notes on notes, the punditry, and objectivity

"political or military commentators, like astrologers, can survive almost any mistake, because their more devoted followers do not look to them for an appraisal of the facts, but for the stimulation of nationalistic loyalties,,,much of the propagandist writing of our time amounts to plain forgery. material facts are suppressed, dates altered, quotations removed from context and and doctored so as to change their meaning. events, which it is felt, ought not to have happened are left unmentioned and ultimately denied...the general uncertainty as to what is really happening makes it easier to cling to lunatic beliefs. since nothing is ever quite proved or disproved, the most unmistakeable fact can be impudently denied." notes on nationalism.george orwell.october 1945________________goeorge's "nationalism" is a bit broader than the ordinary...he includes "isms"...ideologies...and religion...and ideas that set themselves solely as counterpoints to other ideologies with no positive ideas for alternatives...and so this framework would lend itself to an analysis of the present state of politics and mass media where the divisions are clearly along partisan ideological lines and have little to do with fact as opposed to the subjective matter of "truth" which is what the media distortions are pandering to...reinforcing world views in spite of what may actually be happening...and all to the benefit of corporate profit and political expediency...shopping around the web ( and bearing in mind you can find anything here that will support your views...the web is media too )https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/...this site finds most pundits "counterfactual" and they do have a fair cross section of the political spectrum...from micheal moore to rush limbaugh...and then have a look at this:https://www.medicaldaily.com/being-confident-better-pundits-being-correct-246304 if pundits are correct 47% of the time they are doubtlessly doing better than politicians who basically lie for a living...we seem to be awash in a flood of allegations, counter allegations, distortions, lies, emotional assaults and blackmailing, banalities, outrageous claims ( "when you lie, tell the big lie" ), and a deep dose of denial about a lot of things we should be paying attention to but can't because the distortions and existential hum of all the bullshit are in the way...that i have no faith in politicians and very little in media is apparent...which begs the question, in the face of that what do we do? the political system is geared towards interest groups...it does not respond well to individuals...we get to vote for elected officials who then, for the most part, go on to work for the interests of their donors more so than their individual constituents...“[democracy is an]institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for the people’s votes.” Capitalism, socialism, and democracy p.269...that is from joseph shumpeter...an early to mid 20th century political economist and harvard professor who maintained that elections were popularity contests and not much more in terms of actual representation...i find myself inclined to agree...which leaves the ballot box as a poor vehicle for change...i am an individual and so will act as an individual despite the systems inherent bias against them..my actions are the one one thing i exert some control over ( we could go off on to the hegemonic culture and how, since, like everyone else, i am so deeply embedded in it that some actions that run counter to it are not possible without a good deal of negative sanction...but read gramsci instead...if you have the patience )i have some choice in what i do or do not support and some choice in how i spend money ( but not really complete control for instance, if i stop paying my utility bill to protest my power company's use of coal fired generators they will, eventually, shut off my gas and electricity at which point everything in my house ceases to function..and what do i do? pay the bill...embedded )...so i can choose not to patronize say fox news ( electricity costs money ) or (ugh ) the national interest ( subscription costs ) or buy products made by nestle or nabisco at the supermarket ( but it is difficult to avoid the supermarket altogether...seeing a pattern developing? )...and i can sift through as much media noise as i can stand to try to ferret out something of a balanced picture of events...as far as that is possible given my own biases...past that i can work towards making as much of it as possible irrelevant...willfully ignoring pundits of all stripes...eschewing as much electronic media as possible ( yes print is still biased but it takes longer to assemble and you can see events unfold in some anticipation of it and make value judgements as there is a bit of a lag )...and shutting off the media and going out in the yard to think instead of just passively listen...most of it isn't simple and it may well be ineffective...but i have to say stalking dragonflies with a camera cuts down on the angst...the zeitgeist is awful...do what you can to stay whole.

