Night Light

Photoplay: A Tibetan Buddhist Master and his Subject

Here's a picture of me with one of my favorite living Buddhist teachers, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche.  Actually it's a picture of him taking a picture of me.  The picture of him was taken by a wonderful young classical guitarist, Benjamin Biers.  There was a lot of subject/object reversal was going on.

Maybe this picture should be called "Chain of Transmission."  Or "Metaphotograph."  Anyway, it was a great experience.  Rinpoche had a burger and Coke for lunch.  I had tortillas and chorizo.  It was a very global-culture meal.  And although I was the journalist and he was one of the subjects of the reporting, he took my picture rather than the other way around.

Rinpoche's talk was excellent.  I like the picture, too.  And since all journalism is ultimately about the writer and not the subject, why not take my picture?  Besides, it was his idea.  He's the teacher, not me.

The tortillas and chorizo were delicious.  Very authentic, rustic-style cooking, not restaurant-style.  It reminded me that those of us who live in Southern California reside in that part of the country the Chicano activists used to (and maybe still do) call México Ocupado - "occupied Mexico."  That's looking at local history through a slightly longer historical lens.  And, as always, what gets in the frame is determined by who gets to hold the camera.

And if you want to get beyond the Subject/Object dichotomy - well, then, that's where it's good to call in somebody who can express the situation in a non-literal way.  Musicians are good at that.

¡Viva México Ocupado!

 

 

 

 

Lawrence O'Donnell Is Wrong About Deficits and Entitlements

On most issues Lawrence O'Donnell is on the side of the angels. But O'Donnell, who held senior staff positions on Capitol Hill during the 1990's, is one of many Democrats and liberals who think the way to fix today's problems is by recycling yesterday's solutions - even when those solutions didn't even fix yesterday's problems. Nostalgia for the great compromises of the 90's is going to sink the Democratic Party, not help it. More importantly, it will lead to the wrong policy decisions.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the current deficit debate. When O'Donnell accepted Esquire's challenge to create his own "deficit commission," he was already reinforcing the mistaken idea that deficits are the nation's number one concern. I hosted The Young Turks broadcast (America's #1 online news show, I'm told!) for three days this week. The clip below shows O'Donnell's last comments on the deficit debate, along with our comments.

The short version of our reaction? Lawrence, we love ya, but you're completely wrong on this one. And this is exactly the kind of thinking that will drive us over a cliff if we stick with it:

 

Follow @rjeskow

Elizabeth Warren Among the Lilliputians: Round 2 With Republicans [video]

While hosting The Young Turks this week we covered the latest interrogation of Elizabeth Warren by House Republicans, who are determined to make sure that she -- and the bureau charged with protecting consumer from bank ripoffs - are discredited.  

The headline for this piece should be "Elizabeth Warren Listens to Ludicrous Republican Statements While Maintaining Straight Face."  It was really impressive of her to maintain her composure as long as she did, and we couldn't help picturing a thought balloon above her head as she half-suppressed a smile.  Here's the video of the appearance, with our introduction and commentary:

 

1776, Today's Struggle for Independence, and a Pascal's Wager With the Future

I appeared on Burt Cohen's radio broadcast on Wednesday and we had the kind of in-depth talk about politics and meaning that feels all too rare nowadays.  The invitation came after I wrote "The New War of Independence - Against Corporate Politics," so that frames the overall discussion.  

Most of the clips are between two and three minutes in length.  The final two are closest to my heart, I suppose, although I enjoyed each part of the conversation.   (And you may notice that I was struggling with a nasty flu.)

The first clip talks a lot about the 18th Century, contrasting the challenges of identifying and fighting for independence then with those that confront us now, and raises questions: independence from what?  What do we need to declare our independence from, and how would that be done? 

INDEPENDENCE THEN AND NOW

(1 min, 58 secs)

 What would the Founders think of today's Tea Party? They believed in the common good.  They developed an early kind of "national health insurance," for example, and were opposed to the multinationals of their day.   

THE FOUNDERS BELIEVED IN GOVERNMENT AND THE COMMON GOOD

(2 mins, 28 secs)

Today the marginalized "Left" often speaks for most Republicans, and almost always speaks for most Americans, according to the polls.  So what "outside power" is holding us back?

WHAT DC CALLS THE LEFT IS THE AMERICAN MAJORITY POSITION

(2 mins, 15 secs)

We can't just define ourselves by what we're against.   What are we fighting for?  Can we motivate ourselves to write letters, make phone calls, and not surrender to hopelessness?

POSITIVE ACTION

(2 mins, 20 secs)

Here we discuss a pretty inconvenient and uncomfortable idea - that no politician or political party can do what needs to be done, and that the last several years have been pretty discouraging to a lot of people: 

THE OBAMA EFFECT

 (2 mins, 17 secs)

But unlike their opponents, the President and other Democrats can be influenced by citizen action. 

HOW TO WORK WITH THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

(1 min, 48 secs)

Don't we need to declare our independence from the need for heroes?  "XFK" is a symbol of our yearning for the next JFK or RFK, that politician "X" who might heal the trauma of assassination and restore a broken thread of leadership.  That dream isn't serving us well anymore. 

XFK AND ACTING FOR OURSELVES

(2 mins, 29 secs)

The last one is my response a recent piece by Chris Hedges which argued that democracy is dead and the corporations have already won.  Historical experience telsl us that despair is a form of blindness -- and that even if Hedges were 90% likely to be right, that we would need to make a "Pascal's Wager" with the future.  Pascal said he doubted the existence of God, but was going to act with belief just in case he was wrong.  

What if Chris Hedges is wrong?  Even if that's a long shot - and I don't think it is - shouldn't we take that bet?

IS CHRIS HEDGES RIGHT

 

(Warning:  Editing audio, like any act of editing, can always potentially change the context and so in some sense also change the meaning of what was said.  I don't think that's the case here but will err on the side of caution by offering that word of caution.)  

 

 

Talking Social Security with a Right-Winger

Lars Larsen of Alpha Broadcasting was kind enough to have me on for a pleasantly civil - and yet direct - exchange of views on Social Security.  Polls show that there's surprising consensus across the political spectrum on the so-called entitlements programs.  We can't protect them without engaging everybody, and I thank Lars for being a gracious host (in contrast to my experiences with, say, Sean Hannity). 

The conversation lasted about 10 minutes and can be heard by clicking below:

 

Lars Larsen SocSec_070711

 

A thoughtful conversation about what "Independence" meant in 1776 -- and what it means now

I appeared on Burt Cohen's radio broadcast on Wednesday and we had the kind of in-depth talk about politics and meaning that feels all too rare nowadays.  It seems like we're always fighting for or against Policy "A" or Policy "B" without searching for meaning and context in what we do.

The invitation came after I wrote "The New War of Independence - Against Corporate Politics."

If you have an hour to kill, or some portion thereof, here it is: 

 

Burt Cohen Independence 070711