Elsewhere (204)
Nicholas Casey on Venezuela’s end-stage socialism:
Hundreds of people here in the city of Cumaná… marched on a supermarket, screaming for food. They forced open a large metal gate and poured inside. They snatched water, flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, potatoes, anything they could find, leaving behind only broken freezers and overturned shelves. They showed that even in a country with the largest oil reserves in the world, it is possible for people to riot because there is not enough food… Economists say years of economic mismanagement… have shattered the food supply. Sugar fields in the country’s agricultural centre lie fallow for lack of fertilisers. Unused machinery rots in shuttered state-owned factories…
In response, President Nicolás Maduro has tightened his grip over the food supply. Using emergency decrees he signed this year, the president put most food distribution in the hands of a group of citizen brigades loyal to leftists, a measure critics say is reminiscent of food rationing in Cuba. “They’re saying, in other words, you get food if you’re my friend, if you’re my sympathizer,” said Roberto Briceño-León, the director of the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, a human rights group.
Readers may recall this video of a Moscow supermarket circa 1990, in which shoppers are clearly both thrilled and morally elevated by the egalitarian retail experience. Taking turns to smell the one piece of grey meat available, and then leaving it where it is, was, I’m assured, a way for the proletariat to celebrate the obvious superiority of socialism.
About a third of the students who go to the farms [for a month of state-mandated rice-planting duty] get out of about half the work because they work as informers for the government.
And Douglas Murray on Europe’s migrant avalanche:
Most of the people coming to Europe who came in the last year are not refugees, they are economic migrants; they are seeking a better life. Now, Europe cannot be the place where everybody in the world who wants to seek a better life is allowed to come and settle. It’s not possible for economic reasons; it’s not possible for geographical reasons; it’s not possible for housing and welfare reasons, and it’s not possible for cultural reasons… How do we know that most of the people who are coming are not even legitimate refugees? We know it because no less a source than the European Commission itself has now told us as much. Earlier this year in an interview, Frans Timmermans, the European Commission Vice President, admitted that in his estimate at least sixty percent of the people who came to Europe last year have no more right to be here than anybody else.
Feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
Taking turns to smell the one piece of grey meat available, and then leaving it where it is, was, I’m assured, a way for the proletariat to celebrate the obvious superiority of socialism.
Capitalist propaganda! I counted at least nine pieces of grey meat to sniff and put back.
I denounce myself.
Vin Scully, Los Angeles Dodgers baseball announcer comments on Venezuelan socialism and provides a cogent analysis of same during a three-pitch at-bat.
In other, shocking news, noted Australian feminist Clementine Ford appears to have double standards.
I sometimes suspect there isn’t quite enough food to go round, as evidenced by poor Islingtoners reduced to having to eat Quinoa, the staple diet of impoverished areas of South America.
I’m waiting for a hot take from Sean Penn or Oliver Stone on current conditions in Venezuela.
The comments are interesting.It’s not the fault of Socialism at all.It’s the fault of Oil or Capitalism or Corporations or Donald Trump or the Republican Party or The Koch Brothers or Space Aliens or something. Apparently.
Hmm. Comment has been eaten. :(((
Comment has been eaten.
Nothing in the spam folder. Please insert coin and try again.
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A bottle cap also works.
About a third of the students who go to the farms [for a month of state-mandated rice-planting duty] get out of about half the work because they work as informers for the government.
There is a very good film from 2006 called The Lives of Others about the Stasi spying on writers and actors in the former East Germany. At the beginning of the film it says that the actual numbers of Stasi were relatively few, but they relied on a network of informers which numbered in the tens of thousands (it might even have been hundreds of thousands). Seconds after I cursed the Germans for being such jack-bastards and deserving of Communist oppression if they were willing to inform on each other in such numbers, I realised that the situation would not be much different in the UK. It doesn’t take much effort to identify which of our contemporary commentators would be quite happy to inform on their fellow citizens in order to curry favour with the authorities and/or ensure their particular brand of politics is advanced and wrongful thoughts punished.
@Tim Newman/
IIRC, towards the very end when the Berlin Wall fell, once secret Stasi documents/records were exposed, it was revealed that approx ONE THIRD of the ENTIRE POPULATION of the GDR were employed by the State in informing on each other–a statistic that boggled even this old (72) world weary cynical mind. (And I’ve got a PhD in IR specializing in European/Russian systems!)
