#The Great Society

[undergroundrockpress]

Grace Slick, 1966.

[secular-jew]

I say this as someone who once attended CPAC and went through a lot of life as a self-identified Milton Friedman fangirl: You have very clearly only read about postwar US social policies from a conservative perspective. I'm not even saying you have to change your mind, but you need to have the guts to read about things like LBJ's policies and the welfare state from other sources, especially black sources, and not just Thomas Sowell, to form a truly robust opinion. You owe it to yourself.

I read almost everything. LBJ was an avid racist, used the "N"-word liberally and regularly, and basically hated black people - but he was a Democratic pragmatist and understood that the Democrat party needed more black votes in order to gain a lock on power. LBJ therefore dramatically increased the entitlement state in order to buy black votes. Much like Biden is trying to do with the youth demographic in his illegal student loan forgiveness (both Pelosi and the Supreme court has reaffirmed the obvious: THIS IS ILLEGAL & NOT THE FUNCTION OF THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH). But the Democrats don't care about what is legal or illegal, they only care about buying votes and almost every entitlement program (not all but almost all) is designed to buy votes, and does little if anything to address the problems. For example, LBJ's Great Society was supposed to (was advertised to) eliminate poverty in a generation. TEN TRILLION TAX DOLLARS LATER, has poverty been eliminated? No, of course not. It's only gotten worse. BUT, 90-95% of black people now vote Democrat. The Democrats are doing the same thing on our borders, opening them up wide -- with the obvious rationale in buying buy votes and a future lock on power. Get off the Democrat reservation. Voting Democrat not only costs you more of your hard-earned money (assuming you earn money), it also solves nothing and ultimately, causes MORE DEPENDENCY and more poverty. That's all it does. #JEXIT

[deadpresidents]

Did you ever see the Woody Harrleson LBJ movie? Did you think he did a better job than Bryan Cranston?

I did see it and I love Woody, but it was terrible. It was a terrible LBJ impersonation and it looked like an SNL sketch with horrible makeup. I was taken out of the movie the first time I saw Woody as LBJ because the makeup was so atrocious.

Rob Reiner's idea for the film seemed to be to take every funny, awful, and interesting story about LBJ and blend them together, even if he had to have scenes where those things were all happening simultaneously. And even then, nothing was explained and there was no depth to what was going on, even though it was a movie about one of the most complex personalities to ever sit in the Oval Office and took place during a remarkable moment in history. It was really bad.

Unsurprisingly, Bryan Cranston was incredible in All the Way, which was also an infinitely better story and film. Cranston nailed LBJ's voice and mannerisms, and the makeup was spot-on. I loved All the Way. I hope that they eventually decide to do a follow-up because it was based on one of two plays about LBJ by playwright Robert Schenkkan, and his other play is called The Great Society. Apparently, Brian Cox -- the legend best known now for playing Logan Roy in Succession -- has played LBJ in Schenkkan's The Great Society, and that's a really interesting choice. I'd be interested in seeing that, but I'd rather see Cranston replay the role in that successor play.

[zwischenstadt]

Reagan’s position on voluntarism was willfully equivocal, variously seeking to exploit and disable the energies of a nonprofit sector that had first become a target of government funding under the Great Society Agenda.  Even while he endlessly exhorted nonprofits to pick up the slack from failing public services then, Reagan did everything in his power to undercut the nonprofit infrastructure that had grown out of, and beyond, the Great Society community action programs.  With their proximity to civil rights movement and the New Left, these evidently were not the kinds of voluntary initiative that Reagan wished to foster.  Reflecting on the legacy of Reagan’s first few years in government, Lester Salamon calculates that Reagan ended up cutting ‘the equivalent of $115 billion in real terms’ to the nonprofit sector between 1982 and 1985.  The Omnibus Budget and Reconciliation Act of 1981 led to huge cuts for grant-in-aid programs to state and local government, the first such cuts in almost a quarter of a century, and transformed a wide variety of categorical grants (that is, grants with budgets allocated to fixed programs) into block grants that gave states less money but more discretion in how to spend it.  These reforms eviscerated the smaller, more militant, nonprofits that had benefitted from Great Society funding largesse and had a particularly devastating effect on healthcare services for the poor.  During Reagan’s first term, it is estimated that cuts to healthcare block grants averaged from 20 to 35 percent nationwide; grants-in-aid to state and local governments for preventative health programs declined by 22 percent; for health resources by 42 percent; for health services by 22 percent; for alcohol, drug abuse, and mental health by 34 percent; and for Medicaid by 7 percent.

