Shah of Iran & Carter.
Given the history of American involvement in Iran, that's one of many things Republicans would do well to STFU about.
(Link removed) is the FDL link to Mubarek's statement which might include an embedded link to Aljazerra's live English coverage. There are problems anymore determining what is live on your screen and what is tape, which is another reason I don't watch tv.
FDL commenters:"Mubarack Hussein Obama."
"Sounded like an Obama speech."
"How much has Obama been offering the generals to support Mubarek?" (Egypt generals in DC exchanging crowd control or interrogation methods or sumpin)
My people.
one of many things Republicans would do well to STFU about
I'm wondering if there's anything at all that's not on this list?
106: Oh man I'd forgotten how awesome that Old Kingdom Egypt thread was. "Egypt had squirrels, but not in a way we can understand anymore. They lived and breathed squirrels, yet this was not a squirrelocracy."
117: That did occur to me, but I was feeling generous.
Back on the minor accomplishment front, I just got done grading the discussion board for my ethics classes. Glad to have that out of my hair.
Have you heard the latest Mubarak joke? Mubarak just told it on Nile TV.
Klasse.
"How much has Obama been offering the generals to support Mubarek?"
Well, he's threatened to take the money all presidents back to Carter gives them away. Does that help?
118:Halford the corporate lawyer, putting something in quotes that I did not say. Would there be California judges interested in this regular practice of Halfords? Perhaps his firm or partners? Should depositions be rechecked?
118: He was quoting Gonerill, mate.
Halford, as long as I have been on the Internet, that is a cardinal sin. You cut, paste, italicize, link. You do not make up shit and put it in quotes.
That is as bad a practice as there is in blog conversations.
123:And so he was. A partial apology, Halford should still have followed best practice, including attribution, to avoid confusion.
Wait, Halford quoted Gonerill without attribution? Is that a violation of copyright? I'm soooo telling Mickey Mouse.
Did I say anything that even implied that I was quoting you, Bob? What I said was "Oh man I'd forgotten how awesome that Old Kingdom Egypt thread was." and then quoted Goneril without attribution as a means of demonstrating the awesomeness of the thread.
Anyhow, you should be flattered that you inspire such excellent parody, Bob, it is an indication of your particular and unique genius.
Is that a violation of copyright?
No.
I know we're never supposed to respond, but the TOS's comments implying that I have local judges in my pocket, a "benz," "fancy guinea suits" and "cheap floozies found off some sepulveda streetlamp after an afternoon of facial work" is seriously the most flattery I've received in like a year, even if all totally untrue, and I'm feeling in need of some self-affirmation so I'm going to treasure those comments.
For a second there, I was really regretting missing the party.
130: That is mostly awesome praise. I hope the pockets large enough to hold judges are in the fancy guina suits, whatever thosr are. Stylin'!
Yrs in flooziness,
"How much has Obama been offering the generals to support Mubarek?"
Silly, Obama isn't paying the generals, George Soros is. Everyinternet nutballone knows that.
Halford, as long as I have been on the Internet, that is a cardinal sin. You cut, paste, italicize, link.
Yeah. Aren't you aware of all internet traditions, Halford?
With all the talk of neti pots around here, the blog should really be renamed Unclogged. (Then next time unf showed up in comments he'd have to be uncl.)
This guy's blog is impossibly fantastic.
It seems even the jackals are wolves in Egypt. I'm sure that's profoundly symbolic.
To the OP: While opening a bottle of sparkling wine last night I pulled the whole top of the bottle off. I guess the working out has been working.
Angry Arab is pessimistic about Egypt. I don't think I ever used the words "siding with the demonstrators" and the army moving into the streets between the cops and people is also moving into positions. But, and I won't link to the standard sources, there is friendliness reported;this is a conscript army at the bottom level (as opposed to our own); and the army has never, at least for generations, fired on their own people.
John Quiggin has a IR think piece about the future of ME democracy. A nice comment in the thread at #3 by John Passant:"This looks to me like the first stage in the bourgeois democratic revolution but the bourgeoisie is historically too afraid to push it for fear of real revolution" short and worth reading.
But to a large degree this is about food (esp wheat), and partly a consequence of the drought in Russia and the floods in Australia. I have always said that long befoe Peak Oil and AGW have horrific consequences and generations before we could find solutions the political consequences of scarcity will send the world up in smoke. I call for Revolution because I don't think there is any alternative, and the process liberals will only watch it happen anyway, mouth agape in irrelevancy and obstructionism.
Kuwait gives each citizen $4000 (3500 + holidays) a month for the next 14 months.
