When we talk about the process, then, we are talking, increasingly,
not about “the democratic process,”
or the general mechanism affording the citizens of a state a voice in its affairs,
but the reverse: a mechanism seen as so specialized
that access to it is correctly limited to its own professionals,
to those who manage policy and those who report on it,
to those who run the polls and those who quote them,
to those who ask and those who answer the questions on the Sunday shows,
to the media consultants, to the columnists, to the issues advisers,
to those who give the off-the-record breakfasts and to those who attend them;
to that handful of insiders who invent, year in and year out,
the narrative of public life.
– Joan Didion, “Insider Baseball” (1988)
In this week’s sift:
- Escalating Bad Faith, Part I: Recess Appointments. The controversy over President Obama’s recent recess appointments sounds boring and technical, but it’s a symptom of a cancer in our democracy that has been growing for decades.
- The Four Flavors of Republican. How NeoCons, Corporatists, Theocrats, and Libertarians co-operate and conflict.
- My Boring Primary Season and other short notes. Ah, for the halcyon days of 2007, when presidential candidates by the dozen vied for my attention all summer. Mitt as “locust capitalist”. Why “equality of opportunity” is a risky meme for conservatives. The real lesson of Kim Jong Il. Santorum’s Grampa was “free” to owe his soul to the company store. Montana’s Supreme Court rejects corporate personhood. And more.
- Last week’s most popular post wasn’t that popular: Under-reported Stories of 2011 got 143 views. The most-clicked link was the Salon Hack List.
- This week’s challenge: If you don’t already know, find out who the likely congressional candidates are in your district, and whether you have a senatorial election this year.
I confess that in 1901, I said to my brother Orville that man would not fly for fifty years . . . Ever since, I have distrusted myself and avoided all predictions. — Wilbur Wright, 1908
Within the next few decades, autos will have folding wings that can be spread when on a straight stretch of road so that the machine can take to the air. — Eddie Rickenbacker, 1924
In this week’s sift:
- Is a Boom Coming in 2012? Karl Smith and Matt Yglesias predict one, for not-entirely-crazy reasons.
- Iowa Preview. Santorum? Could it really be Santorum?
- Under-reported Stories of 2011. While the media was telling you about Charlie Sheen and Kim Kardashian, some genuinely important things were happening.
- Strategic Voting and other short notes. When does it make sense to vote in the other party’s primary? WikiLeaks has a priceless commercial. What real 3DTV looks like. Why Romney won’t release his taxes. And two good Krugman columns.
What’s past is prologue.
— William Shakespeare, The Tempest
all the Sift quotes of 2011 are here
In this week’s sift:
Silence never won rights. They are not handed down from above; they are forced by pressures from below.
— Roger Baldwin
In this week’s sift:
- Detention Without Trial. President Obama isn’t going to veto the NDAA after all. How big a problem is that?
- Christopher Hitchens and the Politics of Atheism. I come to bury Hitchens, not to praise him. But all the same, there are some things you have to give him credit for.
- Victoryish, and other short notes. What’s the right way to mark the end of the Iraq War? NPR can’t find the jobs that a millionaires’ tax would kill. Are co-ops the future? More Rick Perry parodies. Links to my holiday stories. And more.
- Last week’s most popular post. In an extraordinarily slow week on the Sift, Perry and Parody was the most popular post with 107 views. (Whenever I have a low number to report, somebody always reminds me that around 300 people access the Sift in ways that don’t show up in these statistics.)
- This week’s challenge. As you plan your holiday donations to charity, check out the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania. Don’t just give your money away, give it away as effectively as possible.
It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.
— attributed to just about everybody
In this week’s sift:
- Your 2012 Deep Background Briefing. Forget the day-to-day of who’s up and who’s down. What’s this campaign going to be about?
- Evangelicals and the New Newt. Mainstream pundits are puzzled by how the religious right can rally to a morally challenged Newt Gingrich. It’s really not that mysterious.
- Perry and Parody. Rick Perry’s “Strong” is the most disliked and most parodied political ad ever.
- Hallelujah and other short notes. Now that corporations are people, they have reason to sing the Hallelujah Chorus. Not even rats are so ratty that they don’t have empathy. What “freedom” means to MasterCard. Jon Stewart declares war on Christmas. The Santa Venn diagram. And more on news deserts.
- Last week’s most popular post. Liberal Media, Conservative Manipulation was the most popular post for the second week in a row.
Have an unchallenging week, everybody.
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.
— Isaiah 14:14
In this week’s sift:
- Forgive Us Our Debts. Some large percentage of the major news stories are tied somehow to the issue of debt. Each one has its labyrinth of details, into which your attention can vanish and never return. But let’s go the other way and try to look at the big picture: This is bigger than economics. It’s about democracy and how we even start to think about morality.
- Bankers’ Law and other short notes. A judge rejects a sweetheart deal between the SEC and Citi. TARP was only a small part of the bailout. Illegal foreclosures. Congress approves detention-without-trial. 100 notable books. Inoculations against Ron Paul fever. Marxist Muppets. Perry, Cain, Romney. Gas leases say more than farmers realize. And stop blaming Barney Frank.
- Last week’s most popular post. Liberal Media, Conservative Manipulation was the most popular post in nearly two months. It’s the fifth post in weeklysift.com history to get more than 2000 views. Last count: 2328.