@ virgil xenophon,
There comes a point when such a high percentage of a population is willing to sell out the rest that you kind of just think “to hell with the lot of them”.
There comes a point when such a high percentage of a population is willing to sell out the rest that you kind of just think “to hell with the lot of them”.
Or, as Margaret Thatcher would have put it, the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of people to inform on.
Oh, I dunno, Hedgehog. Solzhenitsyn reckoned they spent a good amount of time spying on each other.
The comments are interesting.It’s not the fault of Socialism at all.It’s the fault of Oil or Capitalism or Corporations or Donald Trump or the Republican Party or The Koch Brothers or Space Aliens or something. Apparently.
That has always amazed me. Every time socialism fails (and it fails every time), there are always leftist idiots (but I repeat myself) who blame capitalism or other external or internal enemies. Even in the case of the USSR, this was a standard talking point on the left. The question that never gets answered is, if socialism is such a superior way to organize a society, how come it can’t defeat these enemies? On one hand, socialism is the way of the future; on the other hand, the retrograde and reactionary system known as capitalism always seems to win the battle. The cognitive dissonance must make leftists’ minds reel.
Solzhenitsyn reckoned they spent a good amount of time spying on each other.
Yes, people will always sell something. In a capitalist or free market system, they will sell their labor or the fruits of their labor. In a system that forbids the selling of their labor, they will sell each other. That’s what the left calls progress.
When identity politics meets anti-social narcissism, part 948.
“…at least sixty percent of the people who came to Europe last year have no more right to be here than anybody else.”
Bit late now, isn’t it?
Soros smiles.
I realised that the situation would not be much different in the UK.
Or the U.S. for that matter. It starts early with school children being asked by teachers to talk about what goes on in the home, i.e. things like smoking or gun ownership, or religious practice or elections, where kids tend to repeat what Mom and Dad say around the dinner table. Under Obamacare and its electronic medical records mandate(s) every pediatrician asks children multiple questions about firearms in the home during those “free” annual physicals. Children are so trusting that they don’t realize the person asking the questions has an ulterior motive. Once the kids learn they are rewarded in some fashion for talking about (informing on) Mom and Dad, the rest becomes easy.
Bit late now, isn’t it?
Simon Schama could not be reached for comment.
I should add to the above, that teachers, school counselors, and medical professionals are defined as “mandatory reporters” for investigating potential child abuse and neglect, where the terms “abuse” and “neglect” have been broadened over the years to include virtually anything the reporter feels is problematic. Thus, if a child tells his teacher or pediatrician that dad as a lot of guns, for example, that information could well wind up in a state data base and lead to a visit from child protection services.
BTW, Das Leben der Anderen is very well done. The subtitles to not do the dialog justice. My spouse shows it to her language classes to disabuse them of the “glories” of living in a socialist state. Another good German film with similar themes is Barbara. It’s worth a spot in one’s Netflix cue.
They voted for poverty and theft,(other people’s poverty caused by their socialist theft), but got poverty for themselves.
No tears from me.
They voted for theft, and now they are going hungry.
By the way, may I mention a “special kind of hell” experienced by some brave and fearless modern women?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/style/bikini-shopping-is-a-special-kind-of-hell—so-heres-how-to-do-i/
And that’s what it’s really about now, isn’t it? Along with the torture of language, natch.
may I mention a “special kind of hell” experienced by some brave and fearless modern women?
It’s strange how articles of this kind sound like they’re written by particularly insecure teenage girls, rather than grown women. I mean, if your “sense of worth” is catastrophically undermined by an advert for a bikini, the problem almost certainly isn’t the advert.
They voted for theft, and now they are going hungry.
Don’t know where you’re calling in from, Stan, but here in the good old US of A we have an erstwhile potential candidate for the presidency, the ineffable Bernie Sanders, who got a sizable portion of the Democratic primary vote by advocating the policies that got Venezuela to where they are, we have an as-yet-unindicted official candidate for the presidency who is leading in the polls and who is apparently seriously considering adding the no less kooky Elizabeth Warren to her ticket, we have a mayor of New York City who is a Sandinista, and we have a not insignificant portion of the population who believes that the failures of socialism are due (see above) to the nefarious influence of capitalism, Big Oil, the Koch brothers, Donald Trump, etc… So we may be only a few votes away from the Venezuela outcome. Of course it can then be said that we deserve it, too, but that won’t be much of a consolation.
