There’s a lot of fretting — both well meaning and cynical — out there about whether Sanders can win.
Here’s the deal, people. For the last decade and a half, we’ve been treated to lecture after lecture from on high about how if you want things to change, you have to build from below. Well, that process has been going on for some time.
Unlike purists of the Left and purists of the center (who are the most insufferable purists of all, precisely because they think they’re not), I look at the various fits and starts of the last fifteen years — from Seattle to the Nader campaign to the Iraq War protests to the Dean campaign to the Obama campaign to Occupy to the various student debt campaigns to Black Lives Matter — as part of a continuum, where men and women, young and old, slowly relearn the art of politics.
Whose first rule is: if you want x, shoot for 1,000x, and whose second rule is: it’s not whether you fail (you probably will), but how you fail, whether you and your comrades are still there afterward to pick up the pieces and learn from your mistakes.
Author Archives: Chris
Weekly Digest – January 24, 2016
Must Read
- Andrew Price, Unbiased Streets [See Note 1 below]
- Julie Bosman, Monica Davey and Mitch Smith (NYT), As Water Problems Grew, Officials Belittled Complaints From Flint
- Dean Baker, Paul Krugman, Bernie Sanders and Medicare for All
- Dan Kervick, The Wailing of the Wonks [Ed.: See Note 2 below]
Should Read
- Robert Reich, Six Responses to Bernie’s Skeptics
- Sally Jacobs, As Vermont official, Sanders ‘got things done’
- Chris Dillow, Capitalism vs Markets
- Nathan Proctor, GE And The Rise — And Perils — Of Too Big To Tax [Ed.: background]
- Victor Tan Chen, All Hollowed Out: The lonely poverty of America’s white working class
- Dave Johnson, Government Run Like A Business Led To Lead In Flint’s Water
Thought for the Day
Paul Krugman wrote the other day:
But as Mr. Obama himself found out as soon as he took office, transformational rhetoric isn’t how change happens.
Sure, but name a major political transformation since the start of the 20th century which hasn’t been accompanied by transformational rhetoric.
Chart of the Day
CPI = Consumer Price Index
hrly_wg = Change in hourly wages
hrs = Change in weekly hours worked
rl_wk = Real change in weekly earnings
Mass Aggie Seminars
2016 Spring seminars from the UMass Extension Fruit Program –
| Date | Program (click title or scroll down for seminar description) |
Location (click town for directions) |
Time | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 30, 2016 | Pruning Apple Trees for the Homeowner & Enthusiast – a Hands-on Workshop | Harvard | 10am – 1pm | $50 |
| February 20, 2016 | Growing & Pruning Grapes – a Hands-on Workshop | Belchertown | 10am – 1pm | $50 |
| March 19, 2016 | Apple Tree Grafting – a Hands-on Workshop | Belchertown | 9am – 3pm | $100* |
| March 26, 2016 | Growing & Pruning Blueberries – a Hands-on Workshop | Marshfield/TBD | 10am – 2pm | $50 |
| April 9, 2016 | Orchard Pest Management for the Homeowner & Enthusiast – a Hands-on Workshop | Harvard | 10am – 1pm | $50 |
| April 16, 2016 | Pruning Raspberries & other Brambles – a Hands-on Workshop | Phillipston/Athol | 10am – 12pm | $25 |
| April 23, 2016 | Invasive Plants in Massachusetts – ID & Management | Amherst | 10am – 12pm | $25 |
| April 30, 2016 | The 100-ft, 25-tree, 5-Variety Backyard Apple Orchard Fruiting Wall! – a Hands-on Workshop | North Andover | 10am – 2pm | $100* |
* these workshops are longer and involve additional plant material and supply costs
Thought for the Presidential Election
If people want to tell me that Hillary would be a less horrid option than whatever profound ghastliness the Republicans throw up, I’ll listen to them respectfully. If they try to tell me there’s something inspiring or transformative about her, I’ll have to wonder what planet they’re on.
Weekly Digest – January 17, 2016
Must Read
- Charlie Pierce, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, and the Many Faces of Populism
- Charles Marohn, Easy Choices
- Jim Lynch, Flint [Michigan water] crisis response delayed for months [The officials who knew about the lead contamination and did nothing should spend the rest of their natural lives in prison.]
Should Read
- Eli Rabett, Questions, Bunnies Got Questions
- Rich Yeselson, The Return of the 1920s
- Dean Baker (NYT), A Progressive Way to End Corporate Taxes [I love it!]
- Emily Ann Epstein on Roger May’s Looking at Appalachia
- Rachel Quednau, A Locally-Based Life
Weekly Digest – January 10, 2016
Must Read
- Scott Beauchamp, The Military: An Alternative to the Brutalities of the Modern Economy
- Chris Dillow, On counter-advocacy
- Johnny Sanphillippo, Enough
Should Read
- Margot Sanger-Katz (NYT), Even Insured Can Face Crushing Medical Debt, Study Finds
- Janna Malamud Smith, The Importance Of Public Spaces In A Fractured World
- Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance, Here’s what’s happening in 2016
- Erik Cameron, Preserving Disorder: On Being Held at Gunpoint by Chicago Police
- Tim Egan (NYT), Crackpots in Cowboy Hats, and in Congress
- driftglass, Conservative Farmers Despondent Over Bumper Crop of Conservatism
T.W.I.G. notes – January 4, 2016
Rabbits have been munching on our high bush blueberries. It’s winter. I know they’re hungry but I’m not agreeable to letting them have their way with the bushes:
- Rabbit-B-Gon pellets: Effective but use is not permitted in all jurisdictions. Check your local by-laws!
- Rabbit-B-Gon is not permitted in our neighborhood so we’ve relied on organic rabbit control methods instead. Unfortunately, while it seems to work well during warmer months it’s not effective during the winter so looks like it’s time for some fencing.
I noted some mail order nurseries in the previous post. Stark Brothers is probably better known that any of those – good quality stock and reasonably priced. Stark is big on apples. While I’d love to have a home apple orchard I’ve steered clear because the area is thick with arborvitae. Arborvitae are a host for cedar apple rust. I read somewhere that if you have an apple orchard then you want to clear all hosts for cedar apple rust within a one mile radius. That ain’t gonna happen here.
Weekly Digest – January 3, 2016
Must Read
- Patricia Cohen (NYT), Over 50, Female and Jobless Even as Others Return to Work
- Noam Scheiber and Patricia Cohen (NYT), For the Wealthiest, a Private Tax System That Saves Them Billions [Ed.: Related viewing at Popehat]
Should Read
- Jared Bernstein, Yes, Virginia…there is an aggressive and highly successful anti-tax lobby
- Cathy O’Neil, We could use some tools of social control to use on police
- Tamar Haspel, 10 things we should do to fix our broken food system
- Eli Rabett, Post Normal Policy