The people’s flag is palest pink...
And our fundraiser in the park has been postponed due to impending thunderstorms. :(
I managed to f*** off to the pub before the speeches!The people’s flag is palest pink...
;)
Hah the only protest I turned up to at uni was one that the student union put on kegs.
I have been to a lot more since I became a "Chardonnay Socialist" as my conservative friend has labeled me. I prefer "Chai Latte Fabian"....
I managed to f*** off to the pub before the speeches!The people’s flag is palest pink...
;)
It waves above this round of drinks...
And 'ere we finish up this round...
Didn't hear any thunder, but there was quite a bit of rain.
Anyway, tomorrow morning, Pack the Courts for Devante Degree! (local kid who's mom is LBW-CW) and, in the evening, candlelight vigil for Charleston. Following day meeting with Boston comrades to go over our disagreements about [redacted redacted redacted] and Friday, Let the Fire Burn film showing.
Ona Move!
Vive le Galt!
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And 'ere we finish up this round...
Err... We'll urinate on Ezra Pound?
I came out as a Commie to PFPL today. She didn't seem to mind.
Kinda wonder if the whole Taylor Swift vs Apple thing shouldn't go here. Pay the workers a fair wage and all that. Of course, I'm more of a reformist socialist. :p
And 'ere we finish up this round...Err... We'll urinate on Ezra Pound?
I came out as a Commie to PFPL today. She didn't seem to mind.
Huzzah!
And take that, you fascist!
Not necessarily in that order.
Well, looks like I can still post here thus far. Might change after the Left Coast gets up, though...
Anyway, tomorrow morning, Pack the Courts for Devante Degree! (local kid who's mom is LBW-CW) and, in the evening, candlelight vigil for Charleston....
Not much of a case, I know, but you gotta start somewhere.
Candlelight vigil went pretty well, too. Sold the Nigerian Princess a Spart pamphlet and the Unitarian Universalist pastor said a "Prayer for CAJE"!
We're comin' up in the world!
Kinda wonder if the whole Taylor Swift vs Apple thing shouldn't go here. Pay the workers a fair wage and all that. Of course, I'm more of a reformist socialist. :p
Is that a worker fighting for a fair wage or a rich person being greedy? It's so hard to tell these days.
Yay! I figured out how to post again! Technical difficulties won't keep me out, Paizo!
You/can't/stop the revolution!
More Fun with Love and Stuff
So, essentially, La Principessa has been depressed since she lost her election. She was okay for the five days I was down there, but as soon as I left, she just kept running into crisis after crisis, and fell apart at each of them. But I thought she was making progress, because, you know, at least she wasn't being mean to me. Woo hoo!
That changed last night, though.
Well, there's only so much of this a goblin--even one in love--can take, you know? I've come to terms with the fact that depressives are, by nature, self-absorbed narcissists, and she only remembers to ask about how my life is going once or twice a week, while I have to listen to the minutiae of every step in the United Federation of Teachers grievance procedures, and then she accuses me of not listening?
So, I flared up a bit. She flared up even more. "Oh, well, maybe I'll talk to you when you're less pissy." "Oh, I'm the one who's pissy?" Etc., etc., etc. until I hung up on her.
Which started the dreaded barrage of La Principessa texts.
Now, I know I'm supposed to not engage and reassure and not return tit for tat, but, you know me, and the urge to bait is strong and sometimes I have to give in or else I'll go crazy. For your delectation, the texts:
LP: Just so you know, if i wanted to talk to myself, I could do it without calling you.
DJdD: What, you want to fight?
LP: No, but could you maybe make the tiniest effort to interact with me? Maybe signal me you're listening at all?
DJdD: Like when I asked what 310 was? Or who Laurie was? Or after you jumped from this morning to laurie as a witness to angela's letter and i asked a question and you got exasperated?
LP: More like when you forgot I'm spending my days around people who all think I'm a horrible psycho.
DJdD: I don't know what that means
LP: Whatever, I got to group [therapy] and was locked out and no one would come to the door so I left. Just leave me alone.
DJdD: You started this. You leave me alone.
[I think she composed the next one underground before she saw my response]
LP: Hope is completely pointless, as is trust. The world is ugly and I really don't see the point anymore. Just let me have some peace. I'm never going to get better and it will eventually just drive you insane. And make you cold. That's what I do.
LP: Fine. No problem at all.
DJdD: What are you talking about? Oh, that's right you want me to leave you alone, that's why you keep texting me.
LP: Wow. See, you're already a heartless bastard. That didn't take long.
DJdD: Yup, you really want to be left alone.
LP: Yeah, I f!!#ing do. But I'm glad you're enjoying ridiculing me.
DJdD: I'm a heartless bastard, remember?
LP: F%~~ YOU.
DJdD: You did this.
LP: Blocking you on my phone. F&@@ you. I hope everyone I know does [sic] in a massive fire, including you.
