I slid down the stairs on Wednesday evening and ended up on one of my toes. It’s now a lovely shade of magenta and has a sausage like stiffness. I don’t think it’s broken but running today is going to be a bit of an experiment.
Meanwhile, the lunatics in the Republican party are definitely running the hen house. I think the party is toying with the concept of self-immolation for sacrificial purposes. What does it matter if the Republicans are done as a party for a generation? They’ve managed to pull the Democrats so far right that even if Republicans lose their majority in the House next year, there will be no turning back all of the damage they’ve caused to the economy, worker’s pensions, medicare and social security. To turn it around would take a strong, committed leader who believed in the power of government to intervene when the unfettered free market takes advantage of the common guy.
But all we have is Obama.
Seriously, Democrats, is that all you’ve got? Is sticking with this guy so important that you would let the rest of us go up in flames when the Republicans finally flick the match?
I’m not voting for him. My vote is my own and I’m giving it to someone who will actually fight for me. Obama ain’t it. There is nothing you can say to make me change my mind. Quit playing this “Election by anointment” game. It’s very undemocratic and I’m not putting up with it. His performance has been substandard and he does not appear to know what he’s doing.
BTW, just because the Republicans and Charles Krauthammer are calling Obama a failure doesn’t mean we can’t also refer to him as a failure. In fact, Republicans are probably counting on a knee-jerk reaction from the left to the word “failure”. The more the Republicans say it, the more the left will deny it and pump out glossy propaganda about Recovery Summer 2.0. But no one is fooled by this. Obama *IS* a failure. You don’t have to be from any political clubhouse to see it. Denial isn’t going to make him more competent and successful and attacking your lefty critics is not going to change the utter enormity of the failure that Obama is. If he had just been a mediocre, inexperienced president in another time, then he would have gone down in history as a McKinley or a Cleveland or one of those other presidents no one cares about. But no, we had to have a mediocre inexperienced president during the worst possible time since 1929. The guy has no idea how to put government to work to pull us out of this depression/recession. That’s failure, my lefty friends. And if you do nothing but let him keep failing for another four years, you condemn us all. The GOP would never try to talk you out of running Obama again. They like the way this is all playing out. Only your friends will tell you the truth.
More “no duh”:
Krugman writes today about the rentiers and how this special interest is manipulating Washington. Well, that was pretty clear when they bought the 2008 primary for Obama. No wonder Congress can’t get enough rentier “sugar”. To the rest of us, it seemed pretty obvious that the rich and powerful were going to take care of themselves to our detriment. They don’t care about us. We do not mean anything to them. They will keep drinking our milkshakes until there’s nothing left. The only people who care about it are us. And the only reason we presumably do not have the power to stop the ravenous rentier grasshoppers is because we have a bunch of self-appointed creative class assholes clinging to Obama as if their lives depended on him.
What is more important at this point? Saving Obama’s ass at all costs or saving the rest of us? I am not cooperating. Do we look crazy to you guys? We haven’t got fricking jobs anymore. Get a new player. NOW.
Dump him.
Filed under: General | Tagged: big purple toe, GOP, obama failure, running |
The Confluence 
I am so sorry about your toe, RD!!! Are you sure you should try to run today?
I’m shocked at the numbers of people who dislike Obama’s positions/policies/decisions but, are still going to vote for him because the alternative would be such a nightmare.
I feel like I’m trapped in a nightmare now so that argument doesn’t mean a lot to me.
Oh, and those people who did the spread-sheet thing comparing Obama’s & Hillary’s Senate votes — fuck them. The range of possible Senate votes is pretty small (yes | no) is tiny. Look at their lives, for god’s sake!!! Who did the most for the most people over their lives? OMG (I’m not having a good day either)
Ok, just got back from my run and this is interesting: the toe was fine when I was running, no pain. It was only before and after the run when I was walking that the sucker started to throb.
It’s the blister on my OTHER foot that’s giving me problems. Anyway, almost done with week three.
Yay!
hugs and condolences on the toe.R.D. do not run on it.will make it worse
Don’t run.
That’s my advice to you AND to Obama.
GREAT advice – to both RD and The Big ZerO.
The Big ZerO. I like that.
It’s Spam and eggs, or eggs and Spam or Spam Spam.
I fart in the general direction of the creative class. May they all be prematurely rescued from Castle Anthrax.
Good Charles Hugh Smith column today:
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-bankruptcy-corporate-america
On calling obama a failure – you are right, of course! But insisting on arguing with republicans by arguing any opposing view gives the republicans all the power in the argument since they get to decide the terms. Every time.
My husband is skilled at flipping arguments to some crazy, fifty years in the Orwellian future where he will be right. Like obama’s accomplishments are all in the future – still. Anyway, Democrats taking the counter point to anything the Republicans say put the Democrats on the same ground, defending something stupid and being distracted away from important stuff.
BTW – do they teach a class on flipping arguments to something crazy and unrelated at manly man school? I’ve never heard a woman dream up a future mistake or choice THAT HASN”T BEEN MADE and then argue about how bad that decision WOULD BE totally distracting from the stupid thing done today.