Re the special kind of hell experienced by these bikini shoppers: and that’s in the Telegraph, no less. Just imagine what the Guardian could do with this.
R.Sherman,
Ah, mandatory reporters. Yes.
One time after my 7 year old had been hiding in the restroom again at school during class, I had a nice discussion with a 30-something counselor lady about it. (Pricey private school, BTW.) During which I demonstrated my technique for regaining his attention when I was trying to have a serious conversation with him (to the extent such a thing is possible with a 7 year old). Viz: a light tap on the cheekbones with two fingers, which I demonstrated on my own face.
Two days later I got a call from County Child Protective Services about it. Nice counselor lady had reported me as a potential abuser. I related a true account of the incident to the CPS agent, who said my account agreed exactly with Nice Counselor Lady’s. “But you know we have to check up on every report we get.”
So, NFA (no further action).
But my name is On File.
Guess what lessons I learned from this?
It’s strange how articles of this kind sound like they’re written by particularly insecure teenage girls, rather than grown women.
I think there is an insecure teenage girl in most if not all women. There certainly is one inside my wife. The teenage girl in question is a leggy eighteen-year old with an impish sense of humor who gets excited about little things and who doesn’t always seem to fully understand why men are attentive to her.
Believe me, David, there is nothing wrong with an insecure teenage girl inside a grown woman, as long as it’s the right kind of insecure teenage girl.
Kid’s old enough now to have his own kids if he was so minded. Wonder if my guilt will adhere to following generations. Perhaps unto the seventh?
‘Hundreds of migrants shouting “f*** the UK” have stormed the roads in and around Calais and hurled rocks at British motorists in a desperate attempt to reach the UK before Britons decide whether or not to leave the EU.’
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/681614/Calais-migrants-refugees-Britain-UK-EU-referendum-Brexit-Euro-2016
Believe me, David, there is nothing wrong with an insecure teenage girl inside a grown woman, as long as it’s the right kind of insecure teenage girl.
I’ll happily defer to your greater knowledge.
Believe me, David, there is nothing wrong with an insecure teenage girl inside a grown woman, as long as it’s the right kind of insecure teenage girl.
My wife has a mental eight year old inside of her. It makes her a lot of fun to be around, as well as exceptionally annoying.
Hundreds of migrants shouting “f*** the UK” have stormed the roads in and around Calais and hurled rocks at British motorists
Imagine how they’d enrich a neighbourhood near you.
identity politics meets anti-social narcissism
Identity politics is anti-social narcissism.
It makes her a lot of fun to be around, as well as exceptionally annoying.
Undoubtedly. But isn’t that why we marry them in the first place?
That quote isn’t from de Tocqueville, actually. Nor is it from Alexander Tytler, the other person to whom it’s usually attributed. It also doesn’t seem to be true in the general case.
Hundreds of migrants shouting “f*** the UK” have stormed the roads in and around Calais and hurled rocks at British motorists
#FirstImpressions.
as evidenced by poor Islingtoners reduced to having to eat Quinoa, the staple diet of impoverished areas of South America.
Quinoa is more altiplano stuff: Bolivia and Peru. Venezuelans eat AREPAS, pues, thick corn tortillas that you put lots of stuff on (though I like butter and cheese, myself), and in general it’s a Caribbean diet with frijoles y arroz, beef, potatoes, yucca, chicken, etc.
This arepa mix is the staple (besides rice & beans) for Venezuelans.
Solzhenitsyn reckoned they spent a good amount of time spying on each other.
The fastest way to make sure you don’t end up in the gulag is to send someone else there. It’s exactly the same dynamic as calling someone racist to deflect suspicion from yourself.
I’m sure some got immense pleasure from “disappearing” their neighbors: for others it was the easiest way to not get that 3am bang on the door.
Fear and spite: two bottomless pits of human motivation.
