take two steps

my "dear friend" ( that's what she calls me from the beginning of the epistle [ what is this if not a call to the faithful? ]...how could i do anything but believe her? ) nancy pelosi has sent me a letter...

detailing the threat posed to us 99 percenters ( that the net worth she and her husband possess puts them well out of the wealth range of say 90 percent of the population shouldn't enter into this...she says she's "for the street"...which street is open to question...somehow my "friend's" letter feels contradictory ) by the "radical agenda" being pursued by don trump and his malignant acolytes in whoretown...no one who thinks with any sort of critical approach can have missed trump's greed ( or that of the rest of the 1 percent for that matter )...it is his salient characteristic...she has an agenda here but, admittedly, she shows remarkable restraint...expending approximately 183 words ( i counted, but who knows how accurately...counting is not as simple as people believe it to be ) insulting the denizen of the white house ( hardly necessary to point out his foibles...he wears then proudly ) and extolling her maternal capacities before she makes a pitch for cash ( deceptively putting the main point of the agenda behind the specious "democratic unity survey" )...refreshingly brief, 49 words, she soon returns to a full bore assault on trump and the republicans...

while highlighting democratic virtue for the next 693 words before her second pitch ( 39 words ) and the reminding me of her maternal wisdom...they say you should always repeat your main point three times to make sure it gets across...

and the "democratic unity survey" cuts straight to the pitch ( "give us your cash before you answer questions we will never review, we just want to make you feel part of the decision making process." ) as "section I" asks me how much it is worth to me to "face down donald trump" ( and who, i wonder, are the mysterious "group of generous democrats" who are going to match my donation if i act by august 31st? richard henry lee comes to mind, "it is natural for men who wish to hasten the adoption of a measure to tell us now is the crisis, now is the critical moment which must be seized or all will be lost"...what will be lost is my money if i don't donate and the "match" is the stick/carrot and generosity seems to have a "best by" date )...

the second page of the survey assures me that "99% of our contributions come from grassroots donors"...ah...the true populists...so i am in good company with that cadre of "generous democrats" then..all regular joes just like me...and 90% of my donations will go "directly to help house democrats win elections"...there are costs i suppose...nancy didn't even use her franking privileges to mail me this...there was a real stamp on the envelope...and the return envelope for my donation is prepaid ( although i could help out and save them the cost by using a stamp of my own ) ten cents on the dollar is a deal, right?

however, what really caught my eye ( again, i saw this when bernie sent me a letter pleading for funds ) was "federal law requires us to use our best efforts to collect and report the name, mailing address, occupation, and name of employer of individuals whose contributions exceed $200 in a calendar year"...why? so the feds can share my political information with my employer and i can find myself "redundant" it my views don't sit well with the corpo world? they want my money but strike me as cavalier with my information...all politics is an extension of economics...an effort to protect and expand elite prerogatives in the amassing of wealth...the toxic sump that is whoretown is the focus of that effort in this country and i am inclined to think there is enough money changing hands there without my adding to it...pelosi is no more innocent that trump...just quieter...mcconnell...shumer...ocassio-cortez...graham...all of the same vanguardist narcissistic breed and all up to their necks in the sump...they will get on without my material support...i will vote however...they don't really like that...no good can come of it...there might be accountability involved...so? register and vote or don't come whining to me.

care about what?

this all started with yesterday's n y times...nothing new in that...i subscribe to the times mostly to keep a grip on what the east coast liberal elite ( and the times is nothing if not elitist ) thinks i should be thinking...they have an agenda...like the neo-cons...and the white supremacists...and the qanon theorists...and just about anyone else you care to name since we all have one...just some are more malignant than others...and some are just greedy...

there was a full page ad asking me to show my caring by making a purchase of some overpriced item from the new york times store...what i am supposed to be caring about seems left up to me...is it serious reportage or the times revenue stream...my choice since there is no direction even hinted at by that generic lede...

you can purchase a spiffy baseball cap...

or a list of those who have ( to that point ) perished of covid-19...

and if that depresses you you can numb it with a carafe of the time's house red...

not to be outdone other powerhouses of print journalism have entered into the retail world...

and they have their own house red too...not to be outdone, broadcast journalists...

pandering to all segments of the political spectrum are selling logo emblazoned mugs, shirts, hoodies, totes, underwear...a full line of stuff...so you can wear your politics as a brand...or drink your coffee ( or wine ) from your favorite talking head's show for all to see..what they are not selling is objective information...they are all biased despite their claims to present "truthful reportage"...the truth is hard to know...a slippery subject when people only hear what reinforces their world view...so choose your paper/channel and dig in...there's money to be made.

nike, home depot, keurig, and goya

"many a populist movement and union organizing drive has ended in defeat as a result of divisions in the working class based on other identities." michael zweig. "the working class majority"

