living in the memory hole

Good Morning Fred, Thank you for contacting the New York Times. The Photographer has the choice of digital vs. analog. But I would say that 99% of the time they end up being digital. Have a great day today!____________________________ that's an answer i got in 2017 to a question i posed to the n y times...i asked specifically about photos in the print edition, as oppsed to the on line edition, and, even if the estimate provided is on the high side, this must mean that the majority of photos in the print edition are subject to digital manipulation...so...

is this photo that accompanied an article about kammy's ties to big tech real ( i do believe the ties are real by the by...a v p in bed with big tech...great ) or "enhanced"?

is boris really this goofy or is someone fucking with his image?

is that a real mask?

the technology has come a long way since the nineteen thirties...the idea behind it remains the same...confuse the past...confound the present...herd the masses in the idrection of a specific and exclusionary ( there is alwyas an "other" ) world view...the spook and conspiracy worlds bleed into what passes for "reality" and all across the confusion/obfuscation people are making money ( have a look at the qanon merchandise on amazon sometime ) or political mileage ( which is probably fungable with money...donny is taking a wad of cash home with him next month )..."reality", like "truth" has always been a subjective matter...lots of interpretations out there and, just like in a courtroom, everybody wants you to buy into their "version" because it stands to benefit them...not you...so forget the "truth" and have a look around your immediate area for some facts because those rarely seem to match up to the "news" or the "truth" for that matter...these are weird times...how much of any of it is real?

like rats in a firestorm

well...that pretty much leaves lindsey as the last obsequious sycophant ( yeah...i know...tautalogous...but he repeats himself a lot as well )...

and if it isolates that miserable whore so much the better...the fat's in the fire and the fire is driving the rats to chose between "the system" and the egomaniaical sump they have been wallowing in since 2017...and they seem to be choosing BAU...they all know joe and kammy...they have worked with them for years...the insiders have opted to go with what they know...and what they know is that there are no more political parties, only interests because that's where the money is...line up the corporate paymasters...the new congress opens for business next month and they all want their cut...from mitch to alexandria...living in whoretown aint cheap...

past tense michelle? i am inclined to think he isn;t done being dangerous just yet...biden isn't in the white house ...interesting times continue.

of course he doesn't

and neither does that bigoted theocrat pence...the ny times isn't giving me anything new...and just why is it that donny doesn't believe in democracy? because he is a corporate authoritarian...all corporations are undemocratic in their paradigms..." Work makes a mockery of freedom. The official line is that we all have rights and live in a democracy. Other unfortunates who aren’t free like we are have to live in police states. These victims obey orders or-else, no matter how arbitrary. The authorities keep them under regular surveillance. State bureaucrats control even the smaller details of everyday life. The officials who push them around are answerable only to higher-ups, public or private. Either way, dissent and disobedience are punished. Informers report regularly to the authorities. All this is supposed to be a very bad thing. And so it is, although it is nothing but a description of the modern workplace."...that's a quote from bob black's essay "the abolition of work" and it is correct...coporatons are self interested to the point of sociopathy and so are their executives...none of them believe we can think and none of them believe we should be allowed to make our own decisions...or, if they allow it, they make it a negative choice...what are work rules where you work? where i work employment is "at will"...i can deprive myself of employment ( and so, income ) any time i may please...and a manger can walk up to me and say "you're fired"..."with or without cause and with no prior notice" is how their website phrases "at will"...who holds more power? so no, donny doesn't think much of democracy..which is why...

they are going to twist and turn and try every blastantly undemocratic ploy their lawyers can dream up ( and let's not forget just how goddamn many members of the imperial senate are lawyers ) to steal the presidency from the "will of the people" who fired him...this is not over just yet...the electoral college meets today but congress has to certify the vote count on 6 january 2021...look for pence to be the bagman/get away driver ( and be sweating bullets )...we are still a long way from a biden presidency.

"get a grip"

paxton and tejas do need to get a grip on reality...the clock it ticking on donny and "his" justicies are not playing ball...

i believe it was justice ginsberg who pointed out that donny wasn't a lawyer...it would seem that his appointees are...or, at least, have more respect for law than they do for an arrogant solipsist because they aren't having any of this farce...

the faithful are appoplectic over it all ( in the words of wisdom from 2016..."get over it " ) and are howling in the streets...which is to be expected...and it is not the first time the court has fallen into disfavor..."john marshall has made his decsion. now let him enforce it" was uttered by another president whose contemporaries called him unfit to hold the office and i can recall signage in my state from the 60s saying "save the republic, impeach earl warren"...that didn't happen...one suspects when all this shakes out a second trump administration ( if you can call it adminstration and not bullying ) isn't happening either...and as a side note, ken paxton was indicted in 2015 for felony securities fraud...