- Expand your vocabulary: news desert. A news desert is any segment of society so invisible to mainstream media that it’s hard for the desert-dwellers to keep track of what’s going on in their own community.
I’ve laid down in the rain before
hoping I would drown and wake up upon your shore.
But even God can’t hire everyone any more.
Even God can’t hire everyone any more.
— The Mild Revolution “Working Man Blues”
In this week’s sift:
- Liberal Media, Conservative Manipulation. Everybody knows that journalists are (sort of) liberal. So why does so much coverage slant to the right?
- Where Occupy Goes Next and other short notes. Should Occupy Wall Street support a legislative agenda and candidates to carry it out, or would that just corrupt and co-opt the movement? Plus: The pepper-spraying cop becomes iconic. The world’s lightest material. Do conservative policies promote conservative values? And Mitt Romney gets a taste of his own medicine.
- Last week’s most popular post. At last count, Now Look What You Made Me Do had 699 views, making it the sixth most popular post since the Sift moved to weeklysift.com in July.
- This week’s challenge: Listen Local. If you’re trying to eat local and shop local, you really ought to check out your local music scene too. (That’s where I picked up this week’s quote.)
I want to be very clear in calling upon the Egyptian authorities to refrain from any violence against peaceful protesters. The people of Egypt have rights that are universal. That includes the right to peaceful assembly and association, the right to free speech, and the ability to determine their own destiny. These are human rights. And the United States will stand up for them everywhere.
— President Barack Obama,
January 28, 2011
In this week’s sift:
- Now Look What You Made Me Do. When police attacked peaceful protesters in cities around the country this week, the media’s unwillingness to “take sides” insured that Middle America would blame the protesters.
- Will the Court Throw Out Obamacare? The Supremes will rule on the Affordable Care Act’s constitutionality sometime between now and June. Two conservative appellate judges just gave us a preview of what they might do.
- Paterno and the Bishops. Comparing the Penn State scandal to the Catholic Church scandal, it’s clear that the public attitude towards sexual abuse has changed.
- Last (two) week’s most popular post. Jobless Recoveries Are Normal Now had 322 views.
- This week’s challenge. At your church, business, club, or other institutions, raise this question: Where do we do our banking? Many institutional accounts might be ineligible for credit unions, but could your institution move to a local bank more likely to keep your money in the community?
The length of this week’s main articles crowded out Short Notes. As compensation, I offer this amazing photo from Iceland: The full moon illuminates a waterfall, the moonlight creates a rainbow in the spray, and between the foreground of the bow and the background of the starry night sky shine the Northern Lights.
As the Christmas carol says: “O, that we were there.”
No Sift next week. The Weekly Sift returns on November 21st.
There’s no better way to justify relations founded on violence, to make such relations seem moral, than by reframing them in the language of debt — above all, because it immediately makes it seem like it’s the victim who’s doing something wrong.
— David Graeber
Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011)
In this week’s sift:
- Jobless Recoveries are Normal Now. One very instructive graph and the disturbing conclusion you can draw from it: The fundamental nature of recessions has changed, and most of the policies we fight over have nothing to do with it.
- The Cain Scandal After a Week. Scandals just have entertainment value until they start driving your supporters away. So far that’s not happening.
- The Death of the Follow-up Question and other short notes. Herman Cain’s China problem, a food-industry insider defects, a true blue supporter of the family is a deadbeat dad, the iPod of government, SB-5 is going down tomorrow, the importance of the smart grid, a couple particularly stunning scenes from nature, and more.
- Last week’s most popular post. Nonviolence and the Police, with 329 views.
- This week’s challenge. Remember to vote in your local elections tomorrow. Also, Saturday was Bank Transfer Day, when people all over the country closed their accounts at too-big-to-fail banks and moved their money to community banks or credit unions. If you missed, it’s not too late. AlterNet’s Lynn Parramore gives a step-by-step.
When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you: pull your beard, flick your face to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is nonviolence and humor.
— John Lennon
[it took me forever to source this;
for the longest time I thought it must be misattributed]
In this week’s sift:
- Nonviolence and the Police. If the recent police attacks on Occupy protesters either enrage or discourage you, take some time to remember how nonviolence works, and the important roles the police play in that strategy.
- It’s Mitt Romney’s Economy. Vast inequality? Paper profits and no jobs? It’s all part of a revolution in corporate behavior that started in the 70s. And one of the major revolutionaries was Mitt Romney.
- Three-eyed Fish and other short notes. Somebody really did catch a three-eyed fish near a nuclear power plant. My Halloween column. Occupy Mordor’s statement. Perry’s flat tax. Some very pretty pictures of the northern lights. Bad Lip Reading does Herman Cain. And more.
- Last week’s most popular post. For the third week in a row, Turn the Shame Around, with 352 views (7400 total). The most-viewed new post was Eliminate the Work Penalty (183). (Whenever I report such a low number, somebody reminds me that the blog page views don’t count the readers who get the Sift via email or RSS feeds. That’s around 300 people total, as best I can figure.)
- This week’s challenge. Lots of state and local elections are happening a week from tomorrow. These elections are won on turnout, so make sure to turn out. The headline vote is in Ohio, where a No on Issue 2 will repeal the anti-union bill passed by the legislature. They could still use your help.
The Weekly Sift 