At stake here was something more than a deference to limited government: Reagan was profligate in other areas of federal spending and indifferent to the soaring budget deficit, squandering billions on the military and tax concessions, much to the dismay of some of his closest advisors.  More than a testament to fiscal conservatism, Reagan’s cuts to the nonprofit sector were motivated, foremost, by a political animus against the legacy of Great Society welfare programs.  Upon entering office, Reagan quickly moved to shut down the Community Service Administration (which had begun life as the Great Society’s Office of Economic Opportunity, the body responsible for funding Community Action Programs) and replaced it with a new voluntary sector agency named ACTION.  He then appointed a ‘particularly ardent conservative’ as head of the agency, who made a special effort to stop funds going to left-leaning activist organizations.  According to new rules issues by ACTION, organizations could not use federal funds to engage in the ill-defined activity of ‘political advocacy’ and would have to isolate funds that they used toward that purpose if they received as little as 5 percent of their operating budget from the government.  This stipulation was evidently aimed at the kind of public interest litigation that had grown out of and alongside the radical welfare activism of the 1960s and ‘70s – in particular, the various Supreme Court challenges that had undermined the power of state welfare agencies to police morality.  It was designed to stifle precisely the kinds of public policy activism that AIDS service organizations would engage in, despite all the odds, throughout he 1980s.

Melinda Cooper, Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism

[rastronomicals]

9:07 PM EDT September 21, 2024:

The Great Society - "I'm The One For You" From the Compilation album   Teenage Shutdown Vol. 13: I'm Gonna Stay (February 11, 2000)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

From the semi-notorious series of compilations chronicling 60's garage.

Target: Fuzz!

--

[mymelodic-chapel]

The Great Society- Born to Be Burned (Psychedelic Rock, Folk Rock) Recorded: October – December 1965 Released: 1995 [Sundazed Records] Producer(s): Sylvester Stewart, Leo de Gar Kulka

[krispyweiss]

Electric Hot Tuna Return to the Mother Plane for Final Song

- Teresa Williams nails “White Rabbit” in San Francisco

Poor audio and video quality notwithstanding, someone thankfully shot Electric Hot Tuna’s final number - the Acoustic Tuna swims on - Dec. 3 in San Francisco.

It found Teresa Williams, sitting in alongside her husband, Larry Campbell, nailing Grace Slick’s power and phrasing on a true-to-the-original rendition of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit,” while Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen reprised their 56-year-old bass and guitar lines one last time.

It’s a thrilling conclusion to a thrilling career that began as an Airplane spinoff and ended with an Airplane sendoff.

“Thanks a lot, folks, it’s been swell,” Kaukonen says before the players take their bows and their leave.

12/29/23

[blueboyluca]

“When I first heard it, from a dog trainer who knew her behavioral science, it was a stunning moment. I remember where I was standing, what block of Brooklyn’s streets. It was like holding a piece of polished obsidian in the hand, feeling its weight and irreducibility. And its fathomless blackness. Punishment is reinforcing to the punisher. Of course. It fit the science, and it also fit the hidden memories stored in a deeply buried, rusty lockbox inside me. The people who walked down the street arbitrarily compressing their dogs’ tracheas, to which the poor beasts could only submit in uncomprehending misery; the parents who slapped their crying toddlers for the crime of being tired or hungry: These were not aberrantly malevolent villains. They were not doing what they did because they thought it was right, or even because it worked very well. They were simply caught in the same feedback loop in which all behavior is made. Their spasms of delivering small torments relieved their frustration and gave the impression of momentum toward a solution. Most potently, it immediately stopped the behavior. No matter that the effect probably won’t last: the reinforcer—the silence or the cessation of the annoyance—was exquisitely timed. Now. Boy does that feel good.”