Quinoa is more altiplano stuff: Bolivia and Peru. Venezuelans eat AREPAS, pues, thick corn tortillas that you put lots of stuff on (though I like butter and cheese, myself), and in general it’s a Caribbean diet with frijoles y arroz, beef, potatoes, yucca, chicken, etc.
David Thompson’s Blog: Come for the links and commentary; stay for the culinary anthropology. [Insert Smiley Thing Here]
Any woman who is traumatized by the thought of wearing a bikini can wear one of these: http://www.fullbeauty.com/Plus-Size-Swimdresses.aspx?DeptId=20420
or
STFU
One or the other, ladies. The rest of us don’t give a rip about your body image issues.
Fear and spite: two bottomless pits of human motivation.
As if on cue:
For some people, no pettiness is too embarrassing.
For some people, no pettiness is too embarrassing.
There’s no question the suspension is based upon the club’s political viewpoint. As such, it clearly violates the First Amendment, inasmuch as UCI is a state institution. FIRE will file a lawsuit which the university will lose at a cost of multiple thousands of dollars in taxpayer money. These people know this will happen, but that doesn’t concern them. The process is punishment, and they believe that eventually they will win when people stop trying to express something other than the approved orthodoxy. What’s scary is not the suspension of the club, however. Rather, it is the likelihood that the names of the club members have been circulated to faculty for purposes of punishment in class grades and the like outside the review process.
They voted for theft, and now they are going hungry.
They’d have voted the Socialists out long ago if real voting was permitted. However, between actual rigging of the vote and intimidation to ensure no stable opposition can form, they don’t really get a free vote.
There’s no country with a full socialist government for any length of time in a real democracy.
Golly, the world seems to be decaying at a rapidly increasing rate, even more so in leftist societies.
I wonder what would happen if a certain idea was put into practice, namely to treat others as you would want to be treated?
If we can cope with it, here’s Milo Y again. Talking very honestly outdoors in the rain in Alaska (the rain is a nice touch) about the EU referendum, and what it means to him. Sad that we’ve come to this.
The Social Justice Jacobin movement known as Atheism+ has apparently entered its Terror phase. The same people who claimed to see sexists, rapists and misogynists in every shadow and under every bed are turning out to be the very villains they were chasing. I bet you’re as shocked as I am!
Some nice public shaming from the Skepticon SJWs: https://skepticon.org/keeping-skepticon-safe-richard-carrier-to-be-banned/
Check out the ‘about’ page and ‘photo gallery’ to see what you’re missing out on.
Seems to be a lot of pre-judging and uncritical thinking in regards to that skeezy prof though. As I just did then, I suppose. But I never said I was smart like they do.
The Social Justice Jacobin movement known as Atheism+ has apparently entered its Terror phase.
?????!!!?!!????
Oh. Atheism Plus.
There doesn’t seem to be any handy commentary in Wikipedia regarding Atheism Plus, but there is an entertaining entry in Encyclopedia Dramatica . . .
On my first read, all I saw was Atheism, which wasn’t really making sense.—i.e. so what about atheism, it’s just another form of faith that is just like all other faiths.
Heather Mac Donald on Obama’s boosting of the Black Lives Matter movement and the Ferguson effect.
Much more here.
In which pop artiste and TV presenter Lily Allen loses an argument.
Via Julia.
Venezuelans eat AREPAS, pues, thick corn tortillas that you put lots of stuff on (though I like butter and cheese, myself), and in general it’s a Caribbean diet with frijoles y arroz, beef, potatoes, yucca, chicken, etc.
I had these the other day at the home of a Venezuelan mate. They were excellent!
with frijoles y arroz, beef, potatoes, yucca, chicken, etc.
[ Eyes buttered toast, sighs. ]
Dicentra tells me: Quinoa is more altiplano stuff: Bolivia and Peru. Venezuelans eat AREPAS, pues, thick corn tortillas that you put lots of stuff on (though I like butter and cheese, myself), and in general it’s a Caribbean diet with frijoles y arroz, beef, potatoes, yucca, chicken, etc.
This arepa mix is the staple (besides rice & beans) for Venezuelans.
But what about chips? Can you have chips with it? That’s all that matters…
Hundreds of migrants shouting “f*** the UK” have stormed the roads in and around Calais and hurled rocks at British motorists
Unless any paper other than the Express has reported this, I call bullshit.