It is expected that merchants will exploit the grant by raising their prices. Food prices have been skyrocketing the past few months. On average food prices rose 12.3 percent, but some products had increased in price by more than one third. Several MP's called on the government to take adequate measures to prevent further escalation of food prices.
Also Algeria. I don't know if this is especially bad in the ME, or global. And I don't know if or when it will show up in the US.
the process liberals will only watch it happen anyway, mouth agape
this post by Tim Bu/rke is perhaps a bit of evidence for a modified sorrow-not-anger version of Bob's claim.
I find myself largely sharing Bu/rke's sentiments, though I think he's wrong about 'nobody has a better idea.' It's true that people don't agree about a better idea, but that's a very different claim.
Are we inclined to believe a word of this? Are we fuck!
144:Sure. The CIA etc has always tossed money around, if only to get contacts and sources within all factions and parties. I don't think it means much. Sometimes we get the Shah, sometimes we get the Ayatollah. (And I wouldn't be surprised if Khomeini hadn't gotten a few bucks in Paris)
143:Pretty good by Burke, but as usual, my first impression is nostalgia for the system and ideology rather than concern for the people ppf
...nowhere does anyone have a comprehensive, potentially sharable, plausibly global vision of the political order, what we should be governed by (or how we ourselves ought to govern), of how to secure the parts of modernity that so many people in so many parts of the world have found desirable....This is religion.
"Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani?"
Why is it that whatever that happens in the world is about the US, its policies and its agencies?
146:Because we (and our clients, and MNCs) are fucking Empire.
As Lenin pointed out bourgeois demcoracy is the most effective system for Capital in ensuring Capital Accumulation, which is why once it has established it it is loathe to let go of it. But, in countries which have not yet, or have only recently gone through a process of industrialisation, the old political regimes exist as a legacy. In condiitons as Trotsky points out in relation to Mexico,where the domestic bourgeoisie is weak Bonapartist regimes or military juntas are able to arise. Where these regimes look to support from a powerful foreign Capital they act to repress the workers, but where, for example as in Venezuela they act in the interests of a section of the domestic bourgeoisie, they tend to rely on the support of workers as a bolster against foreign Capital. Tunisia and Egypt fall into the former category.
It's about labor arbitrage.
The real problem with countries like Egypt is not their leaders (although some are relatively good or bad) but their whole society. Exchanging one set of leaders for another is not likely to change anything fundamental.
Al-Jazz - "6:04pm President Mubarak's two sons, Gamal and Aala, have reportedly arrived in London."
Endgame?
The real problem with countries like Egypt is not their leaders (although some are relatively good or bad) but their whole societyruling class. Exchanging one set of leaders for another is not likely to change anything fundamental.
150 seems a propos. Latest reports say the Cairo bourgeoisie are trying to barricade their suburbs against the fear of looters.
Are we fuck!
Well, I am made of pure fuck, but I don't know what to make of The Telegraph's story.
150 151
Their current ruling class is representative of their whole society, probably marginally better if anything.
147: or because you happen to live in the West and or so mad at it that you make everything about it.
For Tim Burke:
Kotsko links to a rough draft translation of Badiou Of Ideology
One could object that bourgeois ideology, too, founds itself on practice (exploitation and oppression), which it serves to perpetuate. As for cloaking the interests of the class it legitimizes behind the veil of the universal, well, that happens to be a particular speciality of the exploiters' philosophy. In any case, (political) bourgeois ideology, even when it is liberal, is usually quite transparent. The way in which it defends property, free enterprise and parliamentarianism [14]against 'totalitarian collectivism' and 'single party dictatorship' is about as brazen as it gets
154:Look, the Egyptians understand Empire, did you notice the kid on the street pointing out "Made In America" on the tear gas canister? And it goes to the textile factory in Suez that was importing cheaper Asian workers, and the speculation and agribusiness practices (Is Egypt growing cotton instead of grain?) that made food unaffordable.
Recognizing Empire is the first necessary step.
Al-Jazz - 6:50pm As protesters continue to defy curfew, a bystander in Cairo tells Al Jazeera that there are no police left in the capital. Formerly omnipresent traffic police are nowhere to be found. Reports suggest that private property is being seized in locations throughout Egypt.
146 gets it right, though I believe the canoncical forumulation (I think originally from Dsquared) is "You're so vain, you probably think this war is about you."
159:Bahh, liberals shipping bullets and tanks to Mubarek and then saying what happens in Egypt is none of their business.
It's not vanity, it's about fucking responsibility.
Friend's facebook comment: "Mubarak: turn back on the porn sites. Just the porn sites. Just a Hail Mary concept."
I actually agree that given the size and scope of the military aid to Egypt that this one is "about" the US in a way that many foreign political crises are not.
