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For a moment or two, I thought I was hearing an adaptation of my post from yesterday coming from Jordan Chariton's lips. But he stopped at the part where we know which Democrats have the effrontery to vote against Medicare for All during this pandemic; he did not continue on to discuss how a floor vote would also reveal the currents of evil running through the DNC and the Democratic Caucus.
OK, all you progressive voices on YouTube and elsewhere: Go to your rooms and don't come back out until you can talk to each other with civility and respect!
It's been going on for just over a week now, but it already seems much longer. People I admire and respect are spewing toxins at each other on Twitter, second-guessing each other's motivations, smearing each other as either neoliberal tools or saboteurs of the Medicare for All movement. This needs to stop. All these folks agree that this nation needs Medicare for All ASAP, as the ongoing pandemic has illustrated so starkly. The disagreement is a matter of legislative strategy...oh, and also of Jimmy Dore's having the temerity to criticize (sometimes harshly) Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for not living up to her campaign rhetoric.
Oh my freakin' goddess, y'all! This isn't the Jimmy Dore to whom we've grown accustomed. It might be Thich Nhat Hanh, Marianne Williamson, perhaps Caitlin Johnstone, or possibly even some extraterrestrial jag-off night-club comedian, disguised as Jimmy.
It's also devastatingly profound. I've heard a lot of sermons from a lot of UU ministers over the years (turnover at First UU Houston being what it is), including some very good to excellent sermons. This 30-minute rant beats them all. I shit you not, comrades, nor do I exaggerate. Beyond that, the timing of it is appropriate, since I've been rewatching The Sopranos in order in recent months. Much of the premise of that program is Tony Soprano's resistance to acknowledging his shadow self, even though his shadow self is pretty much always in control. He's gone grayer than the last time I watched one of his videos, which couldn't have been more than a few weeks ago. Embrace the gray, Jimmy. You're a sage now. I remember seeing the Bobcat Goldthwait bit to which Jimmy refers somewhere in the middle, the one about gay-bashers being latently gay themselves, around 1992. If you can find a clip of it online, please link me up so I can watch it again. This morning, Greater Houston was wrapped in a fog thicker than I've seen in years. In fact, I don't recall seeing fog this thick since leaving New London CT 28 years ago; I may be wrong. But today's fog is only slightly thicker than the fog that beset the entire month of November 2018. Now, in December, when the post–Election Day fog is clearing, all those Progressives giddy about a new Democratic majority in Congress are seeing that even candidates who campaigned left are now lurching to the right before they're even sworn in. Recently some Progressive wonks (including Yours Truly) have taken to Twitter to remind fans of Beto-Bob O'Rourke that their El Paso matinée idol is no flaming lefty. Even O'Rourke claims not to know whether he is progressive, prefer to eschew ideological labels. Some of us know the answer to that.
Fact is, soon-to-be-ex-Rep. O'Rourke runs with the New Democrat Coalition, a group of staunchly pro–Big Business Democrats who prefer working with their Republican colleagues to working for working people. Another fact is, as Jimmy Dore reports in the video above, his replacement in TX-16, Veronica Escobar, has also announced that she is joining the New Democrats. So are two Texas Democrats who defeated Republican incumbents last month: Lizzie Pannill Fletcher in District 7 (West Houston) and Colin Allred in 32 (North Dallas). They join Joaquin Castro, Henry Cuellar, Vicente Gonzalez, and Marc Veasey as NDC members of Texas. Thank you, Jordan Chariton, for reminding me of what I wanted to say in Part II of this series. The main thrust of Chariton's video entitled "In Defense of Jimmy Dore" is, y'know, defending Jimmy Dore. It addresses the recent Twitter kerfuffle involving Dore, Mother Jones contributing editor Shane Bauer, and Francesca Fiorentini (newly of The Young Turks). In it, he takes pains not to take sides specifically against Sam Seder or David Pakman, both of whom he claims not to know personally; however one might argue that siding with Dore is equivalent to siding against those two (and, by extension, Bauer), if one is inclined toward such binary thinking. It's 26 minutes and 49 seconds. Invest it.
Don't worry: Jimmy and Caity do not spend the entire time busting Rachel Maddow's chops. They discuss other, mostly related topics. Caity is at her best relating issues to the Big Picture, describing where they intersect, and diagnosing the morbidity of society. I look forward to her getting more such interviews and getting better when speaking off the cuff. |
Blogging Sporadically since 2014Here you will find political campaign-related entries, as well as some about my literature, Houston underground arts, peace & justice, urban cycling, soccer, alt-religion, and other topics. Categories
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