In fact, given that it’s the Express I’m surprised they didn’t get the migrants to shout “We know where Madeline McCann is!”, and “Princess Di was a tart!”
Just because it is in the Express doesn’t mean it is untrue or didn’t happen. but that’s the way to bet.
Just because it is in the Express doesn’t mean it is untrue or didn’t happen
That’s perfectly true – but as they have form already regarding their fast and loose approach to reporting, I’d rather take it with a pinch of salt and wait for it to be confirmed by at least one other source.
The simplest example of faith is called atheism, the statement made that there is no god or gods or any supernatural forces.
Indeed, which is why I am an Apathetic Agnostic, or Apatheist; “We Don’t Know, and We Don’t Care.”
Futility show proposal . . .
Using emergency decrees he signed this year, the president put most food distribution in the hands of a group of citizen brigades loyal to leftists,
Seems familiar…Oh yes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor
The FBI finally released the unedited phone call from Mateen. The first thing out of his mouth was “Praise be to God, and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of God”. Do you think they changed or translated “Allah” to “God”?
Do you think they changed or translated “Allah” to “God”?
Yes. Don’t know which side of the pond you are on or how close you are to this tragedy (I live/work in Orlando), but there has been some discussion of this. Fascinating if you’re into epistemology, etymology, stupidology, etc. There’s tons of BS either way. One novel-ish idea is that somehow the use of the word “Allah” sanctifies things, thus from a conservative source in the past:
https://kingsjester.wordpress.com/2016/06/21/the-orlando-massacre-feds-change-allah-to-god-in-transcript-of-omar-mateens-911-call-deliberately/
Which of course now justifies, for some leftists, NOT using “Allah” even though the use of “Allah” had already taken place and thus can’t be undone (except in the minds of those obsessed with this). It’s a rabbit hole of BS that no matter what thought you may have at any given time on which is proper, you are wrong, wrong, wrong.
Either way, I am so fed up with hearing about this. It’s been the main topic on the news here going on two weeks now. Today’s news, people were lining up to get a “Pulse” tattoo including (and especially) a gay city commissioner. Even the conservative-ish talk news channel has been banging on about this such that I haven’t listened to the local news since this happened. There’s apparently not much to know locally except to hear how these events affected the banker, the baker, and the candlestick maker. I’m guessing it won’t stop until everyone in O’do has been put on the news to do their bit for #OrlandoStrong. And then on top of that, a gay ex-classmate of mine posts on FB complaining about the “silence” because this tragedy targeted gays.
Also, sitting in on my company’s quarterly report to employees (something I hardly ever do but seeing as we’re burning taxpayer dollars doing nothing right now, wth), one of our VP’s had to shoehorn the events into the discussion with something along the lines of how we should all care for and respect each other. As if it was one of us that went bonkers.
Go down point Cuuuuuuumaná,
Both motha aaaaand dotta,
Workin for the Yankee dolaaaaaaaaaaaaa…
Sometimes I haven’t the faintest idea what’s going on here.
Sometimes I haven’t the faintest idea what’s going on here.
Plausible deniability is always a good thing.
WTP, about that “rabbit hole of BS,” (We’re in the same geographic area) our local fishwrap/birdcage liner/puppy training device that masquerades as a newspaper had a lengthy article about the massacre a couple of days ago that conveniently omitted a couple of key words such as “muslim,” “ISIS,” and “islam.” When the reader finished, it was as though the attack was carried out by a ghost, or perhaps the Amish. Tough to tell, really.
our local fishwrap/birdcage liner/puppy training device that masquerades as a newspaper
Oh, don’t get me started on that POS. They keep dumping it on my driveway once a week and I throw it out. I hope you’re not paying money for that thing. When I stopped my subscription many years ago, it would stop for a short while then they’d start delivering it again. I tried to sell them on a new promotional slogan “The Orlando Sentinel. It’s like Christmas, you just can’t stop it from coming”. They weren’t interested.
I had several interactions with their “Ombudsman” shortly after 9/11. One was just about their sports reporting, totally non-political. They did not go well. I often wonder what happened to that guy. Forget his name. So their dumping the terms for the Religion of “Peace” does not surprise me. Though I thought they liked “peace”.
