I'M DRUNK AND CRANKY ON LIVEJOURNAL AGAIN
I feel like everybody who self-identifies as "liberal" is pretty complacent and self-satisfied about electing Obama and that makes me cranky so I am going to fart out a livejournal post about it. The Obama administration is actively doing horrible shit with regard to executive power and detention policy, and actively doing stupid corrupt shit with regard to "economic recovery" or whatever you wanna call it. I mean, I don't regret voting for the guy, he's doing some good stuff too, but electing a half-decent president is the very first step on the difficult-ass road of making decent things happen, not the endpoint.
Re: executive power and detention - Obama ordered the closing of Guantanamo and the end of the "enemy combatant" label, but it's turning out that those moves are entirely cosmetic. The Obama Justice Department is still claiming the authority to detain and hold people indefinitely, without charge. They're just getting rid of the phrase "enemy combatant," but keeping the power behind it. Similarly they're arguing in favor of the Bush administration's interpretation of the "state secrets" privilege - an interpretation which allows them to strike down entire court cases, instead of just keeping specific classified documents out of court. They've already continued the use of this privilege to try to prevent prisoners from challenging their detention. It doesn't fucking matter if Guantanamo shuts down, if the exact same policies are still in effect at Bagram. ...Soooo in other words the Obama administration is actively defending some of the most clearly/aggressively evil Bush doctrines, doctrines which Obama explicitly denounced during his campaign. I guess it's not as broadly evil as continuing the "war on terror" worldview itself, but I at least expected that worldview and the Afghanistan war to continue, whereas I genuinely thought Obama would end the Bush detention policies when I voted for him. All is shifting sands and decay, hoobity bloop, I was wrong, fuck it!
Re: "economic recovery" - Specifically, Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel Prize economist and generally decent dude) had an editorial recently which concisely explains why the administration's rescue plan is a fartpile. Essentially it allows the financial industry to reap the gains of the plan while socializing the potential risk. This shitty plan shouldn't really be surprising, because Obama has entrusted the same people whose shitty corrupt policies created this problem (i.e. Geithner, Summers) with designing the policy to fix it. Fun fact as a sidenote: Larry Summers is truly the worst sort of disgusting monster that capitalism can produce, when he was at the World Bank in the early '90s he literally argued that we should intentionally pollute the fuck out of underdeveloped countries with our industrial waste, because it's cost effective and hey they're already poor and starving so who cares if they get more cancer too.
Anyway livejournal I am feeling pretty good aside from that rant. I've got school scholarship offers and I only have like a week and a half to decide where I'm going, but at this point I've narrowed it down enough that I feel like I'll be happy no matter what I pick. I bought new shoes and socks today like a responsible grownup. Zadie Smith is a good author I like her. Tomorrow when I wake up I think I'll go for a bike ride. Yeah man.
Re: executive power and detention - Obama ordered the closing of Guantanamo and the end of the "enemy combatant" label, but it's turning out that those moves are entirely cosmetic. The Obama Justice Department is still claiming the authority to detain and hold people indefinitely, without charge. They're just getting rid of the phrase "enemy combatant," but keeping the power behind it. Similarly they're arguing in favor of the Bush administration's interpretation of the "state secrets" privilege - an interpretation which allows them to strike down entire court cases, instead of just keeping specific classified documents out of court. They've already continued the use of this privilege to try to prevent prisoners from challenging their detention. It doesn't fucking matter if Guantanamo shuts down, if the exact same policies are still in effect at Bagram. ...Soooo in other words the Obama administration is actively defending some of the most clearly/aggressively evil Bush doctrines, doctrines which Obama explicitly denounced during his campaign. I guess it's not as broadly evil as continuing the "war on terror" worldview itself, but I at least expected that worldview and the Afghanistan war to continue, whereas I genuinely thought Obama would end the Bush detention policies when I voted for him. All is shifting sands and decay, hoobity bloop, I was wrong, fuck it!
Re: "economic recovery" - Specifically, Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel Prize economist and generally decent dude) had an editorial recently which concisely explains why the administration's rescue plan is a fartpile. Essentially it allows the financial industry to reap the gains of the plan while socializing the potential risk. This shitty plan shouldn't really be surprising, because Obama has entrusted the same people whose shitty corrupt policies created this problem (i.e. Geithner, Summers) with designing the policy to fix it. Fun fact as a sidenote: Larry Summers is truly the worst sort of disgusting monster that capitalism can produce, when he was at the World Bank in the early '90s he literally argued that we should intentionally pollute the fuck out of underdeveloped countries with our industrial waste, because it's cost effective and hey they're already poor and starving so who cares if they get more cancer too.
Anyway livejournal I am feeling pretty good aside from that rant. I've got school scholarship offers and I only have like a week and a half to decide where I'm going, but at this point I've narrowed it down enough that I feel like I'll be happy no matter what I pick. I bought new shoes and socks today like a responsible grownup. Zadie Smith is a good author I like her. Tomorrow when I wake up I think I'll go for a bike ride. Yeah man.