This is the beginning of my last week posting the daily STOCK MARKET WATCH thread.
I don't even know how long I've been doing it. Since before the 💩 administration I'm sure, but how much longer is beyond my recollection . . . and beyond my desire to dig through the DU archives! I think I kept it up during a vacation in 2012 . . . . . . .
Anyway, it's time for a change, for me, for you, for DU, for SMW. I don't know if Hugin, our fearless leader, has someone lined up to take it over, but if you're interested, he's the guy to talk to.
Now, a bit of an explanation at least for the quote included in today's post.
Back in the early 2000s, I did some fairly extensive research into the history of arts and crafts in the US as both economic and political resistance. I had long been an admirer of Englishman William Morris as both an artist and an active socialist, and was specifically looking for similar traits in this country. Long before JD Vance popped up on the scene, I had copies of Allen Eaton's Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands and Jane S. Becker's Selling Tradition: Appalachia and the construction of an American Folk, 1930-1940 and Garry Barker's The Handcraft Revival in Southern Appalachia, 1930-1990, among others. Those three are still on my personal bookshelf.
It's so easy to equate The Markets with The Economy, but for the vast majority of Americans, the stock markets are no more a part of their daily lives than a ticker marquee is a fixture in their living room. Jobs, grocery prices, college tuition, rent, health care, the electric bill: these are the real economy. And for a good portion, if not the majority, of Americans, the economy was -- and perhaps still is -- even smaller than that: How much can they sell a dozen eggs for, rather than how much do eggs cost at Kroger's?
Yesterday I went in search of current information on just how accurate J. D. Vance's take on Appalachia really is, because I haven't read Hillbilly Elegy -- and probably never will. Just one link proved enlightening:
https://www.npr.org/2024/08/18/nx-s1-5065643/appalachian-authors-are-coming-together-to-counter-the-narrative-in-jd-vances-book
CLAYTON KINCADE, BYLINE: Since former President Donald Trump named Vance his running mate last month, copies of "Hillbilly Elegy" have been flying off the shelves in the hundreds of thousands. But Vance and his book have been critiqued since it first published in 2016. Among the critics is Barbara Kingsolver, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Demon Copperhead" and other novels such as "The Poisonwood Bible" and "The Bean Trees."
BARBARA KINGSOLVER: It used the same old victim-blaming trope. I got out of here. I went to Yale. I (laughter) - I disagree, and that's my job, is to tell a different story.
KINCADE: Kingsolver said that with "Demon Copperhead," she wanted to directly address some of the common misconceptions by the media.
KINGSOLVER: They think we're all white, and we're not. I wanted this to be the great Appalachian novel that puts our whole region in a context. We didn't choose to have poverty and low unemployment. We didn't ask for that.
So yes, a now-familiar Christmas carol has its beginnings in Appalachia, a region and a people exploited . . . for profit. Just keep that in mind.
Posting the daily SMW thread has been an honor and a privilege. I hope I've entertained you, maybe given you a chuckle or two, or maybe something to think about. And I'm still here until the end of the week. Labor Day week-end seemed a good time to sign off.
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