Sometimes I haven’t the faintest idea what’s going on here.
https://www.google.com/#q=rum+and+coca+cola+lyrics
Ah.
Not brain fever then?
Not brain fever then?
Perhaps that too. What sayeth the lady?
Read the post, become annoyed.
Read the comments, become….hungry.
Via Peter Risdon.
Clearly, it was carried out by guns.
I take it Dunstable is not high on anyone’s “to visit” list.
Okay, I go to hear the Andrews Sisters sing the song. Oh my, that was awfully risqué for 1944.
Oops, forgot the YouTube linky thing.
My assumption is that most of DT’s UK regulars will be inclined to vote leave later today. But if you haven’t made up your mind yet, here’s Polly Toynbee talling you to vote remain:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/21/friday-britain-remain-leave-campaign-foreigners
You know what to do.
@ Horace.
I know I sit over here in middle America and am not completely up-to-speed on the Brexit issues beyond the basics. Yet, I note in her first paragraph, Polly says this:
I want our country back – and I expect it to step back from the brink of this midsummer madness.
Could someone explain how ceding a substantial chunk of your national sovereignty to unelected clowns in Belgium constitutes getting “our country back?” I’m afraid the logic of that assertion escapes my feeble, colonial mind.
David Thompson’s Blog: Come for the links and commentary; stay for the culinary anthropology.
A cookbook compiled by hackers.
—‘k, so that link currently comes up as an error, but I’ve just sent off a note asking if things went toes up, given that the rest of the site seems fine . . .
For the moment, there is the Wayback Machine . . . . and ok, the software that David’s blog uses does not like the Wayback Machine’s links.
Fine, see https://web.archive.org/web/20040727170036/http://www.reeza.com/c00kb00k/ . . . . where a general skim through does seem to get a good deal of the original pages . . .
For some reason I’m particularly fond of Steak Cassiel at https://web.archive.org/web/20040327083049/http://reeza.com/c00kb00k/bf0015.cfm . . . and Brownies And Tea, at https://web.archive.org/web/20030614155307/http://reeza.com/c00kb00k/brp0022.cfm . . .
. . . And oy bloody hell those links came in as a mess, but I rather suspect the WM double links are giving typepad indigestion . . .
Hmmm. I have just read of an issue of immense concern . . . and I have no bloody idea how people think a government or anyone else will be able to do anything.
Indian farmers demand action as lightning kills 93 people in two days
I do see that Mumbai does seem to be encountering a minor possibility of precipitation at the moment.
Obana made tho oceans start receding. Can’t see why the Indian PM can’t stop the lightning.
Or are you some Mindanao dirty racist / cultural chauvinist?
Wtf? My kindle subbed Mindanao in where I wrote “kinda”.
I hats technology.
Crape!
Sigh. Perchance, do any of the henchlesbians have IT skills?
I can pay over union scale for prompt service.
@Fred – I must say I rather enjoyed the Mindanao epithet. Thought it was kind of clever. And then I find out it was your kindle that did it. The machines are taking over.
At 3:47 on June 23rd, 2016 SkyNet became self-aware…
Crape!
Morning, all.
Again, with little confidence that anyone here is really interested in the world of vidya games, I want to complain about the all pervading leftist agenda.
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/06/the-five-australian-women-making-a-game-about-sex/
Once I was done sniggering about how the much vaunted all chicks girl power developers were 1/5th penis possessors, it dawned on me that there’s no way that I don’t end up paying for this. It’s staggering how exactly like every other field of art this is. Some women with stupid hair and a “very important point to make”, but no actual ideas. This isn’t actually how good video games get made (or movies, or paintings, or plays etc.).
This sums it up: “That’s the reason why Kim contacted her friend Steggy, bustling with excitement and ideas. That’s why they recruited Shell. That’s why they put together a team of five women with one express purpose: work together, fly to Norway, make a video game about sex and romance they could relate to. And do it all in 48 short hours.”
No idea about how it’s going to be fun to play or what that could even look like. They just want to make something they can relate to (because they’re freaks I guess), which means no one else will relate to it, which in turn means the Government will have to fund it of course.