how many of you work for wages? most i am thinking...and that's where the issue with identity politics starts...identity politics is a valid mechanism for bringing to light social injustices suffered by any given sub-group in a society...we all have our problems, albeit some decidedly more than others...no denying that...beyond calling attention to issues it doesn't do much towards ameliorating them because it is divisive...identity is a pharmakon...beneficial to a point...toxic after...at some point identity becomes exclusionary...erecting borders and it lapses into the "if you're not with us, you're against us" ( or " if you aren't part of the solution, you're part of the problem" ) mentality that isolates it and hardens attitudes on the outside...the object is, if you want substantive change, to find the broadest point of "likeness" rather than "otherness"...and virtually all of us work and we work for, and to the benefit, of the owners of the hegemonic culture...take a close look at your pay stub and tell me who is benefiting most from the hours you put in ( and what are you "benefits" like? or are there any? ) and your reliance on identity works for them in other ways as well...nike puts colin kaepernick in an ad and two things happen...their sales go up 31% and the other side burns their nike gear...nike doesn't care...about the burning ( the merchandise was already paid for ) about colin ( he was a vehicle to brand your "identity" with nike ), or about you, once you bought whatever nike apparel you were going to...one of the co-founders of home depot comes out in favor of trump and their stores that are open have a 6.4% jump in sales...related? cannot prove or disprove but it seems odd...keurig pulls its advertising from sean hannity and i see people destroying their coffeemakers on youtube videos and keurig sales go up...huh...goya? all i can find about goya is propagandistic nonsense...i am betting the trumpists are eating beans however...corporations have branded identity...they will manipulate anyone they can into a transaction that leaves them with the wealth any everyone else with "stuff"...identity as buttress to hegemonic culture...they are taking it to the bank...yes we should address social issues...and there are a raft of them to address across the spectrum of this alleged society...it is only going to get done if we find commonalities...they exist...if we don't start looking for them soon we are not going to get very much but cosmetic changes at the very best.

like it or not

indications are that trump will lose in november if ( and here we have the crux of the matter ) the election comes off without interference...events are militating towards gross interference with trump and his crypto-fascist allies at the controls...if trump loses he is either going to jail ( the state of new york doubtlessly has a stack of sealed indictments it will crack open as soon as biden takes the oath of office...there are probably others...) or be forced to flee to putin land and bunk with sonwden in a twisted turn of events...

the border patrol, which is probably the most dangerously politicized and authoritarian branch of the government has been turned loose in portland oregon...no coincidence, i think, given the long history of labor and social activism from the iww on in the area from lumbermen and dock workers...in an effort to intimidate the population...chad wolf who is the "acting" head ( which implies to me that he has in no way been vetted or confirmed by the senate...a trumpist that has oozed through the cracks ) of homeland security has plans to send the border patrol to other cities ( like chicago )...he says he doesn't need "invitations" from cities or states to send in the troops and that he will do so "whether they like it or not"....authoritarianspeak if ever i heard it...back in the 70s in what was probably drug fueled fantasy/paranoia we used to be consistently worried about richard nixon planning a coup...the current president ( and i find it remarkable that i am about to say this publicly because nixon was of an authoritarian bent and believed that he was above the law as well ) makes nixon look benign...i did not vote for trump in 2016 nor will i in 2020...he is unfit to be a dog catcher and should be isolated far from politics...we have been living in interesting times...political and economic...both dangerous to social health when they are unstable...and this is as unstable as it has been in fifty odd years and the virus is a variable that wasn't present in the 60s/70s...i am not a true believer in the constitution but it is possible it will be torn up in a fashion i do not condone...the "interesting" part will accelerate from now until autumn...even that won't be the end

fungible II

"law and order was the compromise the state had to find between for and against. when the state intervened for someone, it usually meant going to the rescue of the social hierarchy: how would the upper-class minority survive without the state as guarantor of order on its side? but in return, no state could have existed without the collaboration of the dominant class...when the state intervened against someone it was inevitably the masses who had to be contained and returned to the path of duty, that is to work." fernand braudel. "civilization and capitalism 15th-18th century. volume II the wheels of commerce." p516

braudel is no dilettante...and his exhaustive work is another line of evidence in the social stratification and combination of wealth and power that have been going on since the neolithic revolution...he is writing about the rise of european nation states, however there is no escape from the ties between this country and europe...axtell's concept of reactive change aside, the framers of the constitution drew heavily from european political philosophy ( we are back to locke again and the ideal of not" erecting a numerous democracy"...a central point in understanding how things have become what they are )...in essence the "dominant class" is the state...its interests are the state's interests and when those interests are threatened the state is threatened...madison, jay, and especially hamilton viewed events like shay's rebellion not as an extension of the principles of the declaration of independence and the right and obligation of a people to rebel against a tyrannical ( always a subjective matter ) government, but rather as mass disorder and a threat to the stability ( read prerogatives of the elite ) of the nation...the mob was incapable of governing themselves and the bottle jefferson had opened needed to be corked again...the constitution is the counter-revolution...and when jefferson left washington in 1809 he never went back.

fungible

this particular jeffersonian graphic...or, at least, a version of it appeared on facebook yesterday...

and beneath it, among others, was "and then he plagiarized his friend john locke"...which may be true...but then the founders were all fond of john...he was their sort of people...he believed in democracy...or rather a republican government ..but on a exceptionally limited scale...in the very beginning of the fundamental constitutions of carolina he states his desire that "...we may avoid erecting a numerous democracy..." and proceeds to set stringent property qualifications for voting and even more stringent ones for holding office...it was to be a government of, by, and for the elite...when james madison rants about protecting the "minor party" from "an interested and overbearing majority" he channels locke and looks to create a government by and for the elite...and, along with jay and "that damned ass" hamilton he succeeded in presenting a case strong enough to squeak through ratification...wealth became government...washington was not poor...nor was adams or jefferson...even lincoln was a prosperous lawyer by the time the call came...they were of the hegemonic culture...insiders...this is fairly self-evident with a close reading of the related materials..so when this :

cropped up in today's new york times i almost spit out my tea...krugman is, among other things, a nobelist in economics...you'd think he'd know why the rich have so much power..he is, after all, a theologian of greed...but then he's also part of the hegemonic culture and has to keep up the appearance of a democracy when the reality is there never was one and he knows that good and well...the new york times is also part of the hegemonic culture and has to keep up appearances as well, even though it is a corporate entity devoted to profit ( there isn't a "new york time store" for fun...it's about cash ) and slants its news as a product...in the end the rich have so much power because wealth and power are fungible, if not the same thing...one easily substitutes for the other...much like a democrat and a republican these days.