what can we afford?

altruism and mercantile capitalism are in opposition to and in in conflict with on another...i have known this for some time...even at its best capitalism is extractive and consequentialist......there is never enough in terms of acquisition or wealth...the assessment of "worth" in its ethos boils down to what you have in terms of wealth and power...the acquisition of that wealth and power are the ethical good...the means of their acquisition are secondary...what economists ( those academic justifiers of greed ) would term an "external"...i have known this intellectually for decades...the process is plain to see...historically it was evident in the "gilded age" of "robber barons" in the late 19th century ( carnegie was a "good" baron...he only extracted wealth from the public and salved his conscience with philanthropy[even if that too was mostly aimed at wealth...how many workers went to carnegie hall to an event?] while his hatchet man henery frick did the dirty work..jay gould was a "robber baron" because he extracted wealth from stockholders through market manipulations...that distinction carries through to this era...trump is president...bernie madoff is in the slammer ) and has again been more evident in public policy and political behavior since the reagan administration...all of which is a logical extension of the hamiltonian system of government for and by special interests instituted in 1789...which has evolved into a system where even full-time employment ( when it can be found ) does not pay enough to meet even basic necessities..i was aware of this downward spiral simply be observing new hires at the now defunct corporation i worked for..the starting wage was above the minimum wage of the state of indiana ( the mississippi of the mid-west ) but it was nothing near what could be termed a "living wage"...debt penury seems to be the state the reagan-clinton-bush-obama-trumpist cadre want the public at large to live in...debt creates new money and ( ask them ) there can never be enough of that...searching for health care insurance under the grossly misnamed "affordable health care act" has coalesced these thoughts into a sharper focus...without delving deeply into the details lets just say it was far cheaper to cobra my present union-based insurance...i have long thought that the terms "capitalist" and "entrepreneur" were synonyms for "grifter" and "charlatan"...people trying to sell me things i don't need by creating a desire through fear...those i can resist...the legislative imperative for health insurance backed by a coercive government tax agency i cannot...legislatively enforced extraction...no wonder people are angry...greed has been in control of the legislative process since at least 1789...this is an intensification and, with the judiciary joining in, the rights of workers are under direct threat while their obligations under the system increase as the late empire falters...what next? debtor's prison? ( as an aside, in 2001 [ the latest year i could find figures for on short notice ] prison labor in the united states produced $583.5 million in goods, $388 million of which were purchased by the department of defense...all produced on an hourly wage scale of between $0.23 to $1.15...technically not slavery...not publicized much either )...this is not likely to improve as climate and political ( they are linked despite the deniers...for a start let me suggest "environment, scarcity, and violence" by thomas homer-dixon...a rational voice...which is why he is obscure ) conditions deteriorate...dust off ozzie spengler for some bed time reading.

fear-based acquiescence

i have taken to refusing to scroll down the feed when i log on to facebook these days simply because there is nothing constructive in doing so…the feed is chock full of loud, contentious, abrasive, and relentless posturing over issues that may or may not be of concern…in large part it is not any sort of calm, reasoned debate…rather it is mostly an appeal to emotion…and the emotion it appeals to most is fear…from both sides of the political spectrum there are posting that are fear based…from “they are going to take our guns” to “amazon is selling facial recognition technology to the government so there will be no anonymity in public…well, for the nonce, no one is taking anyone’s guns unless there is a legal reason ( don’t wave a .45 at your neighbor...they frown on that ) and there is no such thing as privacy or anonymity in public anymore…have you actually looked around for cameras in public spaces recently? They are everywhere and those are just the ones you can see…we are all observed and have been for some time…this will only continue…but back to the fear –based business…all propaganda ( and hence advertising ) are designed to create anxiety…to push emotional buttons and create a state of unease that neutralized resistance to the message…weary acceptance of whatever is on offer is a successful sale if enthusiastic approval is not obtainable…I am inclined to think that an equal portion of this is designed to bludgeon me into apathy…to so overload me that I turn away ( which, actually, I have in part by refusing to scroll down the feed...there is another facet to that reaction however ) retreat in to happier thoughts which then allows the purveyors of this emotional assault free to frame the debate and exert greater control over immediate events ( variables increase, probably exponentially, as the event horizon moves farther into the future…human cognition is limited…no one knows they are simply trying to bullshit you into believing they do )…neo-cons or liberal, there are those who want to engender apathy and acquiescence …there are a godawful lot of people out there who want to manipulate my thinking…whether into cowering agreement or apathy doesn’t seem to matter…in their pursuit of power or money ( although, near as I can tell, they are fungible commodities…either is a gateway to the other )…refusing to scroll the feed does not indicate retreat or surrender however…there are other sources of information…and while none are truly objective ( mostly because there isn’t a truly objective human ) they are more balanced than the neatly packaged propaganda facebook keeps churning out…the issue there is finding them and then perusing them which tales more time than being spoon fed by the feed but will weave you more intact intellectually and in a better position to judge events and act…and acting on your perceptions is what it is about…don’t let them beat you into a position od acceptance…fuck quietism.