Meanwhile, Laurie Penny tells us that, “To speak of what is happening in Europe as a ‘democratic deficit’ is to call a sucking chest wound a graze. Decades… of power shunted towards an unaccountable centre – these injuries are profound and they are systemic.” And, says she, the EU cannot be trusted to “rectify the damage.”
And therefore,
I’m still trying to fathom her reasoning and point, beyond filling space with references to Skeletor, herself, and the evils of Margaret Thatcher.
Friends don’t let friends dabble in communism.
The blather, it burns.
Sports writer tries to redefine words he doesn’t like. Hilarity ensues.
I particularly like Trent and his dog Herman.
Meanwhile, Laurie Penny …
From the keyboard of Ms Dreadful:
I could tell you a story about Europe that might tug the sails of your heart, driving you to the polls on a clear day with the wind in the right direction.
I could power a lightbulb for a year off the cringe-factor from that one line alone.
Surely there’s some sub-clause in the Trades’ Description Act that could get her sued for calling herself a ‘writer’ with lines like that one?
I’m still trying to fathom her reasoning and point
My guess is Ms Dreadul is a Lexiteer, but the New Statesman editor leaned on her to tweak it at the last minute.
I particularly like Trent and his dog Herman.
Still tickled by the “rubber bullets” query halfway down the thread.
I’ll be voting Remain. The problems over immigration can be tackled at home. In the period between 1957 and 1973 the UK fell far behind the likes of Germany and France. Since joining we’ve caught up and overtaken. We’re more influential in Europe than people think – and do people really think that Czechs and Poles and Danes and the Dutch aren’t pleased that the Brits are in Europe as a counterweight to Germany? The Single Market has been good for us and in Financial Services will be very good for us – it’s just properly opening up for us in an area where the UK is very, very good.
We have made the EU more pragmatic, more open, and more free trading than it would have been. So, I’ll be voting Remain.
I’m not interested in the “Europe makes us do xyz” Often it’s an excuse for doing something our Government would like to do – like not subsidise steel making or whatever industry of the day is unfer competitive pressure. And if we really don’t like something, we can always refuse. After all, who is going to make us? The Belgians? The Germans, who can’t fight wars because they’re not allowed to do overtime? The French? And that would =certainly unite the country behind any Government.
No, I’m not frightened of Europe. I’m too proud to be English to do that.
I voted Remain. I think we’ll end up with a slightly different membership ultimately since we’re not in Schengen or the Euro. But the economic consequences of making a sharp break are too great for my liking – being long-term unemployed in my twenties has probably made me timid. Feel very grubby about the whole thing.
On Laurie, as with lots of young-ish lefties, the problem is “Principals, not principles”. Nigel Farage is against the EU and he is horrid, so Laurie must ultimately be for it.
I’ve lost count of the number of Facebook friends who’ve spent the past year or so whingeing about VAT on tampons, tax avoidance and insufficient democratic mandate for austerity, but now think the EU is some sort of Eldorado.
What’s worse is the dreary Grundyism and ageism that accompanies each of these poorly informed posts. Not content with being poorly informed, they have to be condescending and insulting as well.
From the keyboard of Ms Dreadful. . .
Perhaps she’s auditioning for 2016’s Bulwer-Lytton contest?
Perhaps she’s auditioning for 2016’s Bulwer-Lytton contest?
Heh. I think Laurie’s prose style is a result of her being intensely dogmatic and not terribly interested in facts, or coherence, or anything approaching realism. As a result, her arguments rely very heavily on hyperbolical flourishes. The rhetoric is inflated so as to obscure the begged questions and endless logical gaps.
@ virgil xenophon,
approx ONE THIRD of the ENTIRE POPULATION of the GDR were employed by the State in informing on each other
Well, “employed” is accurate in the sense that they were getting paid, but it’s a bit misleading. It gives the impression that 33% of the country were full-time spies, when in actual fact, the majority of those people were just casual informants.
Of course, in many ways, that’s more intimidating. You know when your next door neighbour is working for state security, and you expect he’ll report anything he sees. What you don’t expect is that your first grade daughter’s teacher will report you.
That’s a real example, by the way. In the 1970s, a family friend’s daughter was in first grade, and the class was to draw what they saw on TV. The daughter drew something that the teacher recognized as the logo of a banned West German show or station, and reported it.