Monday, February 22, 2010

The Trucks won't load themselves...

I'm back from vacation with a vengeance...
 
I'm going to be trying to make some changes--as always happens after a vacation--due to some of my time away from the day to day. 
 
On the campaign front I'm working through an impasse that came up last year when the State House Caucus informed me that they had identified three candidates and would be asking me to step aside--now I'm trying ti figure out the most tactical way to move forward as none of those candidates panned out from them (lol... go figure).  The reality is that 2012 probably is the year for the 109.  I might even just go form an independent committee focused just on Instant Runoff Voting.
 
On the school front, the terrible job I did getting my draft in on time reminds me how far behind I get because of the campaign.  I'm making a new step forward to spend more quality time with school work--I owe it to my wife, family, and most of all to myself.  I am capable of being a much better student.
 
On the blog front i'm going to work on developing a better system--I've created a Theory thread, and will be positing news, politics, and philosophy--as well as academic--in different posts and aggregating on JimNichols4.com  (the 4 stands for the fact that I'm the Fourth, James Attaway Nichols IV to be exact)
 
Quote for the day comes from Doug Henwood on the financial crisis:
the bourgeoisie launched a successful war on a troublesome working class in the late 1970s and early 1980s. That assault – wage-cutting, speedup, deregulation, outsourcing, union-busting, cutbacks in the welfare state, all the familiar stuff gathered under the name of neoliberalism – created a problem for a system dependent on high levels of mass consumption both to maintain aggregate demand and to secure its political legitimacy. Why put up with the volatility and tsurris of American life if there’s no promise of plentiful gadgetry and upward mobility? So the answer was to counter the downdraft of falling wages with rising borrowing, via credit cards and mortgages. That model seemed to hit a wall in the recent economic crisis, but there’s no real recognition of that fact, and no new model for accumulation. In orthodox terms, the U.S. would be ready for a serious austerity program, but our ruling class is afraid to push too hard on that, at least for now. So I think we’re going to stumble along for some time until some new economic and political model emerges. Or if one doesn’t emerge, maybe we’ll just fall apart.
 
I'm headed to work. Enjoy your day... you're lucky to have it!

Posted via email from Jim Nichols

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