unions

in the wake of the recent supreme court decision putting yet another nail in organized labor's coffin i read an article that pinned the blame for the loses in membership on unions themselves...while unions are far from perfect ( and we will get into some firsthand examples from my decades as a union member down the road here...with some important distinctions...all unions are not equal ) and may have some responsibility in their problems, they have surely been aided and abetted in those losses by politicians...new deal or no new deal, unions have never been very popular with the business ( and hence government ) elite...and they were opposed to them despite the fact that they never represented a majority of american workers...even so they have been perceived as a threat to the status quo and active opposition to them goes well back beyond reagan and patco...part of organized labor's problem is who union leadership supports...the deomocratic party receives the majority of union pac's funds....something like 90% last time i looked which engenders a two fold problem...first the deomcrats, like all politicians, are cavalier with both campaign promises and the truth..they are unreliable at best in terms of attempting to maintain even a status quo in the labor/management power structures...they are of the elite and class interests will overcome campaign promises without even a struggle...compounding this, in an effort to minimize what they perceived as the dangers of an "interested and overbearing majority" [madison] the framers of the constitution created a government for and by special interests that subverted the individuals political will to that of a more readily predictable, and so controllable, group...energy that may have been directed towards a direct conflict with the government or employers on the part of individuals is expended inside the confines of an interest group as policy is debated and decided...the government increases the predictability of the individual by addressing only issues brought forth by interest groups, forcing individuals into pre-labeled pigeon holes...there is yet a deeper division among workers who are not only defined as deomcrats or republican...but find themselves further divided by issues such as pro choice/pro life, nra/gun control, pro-regulation/laisses faire...creating another layer of contention that diffuses solidarity...the rollback of unions began with their legal recognition under the wagner act of 1935...unions ( and by the way the courts later interpreted the wagner act as guaranteeing the rights of unions, not of workers )gained legal recognition and in so doing became part of the department of labor subject to rules laid down by the national labor relations board...in effect unions were taken "into the system" and left with fewer and fewer options as regulation mounted...the nlrb is controlled by the department of labor and the department of labor is controlled by the government..and the government is controlled by...well..not labor...and one thing not labor loathes is an organized work force with effective methods of protest and leverage in bargaining...so as unions evolved effective strategies such as the uaw's seizure of the fisher body works in flint michigan in late 1936 and early 1937 which forced general motors to negotiate a fair contract the nlrb moved to make sit-down strikes illegal...which they still remain...sympathy strikes, secondary boycotts, secondary site picketing were all made illegal or heavily regulated to the point of being ineffectual...all unions were guilty of in this was seeking legal recognition...the rest they had help with...on a personal level i was a member of a union for more than three decades and found pluses and minuses...the biggest plus was health coverage which came through the union...it was efficient and well run for the most part ( every system has issues ) and i can't fault them in this...the underlying theory of their unionism was a huge sticking point...for myself and more than a few others...we were members of the industrial arm of an old american federation of labor craft union that was mired in business unionism...they were in the business of selling industrial peace in three year bites...and it was a business...they had more in common with management than the bargaining unit and were more like a secondary set of bosses than advocates...when i was in the steelworkers union many years ago we had "grievers" as union reps...in this union the "advocates" were call "business agents"...the focus was clear from the institutional structures...an aversion to taking grievances to arbitration meant that workers' rights were not on the table in any way..we were "semi-skilled", not the skilled "craftsmen" they actually represented...small wonder that when indiana passed a "right to work " law many members opted out of paying dues and became free riders...there was not even a pretense of representation...only union journals and the odd t-shirt or baseball cap in exchange for dues...unions have not done themselves any favors by their behaviors...perceived as a special interest group ( which they are by government fiat ) representing a labor "elite" they have no sympathy among the unrepresented from whom they have been effectively isolated by behavior and government intent...we were dinosaurs...a resurgence may be possible...but not from inside the system.

