HERE

The intellectual bankruptcy of corporatism (Kevin O’Leary) goes up against the intellectual richness of basic realism (Christopher Hedges). Spoiler alert: Corporatism gets destroyed.

I’m just now catching Van Jones’ speech at Occupy Wall Street a few days ago, and it’s pretty darn good. I don’t know if it’s the first use of the term, but in the video he calls bankers “banksters,” which, insofar as it calls to mind the word “gangsters,” is far more accurate. By the way, if you haven’t witnessed the “human mic” concept that is a central functional element of the movement (because protesters can’t use amplification devices in the park where they/we are hunkered down), this is a great opportunity.

I’m hesitant to bring a side argument of the vegan movement (so-called “welfarism” vs. so-called “abolitionism”) to the fore, but this is just too good not to post. Enjoy.

I steal something of yours. You accidentally retaliate in the smallest of ways. I torture and kill you in response.

Does that sound right to you on any level?

As the above video depicts, a village in India surrounded, tortured, and killed a terrified baby elephant. See, these village people don’t like elephants, because elephants trample their crops — you know, the crops those people planted in the same place where they destroyed the elephants’ home.

Events like these, in which humans assume the right to treat other animals however we please without respect to the interests of those animals, happen everyday around the world. It’s happening right now to more than 50 billion animals globally on factory farms. To millions of animals in horror-film testing labs. To millions of wild animals being netted, sport-hunted, or poached. To thousands of animals forced into circuses, rodeos, fights, and races they don’t understand and would never elect to engage in, if left alone.

There may be no greater irony than the fact that we humans use “animal” as a slur against the members of our own species whom we deem too violent or barbaric. Fact is, animals (of the non-human variety) haven’t got anything on us when it comes to committing senseless acts of brutality. They’re the victims of a pack of thieves called homo sapiens which steals homes, bodies, and lives, and which destroys families, livelihoods, and psyches, as a matter of perceived right.

It’s morally irrelevant that the victims of these crimes are not human. A baby elephant feels as much pain as you do when it is stabbed by a spear. It fears aggression as much as you do. It feels as safe with its family as you do. It strives to live a happy and healthy life as much as you do.

You can end your participation in all of this. Go vegan.

Stephen Colbert goes to town on conservative Justice Antonin Scalia’s ideas about the U.S. Constitution. Are we living in an age where a cable comedian has a greater commitment to formal logic than a Supreme Court Justice? You bet we are.

—Dan

Update: Read Congressman Weiner’s related op-ed in the New York Times.

Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) is the new breed of progressive. Much like Alan Grayson, he’s principled, media savvy, and courageous. Contemporary Democrats are famous for running scared even though the other side is repeatedly shown to be bluffing about everything under the sun — their supposed intellectual prowess, their supposed political acumen, their supposedly innocent motivations.

What I’m about to say is very nearly true: Republicans lie and front about everything. They adopt double-standards as a matter of momentary political convenience everyday. As Congressman Weiner rails against in the above video, Republicans demand and receive concession after concession, and then they vote no anyway. In the Senate, Republicans have broken all filibuster records by a longshot, to the point where the media literally say, without explanation or further comment, that bills require 60 votes to pass in the Senate. (They don’t!) Naturally, in 2005, when Democrats filibustered a small percentage of Douche-In-Chief George W. Bush’s pernicious and insidious lifetime nominations of federal judicial appointees, Republicans waged a media war painting Democrats as “obstructionist,” and that was just the nicest thing they said.

Ironically, all it takes is a little courage and principle to win elections. Democrats have recently gotten by on the increasingly obvious ineptitude of Republicans. But that tactic doesn’t win large-enough majorities to steamroll the habitual filibuster of the unity-at-all-costs Senate GOP, and it doesn’t get the right kinds of Democrats in office. Meanwhile, it depresses their voter base, which is forced to infer that Democrats will never enact uncompromising progressive (read: effective, nuanced, realistic, and compassionate) policies, even though that is exactly what our country- and world-in-crisis require. And that depressive effect on Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters is exactly the GOP’s mission!

So I say: Fuck yes, Mr. Weiner. Keep it up.

dashedlines: Arrested Development Action Trailer HD TV

“I’m going to war!”

Flying Lotus in MmmHmm, featuring Thundercat. Directed by Special Problems. Commissioned by Warp Films. Track taken from the album ‘Cosmogramma’, out now.

This is an incredible music video. I usually find “psychedelic” to be a disappointing term, because nothing ever seems to live up to the promise of a mind blown. But I think the term applies here.

Still think dairy farms are all pastoral fields and quaint farmhouses? Think again.

In this just-released video, Mercy for Animals (MFA) investigates and exposes the brutally sadistic practices within an Ohio-based dairy farm — stomping, kicking, punching, throwing, beating (with crowbars), stabbing (with pitchforks), bone-breaking, and even eyeball-torturing. Unfortunately, investigation after investigation shows that these are not isolated practices.

This is painful and infuriating to watch, but, as I’ve said before, it’s our duty not to look away — at least not until we really understand what is happening to these abused animals. In addition to giving up dairy, please donate today to Mercy for Animals so that MFA can continue to do vital work like this. I just donated 25 bucks myself.

Finally, Ohioans, this November you could have a chance to spare farmed animals from the most fundamental sufferings of life on a factory farm by lending your support to an important ballot initiative. Check out Ohio Humane for easy ways to initiate the beginning of the end for the most basic factory farm abuses in Ohio.

—Dan

Paul Rudd is the best.

Update: The Discerning Brute picked this up. Check it out :-)

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Come for the fun verbal spaghetti, stay for the unintended implications.

The National Milk Producers Federation is appealing to the FDA to require that plant-based milk producers — those who make what is currently known as soy milk, rice milk, and almond milk — be disallowed from calling their products “milk.” They claim that only “mammalian lacteal secretions” should be called “milk.”

In the above video, the female anchor discussing this story verbally… ejaculates… that plant-based milk producers should use the word “jism” instead of “milk.” That’s pretty funny.

What’s even funnier is that mammalian lacteal secretions are no more appetizing than jism. Bodily fluids — yummy! Even better when they don’t come from our own species.

One can only hope that the NMPF continues to be honest about its product by continuing to use the term “mammalian lacteal secretions.” Soy/rice/almond milk producers, you now have your comeback.

—Dan

Want to see cows in a new, more accurate light? Watch this video, which is brimming with cuteness and kindness.

Farm Sanctuary — an abolitionist organization that provides a home and life of peace to abused, abandoned, and/or escaped farm animals — recently rescued 6 calves that had been tied to a tractor and left to die. They do amazing work like this everyday, funded by compassionate individuals like you. Click here to donate.

—Dan

Fantastic subway music in New York. Check out the bass solo at 2:32 — HOLY SHIT! Whole band is great.

Late Update: The band’s name is Yaz Band. Check ‘em out!

What do you get when you mix men-children, war game fantasies, Christian fanaticism, delusions of grandeur, Anti-Christ paranoia, and terrible homemade Gothic music?

Hutaree, that’s what. Throw in a video camera and it’s pure gold. By the way, some stuff happened over the weekend to propel these guys from the back woods to the front pages.

—Dan