you can fuck with the proles but don't mess with the shareholders...they are vindictive and brutal when it comes to money...one suspects the dingus from tejas knew this was going to fail miserably because it is basically illegal...one suspects an ulterior motive.

four

1. frail and unsuitable authority 2. the influence of custom 3. the opinion of the unlearned crowd 4. the concealment of one’s ignorance in a display of apparent wisdom roger bacon….four causes of ignorance

when does this become treason?

that the trump is challenging the elction in court is no surprise...the 2000 election set the precident...that donny and his aleged legal team are being bitch slapped by every judge they land before is no surpisde either...they are lying and inventing nonexistant fraud...that election workers are being threatened by the trumpist yahoos across the country is no surprise...they are violent thugs bent on taking everything they can ( including the vindictive evangelicals among them...the church hates its perceived enemies just as much as it needs them to perpetuate the persecudtion myth..ask the theocrat mike pence )...michael flynn is a mouthpiece for the wanna be nazis and needs to be seriously jailed again...i cannot find anything in the constitution that allows the president to supend it ( even though lincoln made serious attempts at it )...so this is a completlely crackbrained illegal propositon...unless you are determined to have an authoritaian governemnt..in which case a civil war is your last, best hope...there are doubtlessly violent trumpsts who would like to see just that...flynn is playing to that audience in an effort to undo donny's loss ( and, no doubt, place himself well up in the heirarchy of "the new class" after the revolution )...donny is sociopathic and arrogant to the point of solipsism...this would suit him since he thinks he merits everyone's subservience which can be a problem for some...donny has a habit of axing subordinates...bannon say ( how's that case going? )or bolton...or flynn for that matter...fired once...sucking up to get back in donny's good graces? ( or trying to create a base for himself? ) one wonders how secure a position in "the new class' would be...no one is safe because donny is as paranoid as they come...deputy-fuhrer is iffy ground...one wonders just how many violent trumpists there are out there ( they surely exist ), how well organized they are, and what side the military and law enforcement would come down on if and when the crunch came...ten days to the electoral college...sleepy joe and kammy aren't in office yet...to think violence impossible is to be politically naive...so is thinking "it can't happen here"...there are dangers to a highschool civics view of what the government really is.

happy thanksgiving ( for some anyway )

solipsistic meglomaniacs rarely worry one supposes...it is not in their nature...everything is relative to them and they are the center from which all reality emanates and the reality oozing from the behavioral sump the white house has become is as schizoid as donny...

seems anyone who lies, cheats, steals, suborns purjury, on vilifies the facts ( as opposed to promoting "alternate truth" ) gets a free ride home for the holiday from donny and his thugs at the department of justice...

he can't pardon state offences so his lawyers should mind their p's and q's while filing frivolous lawsuits over elction results..one supposes some may border on contempt of court as donny goads them into presenting nixonian defenses of "executive privilege" in open court...

if you are not on the pardon list there seems to be a rush to get things accomplished before donny heads for the bunker in florida to try to wrangle his way out of extredition to new york state...i have sat on a jury and that did nothing to enhance my view of "justice"...the facts may have been in the courtroom but no one was looking for them...they were too busy trying to convince me of their verion of "the truth"...these people may indeed be guilty of heinous crimes...i don't have any real information and they may indeed need to be incarcerated for the public good...in my estimation executing people resolves nothing...it is a hold over from the jehova of the bronze age cult...don't come talking to me about how fucking "civilized" we are...barbarians one and all...so?

by any and all means "lock him up"...just get another sociopath off the street.

carefully recruited collaborators

“…Red Army soldiers and Russian agitators moved from village to village recruiting the least successful, least productive, most opportunistic peasants and offering them power, privileges, and land confiscated from their neighbors. In exchange these carefully recruited collaborators were expected to find and confiscate the ‘grain surpluses’ of their neighbors….these two newly created groups defined one another as mortal enemies. The kulaks understood perfectly well that the komnezamy had been set up to destroy them, the komnezamy equally understood perfectly well that their future status depended on their ability to destroy the kulaks.” Anne Applebaum. Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine.

