Still the angry piggy of Britain

[maeve66]

I just tried calling Alistair -- it's 10:16 PM there now, eight hours ahead. Or, I guess since the world goes by Greenwich Mean Time, we're eight hours behind. Whatever, there was no answer. I will try tomorrow between 10 AM and noon, my time. It's very frustrating that I can no longer just text or email him, sigh. I mean. A lot more frustrating for HIM, miracle man that he is.

I want to add my (tempered) jubilation to his, and also to see if he'd like me to figure out how to make digital files of me reading two books for him -- Hall Greenland's The Well-Dressed Revolutionary: The Odyssey of Michel Pablo in the Age of Uprisings, and a collection of essays by Michael Löwy, Rosa Luxemburg: The Incendiary Spark. Actually, I guess I could also offer the more instantly relevant The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi.

Back to the British election -- I said on FB last night, Yes, Keir Starmer sucks, but at least a) Jeremy Corbyn won back his own seat in Islington North, as an Independent, and b) Jacob Rees Mogg LOST his seat, which is apparently right up the road from Penny (one of Liam's exes... one thing you have to say for Liam; his taste in partners is uniformly good, which, yes, is a shout out partly to me).

Oh. Stupid Dreamwidth will probably make this impossible, but if it doesn't, here are two brilliant bits by the Brit comedian Tom Walker, "Jonathan Pie", whose persona is a left biased journalist going off on Brit, Australian, and New Zealand (?) politics 'before' or 'after' doing a supposedly straight bit of journalistic commentary. He's hilarious, but his two from yesterday and today are really wonderful.

https://fb.watch/t87Oxd0hfI/

and

https://youtu.be/ghr2M8mh8MA?si=Cfi6LcA9KODfLkg-

Yeah, I don't think those URLs are going to do anything like show a thumbnail. The second one, particularly, is his take on Keir Starmer, "50 Shades of Beige" -- a candidate who promises nothing, but a party which, if it does not start to undo Tory ferocity and fix some of its evisceration of the NHS and social services, will open the door to fucking Nigel Farage's Reform Party in five years. YIKERS.

Owen Jones is more upbeat, seeing huge growth for the Greens -- from one seat (Brighton, long a Green stronghold) to 4, and SECOND in 47 constituencies, often with 20 to 30%, which never happens here!

We're globally poised on a knife edge, here, between right populist reaction and anemic political liberalism based on rapacious neoliberalism. The Left probably doesn't even deserve to be capitalized (despite the brief blip in hopes raised by the Bernie effect on the Democratic Socialists of America... which is now, according to Tim, being further gutted by internal sectarian fights foisted on it by ultraleft assholes...)

Oh, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA -- No$hu (my favorite artist who also did "The Bonk Song" about CalPoly's student protesters bashing a riot-helmeted cop with an empty office water jug) put up a "commissioned song", which he has titled "Comrade with Benefits". Oh, my god.

Here's "the Bonk Song" and also "Comrade with Benefits"

The Bonk song

https://youtu.be/r-Z41xCFE2U?si=g0pWxGhUdZ16iMgP

Comrades with Benefits

https://youtu.be/6ENv6ZO__PM?si=IoEhu9_CBm0D4CeQ

Wow, a link post. Haven't done that in years.

Comments

[maeve66]

I have watched Jones' practically daily videos on Gaza and the Western media's criminally wretched 'coverage' since last October (and I watched and read him plenty, before that, too). I was sad, in a way, when he quit the Labour Party, but I understood it.

[sabotabby]

I found it very relatable, having quit the NDP for very similar reasons.

I saw him speak when I was in London. He's just a very genuine person who is motivated by consistent ethics, something that's so rare in politics that it's shocking.

[maeve66]

Yes, he is genuine and has ethics. I wish you had a photo op picture with him! I have one from a friend from last week, electioneering with Jeremy Corbyn (also one, tangentially speaking) of a friend, er, well, a friend on DW to whom you are friended, I think) with Billy Bragg. Very politically and culturally starstruck at a remove, by both.

[sabotabby]

Oh, the rally was huge. I could barely see the guy, let alone meet him. But his speech made an impression, which is also saying a lot since speeches at rallies tend to suck a bit.