tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post8304598786489698632..comments2024-03-26T23:41:10.319+00:00Comments on Authors Electric: All Politics Is Personal Now - Umberto TosiKatherine Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17196712319655603442noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-58636725915717123222016-10-04T10:35:01.513+01:002016-10-04T10:35:01.513+01:00Hallo Umberto. This is the link to Wild Wood. The ...Hallo Umberto. This is the link to Wild Wood. The Trump version's not up yet<br /><br />http://amzn.to/1tDreex<br /> P/b http://amzn.to/1lJRUEX<br />Jan Needlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15823078224282953782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-84990742871814213232016-10-04T05:40:22.059+01:002016-10-04T05:40:22.059+01:00Thank you all - Susan, Leila, Reb, Dennis, John, P...Thank you all - Susan, Leila, Reb, Dennis, John, Penny, Marsha, Jan and Jo - for your high praise and thought-provoking comments! It's particularly gratifying to engage such a distinguished group of colleagues as yourselves. I will definitely read Fate of Nations, Susan. Thanks. Leila, I agree with you in pointing out the culpability of too many duck-and-cover, go-along Democrats in allowing the Tea-Party-alt.right movement to grow into the Frankenstein that it has become. I thought of mentioning this, but the blog was already longish, and I wanted to stick to the point of politics being personal, whether it's trendy or not to acknowledge, and the consequences of that. <br />Jan, I'd love to read your Wind in the Willows parody. Hope to see it soon! <br />Again, thanks to all!Umberto Tosihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04939504157464234443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-16222314669263042772016-10-03T17:50:15.808+01:002016-10-03T17:50:15.808+01:00I think Colinvaux's Fate of Nations, which I r...<br />I think Colinvaux's Fate of Nations, which I review over on on sister site, Eclectic Electric, explains much of the upheaval and trouble we're going through, not only on both sides of the Atlantic, but all over the world.<br /><br />I warn you, it's not happy reading...<br /><br />http://authorselectricreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/the-fates-of-nations-by-paul-colinvaux.htmlSusan Pricehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07738737493756183909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-76681857571694054062016-10-03T16:29:25.140+01:002016-10-03T16:29:25.140+01:00Umberto, I am holding my nose and voting for Hilla...Umberto, I am holding my nose and voting for Hillary. However, for the record, the Democratic elites sat happily by, collecting their graft and bribes, while the Repugnicans gerrymandered every district in the country to make sure an obstructionist House and Senate would be elected in every election in the foreseeable future; that voting rights for minorities and the elderly could be restricted by unconstitutional voter identification requirements; and that women and minority candidates could be contained. They (the elites) dreamed up idiotic educational schemes (and supported public tax dollars going to unscrupulous profiteers in the form of Charter Schools and for-profit "universities") to the end that America's public schools, supported by what few tax paying citizens remain, have drop out rates in excess of 50%; have graduates reading at a 6th grade level; eschew science; no longer require Civics and Government classes. That is why the generation of "slackers, cynics, pouters, doubters and perhaps well-intentioned Bernie-or-bust holdouts" arose. They were interested, and with good reason, in free tuition to the exclusion of most other issues. We have allowed even the tax-payer funded colleges to raise tuitions to exorbitant levels. That is also why (besides gerrymandering) that we have dunces like Gary Johnson (a former governor - so other dunces voted for him) "shaping" the national political dialogue. Facebook and twitter "screeds" will not change the mind of a single one of those people. Getting out in the neighborhoods talking to people, correcting any of your young friends about Trump's background and intentions when they give you some half-baked reason they support him; volunteering for the phone banks - those are the ways to reach voters. And after Hillary is elected, holding those Democratic elites accountable by writing to Senators and Congress Representatives and showing up at public meetings; voting against school board idiocy - those are the only ways to change the world. It's hard work.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-11257869060061124182016-10-03T14:02:36.240+01:002016-10-03T14:02:36.240+01:00Possibly a bit early to mention it, but I've j...Possibly a bit early to mention it, but I've just finished a cut-down-rewrite of my Wind in the Willows 'spoof' (in which Toad is the villain and the Wild Wooders are the downtrodden and revolting rural poor) starring an extraordinary new Toad character called Ronald T.Rump. My son Matti Gardner is working on the technicals, and it will be going live well before the Presidential election. Golden Duck, the publisher of Wild Wood, are dubious to put it mildly, and they may well be right. But my feelings about Trump and America have been so lacerated, in ways so beautifully delineated by Umberto, that I'm prepared to do almost anything to express my fear and contempt. Fear mainly. As Brecht said at the end of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui - The Bitch is in Heat Again...Jan Needlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15823078224282953782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-58725360823062219302016-10-03T13:38:58.048+01:002016-10-03T13:38:58.048+01:00I'm glad you stood up here, Umberto. I rushed ...I'm glad you stood up here, Umberto. I rushed right off this morning to buy the new Rolling Stone, its lead story being Clinton vs the Hate Machine.glitter noirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11728649916344336118noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-55261821464129792802016-10-03T13:10:42.826+01:002016-10-03T13:10:42.826+01:00Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, Umberto. The most...Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, Umberto. The most eloquent expression of the things I fear and detest in one amazing statement. I remember the Cuban crisis so well, and walking down Deansgate in Manchester thinking 'take a last look at it, because next week it will be a radiation-fill crater but you won't be here to see it.'<br /><br />I follow the whole Trump debacle on the Daily Kos, which you will know. I'm not quite sure how I became a subscriber, but I somehow am and find it unmissable. What worries me more than anything is that this is not just a US phenomenon. Since Brexit, the cockroaches are coming out of the woodwork and a frightening scenario of racism, bigotry and moral blindness is developing here too. And now the news is filled with the certainty of a 'hard Brexit' and the pathetic illusion that somehow this is going to make us 'great again'. What sort of world will it be when everybody is 'great again'?<br /><br />Thank you for referring to Yeats's 'second coming' again. It's almost becoming the AE signature tune. First Bill, then me and now you. And a good thing too. As Wilfred Owen said, 'All a poet can do today is warn.'Dennis Hamleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15781139870037634374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-21672638519656196302016-10-03T12:36:41.793+01:002016-10-03T12:36:41.793+01:00Bravo, Umberto.
Yes, the paucity of serious journa...Bravo, Umberto.<br />Yes, the paucity of serious journalists/analysts/thinkers, whose task it would have been to stand up to and query the progress of this phenomena, to expose the lies and evasions...that's Danger Number 1...<br />But then, as you say, Danger Number 2 is a public so disaffected and removed from any sense of politics being "real" any longer...that many of them (and not only Millennials) may sleepwalk into the Rough Beast's ante-natal Chamber, and even perhaps assist at the Birth...not knowing what they do...John A. A. Loganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03613779477853664598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-67019662705202704662016-10-03T12:08:19.151+01:002016-10-03T12:08:19.151+01:00I'm finding it hard to comment, Umberto, as ev...I'm finding it hard to comment, Umberto, as everything you say here resounds with the anxiety, grief and terror of this political moment, not just for the people of America but for the world. <br /><br />Thank you so much for taking the time to write this so expansively and thoughtfully, too, as the media here seems fill air-time with clips of the most awful Trump supporters - the election as entertainment - rather than the awful situation many Americans must find it. <br /><br />(And voting for weed more important than voting for their President? Words fail.)<br /><br />Penny Dolanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16386668303428008498noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-17270940672358516292016-10-03T11:18:37.915+01:002016-10-03T11:18:37.915+01:00While the topic of Trump is exhausting in view of ...While the topic of Trump is exhausting in view of the billions he receives in free, non-stop publicity, I share your obsession with the upcoming presidential elections. I too am chronically distracted and unusually stressed about the state of America. Politics decide absolutely everything, from our food and water to our living conditions and health. Like you, my wise and wonderful friend, I will never understand how anybody can NOT be interested in politics. <br />Marsha Coupéhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04231252789789817205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-72276857165196672182016-10-03T10:44:37.590+01:002016-10-03T10:44:37.590+01:00Frighteningly fantastic piece, Umberto. I've p...Frighteningly fantastic piece, Umberto. I've put it on my Facebook thingie.Jan Needlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15823078224282953782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-36649003641915196222016-10-03T10:17:07.329+01:002016-10-03T10:17:07.329+01:00What Jo said - and a wonderful piece of writing, U...What Jo said - and a wonderful piece of writing, Umberto.Susan Pricehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07738737493756183909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-30869706546553302182016-10-03T08:59:42.286+01:002016-10-03T08:59:42.286+01:00Those of us across the pond are cheering you on - ...Those of us across the pond are cheering you on - we are as frightened at the prospect of Trump winning as you are.JOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03127111575563904349noreply@blogger.com