DJdD: Well, i know how important getting the last word is to you. Block away.
I conferred a bit with Mr. Comrade and the Nigerian Princess, who were over for the second half of it, trying to get me to come out and do fun stuff with them. I told them I wouldn't be good company and was just going to sit in the dark and seethe until she came around. Mr. Comrade smoked me up and then I felt better and then they left and then I watched American Hustle, which wasn't very good, I thought, but some aspects of Jennifer Lawrence's character kept reminding me of La Principessa, and then I went to bed.
Woke up this morning to find that she had sent me an e-mail at midnight saying she was sorry and that blocking me was her sick way of protecting me from her and that she was never going to get better and I deserved someone better than her. So I wrote back asking if that meant she didn't want me to die in a massive fire after all and then she called me and then I made her laugh by telling her that the reason there was an ASPCA vehicle in her usual parking spot was that her Lab had ratted her out because she wasn't getting taken to the park often enough, further extrapolated a tale about an Underground Railroad of neglected dogs throughout Brooklyn and, run, baby, run, they're coming for you!
"Ha ha ha! Oh, baby, I love you...."
I know it's probably stereotypically narcissistically male, but I think she needs to have sex with me more often. Thankfully, today's the last day of school and she's got two months off.
Oh yeah, and, Let the Fire Burn film showing tonight. I was supposed to prepare my introductory comments and leading-the-discussion-afterwards points last night, but I was too busy seething in the dark. Better get to work...
More Fun with Love and Stuff
I'm probably the last being on earth that anyone wants to take girl advice from, but for what it's worth:
No, no, no, she's a good, sweet girl.
She just gets sad and angry sometimes.
Besides, there's three and a half more seasons of Game of Thrones I've gotta watch.
Also, I've noticed that more women have been flirting with me ever since I met La Principessa. I'm sure there's a scientific explanation.
For example, beautiful mixed-race South African fashion designer who came to the Let the Fire Burn screening and with whom the Nigerian Princess instantly bonded over being hawt African chicks and having sexy accents.
Turns out her name is Antoinette. Dare I call her the Coloured Princess?
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That's the first time I've heard Sid Ifrrrican accents described as sexy. Still, in certain circumstances, of course they would be :)
Also, Steven Z K Brust has been described as a Trotskyite sympathiser, and having read 'Teckla', I can see why. First fantasy novel I've read where the good guys win (in part. Small part.) by selling Revolutionary papers to people...
Also, apropos of nothing, wouldn't you love to be in Zoltan's Phoenix Guard? I surely would.
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What's your stock rebuttal to the whole "communism doesn't work and capitalism is freedom etc etc" standard line of argument - and what about the even bigger elephant in the room, the problem of words like "socialism/communism/capitalism/government/freedom" having entirely different meanings depending on who's saying them, thus making coherent pro V con arguments all but impossible?
The Sid Iffrican accent is about as sexy as being interrogated by the gestapo. As a Stryne (Australian) our accent is terrible as well, if you want a good laugh ask a kiwi to say I saw six sheep sailing ships in the paddock eating fish and chips wearing jandles eating from a chilli bin.
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Huzzah! Comrade Gersen mentioned that to me before, but I haven't found all the Brust books I've been picking up to see if I have them all in order.
As for the Coloured Princess, well, I am no expert in accents or nothin', but she sounded a lot posher than those dudes in Lethal Weapon 2. Maybe she studied in ol' Blighty? Regardless, it was, indeed, sexy.
Comrade Closet, that's a big long question that I may or may not come back to depending on my mood.
And all you reformists, Chardonnay socialists and Democratic Party hacks will be pleased to hear that party discipline required that I go to a Bernie Sanders appearance at Nashua Community College. [Shakes fist]
But while my Boston comrades were saying "We agree with a lot of what Bernie says, we just think he should run an independent campaign" I was saying "Join the fight against racist cop terror!" Oh yeah, and wearing my Lenin t-shirt.
There was some murmurs about me being an ultraleft, but f#$+ 'em.
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We need the ultra left to stop us veering to the right.... The right has infested Australian Labor and killed the party. I can't vote for them anymore, the greens and the socialist alliance get my vote.
What's your stock rebuttal to the whole "communism doesn't work and capitalism is freedom etc etc" standard line of argument - and what about the even bigger elephant in the room, the problem of words like "socialism/communism/capitalism/government/freedom" having entirely different meanings depending on who's saying them, thus making coherent pro V con arguments all but impossible?
Try breaking things down and discussing, concretely, what makes capitalism work and how much freedom we really have within it?
Getting as far away as possible from words such as those you mentioned with a lot of emotional baggage might help, though it does make the discussion slightly trickier.