this is not a political farce

i have been consciously avoiding the foul political landscape in this tired and frightened country for a number of complicated reasons...mostly because in the emotionally charged atmosphere no one is is listening to anyone anyway...which is lamentable because i am inclined to believe that this is exactly what that entitled self-absorbed clown wants...if we are busily spending our time arguing and threatening one another we are not going to have the time to look even remotely closely at the corrupt kleptocracy this wannabe authoritarian is running out of the white house..nixon was paranoid but he wasn't corrupt ( and if you know me you realize what a stretch it is for me to make even the slightest positive statement about tricky dick )...this plutocrat is as venal as they come...der fur hair has never been presidential...how could he? he clearly was never socialized as a child...amoral...asocial...sociopathic...the corporate zeitgeist incarnate...corrupt and vile...his latest insults aimed at members of congress over their ethnicity and origins are just another line of evidence of his racist intent and his empowering of racist elements in this country to underpin his authoritarian pretensions...sad angry belittled bewildered frightened people doing what humans do...looking for reasons why and finding all the wrong ones in this ego run riot...this should be a wake up for congress and they should seize the opportunity to kick this fat turd to the political curb...remove the legal protections the presidency confers on his venality...unseal all the indictments...and let him finish his days in detention..or in an ignominious exile in putinville...as impotent and bloated as ferdy marcos in hawaii...unfortunately far too many of the people who should be acting in defiance of this insult to "the people" have no real interest in the people and are involved in trying to take his place...or, at least, insuring their continued presence in the august assembly of whores called congress...the"american century" has been dead for about twenty years now and as we slowly fade into a parody of great brittan this is the sort of "leadership" we can expect...backward looking ( and trumpy is reaching back to lynchings people...he is fucking dangerous ) and indulging in recidivist and/or self interested behaviors reminiscent of "the gilded age"...jay gould...charles tyson yerkes...bathhouse john...hinky dink kenna...everything old is new again...this will not end well.

media and contradictions

the media is alive with slime...that is a given..and, no doubt, there are those who find my opinions ( and they are opinions..i am no "expert" so i fit in with the op ed pages anywhere ) slimy and repugnant as well...so be it...the reality is that between television ( i abandoned television[ and by "television i mean broadcast tv...never had cable ] seven years ago because it is the single most effective tool for engineering desires for things we don't need and the content seemed inane ) the internet, or print media, you can find some outlet or other that will lend support to your particular worldview...whether pro life...pro gun...pro choice...or gun control ( or pepsi or coke for that matter )because the "news" is pretty much a marketing tool aimed as specific audiences because media outlets are for-profit corporate entities and they like a solid customer base..like any other retailer...i have been accused ( among other things ) of being especially biased against the new york times...well..i have been a subscriber for a number of years and they are no different than any other corporate outfit except that they are an oft cited branch of corporate media and have been called "the paper of record" on more than one occasion and so, i think, are qualified to be a representative of a fair part of the media spectrum in terms of behaviors...the puking buddha and i have spent part of the weekend perusing the times ( we are not done yet ) and what we have discovered is that, like any other bureaucratized organization, sometime one set of news drones is unaware of what another is working on...contradictions invariably follow a lack/breakdown in communication...misunderstandings flow...so...yesterday we were gleefully informed:

that der furhair's trade wars do not matter and that job growth was "sizzling" ( as far as one can sizzle on a less than livable rate of pay...this is a factor that is neglected in this crap...how many people do you know with two or more jobs?...and before you go ranting at me about "skill level" let me say "fuck you", it isn't about skill...it is about corporate greed...and even the highly paid are so remunerated because they are creating even more wealth for someone else...extraction is the first principle of capital ) as it "rebounded sharply in june" ( this, of course, based on politically expediently cooked numbers from the department of labor )...okay as far as it goes...but it did not seem to have gone as far as today's paper where we find:

that jobless claims are up for the four weeks preceding june thirtieth...perhaps we lost more minimum wage jobs than we "added" in the month...clarification seems in order..no doubt there would be some impressive doublethink if the point were pressed..the punditry has the answers you seek... and a final note:

someone tell me exactly what "left" we are talking about here...the "left" of the democratic party? that is pretty much a joke since it has been drifting rightward since reagan's inauguration and finds itself somewhere to the right of alf landon at the moment with no end of drift in sight...who in their right mind gives a rat's ass about what pelosi and her acolytes represent? skeptic and profound cynic ( in terms of crates of thebes mind you..not the modern distortion that has made it an epithet ) that i am i don't honestly believe she has the interests of anyone but nancy pelosi at heart..and that, by extension, can be applied to any of the whores in congress regardless of their media cachet...even ocasio-cortez will be wealthy before she is through...my thought is to make the entire population of whoretown as irrelevant to my existence as i can...the problem is it is difficult to keep them at a distance when you read the times...they are not the defenders of "truth" ( that slippery subject ) or freedom the promote themselves as...they are a business...just like fox news...cnbc..or congress.

fixes

consumerism as a climate change opiate…economic growth is necessary…sales are the ultimate ethical good…you need these cosmetics and yoga pants ( not to mention pineapple kitsch )…the future looks great…the economy is fine and consumer confidence is up…climate change is a hoax…technology and human inventiveness will save us…look at all the stuff we have for you to purchase ( on a credit card preferably…the economy needs cycles of debt )…consumerism as a zen precept…be in the “now” and the “now” is shopping…the future can take care of itself and never you mind those freaks that prattle on about the impact of climate change on growth and the frightening possibility of “steady state” economics…neo-luddite believers in that 19th century weirdo john stewart mill…stories to frighten the weak minded among you into consuming less…wholly un-American…we know better…we know what’s good for you…sit back…relax...enjoy the ride…what could possibly go wrong?