Ok, here’s a crazy prediction: if palin runs, women will vote for her. They’ll vote for her in spite of the fact that they don’t like her positions on anything. They’ll vote for even if the think she’s not as smart as Hillary Clinton. In fact, I think thed vote for her just to get even. And who knows? She might be the ultimate stealth candidate. For all we know, she’s really a lesbian, pro-choice liberal who knows 32 dimensional chess. She’s just hanging out with glenn beck for the market share,
She’s not my choice, not by a long shot but if I were in that voting booth and I had the chance to wipe those smug smiles off of all the assholes who gave us Obama instead of Hillary, it would be a great temptation not to.
At this point, it couldn’t get much worse.
I am not voting for him either. I did not in 2008 and I won’t this time. They can water board me and I still won’t. After what they did to Hillary in 2008 I am still furious. if they have a serious candidate bring them on, otherwise don’t ask for my support. I did not like or trust Obama in 2008 and I like and trust him even less now, I would love to see Hillary run, she acts like a POTUS should act.
I did not vote for Obama in 2008. I wound up emigrating–right time but questionable destination, as France is also neck-deep in incompetent politicians and far right wing nuts.
RD, Sorry to be a downer, but your toe is probably just chipped, but that’s slitt a break.
having doen the same to 6 toes, I am an expert! Put a thin sheet of cotton between it and the next toe, tape them together for 5 days or so.
And, no I will never, ever vote for Obama.
Thanks for the tip about the cotton. Walking is such a pain. Running isn’t. That one has me stumped.
We either vote for Obama or the Republicans. Republicans equals the Paul Ryan budget and there goes my Medicare right when I need it. Not voting, or voting third party gets us where exactly? Yes my principles tell me not to vote Democratic. But my pocket book and my lack of health insurance, tells me otherwise.
Until enough people turn to a third party candidate, the two parties will continue to ignore voters. Yes, it takes nerves of steel and in the interim, it might get pretty bad, but what is your alternative? We must have courage. There are very few things that are worthwhile that are also easy.
Id like to see a Bernie Sanders type run. A motivated and savvy independent could clean up next year.
Well once again , for me, it’s the lesser of two evils. I WILL vote for him against ANY Republican, because 1) the Democratic party will run no one else, and 2) someone has to stand in the way of the Repugs and their efforts to destroy the social safety net.
Last time it was Hillary who had my vote. Holding my nose next time and voting for Obama.
really it would be far more effective use of your time if you stayed home and cut out coupons in your PJ’s rather than voting. There is no difference between the two parties on the safety net….none…except perhaps speed…but Obama is working hard on his cave time…trying to shave it down even more. In fact if the crazies were in perhaps it would wake folks up from the lesser of two evils stupor we seem to be in
If you let Obama scare you into voting for him this far out from an election, you are contributing to his ability to ignore you as a voter. He’s already got you. Why should he feel the least but concerned about what you think is important?
You only have power over him when you tell him no. Leave his campaign guessing. They are counting on you to be scared to death of Republicans. I don’t like Republicans either but I’m not going to let it scare me. If the Republicans win next year, it won’t be YOUR fault. It will be Democrats’ fault for not giving people a reason to vote for them.
Do you see how they’re playing you? It’s a guilt trip. It’s a long way to November 2012 and they have already guilt tripped you so they don’t have to do anything.
Obama was installed expressly to fail…if the powers that be wanted a non failure, Hillary would have been allowed to realize her victory….but the last thing they wanted was a success ….hell no
Yep, I’ve said it before: Obama was an enabled, Hillary was rehab.
RD — I did something to a little toe, gutted it out for a week, then, because the pain was getting worse, went to my doc. He wasn’t in, but the sports physician was. She treated it as something not worth, it seemed, her time or attention. She told me to bandage the toe and if it wasn’t better after a week to go to a podiatrist.
I had to ask her to at least show me what materials to use and how to do the wrapping.
Well, after a week it did feel better — not good, but not as painful. So I did not go to a podiatrist.
Well, it ended up crooked, and I now have pain which has limited some sports I liked to do. I know you have to watch your money while out of a job, but maybe you should use your medical insurance while you can. See if there is a problem which might mend (and end) badly.
Your situation might be nothing like mine, but I sure wish I’d had a better exam, etc. To fix it now would require re-breaking it, which I gather is not fun.
Thanks for your concern. I’m really touched by everyone’s helpful suggestions about my toe. I’m pretty sure it’s not broken. It moves and curls on command. It’s just bruised in a nasty way. Like i said, running on it was no problem. But wearing flip flops is a bitch. The sucker is so sore. If it weren’t for the humongous blister on the back of my *other* foot, I’d switch to a shoe. In any case, I would be a total turnoff for anyone with a foot fetish. No pointe shoes for me for a couple of days.
I’m in a red state. Obama won’t carry GA so unless the GOP puts up some crazy referendum I need to get out and vote against, I’m just staying home.
