People, this is uncanny. This post was written in 2004, after Kerry lost. It could have been written today. Nobody learned anything. We are seeing the same dismissal of voters’ concerns, the same efforts to box them into a narrative of imaginary economic woe, the same condescending belief that their eyes need to be opened. 

What needs to happen for this to change? 

Today, after a long history of regional success, the nation-state is failing us on the global scale. It was the perfect political recipe for the liberty and independence of autonomous peoples and nations. It is utterly unsuited to interdependence.

-Benjamin Barber.

To honor the festive spirit of the season, there are only good articles today. No freaks!

“Many areas which voted for Trump just decided to give themselves a tax increase to make gentry class, wealthy, and rich people even better off. They just enriched the ‘coastal elites’ that they so very much despise.” Ironic, indeed. But hey, it’s their funeral. I hope they enjoy it.

Timothy Snyder is amazing. Read his advice for the Trump era.

[Ukrainian] The Ukrainian government is helping Israel to put out the horrible fires.

Short and funny about Thanksgiving.

[Russian] Can you guess who is the only politician who is loved more than Putin in Russia? He has a 90% approval rating where Putin only gets 86%. Yes, of course, it’s Donald Trump.

A very good article on neoliberalism.

A book on how to raise an entrepreneur turns out to be great in spite of the horrible title. I was prepared to hate but had no reason to.

And now, sorry, I just have to post some freakdom, too, because this is getting too saccharine for me.

The CNN has been wondering if Jews are people.

We decided to have a modest turkey-free Thanksgiving because we are expecting people to stay with us between Christmas and New Year’s and prefer to save the chic celebrating for them. And I hope these guests don’t take this post to mean that we fear they will eat us out of our life savings because we don’t.

As a result, we went with a fish Thanksgiving, and the whole thing cost under $20 (excluding the wine that we’d been given before.)

I made a British fish pie and the Soviet mimosa salad. The remnants of the cake are from the one my mother made last week.

And now we are sitting in front of the fireplace, admiring our Klara and listening to Christmas carols.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Canadian professor is being persecuted for believing that “ze” and the rest of “non-binary pronouns” are kooky. Canada is about to pass legislation that will criminalize a refusal to use “ze” and its idiotic brethren. 

National governments have lost all relevance. All they can do is try to pretend they are doing something and blind people to what’s going on by provoking ridiculous animosities. Human beings are more than capable of reaching an agreement amongst themselves whether to call each other ze, it, they, or pink elephant in heels. But if we are left in peace to figure that out on our own, we might notice that we are being robbed.

Last year, Canada’s system of accessible child care was eviscerated by siccing one group of working stiffs at another group of equally hard-working stiffs. Now people are being distracted from cutdowns in higher ed and research by this drama over the Pronoun Professor. 

National governments can’t control capital so they try to micromanage interpersonal relationships instead. Let’s not let them do that. Let’s refuse to be lured into these ridiculous debates over these ridiculous non-issues. Even if it seems like the government is protecting your interests in the Pronoun drama, remember that it comes at the cost of a shredded welfare net and a drop in your standard of living. 

Every time you are about to get outraged, ask yourself: is the person I’m angry with a fellow worker with bills, debts, and anxiety issues? Is he, she, they really my enemy? Or is the real enemy benefiting from our conflict?

The European Parliament has finally woken up and adopted a non-legislative resolution about the need to resist Russian propaganda. The resolution points out that an army of Kremlin propagandists tries to drive a wedge between the EU and the US and break up the EU. 

This is a big deal and long overdue. Nobody in the US and the EU – including yourself – realizes how much of their news, including during the recent US election, came from the Kremlin’s propaganda machine.

People will keep repeating, “Nah, this isn’t happening, you are simply obsessed with Putin and you are imagining things” as they sit among the smouldering ruins of the EU overrun by far-right governments. They will keep telling me I’m paranoid while an ultra-conservative oligarchy demolishes the last remnants of the American democracy.

It’s funny, really. People who were faithful Reaganites back in the 1980s tell me sincerely that RT is a reliable news source. How incredibly easy did it turn out to be to get them eating right out of the  (former) KGB hand.

Hey, people, did you see Trump’s  $150 Christmas tree ornament? It’s so popular that it sold out but do read the comments.I promise you’ll have fun on this festive morning.

This has got to be parody, right? The website where it appears is the only reason I wonder. If it were any other space, I’d be sure it was a hilarious, if somewhat cruel, mockery of a materialistic, dumb airhead trying to fake a political conscience because it’s like totally fab.

The worst part is that I’m getting bombarded with news items about Nikki Haley’s ridiculous appointment in two languages. Russians are obsessed with Trump’s cabinet picks and have been salivating over this appointment even worse than the US media. There’s literally nothing else on the news in either country.