Cargill ...Minnetonka, Minnesota
Cargill to Build Sugar Refinery in Egypt
You/We don't have an option to be uninvolved, or to stand above in some kind of morally superior empathy.
We are to blame. Empire are US
Minnesota is to blame. Fuck those guys. I just want to offer Egypt sexy, copyrighted entertainment pablum.
You know, I shouldn't have to explain how the world works to people like guido nius, why Obama is all conflicted and confused
1) Cargill made its deals with Mubarek's people, not the peasants or the workers or the Muslim Brotherhood.
2) Minnesota will be a swing state in 2012
3) Cargill has plenty of money to give to campaigns.
This is for all those who think it is about democracy or Israel. Fucking neo-cons are about distraction, as are the liberals.
Bob, is there more to Cargill in Egypt than a single $70 million dollar plant? Because that doesn't seem like very much in comparison to Egypt's economy, Minnesota's economy, Cargill's operations, or U.S. election spending.
164: Plus the need to firewall this shit before it impacts Dubai SUPERBUNKERS!
166: Prince Namor-like underwater cities or nothing, Stormcrow.
It's even worse than we thought. Cargill's agent for Middle East sugar is... Osama.
168: From the profile:
"Current Position: White Sugar Trader in Geneva handling Middle East customers"
Ah, white sugar how come you taste so good.
For what it's worth, the document the Telegraph links to appears to be real, or at least as real as other Wikileaks-revealed cables.
I think I'm friends with you guys, but I'm in da Nile. Get it? You know, like, Egypt? No, seriously, please be my friend.
Cargill in Egypt or at least what came up as the first google result, which you could have done yourself, but didn't because...never mind.
Cargill Puts Mosaic in Play as the 3rd result. I ain't building you an interlocking org chart.
And of course, even just specific to Cargill will be financiers, brokers, traders, contractors, etc. Not to mention the way Washington DC works, well, hell, Michelle or Rahm or Daley are on a lot of boards
And Cargill just one among numberless MNCs.
And the point being that whatever Obama does, the desire or need for a gov't or transition friendly to Cargill & MNCs would be so automatic as to not rise to the level of consciousness. But it would be conscious for someone around Obama. Nervous phonecalls have been made.
Hell, Halford at 163 got it quickly enough.
172: Holy Buckminster Fuller, Batman! Are you saying that below the surface of standard international politics there is a loose network of allied political and moneyed interests that transcends national boundaries and which works to promote the interests of its members even when those interests conflict with the both the interests of the vast bulk of citizens and the public positions of the political parties and leaders that are involved? And it even extends to the US Democratic Party?
Hell, Halford at 163 got it quickly enough.
I guess that's why he's the king of the sepulveda facial scene.
Excellent long review of David Harvey, the geographer of Capitalist Crisis, by Benjamin Kunkel, via Yggles.
Is Egypt in there? Sure
The incorporation into the capitalist domain of non-capitalist territories and populations, the privatisation of public or commonly owned assets, including land, and so on, down to the commodification of indigenous art-forms and the patenting of seeds, offer instances of the accumulation by dispossession that has accompanied capitalism since its inception. This field for gain would be exhausted only with universal commodification, when 'every person in every nook and cranny of the world is caught within the orbit of capital.' Even then, the continuous 'restructuring of the space economy of capitalism on a global scale still holds out the prospect for a restoration of equilibrium through a reorganisation of the regional parts'. Spatial fixes and switching crises might succeed one another endlessly, in great floods and droughts of capital. Devaluation, being 'always on a particular route or at a particular place', might serially scourge the earth even as capital in general, loyal to no country, remained free to pursue its own advantage.
This is horribly elitist of me, I know, but while I'm interested in Harvey, why should I care what Kunkel thinks of his work?
This isn't a minor accomplishment of little value, but I am, as of now, 98% packed for my move to a new apartment tomorrow.
175:You are not the reader I was linking for, unless like me, you are a fan of secondary and support work.
Who cares what the elephant really looks like, the blind men were the discourse and were what counted.
174 was presumably to me. And given that there are other countries with more resources that could be acquired at less risk, I still think ignoring social and political factors (both domestically in both places and regional/international concerns) is not going to work very well toward understanding the situation.
178:174 was presumably to me.
Nope. 172 was.
174 is just reading and reading and thinking and dropping a link somewhere, all about revolution
Moreover, it is not clear that these procedural, legal changes would actually have the slightest impact on poverty or class stratification. In fact, the US, among the world's most vibrant democracies, has been spiralling down into epic inequality, with masses of unemployed and poverty-stricken while the tiny class of super-rich at the top has seen its wealth quadruple.