Maybe not; in fact, it is looking like the hill is too steep to climb, but through the encouragement of some of my great friends I have met here on Daily Kos, I am giving it a go, anyway. And so, I am asking for your vote to send me to Netroots Nation. I am giving it a go, because I have never been, even though I have been registered here since 2007; my first jump in the big pond of political blogging. I actually can pinpoint the exact day I joined Daily Kos and not just because it is on my profile.
It was this episode of the Colbert Report telling me not to join because it would upset Bill O’Reilly that prompted my arrival on that date of July 25, 2007. How could I pass that up?
Anyway, I, like many, got caught up in the primary wars which was a turbulent time; enough so that I left for a little while. However, as they waned down I became friends with many people from all sides of the divide. It then, for some at least, became less about candidates and more about what principles you stand for. Many posters I hated with a passion became some of my closest friends.
I also discovered other writers I wasn't aware of until the health care debate which spawned some of the best writing on this site. After that I pretty much came back and started participating more and more as I had before. And as time wore on, the list of friends and those supportive of my work kept growing. This is not to say that my opinion is popular with everyone, because it certainly is not, but an open forum like this one allows one to find others who share a similar POV and thus mutual appreciation and relation is then achieved.
I can be a little hard edged, but some things need to be said.
But I care deeply about the issues and that comes through in my writing style however abrasive some might find it. I want Justice and Accountability.
Not austerity, I write about protecting Social Security and Modern Monetary Theory which is an empirical macroeconomic reality. I also write in a Post Keynesian mindset following the work of Steve Keen which spells out the problem of the horrible foreclosure fraud "settlement" which made waves across the blog-o-sphere.
I write about these basic national accounting realities not realized by either party obsessed with the deficit. It's more on the Republican side, but is still enabled by the Democrats sadly and if we are to reach full employment anytime before 2019 or longer(because this assumes January's growth rate), deficit hysteria must be abandoned altogether. I think it's obvious in my writing about abandoning deficit hysteria that alleviating the pain felt by the 99% is something I care about deeply, and with data.
Speaking of abandoning deficit hysteria, enter Occupy Wall Street. The Occupy movement was an explosion of righteous indignation about the failures of our system failing the 99%, only benefiting the 1%, and arriving at just the right time. I was losing hope after two pathetic sellouts on the Bush tax cuts, and then on the debt ceiling debacle many of us predicted would happen once the Bush tax cuts were extended. OWS did break through the corporate owned media's deficit narrative for awhile and had Democrats and Republicans talking about income inequality.
Yes, for the first time in a long time, I, as well as many kossacks here were and still are inspired by the Occupy movement. You might be wondering what starving artists have to do with anything I just wrote, but I will tell you now. I didn't study political science or economics in college, though I grew quite a bit of interest in both of those areas of study on my own. No, I went to an Art and Animation School.
That was and still is where I focus a lot of my time because for a long time I was somewhat apolitical and mostly was a dreamer and decided to follow my dream. sadly, it hasn't worked out well for me financially as I am one of the long term unemployed 99%. That's why I consider myself a starving artist, type. Technically because I can rely on help from family I am not starving, but that is the only reason.
And so that's why, without help, I really can't afford to go to Netroots Nation. I couldn't even when it was close to me in Austin which I regret, because there are people in Austin I want to meet among other places, cities, and states. The future for me is uncertain to say the least, and there is always a sort of anxiety about it. That anxiety is there for our entire society, some would say peak society, as well.
But rather than stress myself out about it or wallow about what a failure I am or what image capitalist society portrays of someone whom is unemployed as long as I have been as a 99er, I decided to keep working; to keep reading; to keep writing; and to keep drawing. Maybe it is all for naught, but I've had some successes recently as for as exposure on and for the Occupy movement. Lenny Flank noticed some of my work and I gave him permission to use one of my OWS images for a book about OWS with the writings of many good kossacks. I write about it here:
Voices from the 99% in Print Thanks to Lenny Flank! Protest Art Celebrating Dissent Against the 1%
Protest Art was always a big part of the movement that is supporting OWS financially and getting the message out there to this day. And so I say....
And just to show I'm not full of shit, I'm going to show one of my pieces from sketch to finished piece which I then digitally paint in Photoshop.
And so in closing, I hope some of you have found my contributions worthwhile enough to vote for me. Thank you to all that already have and for all of your support over the years.