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You might appreciate this anecdote from today: My mother dragged me to Sam's Club today. At the checkout counter, the cashier noticed my stone face and asked what was wrong. I told her I didn't approve of shopping at outlets of the Walton Empire. She responded that some of her close relatives felt similarly, but she clearly didn't quite get the reasons why; she said she'd heard something about kids in other countries. My mother tried to hush me, but the cashier pressed the issue since she saw I had more to say. Before we wrapped up and left, I managed to explain to her about how the Walton business model was the mirror opposite of the Fordist business model that led to the United States briefly becoming the envy of the world in most regards. Ford says "I make fancy s*@+, so I need to pay my employees generously if I want them to buy my product," whereas Walton says "I'm all about having the lowest prices around, so I pay my employees as poorly as I can so they have no choice but to shop with me." She was receptive all the way through.
I'm sure you have better activist stories, but for an amateur effort, it was great to be able to inform an ignorant but open mind for a change (as opposed to the living Hell of being forced to endlessly relive past arguments with inconceivable idiots that only happened to me because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time) - and right in the middle of the Death Star, no less!
I managed to explain to her about how the Walton business model was the mirror opposite of the Fordist business model that led to the United States briefly becoming the envy of the world in most regards. Ford says "I make fancy s**&, so I need to pay my employees generously if I want them to buy my product," whereas Walton says "I'm all about having the lowest prices around, so I pay my employees as poorly as I can so they have no choice but to shop with me." She was receptive all the way through.
nice
From such a spark, Comrade Closet, conflagrations will grow!
I'm on vacation and the only revolutionary activity that I have been up to has been keeping La Principessa satisfied.
More rewarding than selling socialist newspapers, lemme tell you.
Just like the founder of the German Society of Proletarian Sexual Politics, you're 'founding a genital utopia'. Possibly.
For a bit of weekend ... fun? ...
Whatever, here's the website of the man himself - the Wilheim Reich Trust
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I guess there's something to be said for the economics classes I took; that's where I learned that. Granted, my teacher was a critical thinker rather than a hierophant. I've come to the conclusion, between that and the semester of economics I took in high school, that economics simply isn't a science, not even a "soft" one. At best, it's a mere subtopic of history, a river that has some consistent eddies and currents, but you can never quite step in twice; at worst, it's a religion. Of course, a better way to say it around here is that it's like D&D; it's a game where the rules are whatever you want them to be.
I should also note that my mother isn't unsympathetic or disinterested in socialism (far, FAR from it, in fact, since she's spent so much of her career in the various "make the world a better place" fields, especially teaching - she's very Mahayana); she's just kind of breezy about it in some ways, rather than being into the very taxing practice of orienting one's life around it and acting on principle at every turn. My family and I are very much "Chardonnay socialists," I guess (I kind of like the term "petty bourgeois liberal," as Stalin described some of the cooler initiatives from the early USSR that he put the kibosh on). She approved of what I did after the fact since it went over so well, and she did mention to me that she saw Dixie Cups while shopping in there and took the time to give them a nasty look. :3
The Defiant One: Why You Should Know Civil Rights Icon Gloria Richardson
I had never heard of her until a trip to Brooklyn a couple months ago when La Principessa's Single Mother Comrade told me about her while telling me about a book she was reading.
When I saw Pamela Judy Richardson (no relation, I'm assuming the article says) and Charles Cobb not too long ago, they brought her up, too.
Just like the founder of the German Society of Proletarian Sexual Politics, you're 'founding a genital utopia'. Possibly.
For a bit of weekend ... fun? ...
Whatever, here's the website of the man himself - the Wilheim Reich Trust
Nothing to do with socialism, but some bedtime reading on La Principessa's part led to my discovery of
who was driven to suicide by state persecution for giving sex advice to turn of the last century Americans based upon her experiences making love with an angel.
Stupid typos--it's "Ida."
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Hadn't seen this photo from the Charles Cobb and Judy Richardson event until now. Kinda like it.
Man, I hang out with good-looking people.
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Hadn't seen this photo from the Charles Cobb and Judy Richardson event until now. Kinda like it.
Man, I hang out with good-looking people.
Somebody warn those beautiful people that there is a horrifying hairy humanoid sneaking up behind them!
Brust is a lot of fun. I don't think he's 'Trotsky-leaning', though, I think he's just a flat out out Trotskyite/ist.
Horrifying? [Pouts]
Well, I'm back in the Granite State.
Went to a public meeting in Queens before I left. It had been called to celebrate the "Oxi!" vote in Greece but, of course, the whole tenor of the event changed after Tsipras stabbed the Hellenic working masses in the back and confirmed my ultraleft, sectarian opinion that the KKE, with all of their attendant problems, were right all along.
Also couldn't believe my ears when the speaker averred that even the Bolsheviks had offered Citizen K(e)rensky's namesake "critical support" in the face of the Kornilov coup.
No, they f+%%ing didn't!