identity politics engineered by a government intent on scapegoating, if not destroying, a subset of the population…employing an embittered subclass of the polity and turning its frustrations and resentment into acts of violence against another subset for the benefit, both political and economic, of an elite…us against “them”…they are the “other”…foreign…alien…not of us…we, as a nation, aren’t there…yet…we’re zeroing in on it though…why else all the talk about walls and the detentions at the border…and it doesn’t stop there…an entire presidential campaign that was built on fear by both sides…to what purpose besides division…balkanization…the ad wars over pepsi/coke…bud/miller….chevy/ford politicized to pro-life/pro-choice…nra/gun control…immigration…covid…the distortions of qanon ( today is international conspiracy theorists day…born fifty-seven years ago and still celebrated by manipulative fucks everywhere…nothing more helpful in the control of the mob than a good conspiracy theory…donny is aware [or, at least his handlers are ] of this…smoke and mirrors to divert the great unwashed’s attention from what is really going on ) perceived differences keep us at one another’s throats…figuratively and literally…and who wins? us? or the elite? that is the one true societal division…the rest are the creations of the media and of the politicians and of the clerisy…curious that lenin’s bolsheviks numbered about 1% of the population…a seeming statistical universal that transcends ideology…so…again…what do the 99% have in common…what can link them instead of dividing them…we all work…workers…and the bulk of the value of what we produce goes to someone else…we have stuff…they have wealth and the power ( the two are fungible ) that goes with it while many of us rent storage space and service the interest on the debt we incurred for the stuff…and they brand us…politically and as consumers…to keep us from seeing the reality…and we keep buying into the dream…i find the current president a vapid twit…beyond a bit more civility in administration i do not expect much more from the next one…or the one after that…they are all representatives in the pay of that same elite that wants to keep us divided…maintain BAU...the veneer will change ( unless dwindling options for avoiding incarceration of flight leads donny into the very real treasonable area of political violence…given his solipsism you cannot discount the possibility even if you may debate the probability )…the substance of what is beneath it will not…we are a long way from the end of “interesting times”.

off to see the wizzard

that this clown would have asked some sycophants to come have their arms twisted in a desperate attempt to undo his defeat is not surprising ( that he would need not ask the god-fearing sycophnats from the nether regions of my state who have kised his ass for four years is no surpise either )...the question is are the michiganers so disdainful of the "will of the people" of their state that they'll go with the intent of subverting the electoral process or will they decline...or go and deliver the deserved rebuke? this thug is desperate to stay out of sing sing ( or, alternately having to flee the country and have his assets seized ) and is not above selling out any and everyone to save his miserable skin...one thinks we may be bordering on treason here ( with the proviso that treason that prospers goes by another name )...certainly we seemingly have no compunctions about ripping up the consitution ( not that i am a huge fan )...but it is pardoxical that the "law and order" candidate has so little respect for legalities...then agian, every judge he's taken his case to has said "not in this life buddy" ( as his lawyers, unable to hold their noses agianst the stench any longer, bailed one by one ) so what's left to target beyond the electoral college? not much...time and options are running out and it boils down to how many of the hegemons will go along with his illegal manouverings...interesting times and there are still twenty-four days before the electoral college meets to try to become "president for life"...this will go on...donny has no choice...he's cornered and the claws are coming out...this is a ways from over yet and nothing is set in stone.

misdirected attention

https://www.usdebtclock.org/ ___________ "according to pliny the elder, rome had a deficit of 100 million in sesterces in its trade with the east every year. and ancient roman coins are still being dug up in india today." fernand braudel. the perspective of the world, civilization and capitalism 15th-18th century volume III

there's a lot going on...a petulant lame duck president refusing to accept an electoral defeat and a solidly indoctrinated group of supporters openly hostile to his leaving office because they want to preserve what they see as a way of life under threat...and their way of life is under threat...from among others, donny, and they are unable to see him as a representative of a class that is the source of their problems...donny and his ilk are exactly why their standard of living is falling off percipitously...instead they are focusing their anger on an election of yet more representatives of that class and blaming "the others", who are pretty much in the same condition economically, for their issues...someone has been doing a fine job of indoctrinating and i'd personally point the finger at public education...but that is not the focus here...i am talking about debt...i had a look at the national debt clock this morning and it is time to step back...forget donnny and the prosecutor for a moment, and take a hard look at some numbers...admitedly the clock is spinning so quickly these numbers are already stale...however they make the point...per the clock the u s gdp is $21,265,024,500,000 and the national debt is $27,251,841,500,000...oops...debtor nation...personal debt...the debt owwed by trumpists and "the others" alike is $20,857,169,800,000...which is alarmingly near the gdp itself...the gdp is buried in public and private debt...income outnumberd by debt by about two to one...and the trade deficit? $855,126,394,900...in 2015 a sestertius was valued at a ballpark of $1.55...which meant a roman trade deficit equivalent to $155,000,000...something miniscule compared to ours? empires built of debt and the only ones becoming wealthy are the owners of the debt...and who might that be? betting donny and his cohorts in the oligarchy...the market is up...so are covid cases and the hole the debtor class finds iteself in is simply getting deeper because the greed that runs the show wants it all..and they are winning while we bicker with one another about who gets to run the payday loan store we call a government...i am solvent...for how long i have no idea...i do know that donny and sleepy joe and the prosecutor and that stumbling twit pence do not want me to be and will do their best to take as much as they can..and the herd mentality grinds on.

solipsist in chief

this from the solipsist in the white house...