hegemonic culture in its own cultural medium

i was struggling to explain to someone near and dear how attacking cultural hegemony in its own media only really serves to validate it, if not strengthen it...so i decided to go back to the fundamentals of the theory and went on line to look for some resources...i just typed in "cultural hegemony" and a multitude of links popped up...as i scrolled sow through them i stumbled on this:____ Cultural Hegemony: Amazon.com Buy products related to cultural hegemony products and see what customers say about cultural hegemony products on Amazon.com FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases____ and thought here is a fine example...i am trying to research the subject and i can find resources by...engaging in consumerist activity on amazon that extracts money from me in order to pay for material goods that i can use to attack the system...or, at least, try to explain the the complex ways in which we are embedded in the system and how many of those embedding mechanism we do not recognize because they involve habitual behaviors inculcated from the time we can focus our baby eyes on a tv until we are discharged by a system of public education that teaches us to be docile, obedient consumers who can stay in one place for eight hours a day serving the hegemonic culture...i am hoping this makes things clearer...tell me if it does not.

365 down...418 to go

"Congratulations America, we are now into the second year of the greatest Witch Hunt in American History...and there is still No Collusion and No Obstruction. The only Collusion was that done by Democrats who were unable to win an Election despite the spending of far more money!" — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 17, 2018_____________ i can think of a multiplicity of epithets to tar this dimwit with...he has ceased to be anything but a burden to even his own family much less the late empire as a whole...i have indulged myself in this in quite a few places including this blog...i will refrain from it today and simply point out that it took 783 days for the watergate break-in to evolve into a presidential resignation...trump's snark about a year are bravado and campaign rhetoric and probably a reflection of the depth of his problems..both legal and moral...he may or may not be guilty of gross malfeasance in office...i do not have all the facts...that he is an established, over the top liar and bullshitter is well established...obstruction of justice seems to be almost assured.

give me a "v"...

"the idea of restraining the legislative authority...is one of those refinements which owe their origin to a zeal for liberty more ardent than enlightened." alexander ( burr is a slimeball) hamilton...federalist XXVI_________oh i voted alright...not because i think it will have much impact...as an individual my vote has been and remains almost worthless ( i would point your attention in the direction of any presidential election i have participated in since 1972 and the relative impact my vote has had in a state that is thoroughly predictable in its voting habits )...still...it makes them nervous when there are a lot of voters so i vote just to fuck with them...i have no illusions about "restraining the legislative authority"...in the words of old joe shumpeter there is no common good and they will do what they damn well please after the electioneering bullshit is packed away for "four more years"...they prove this time and again and yet there are people who still think we have the power as "the people"...the system hamilton and co. designed is humming along nicely excluding "the will of the people" from the decision making process...trump may be a fucktard but he is of "the elite" and they will tolerate his tweeting if they get richer...and, so far, they have...so i paged through the ballot and it was with increasing unease that i noticed something i had never seen in one before ...one guy had the sobriquet "big bill" in parentheses between his first and last name..and on anther page i found "the spoon"...where, i wondered, was tony "the greengrocer"? or bob "the hatchet"?...i am thinking full blown aliases will be on the ballot soon as "the people" and their wants and needs become more irrelevant to a political process increasingly openly ( it has always been so...they just suppress the history of it ) driven by the bogey man of the great emancipator "faction" ( as though the republican part of his day wasn't one )...that we as a nation are divided and conflicted is undeniable...what is ignored is that, except for a handful of times, it has always been so...the civil war was a symptom of that and, although the constitution faction persevered in that conflict, that division has never healed...the late empire is losing sight of itself and faction will be on the rise..."big bill' and "the spoon" are simply indices of that. ADDENDUM:

could the individual who handed me this as i walked into the polling station be accused of vote buying?