— Melissa Holbrook Pierson, The Secret History of Kindness (2015)

[proselles]

you know what i think is really cool about dungeon meshi? the fact that it really handles the whole 'how our food is made' so gracefully. in this day and age, we've become so disconnected from how our food is produced and distributed that the thought of how our food is obtained brings disgust to many people (and for the big industry farms, it honestly should! but im referring to our existence as omnivores in the food chain). marcille acted ridiculous whenever the thought of killing a monster for food is brought up, but honestly, she's a great model for how many people nowadays react whenever they have to truly think about what they are consuming/are brought to a meat farm.

senshi shows the characters (and us, the audience) about the process of making food in a respectful, genuine way to the creatures he has used to produce nourishing meals. by explaining the nutrition and benefits of each creature, he creates and healthy relationship between the consumers and the meal they have. the show really brings a new dimension of respect for each of our meals. truly the bob ross/marie kondo of cooking.

[thenewdemocratus]

The LBJ Library: Video: President Johnson's 1964 State of the Union address, 1/8/64

. The New Democrat This is the speech where President Lyndon Johnson calls to continue President John Kennedy’s agenda. Putting his tax cut plan through Congress that President Kennedy badly wanted. As well as calling for the Civil Rights Act it be passed that was finally passed in the summer of 1964. As well as calling for medical insurance for the elderly and poor which became Medicare and…

[pandadrake]

Okay future boy. They should hang out.

(Jefferson completely absorbing everything his Spider-man says is peak. Miles, all your dad wants is to listen to you. Water you doin'?)

[bixels]

Now that Ghibli's new movie is coming out soon, I've been thinking about anime films and wanna talk about my favorite animated movie ever, Tokyo Godfathers.

TG is a 2003 tragicomedy by Satoshi Kon, following three unhoused people––an alcoholic, a runaway girl, an a trans woman––who find a baby in a dumpster and set off across Tokyo to reunite her with her parents.

If you like the sound of that, go watch it because the rest of this post is spoilers and I have FEELINGS about this movie.

URGHH, the fact that only two moments of true kindness, generosity, and care given to the three protagonists without any expectation of reciprocity are given by a Latin-American immigrant couple and a drag show club full of trans women. The fact that, despite her loud and dramatic personality, Hana is the glue that holds the team together and the heart of the whole movie. The fact that this movie pulls no punches at showing the violence and inhumanity committed by "civilized Japanese society" against the unhoused. The fact that Miyuki craves to be loved by her parents and ends up seeing Hana as her true mother. The fact that Miyuki starts off accidentally using transphobic language against Hana, but slowly begins calling her "Miss Hana" out of respect. The fact that, according to Kon, Hana's role in the story is as a mythological trickster god and "disturb the morality and order of society, but also play a role in revitalizing culture." The fact that Hana so desperately wants to be part of a true family, yet is willing to sacrifice her found family so they can be with their own, and is rewarded for her good deeds in the end by becoming a godmother. The fact that, throughout the movie, wind and light have been used to signify the presence of god's hand/influence (this movie's about nondenominational faith––faith in yourself, faith in others, faith in a higher power. Lots of religious are referenced, such as Buddhism/Hinduism, Christianity, and Shintoism), and in the climax of the film, as Hana jumps off a building to save a baby that isn't hers, a gust of wind and a shower of light save her from death. The fact that god saves a trans woman's life because she proved herself a mother, and that shit makes me CRY.

[pacificwaternymph]

I love Arcane because on the one hand you have this bitter, angry young woman who was kidnapped and illegally detained in a federal prison for pretty much the entirety of her teen years, and when she's finally set free she finds that nothing is as she remembers it, all the people she once knew are either gone or irreversibly changed, and she doesn't know where her place in the world is anymore.

And then on the other hand you have this rich girl nepo baby rookie cop taking two steps outside her own neighborhood and being hit with the realization that her government REALLY FUCKING SUCKS.

And they're gay.

[peachdoxie]

Rereading Oathbringer, and it's once again so painfully clear to me that Lirin pushing Kaladin to become a surgeon was his desperate attempt to keep Kaladin from going to war. As a surgeon's assistant, Kaladin was exempt from being conscripted into the Alethi military, and sending him to Kharbranth would get him even further away from the war. I know Lirin gets a lot of flak for trying to push his views and desires onto Kaladin, but all I really see is a father trying his hardest to protect his son from the horrors of war while living in a society that venerates it.

[mylifeincharingcrossroad]

[jimmysea]

WANDEE GOODDAY (2024) - Behind the scenes