( by way of the bbc...why isn't the times all over this? )...his desperation is begining to show...from wondering if state legislatures will stack the electoral college for him to frivolous lawsuits making false claims of voter fraud he is scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of what may be termed legal...what next? frightened and desperate people do weird things and this one knows the legal issues he faces are of subsatntive proportions...his behaviors will become more irrational as the end of his administration draws near...if he cannot find legal grounds to seize the elcetion and if he finds litle support for an actual coup look for one of his last acts as president to be ordering up air force one for a flight.

force decides

the actual quote from marx is, i believe, "between equal rights, force decides"...whether the "rights" here are equal is a matter of debate...it would seem, from a constitutional standpoint that biden is "president-elect" and the coronation will follow when the elcetoral college meets on 14 december...that 71,000,000 or so voters disgaree may constitute "equal rights"...ay least in their minds and donny's...so...

the n y times is asking to what end donny is stacking the leadership of the dod and nsa with loyalists ( a throroughly stalinist move )...the answer is in the "force" part of the quote...to seize power and name himself "president for life" to avoid 1.) going to jail, and/or 2.) of necessity fleeing the country to avoid the former possibility...simple...and they have thirty-two day before the real election and sixty-nine before the inaguration to have a go at it...if they do what are you going to do? if the military and the police go along it is a done deal...or a civil war if some of them do not...and if the majority of them refuse to be part of a coup then dony goes...to jail or putinland...the constitution has no mechanism for this...burr killed hamilton but accepted being jefferson's vp...acceptance is not a donny trait...

what america "owes" to the greeks and romans is a vision of empire and a hubristic sense of exceptionalism...looking more like a banana republic...that isn't written in stone anywhere...the system could still survive donny...the times believes it will...the times is biased as any other media though...a coup is a possibility...so is a civil war...so is a peacful transition...probabilities are what we are looking at and the precedents say BAU...we'll see by 20 january.

gunter schabowski day

"As far as I know … effective immediately, without delay.".(German: Das tritt nach meiner Kenntnis … ist das sofort … unverzüglich.)

gunter didn't actually cause the berlin wall to fall thirty-one years ago...he was just the catalyst...the decline was a long process involving a lot of political pretense and what appears ( from my samples ) to be aluminum coinage...it was seemingly all pretty much fake...from the money to the trabants...it was all clearly sclerotic and brittle...everybody watching everybody for signs of deviance from the correct political outlook...

i get that feeliing here some days...hard to shake.

+7...++ungood?

it's been a week since the election and a few days less since donny's loss was announced, if not accepted...and it makes sense that he won't ( and never will ) concede that he lost since it is in his interest to remain in power becuase the state of new york wants his ass and he knows it...it's in the interest of his main sluts mcconnell and that whore of whores grahm to keep him there as well...they have abetted this miscreant's arrogance and his criminality and they are not immune even though they would hope to be...so they have seventy-one days to pull something out of their asses and kick sleepy joe and the prosecutor to the margins, if not a private prison somewhere..and no doubt they will try...revisit old lindsey's promise of a "senate invetigation" of voter fraud...given linsey's sycophancy we should not be surprised..."good boy lindsey! speak!"...

donny has canned his secretary of defence who balked at using federal troops to control protests..why? just lashing out at those he considers disloyal? could be...he's the type to let his ego get in the way of decisions...or to repace him with somone who would? a coup? we shouldn't think it impossible...he's the type to do that too...and he has ample motivation...if he's out of office he is in the legal soup in a multitude of ways..."president for life" solves that...of course it rips up the constitution but donny ( and mitch and lindsey ) doesn't give a rat's ass about the constitution or legal frameworks...he cares about donny...

meanwhile over in the victorious ( sort of ) but hopelessly muddled/divided ( definitely )world of the democrats this one says she'll quit politics if the center doesn't quit sniping at the left over losses of house seats...fat chance...this one is as narcissistic as any of them and her ego isn't going to sanction a step out of the limelight...that what passes for "the left" can't find its ass with both and and a flashlight is a given...they do not seem to realize that they are "in the system" and that it isn't going to change, they will...in another ten terms alexandria will be a nancy clone and that "youthful foolsishnees" will be behind her...if congress is still there...and not a rubberstamp like the roman senate of the late empire...( then again that might be aperfect fit for her ) the system is sclerotic and overly complex ( yes i have read tainter )...there will be a collapse...perhaps before the end of the year.

