Posts by Joe Wylie
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: The Big 2012 US Election PAS Thread, in reply to Russell Brown,
"advances in health care, gay marriage, tax equitability or drug law reform" -- all of them to some degree the fruit of citizen activism over years -- are "trade-offs".
They're only trade-offs if they're accepted as such. I believe we'd be a lot better off today in NZ if a section of the supposedly progressive left hadn't treated the anti-nuclear legislation as a reason to accept the social inequities created by Rogernomics. It happened, and it's a major reason for the malaise in today's Labour Party.
Given that Romney's foreign policy stance seemed relatively similar to Obama's, just worse (especially on military spending), what was the alternative to the trade-off? Informing everyone else they're being "pathetically grateful" just seemed patronising in the circumstances.
If being concerned that we lose sight of the kind of goals that Obama once appeared to stand for is patronising, then guilty as charged. That certainly wasn't my intention though. Just because the world economy seems as firmly welded as ever to military spending and war doesn't mean that we can't continue to oppose it.
-
Hard News: The Big 2012 US Election PAS Thread, in reply to Russell Brown,
The “Obama doctrine” still treasures the projection of force, still endorses American exceptionalism, but it’s not actually insane – it’s just American foreign policy. I mean, a trade-off compared to what? What was the actual alternative on offer?
Neither party offered an alternative to pursuing the Vietnam war, yet the protests accelerated and arguably hastened its end. You seem to be arguing against any kind of concerned citizen activism beyond involvement with political parties and voting.
-
-
Hard News: The Big 2012 US Election PAS Thread, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
So, may not be much in the grand scheme of world peace but everyone should start somewhere. I give Obama that. it's a big thing over there.
Sofie I appreciate Obama's qualified achievements on a number of issues, but on foreign policy he appears every bit as beholden to vested interests as most hard-line Republicans. I can't accept that advances in health care, gay marriage, tax equitability or drug law reform are acceptable tradeoffs for a perpetual war economy,
-
Hard News: The Big 2012 US Election PAS Thread, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
now if the US can just get Obama to spend waaaay less on wars of all kinds, they may even have a future worth heading towards....
This is the guy who promised to close Gitmo, back when he did Hope and Change and Yes We Can. Now the world appears pathetically grateful that he's not Romney, while he presides over a foreign policy that's pretty much indistinguishable from the Bush years. Obama, master of lowered expectations.
-
Hard News: The Big 2012 US Election PAS Thread, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
I’m not pretending Reagan was a closet liberal, but you really think the Tea Baggers or the theo-cons would have let him out of New Hampshire alive with a record like that?
Someone who has occasionally dropped by these parts to parrot Tea Party talking points was selectively quoting Eisenhower's 1961 farewell address ("military-industrial complex") here a while back. Taken in its entirety it's the kind of message that would have the Fox News polituburo calling for his impeachment if he'd made it today.
-
Hard News: The Big 2012 US Election PAS Thread, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
the Ronald Reagan who actually served as Governor of California
As distinct from the President version, who could never have had a Watergate because nothing so important ever landed on his desk?
-
Hard News: The Big 2012 US Election PAS Thread, in reply to Gareth Ward,
The original: Fighting Bob Evans.
-
Hard News: The Big 2012 US Election PAS Thread, in reply to Gareth Ward,
Teddy Roosevelt
More Roosevelt fun facts :
-
Hard News: Media3: Whistleblower Season, in reply to Steve Barnes,
My point is that the changes in societal mores can cause people to make judgements based on current standards in historical cases to distance themselves from the wrongdoing and in doing so magnify the perceived guilt.
And you make your 'point' in the service of what - as an apologist for abuse and exploitation of the vulnerable by the powerful, as if personal moral codes are some kind of arbitrary nicety?
