everything old is new again

the sight of "conservative" candidates as they court the yahoo vote and its money and a quick glance at the calendar tells me the awful, sickening descent into the foul presidential year of 2016 has already begun...i am a registered voter and i am inclined to make it to the polls at every opportunity ( there is a doozy of an off-year mayoral election coming up in my home town this year...a sort of dysfunctional warm-up...fine tuning the neuroreceptors to "bullshit" and bringing the loathing up to a fever pitch...there will probably be more on that in the next few months ) but that doesn't mean i believe the "interests of the people" are at the heart of the campaigns ( depending , of course, on how you define "the people"...i am inclined to believe that the elite sees themselves AS the nation so anything inimical to their interests is inimical to the national interest...but i am on the same page as gramsci ) so...in an all iww graphic post, let me say that there isn't anything new in the perception that politics is controlled by money or that the "political class" isn't anything more than a gaggle of hired whores...that goes back beyond the iww to 1789...washington was the first president because he was the richest guy in the country and madison, jay , and that "damned ass" hamilton were determined to squelch the political will of the mass with the counter-revolution they called the constitution..i would direct your attention to the journals of old bill maclay and to a close reading of the federalist papers if you have any doubts.

too late III

a short post to take notice of today's "new" new york times magazine...new columns...new features...new writers...new paper stock...new puzzles...all crammed into today's "biggest issue ever"...218 pages...103 of which are full page ads ( didn't count the half or quarter page ads ) and 100 of those are color worth $10,700,000 in advertizing revenue for today all on their own...some things never change..remember the post on the daily telegraph? ditto here.

a critical lack of objectivity

there was a news flash on the bbc as i was driving into work this morning that almost made we serve off the road... i had to pull over and breathe deeply for a few minutes until the amphetamine-like palpitations passed and the raw, intrusive facts could be processed by my ape's brain...evidence has surfaced that the prestigious london newspaper the daily telegraph had suppressed information obtained by its reporters concerning hsbc's money laundering and tax evasion services it provided to wealthy customers because of ( scandalized tone from the newsreader to punctuate the fact that the bbc does adhere to strict standards of objectivity ) the volume of hsbc's advertizing in the telegraph! say it isn't so! a corporate media outlet tailoring its content to pander to advertisers? what has become of objective journalism in this world...if this continues people may even begin to question the news on fox...some things should remain inviolate and certainly corporate media wants consumers to believe they are 1) objectively reporting ALL the information from both sides of a story and, 2)that the reliability of the information would never be distorted to enhance their financial position relative to the competition or to brand consumers to their organizations through manipulated news content...the daily telegraph will be heavily censured for this by its corporate peers...no good can come of this information becoming widely known...fortunately for the media only cranks listen to the bbc.

vermin

“…cleansing the Russian land of all vermin, of scoundrel fleas, the bedbug rich and so on. In one place they will put into prison a dozen rich men, a dozen scoundrels, half a dozen workers who shirk on the job…In another place they will be put to work cleaning latrines. In a third they will be given yellow tickets after a term in prison so that everyone will know they are harmful and can keep an eye on them. In a fourth one out of every ten idlers will be shot. The more variety the better…for only practice can devise the best methods of struggle.” V.I. Lenin from How to Organize Competition. 1917__________ Lenin’s title makes it sound somewhat harmless…but it is not…he certainly didn’t invent the process of dehumanizing enemies…that has a history that goes back well before 1917…i’ve never been a particular fan of lenin’s ( http://chemicalpariah.blogspot.com/2014/03/im-right-youre-wrong-why-are-you-still.html ) and surely without a lenin there never would have been a stalin…then again, perhaps there would have…only with another rname…it seems autocracy is a human habit…i am always struck by the “special” vocabulary used to distort and demonize the “other”…vermin figure heavily in this, “fleas” and “bedbugs” here…the Nazis were no strangers to vermin allegories…they seemed to fixate on rats as opposed to insects…memories of the plague perhaps…but all to the same effect…it still goes on today…have a look at the news…the world is full of new sub-humans…clerics and warlords denouncing “infidels” and “apostates”…vilifying, marginalizing, and beheading those who don’t share their brand of belief…on the other side late adolescent and early post-adolescent gamers firing missiles from drones at “terrorists” and “extremists”…all in a struggle to better the human condition…how ironic that they spread such misery…and it isn’t only on an international or even national scale…beyond religious, ethnic, and economic divisions some people in everyday life seem to work at expressing their own superiority by denigrating others…stereotypes…profiles...superficial judgments…humans have a habit of comparing themselves to others and finding others lacking…sorry sort of thing when we are far more alike than different…each with a set of strengths and weaknesses…each more complex than stereotypical thinking will allow…unique and yet the same…no “others”…just “us”…how do we get past that? the answer seems elegantly simple…everyone gets to tell their story and everyone has to really listen and find the commonalities, not the differences…the universals, not the specifics…how likely is that?

media war

have you noticed the cost of gasoline going up over the course of the last month or so? i have and it can be easily attributed to a small rally in the price of a barrel of oil...fair enough i suppose when a supplier has a panoply of transport addicted customers to manipulate and no credible objective oversight...i want to establish that fact a priori because it is germane to what comes next...refinery workers in 11 refineries across the country are on strike, including those at the bp/ammoco refinery in nearby whiting...they are on strike for some economic reasons but the main union contention is safety factors brought on by employee fatigue due to long shifts...concerns even a manager should be able to see...but obviously oil companies are spooked by an oil glut and employee safety ( not to mention the surrounding neighborhoods' ) are of a secondary nature in these troubled economic times ( did i say that? don't i know the government says things are improving? well...who believes lying whores? )...the corporate ( liberal my alabaster ass...they all have advertisers and editorial boards dominated by said advertisers...they are in business to make money and will sell what you buy and what those boards would like you to think...that is another post and a continuing theme however ) media will take up sides and, in the end, the commuting herd will blame "those greedy union workers" and not the profiteering oil companies...it is the way of hegemonic culture....only their world view is correct ( fucking margret thatcher and " there is no alternative"...someone should have sent that woman a copy of isaiah berlins' essay on "historical inevitability"...she is gone now..but it wasn't soon enough ) and anything that dissents from it is either fiction or treason...i wonder if i can avoid purchasing gasoline until this strike is over...worth a try...no day jaunts into the fields for awhile.

corvee labor II

corevee labor is an indirect form of taxation by which labor is extracted from citizens through statutory obligations...is there a statute in this town that demands i clear snow from the street? well...they mayor's name is on every garbage can in town and he has eleven federal indictments to deal with so it wouldn't come as much of a shock...however, the municipality has simply delivered me the accomplished fact the, for the fifth time in two days, my driveway and front parking area have been plowed in as they cut a passable lane down the street...so, for the fifth time in two days, i shoveled it out thus completing the municipal task of snow clearance...there is little justice in the world and i expect none here...but where is the damned tea party on this issue? oh..yeah...off doing what they are really about...protecting elite interests..i surely do not qualify for that sort of attention....and in my bitter angst i neglected to add that the bottom two photos are my street and house debilitated by "lake effect" snow