Go Scotland!

The Picts are back. Get your woad on.

In case you haven’t been following this issue, Scotland is having a vote on September 18 on whether to separate from Britain.  When I think back on how many centuries and lives it took to bring Scotland into the fold, it’s astonishing that the whole thing could be undone by the relentless pursuit of conservative policies over the last 30 years.  It’s almost like the Thatcherites and sons of Thatcher have been for years yukking it up in Westminster over Scotland, saying, “Riiiight, where are they going to go?”.  I’m not sure I would have been so confident, given that the Romans had to build a wall to keep the Picts from marauding and that William Wallace trounced Edward I’s forces at Sterling Bridge. Earlier this month, I had found a long post written by a pro-independence Scottish journalist but I’ve misplaced the link (neglected to save to instapaper. Grrr).  His argument was convincing but here is a list of pro-independence arguments from the Independent Scotland movement that are very similar.

Basically, the sentiment is that the Scotland that most people grew up in post WWII is rapidly disappearing under the policies of the conservative movement and the concessions that the Labour party has made to it in order to keep the peace.  There is a deterioration of public services and an alarming increase in the rate of privatization.  Along with that, the government in Westminster is becoming increasingly stingy, sending less and less money back to Scotland over the last decade.  The result is that Scotland is becoming a bit like, well, us.  There is more inequality, more mean spiritedness and less willingness to help others pull themselves up.

Scotland keeps sending Labour party representatives to Westminster but nothing ever comes of it.  The voice of the people is continually muffled.  Scotland also has it’s own parliament, by the way.  Think of it like a state legislature.  Anyway, they haven’t gotten anywhere in quite some time.  It would be like having the state of Massachusetts run by Rick Perry and his Texas Republican legislature, or the entire east and west coast and urban areas of the US politically at the mercy of a bunch of plantation owner wannabees from the South.  They’ve had enough.  They want to be more like Sweden or Iceland.

Since the latest polls have come out showing the pro-independence forces having a snowball’s chance in Hell, there have been boogie man “Oooo, don’t go down to the cellar!” posts in the last couple of days to try to keep Scotland in the fold.  Scotland says it wants to keep the British pound as its currency and still join the EU.  Krugman predicts disaster, the pound took a hit yesterday but Scotland carries on. Sometimes you have to accept a loss in order to have more control over your life.  It looks like England has pushed its harsh form of conservatism over the Scottish border one time too often and Scotland is now determined to reassert its boundary.

Meanwhile, Bank of England governor Mark Carney tells UK workers that may deserve a raise but first they have to earn it.  They’re not productive enough, to which I ask, productive enough compared to whom?  Scottish voters may be asking themselves the same thing.

Anyway, I find the whole thing fascinating.  It’s like watching the western world’s version of the Arab Spring.  Call it the Caledonian Autumn, or some such thing.

Maybe it will spread.

Be Brave.

 

It all came out right in the end.

By the way, Brook does the best Merida impression.  It cracks me up every time  she says “I want to change my feet!”

Shame! Shame! Shame!

UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi goes on trial in the court of public opinion today for allowing campus police to pepper spray at will.  To be fair, she’s not the only authority that has acquiesced to an overwhelming and disproportionate display of police force against peaceful protestors.  It’s just that in this case, helicopter parents are involved.  When it happened to Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Oakland, and Occupy Seattle it was just a bunch of dirty f%&*ing hippies.  And 84 year old women.  And Iraq War vets.  And pregnant women.  And people who were protesting while black.  And, you know, liberals.  Nobody important.

In this video, Katehi does the walk of shame between phalanxes of seated protestors.  In absolute silence.

If that doesn’t humble you, nothing will.

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Spain has a change election and throws out the socialists in favor of conservatives in the hope that there will be some relief.  This is the equivalent of jumping into the fire from the frying pan.  Maybe they have a contingent of older seniors who still remember the good old days under Franco.  i don’t know.  But if I were the Democrats, I’d be worried.  Because they really screwed up after 2008 and I smell another change election coming.  So far, we’ve seen Spain and Ireland go for the more conservative option.  Maybe it has to do with the fact that they are both Catholic countries and feel like they deserve it.

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Speaking of Catholics, it looks like the Democrats are getting worried about their base.  Obama appears to be ready to create a broad exception for religious institutions to the requirement that insurance companies provide contraception for their employees. Once again, Catholic bishops and fundamentalist groups have been pressuring him to do it.  But let’s face it, Obama went out of his way to court these people in the 2008 election.  He needed them to win.  He can’t piss them off, can he?  All they want is to deny women the right to their own consciences.  Is that *so* much to ask?  Democrats went along with it in the last election cycle when they scrubbed reproductive rights issues from their campaign web pages?  Why not do it again?  Oh, that’s right.  Women make up 51% of the population.  It looks like Democrats have finally learned to count.

And the right’s new talking point “religious liberty”, gets rolled out:

The issue resonates at the local level, as Catholic priests around the country have urged parishioners to tell federal officials why they object to the new mandate.

In a letter to the administration, the bishops’ conference said the requirement for coverage of contraceptives and sterilization was “an unprecedented attack on religious liberty.”

Yes, men are entitled to religious liberty.  But not women.  I’m not sure how anyone’s religious liberty is damaged by a healthcare requirement.  People are not required to take contraception.  Or Cialis.

Democrats need us next year and can’t afford to piss us off.  I can almost hear their panic and disbelief.  “What is he doing?!  I can’t win my election if he’s going to piss off more women.  Who talked us into supporting this bozo in the first place?  Jeez, why didn’t we stick with Hillary?  At least she wasn’t afraid of neanderthal pro-lifers.”

See??  THAT’S the way you do it.  That wasn’t so hard, was it?  You explain to your voters what you value and that you will forcefully defend those values and you give them a choice.  They can vote for you or the other guy.  You do not expect your base to give up what they value in order to attract the more conservative voters from the other party.  Next year  is an economy election.  If your positions on the economy are good, your voters will have to take the whole package.

Well, I’m holding on to my vote until I see results.  BIG results.  Yes, I want them to kiss up to me.  They’d better make it good.  And forget about me ever voting for Barry.  He’s not a very good president and I’m not over the primary of 2008 where the DNC dehumanized the Clintonistas in order to dismiss our votes.  If women were smart, they’d vow to never vote for him and then stick to that vow.  I might vote for a Democrat for Congress.  But Obama?  After we’ve gotten proof of his capabilities (or lack thereof) and his absolutely disgraceful tolerance of shitty treatment of women in the White House?  Never.

Never, ever, ever.