ripped from today's headlines

the counting continues and with it there is growing impatience and greater room for mischief and partisan bickering ( if not violence )...and, as always in an election, there's ample bickering...both sides...

have taken to the streets which, from a political standpoint, is perfectly valid...

you can have your say...without an ar15..even though the potential for political violence is very real......but beyond that i am looking at these two photos from the n y times today and wondering about market mechanisms and media bias...to begin with the photo of the clearly pro biden group has a lot more people in the frame given the nature of the popular vote you'd expect nearly equal numbers of people...not so in the times...which has always been anti-trump...the more interesting issue is that all the media ( even the crypto-fascists at fox ) seem to be turning away from donny...corporate structures as sensitive to shifts in public opinion and they may be joining the battle for "hearts and minds" with an eye to viewer/readership...market mechanisms may be stronger than editorial policy...there are quite a few signs in both photos...who paid for them and who gained from printing them...lots of masks in the first photo...who profited from the sale of those...how much energy was consumed getting these people to these gatherings...the economics of this would make an interesting flow chart...someone is making cash from all this and what would they do to keep the voters churning...capitalist structures are sociopathically focused on self-interest ( something reflected in congress ) and their concern with "public opinion" ends with its impact on profit with little concern for matters of public governance…both sides in this debate represent cash cows to be milked to the fullest possible extent…and, finally, who are those two heretics in masks at the pro-donny ev

the day after the day after

there is boarding up of windows in anticipation of mob action here in the good old u s of a ( and which side takes action has yet to be decided )…an informed source tell me that the home depots in l a are sold out of plywood ( the same source told me that in the last round of mob action there the homeless looted the plywood the real looters had torn of the storefronts to improve their homeless accommodations…bootstrap opportunism runs deep in america )…i know of a store connected to a “retail giant” that barricades its doors every night as well as emptying the registers and leaving the cash drawers open so marauders won’t damage the registers trying to open them…this entire miserable campaign has been run on fear by both sides and it shows…no one has had anything of substance to say…or if they did i missed it …buried under the lies, slanders, and lame posturing that passes for political culture here…and if there is mob violence donny, joe, kammy, mike and all the rest are complicit and should be indicted…i have seen graphics making light of the possibility of civil war…I wouldn’t tempt karma that way…there are doubtless many who would welcome that eventuality…warlordism appeals to some…and we may be on the cusp of a constitutional crisis the framers did not see…a president who refused to concede electoral defeat…the framers may have deigned to kill one another in duels but expected the “best men” to accept defeat gracefully…they hadn’t foreseen nixon and his bastard offspring donny…admittedly if biden does take the oath of office ( who is guarding roberts? ) the metropolitan d c police could legally arrest donny as a trespasser…unless his supporters surround 1600…then things get interesting…this will not end in all sweetness and light…the machinations are underway.

last day?

my thought is the majority of the polity have had enough of donny...however i haven't had much faith in the efficacy of "majority rule" here in the late republic..."majority" can be defined in manifold ways and it can be manipulated...if gerrymandered in a well-thought way it can be nullified and, as it stands, the elctoral college, or rather. electoral votes, are the vector for that manipulation...because of "winner take all" anyone who votes against the winning candidate in their state is effectively disenfranchised...if the votes were distributed propotionately minority presidents ( donny for one ) would not exist...the losers can dissent...they canot change the decision...this isn't a democracy, it is a republic...and every republic i have read about was controlled by a minorty of wealth...oligarchy...plutocracy...faction...with a diaphanous veil of electoral representation that mythologized the proceedings...the same is true in this republic ( look at the wealth concentrated in congress...and, incidentally, donny is one of the oligarchs ) which was pretty much based on john locke's desire not to "erect too numerous a democracy"...limit the masses' input and represent the interests of the elite as the "national interest"...it has worked well for them but they weary of the veneer...they are greedy bastards and they want more, if not all...they need to hold onto the levers of power ( and will actually...if joe and the prosecutor win it will still be BAU with softer rhetoric to pull the veil back over the reality..the lust for power won't be so obvious and the myth will reactivate ) and will do what they feel necessary...the supreme court isn't packed, however it is biased and if the dispute ( and there wil be dispute ) over the vote gets in front of those nine you can look forward to four more years ( if not "president for life " ) of president trump

...the losers can dissent...they cannot change the decision