Ever since the ’08 primary, I’ve found myself going against my personal “nevers”. Never vote GOP, never diss a Democrat, etc, which means never say never, eh.
My latest “never” ,which may fall, is never stay home from voting. I’m not apathetic, quite the contrary, I’m not finding anyone worthy of my vote. Maybe, just like the R voters (there were many) who voted Clinton in twice, I am waiting for a candidate to transcend their party affililation, even if R, and speak to we, the people directly and clearly about what they will do if elected to the highest public servant position in this country.
Elevate that foot above heart level continuously, does more good than almost any other home treatment, RD. Get better soon. ❤
Again, most blacks won’t abandon Obama because of his father’s skin color, and most progressives won’t abandon Obama as long as most blacks won’t. This is the Revenge of Identity Politics. It is why we got stuck with Obama in the first place-and it is why we will remain stuck with him as the Dem nominee in 2012. If someone runs against him for the nomination, I’ll vote for him or her and send money, but I’m under no illusion as to the outcome.
Yeah, that’s what I’ve thought. I’m not sure if his base will be excited to GOTV, but they aren’t going to leave him.
The rest of us are going to have to hold our nose and vote against obama if we want him out – KNOWING the alternative will be at least as bad. Either that or wait for another 4 years, then get the bad alternative for up to 8 years before we have another shot at getting a liberal who cares about people. I’m not sure any of those are on the bench or coming up at this point.
4 more years of obama almost guarantees a republican follows considering the fickle independents who swing between R & D votes won’t be able to wait to change the guard.
The only certainty for the 2012 election is that the “winner” will be worse than the Obama first/last(?) term.
That’s the ticket. Worse than Obama is what we should seek. Let’s see, who would that be?
Here’s the Baudrillardian Fatal Strategy:
We damn, criticize, name call and dump on Obama more so than any of the repugs or talking heads.
We heap shit on his head that will put the others to shame and make them look like they are praising him.
More so is the strategy. This is how Eric Packer in Cosmopolis crashes the global financial currency cyber capital market.
It’s called implosion. If we criticize the system absorbs it. All negativity is absorbed. Marcuse called it long ago. It is like pac-man, eating up all opposition.
Now we need a good IT person to instruct us on how to dump a windfall of abuse all over the godamn place.
I appreciate the idealism of you folks who are waiting for a third party to rise, and think non-voting, or voting for someone who has no chance of winning is a way to approach parties who desperately need reforming.
That is an impractical approach, but is yours to take if you choose. Bad as he is, O is no Republican, and someone has to vote against them. As long as there as people voting for the Repugs, there have to be people like me to vote against them. You folks staying home are in essence, voting Repug, because you are acquiescing silently, just letting the chips fall where they may. You let your distaste for O preclude you from action. Fine. But there are lots of good Democrats who can persuade O to do the right thing sometimes. You are letting them down too. These good Dems could never have a y say with a Repug pres. I’m sad you are staying home.
Remember Nader and Bush getting elected? Things ain’t great with the big O but they could be far worse.
I’m voting, voting , voting. And it will be for the big O. Staying home is NOT AN OPTION.
Sas, appreciate your thoughts. Things may need to get worse to wake everyone up.
I don’t think we can afford 4 more years of failure, but I KNOW we can’t afford the 8 more years of failure that will follow obama if he is able to continue.
If obama could be pursuaded to do good things, he would have been doing those good things when he had majorities. He WANTS to do what he is doing.
You own your vote, do what you will with it and I will do what I want with mine. Nobody is entitled to it and if I think watching Sesame Street re-runs is a better use of my time than voting for useless polititions, so be it.
Who said anything about staying home? I would never suggest such a thing.
I think you suffer from a failure to imaginate if you think that our only choices are a Republican or Obama. There are options. And the more of us who show up on election day and vote for that other option, the more we will get our point across. We non-cooperating independent liberal voters could make a big difference to one of the parties next year. If I were the Democratic party, I wouldn’t sit on my ass thinking I had it all sewn up.
You aren’t going to get reform with this current batch of Democrats. Here’s my election strategy: Don’t vote for any Republican. Primary every incumbent with a more liberal person. Vote for the leftiest candidate on the ballot. Lather, rinse, repeat. My strategy is not pro-Democrat, even if I end up voting for a Democrat for some office. My strategy is anti-conservative, no matter which party that politician belongs to.
If there is a candidate to the left of Obama in the ballot, that person gets my vote. That’s a strategy, not capitulation to the fearmongerers.
I want Obama to lose in 2012, knowing full well that means a Republican will win. Because it is quite wrong to state “Obama is no Republican.” That’s exactly what he is, in effect, if not in title. His job has been to make both parties complicit in Right-wing ideology, and he has done it very well. The idea he is an alternative to the GOP was wrong in 2008, and demonstrably wrong now. And given a choice of anti-liberals, liberals should prefer one not supposedly on their side. It is easier to deal with an enemy than a double-agent.
Ted
Oh and I agree Nader was quite wrong in 2000. He wouldn’t be wrong today. Times change, and Obama is no Gore.