I'm gonna go look up which brand of ultraleft sectarian Trotskyism Comrade Brust subscribes(ed?) to.
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Didn't see that coming.
Tenth anniversary obituary for Steven Brust's mother
Letter affirming Comrade Brust's allegiance to the World Socialist Website
[Sectarian grumbling]
Well, I'm back in the Granite State.
this is excellent news!
I'm just like Anklebiter. Except bigger, blacker, and not communist. A win-win, methinks!
The goblin's reach is long, beware beware.
Where's all the wholesome Tankie sword & sorcery, eh?
Is the world ready for Stalin the Barbarian?
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Marxist General: "Doodlebug! What is best in life?"
Doodlebug the Barbarian: "Crush the bourgeoisie. Establish the common ownership of the means and products of labor. Hear the lamentations of their classists."
Marxist General: "That is good! That is good."
Marxist General and Doodlebug:
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Also couldn't believe my ears when the speaker averred that even the Bolsheviks had offered Citizen K(e)rensky's namesake "critical support" in the face of the Kornilov coup.No, they f!~&ing didn't!
Really? Based on my extensive[1] research, the Bolsheviks helped interdict troops movements and were given back weapons in case Kornilov managed to get troops to Petrograd. Is that not true, or do you not consider that 'support'?
1) I spent three minutes reading the wiki page.
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An American Healyite?!?
Didn't see that coming.[Sectarian grumbling]
Wait, so... What? How can you tell? Is there something wrong with liking WSWS? (Besides the whole 'enemy of civilization thing')
Are they Pabloites? Are you a Spartacist? What is a Healyite? I swear I googled this before asking you.
Was Pablo trying to dilute Troskyism into nothingness, or was he trying to infiltrate and take over mainstream communism?
Most importantly, am I at risk of being purged for liking Brust?
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I don't even like Cheetos.
Also couldn't believe my ears when the speaker averred that even the Bolsheviks had offered Citizen K(e)rensky's namesake "critical support" in the face of the Kornilov coup.No, they f!~&ing didn't!
Really? Based on my extensive[1] research, the Bolsheviks helped interdict troops movements and were given back weapons in case Kornilov managed to get troops to Petrograd. Is that not true, or do you not consider that 'support'?
1) I spent three minutes reading the wiki page.
The Bolsheviks crushed the Kornilov coup and very promptly overthrew Citizen K(e)rensky's namesake's government thereafter.
In arcane Marxist jargon, that would constitute "military support" not "critical support." "Critical support" is when you call for voting for someone even though you think know they are a reformist sellout traitor-in-waiting. Like Alexis Tsipras. The most famous example in ultraleft sectarian circles is when Lenin advised the fledgling Britishiznoid Communists to make an electoral alliance with the Britishiznoid Labour Party. I won't go into the details (see: "Left-Wing Communism": An Infantile Disorder and the legendary tagline that critical support should be like a rope supporting a hanging man, etc.).
'Tis true, it might sound like splitting hairs to the uninitiated, but the speaker was a founding member of the group I am currently a member of, has been involved in quasi-Trotskyist politics his entire political life and should f%@@ing know better. I asked another comrade later if maybe it was an English-as-a-second-language issue, but she said "no, he should f~@&ing know better."
Anyway, I'm not going to go through the various brands of ultraleft sectarian Trotskyism. Suffice to say, though, that the Healyites have an even more disagreeable reputation than the rest of us combined, even the Sparts, whom, to answer your question, I haven't been a member of in over 15 years, but I still annoy my current comrades by posting their pamphlets and articles on my Facebook page. Actually, come to think of it, I think we had a conversation a couple of years ago, Usagi-san, in which you looked up Comrade Healy and were like "shiznit, that guy was a freak!" Because he was.
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Well, I'm back in the Granite State.
this is excellent news!
I'm just like Anklebiter. Except bigger, blacker, and not communist. A win-win, methinks!
La Principessa is a communist activist of eight-years standing. Bigger, blacker, and if successful, beardier may all win you points in her favor, but she likes her men red.
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Speaking of 15 years, Comrade Omar sent me a story that was shared with him by a former rep for the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers, who don't exist anymore. They merged with the United Steel Workers who led the successful (? I actually forget now) oil strike this past year:
So this steelworkers rep who used to be a ocaw rep tells me Dow closed down a plant in 98. They left a 7 man decommissioning crew. They forgot about them. They kept getting pay and raises until just last year when they brought someone by to survey the property they were selling and Dow realized they were still there. Said for 15 years they came in at 8am walked around the building a couple times, ate and watched TV then went home.
U-nion! U-nion! U-nion!
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even the Sparts, whom, to answer your question, I haven't been a member of in over 15 years, but I still annoy my current comrades by posting their pamphlets and articles on my Facebook page.
For example (even though this isn't Facebook), in honor of today's Google picture: