mr. kissinger, him dead

and, as far as i am concerned, the world is a better place today...admittedly only marginally so since much of what this secretary of state, national security advisor, and war criminal did is still impacting the world...but the author is dead and good fucking riddance...instrumental in widening the war in vietnam into cambodia and laos and propagating nixon"s "madman theory"...backing genocidal campaigns by the pakistanis against the bengalis and the indonesian atrocities towards the east timorese...while i cannot find any direct evidence of his involvement in pinochet's coup against allende he did say before allende's election "the issues are too important for the chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves"...no arrogant or imperial thinking there...a power junkie who did not care what carnage his policies left behind as long as he won...the only positive thing i can thinkl of that he did was to accept nixon's resignation...

if i believed in hell i would suspect you could find henry in an inner circle...perhaps bunking with maggie thatcher and ayn rand...he deserves and obituary along the lines of the one h.l. mencken wrote for william jennings bryan https://www.reddit.com/r/saltyobituaries/comments/8p3ken/hl_mencken_in_memoriam_wjb_1925/

one third

"...no: it must be divided by a thick wall of dark nights from all return of light and sunshine, from the latter weeks of october to christmas eve, therefore, happiness is in season." thomas de quincey______tom had his own reasons for desiring long nights, however he is talking abour "event time" not "clock time" and it is the latter i am on about...(plus we could spend no small amount of time bogged down in the "whys" of tom's desire )...it is the artifical and abstract nature of the command and control mechanism of clock time that are at issue here...in terms of calenders, year and months might be more readily reconciled to event time...weeks, days, hours, minutes all function as behavioral regulators seeking to control events ( and people ) as opposed to the "it takes as long as it takes" viewpoint of event time...from chuirch hierarchies mandating specific prayers at specific times to the factory whistle, clock time tells you what to do and when...time zones are surely an artifical construct designed to aid in co-ordinating control...you have to know when the 12:01 express that originated at 12:01 in an other time zone is arriving...so time panders to the railroads...and, by extension, to capital...the international date line is simply time zones writ large and one wonders if its placement couldn't be as arbitrary as the time difference three feet in on each side of a line marking the beginning/end of a time zone...real time has little connection to clock time...time contracts with focused interest and expands with boredom...days can seem to drag on for eternities yet in agregate they fly by,...does sleep register time or are we outside it when asleep...when i of necessity set an alarm there are times when it wakes me, however i am usually awake before it goes off...internal colock or simply regular habits of sleep? i would opt for sleep faling under the rubric of event time...it takes as long as it takes and it can be readily disrupted...so why all this thought about the arbitrariness of clock time? well...always an interesting subject...however overnight tonight the hegemons are giving me back the hour the miserable chamber fo commerce stole last march...no they did not invent it...they certainly jumped on the bandwagon however...along with some of the clowns ( listening rubio? ) in whoretown who wanted to make daylight savings time permanent this year...they tried that with the permanent daylight savings time act of 1974 which was repealed relatively quickly when daylight became naturally shorter in the winter and the dark was disruptive...the whores have no feel for natural rhythms...or anything else natrual for that matter...so i get my hour back...however it is more like twenty minutes since i only get it back for a third of the year...let the natural rhythms begin.

freedom for whom and to do what?

"The parliamentary battle of the NSDAP had the single purpose of destroying the parliamentary system from within through its own methods. It was necessary above all to make formal use of the possibilities of the party-state system but to refuse real cooperation and thereby to render the parliamentary system, which is by nature dependent upon the responsible cooperation of the opposition, incapable of concerted action..."-ernst huber

yes, no one is ever safe when congress is in session, however the doctrinaire conspiriacy theorists in the house of representative bear an eerie resemblance to activites elsewhere in the early 1930s...disruptive at best and both profoundly vindictive and convinced of their almost papal infalibility they clearly think they have the answers we all need to align ourselves with and seem willing to utilize violence as a method of political debate...add in their unstinting support for a criminal presidential wannabe ( again ) and their authoritarian sub-text becomes unmistakeably highlighted...politics here has always been a vile business based mostly on lies and evasion coupled with periodic outbursts of violence...usually aimed at members of the working class attempting to organize to provide themselves with some protection against unrestrained capital...fascism is what capital turns to when it feels threatened from below and the worderfully orwellian euphemism this cacus's name presents should be a clue as to where their sympathies lie...nothing much new in this...the question is how to address it...they and their cadres in local government are doing their best to undermine the electoalr process by disenfranchizing sectors of the voting public that could elect representative inimical to their ends...gerrymandering ( a process named after elbridge gerry...one of those "founding fathers" conservatives are so in awe of )....one cogent step would be to refuse to remain quiet in the face of crypto-fascist machinations.

what sort of epoch are we aiming for?

some media outlets make a pretense of objectivity as they create “news” that both reinforces and steers worldview…some are so blatantly propagandistic that a pretense to objectivity would be laughable…and that is just as well since I have to think anyone who would subscribe to this howler isn’t interested in objectivity ( is anyone actually interested in “objectivity”? have to wonder )…rather they would want their dogmatism validated in print…this rag landed in my mailbox a day or so ago and I have been perusing it…virulently anti-people’s republic of china, it is a mouthpiece of falun gong which, as far as I can see, has jumped into bed with the trumpists, finding in them an ally in their war with the chinese communist party…this may eventually prove to be brilliant or profoundly short-sighted depending on which way donny leans...and that may be an issue for astrologers and augurers of chicken entrails rather than objective analysis…

a simple glance at the story lede is enough to highlight the bias here…donny is the victim…which is what he and his base have been whining since 2020...and one is inclined to suppose that the “lawyer” might be one of trumpy’s “legal team” who are working a strategy of delay and denial in hopes that 2024 sees the entire morass vacated by some quasi-legal self-pardon…

a clear case of transference here as one would think an elite school would have little interest in “scrapping” a document that created and sustained a government by and for the elite for well over two centuries…the one likely to tear it up is donny as he pursues the dream of “president for life” so as to confound the legal systems relentless “persecution” and “witch hunting”...

another trumpist sycophant in congress? seemingly not as much of an attention whore as that greene woman and some more notable senators ( the fawning graham comes rushing to mind )...

one for the anti-vaxer sub-culture in donny’s base…it was all a hoax after all…no one actually died…the media lie ( except, of course, the epoch times…they have the “real news” that I “deserve”…well, if I were to actually believe any of this I suppose I would “deserve” it…as it stands it is such a blatant exercise in propaganda that even the ministry of truth [or the new york times for that matter ] would choke on it )…

and if you want your rigid ideological stance reinforced you can have this in your mailbox weekly at the bargain price of $139/year…$2.673/and issue…a “deal”…i am paying more than double that for access to the new york times in an effort to ferret out exactly what it is that the east coast elite want me to think…they are a slippery bunch and it takes some thought to piece together their manipulations…the epoch times spits on subtlety…like gratuitous nudity in film, you can’t miss the point they are making…the times is a bit more restrained…and they have some word games you can play and a crossword you can work while you are being indoctrinated…the epoch times doesn’t have time for that sort of frivolity…they have to save donny and his cohorts ( co-conspirators? wagering you won’t see that assemblage of word in the epoch times…they have editors just like the times and they have strict guidelines coming down from the top )…there are times when i marvel at just how stupid editors from the times ( epoch or new york ) think i am…like politicians everywhere and at every level editors ( and “news producers” in the electronic media ) are slime

worrying for whom?

so...consumer spending is undergoing "shifts" and executives are worried about where "shopping habits" are headed...one shouldn't wonder at their worry...a lot is at stake here...for more than afew...

"rising credit card delinquencies" are surely worrying for the likes of jeff gennette ( who pulled in $1000000 a month in 2021...last figures i can find )...his card has an apr of 31.74% last i looked...no wonder there are delinquencies...the national political agenda is as much widespread debt for consumers as is possible...however that is a fairly risky business model to follow ( they all seem to have forgotten about 2008...i haven't...you shouldn't either...their untrammeled greed will render them delusional, if not stupid )...yes jeff they have "aggresivvely pulled back" discretionary spending and reallocated ( or, possibly, misallocated in your world view ) the cash to things like food and shelter as opposed to polo underwear...capitalism has a problem with recognizing limits and their economist allies [ theologians of greed ] are prone to dismiss them as "externalities"...nothing to worry about because it fucks up the symmetry of their bogus calculations ( "artifice worthy of the casuistry of a jesuit" )...so with conumers "aggressively pulling back", delinquencies that could become defaults, and a looming overstock of grossly overpriced "vital consumer goods" coupled with a holiday season where shopers may fail to "go big" ( i, for one, will tell peole, yet again, that i do not desire anything in the way of material goods for christmas...and, again, will be ignored..."and mercilessly we go on giving"...i am quoting germans left and right here ) they have ample reason to worry and, near as i can discern, deservedly so...a minimalist christmas...ho ho ho...santa isn't going to like that idea.

"a monkey just put into breeches"

“section 1. be enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the united states of america, in congress assembled, that if any persons shall unlawfully combine or conspire together, with intent to oppose any measure or measures of the government of the united states, which are or shall be directed by proper authority, or to intimidate or prevent any person holding a place or office in or under the government of the united states, from undertaking, performing, or executing his trust or duty, and if any person or persons, with intent as aforesaid, shall counsel, advise, or attempt to procure any insurrection, riot, unlawful assembly, or combination, whether such conspiracy, threatening, counsel, advice, or attempts shall have the proposed effect or not, he or they shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor…” from “an act in addition to the alien and sedition acts of 1798 entitled, and act for the punishment of certain crimes against the united states “SEC. 2. And be it farther enacted, That if any person shall write, print, utter or publish, or shall cause or procure to be written, printed, uttered or published, or shall knowingly and willingly assist or aid in writing, printing, uttering or publishing any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States, with intent to defame the said government, or either house of the said Congress, or the said President, or to bring them, or either of them, into contempt or disrepute; or to excite against them, or either or any of them, the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to stir up sedition within the United States, or to excite any unlawful combinations therein, for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States, done in pursuance of any such law, or of the powers in him vested by the constitution of the United States, or to resist, oppose, or defeat any such law or act… being thereof convicted before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.”___________________ That section 2 of this piece of legislation was purposefully intended to stack the deck of variables in the 1800 presidential election can be shown by the fact that the only newspaper editors prosecuted under this act were those of democratic-republican papers supporting the candidacy of thomas Jefferson and the only journalists so treated ( james Thompson callender in virginia and david brown in massachucetts leap to mind ) were those writing for those same democratic-republican newspapers…so much for the purity of “public service” wrought by the “founding fathers”…they were all politicians and they behaved as such…little mud may have been slung washington’s way however the honeymoon for leadership came to an end with his leaving office as contempt for the leadership of political parties and for their members in congress, as well as the office of the presidency came to be the status quo of campaigns…from William maclay writing of john adams “i cannot help thinking of a monkey just put into breeches when i saw him betray such evident marks of self-conceit”(the journal of william maclay 1798-1792. May tenth 1789 entry )to adams himself writing in a letter to benjamin rush that alexander hamilton’s ambitions stemmed from “… a superabundance of secretions which he could not find whores enough to draw off” it was clear that there was never much of anything like respect for rivals in swamptown from the beginning…”to bring them…into contempt or disrepute” didn’t seem to require much effort on the part of publishers when the founders held one another in such over contempt ( ultimately expressed when aaron burr, at the time a sitting vice-president of the united states, killed said hamilton in new jersey in 1804 )...a close reading of both sections leaves me thinking national ( or local for that matter ) politics have not evolved much in two hundred and twenty-three years or so…fake news…alternate facts…cover-ups…procuring insurrection (aspirational or not the phrase “shall have the proposed effect or not he or they will be deemed guilty should apply )probably suborning perjury…all clearly defined facets of the politics of the late empire…the next seventeen months ( at the very least ) should prove interesting times.

the congregation for the evangelization of peoples

propaganda. n.-the systematic dissemination of doctrine, rumor, or selected information to propagate or promote a particular doctrine, view, practice, etc.; ideas, information, etc., disseminated thus. oxford english dictionary____________ two things come to mind here…first, that any segment of the christian religion should feel the need to proselytize isn’t much of a surprise…what I find ironic is that the “congregation” above began a its life as the sacred congregation of the propaganda…founded in 1622 by gregory xv which lent its name to the definition, “an organization or concerted movement for the propagation of a particular doctrine, practice, etc.” (oed)..so the term and concept behind propaganda comes from the church…well...always the dogmatists disseminating church dogma ( see loyola on the “church hierarchy” and whether it is black or white you are seeing )…not a stunner is it…secondly, what information available from “the news media” isn’t filtered? that’s what editors and news producers are for…it is a product…designed to align and reinforce the “particular doctrine” of those who consume it…as far as I can see both the “news media” and what passes for government/politics falls well within the limits of the above definition…”fake news” “alternate facts” and a house of representative bursting at the seams with conspiracy theorists and crypto fascists calling themselves by the thoroughly orwellian name “the freedom caucus”…one is warranted in thinking “freedom” for whom and to what purpose? clearly not my concerns or interests or those of the polity at large…if anything these bozos are not only inimical to my interests, they are overtly hostile to them whatever political party they affiliate themselves with…the stench emanating from swamptown is pure ideological putrescence festering in the summer sun and the election is still over a year away…my thoughts would be that you should be preparing yourself for more “evangelization” presenting the doctrine of elite interests as “national interests” which need to be pursued at all costs ( and we are well aware of who will be earing the brunt of those costs ) because we can’t have madison’s “interested and overbearing majority” subverting the goals of the elite with any programs of social or economic equity…the fat’s in the fire and the outlook is decidedly biased…”for subsequent laws, other than those directed at specific offences, were forcible creations of class-warfare, designed to grant unconstitutional powers, or banish leading citizens, or fulfill some other deplorable purpose…thenceforward measures were concerned with personal instead of national issues, corruption reached its climax and legislation abounded.” tacitus. The annals of imperial rome....and my perception is that the corruption wil simply increase exponentially after november 2024 until the whole ponzi scheme collapses from unforeseen cascade failure.

if a jury ever deliberates...II

given what i have read about her, calling her "untested" might be a stretch...and i have to admit to being somewhat ( let's not forget the radical agnositicsm ) mollified about her approach since by setting a trial date she has pretty much taken the middle ground between defense and prosecution desires on that...that said ( and her comes the agnosticism ) that simply defeats the defense's first delaying tactic...they will wriggle and squirm and launch specious arguments for all they ( or donny ) are worth...this trial will doubtlessly be as big, if not bigger, a media circus as the fabled o.j.simpson trial of'95...that howler went on for 252 days...from 24 january 1995 to 3 october 1995 and by the time it was over most of us were weary beyond description of the whole business...will this trial be of that duration...how not? and if it runs as long ( if it does not eclipse that trial's longevity ) where does that leave us...well..and bear in mind the defense wanted to delay this trial until after the election...a 24 may 2024 start date would leave a trial of equal duration ending on 28 february 2025...which is well past the november 2024 election...and 39 days past the 20 january 2025 presidential inauguration date...so a verdict could easily come well past the start of a second term for donny ( if that is how this turns out...nothing is set in stone just yet...and no outcome is inevitable...human agency works in weird ways...do does the natural course of events )...the end result is that simply because the official defense request for a delay past the 2024 election has been rejected there is no guarantee they won't get what they want through legal manouvering...this is all a long way from over...and we are still something like 306 days from the start of a trial...let's ponder what sort events could spew from the sump that is american political life in that amount of time.

if a jury ever deliberates...

i have spent some time over the past day or so perusing that filing by donny's lawyers and it has some interesting points...twelve pages...twenty items in defense of an indefinte postponement...rather standard legal wrangling in any number of ways...except,of course, one of the defendants is "the likely republican candidate in the 2024 presidential election"...and donny's status as one of the elite does have bearing on this..."this extraordianary case presents a serious challenge both to the fact and perception of our american democracy...therefore a measured consideration and timeline that allows for a careful an complete review of the procedures that led to the indictment and the unprecidented legal issues presented herein best serves the interests of the defendants and the public."...so...donny is threatened so american deomcracy is threatened and a thorough review of events is in his best interests and so also in the best interests of the polity...donny's interests become the interests of the nation...the interests of the elite are presented as national interests...nothing new in that...however i anm inclined to think that my best interests would be served by a thorough review of facts...this seems unlikely in courtroom where the only intent is to sell the jury one or the other of the opposing versions of events...facts are externals at best and impediments at worst in a courtroom...the lawyers ( and defendants ) are trying to avoid anything like facts..."the intersection between the presidential records act and the various criminal statutes at issue has never been addressed by any court and, in the defendants' view, will result in the dismissal of the indictment."...nixon argued in court that the president was above the law for four years at a time...that failed and i cannot help but notice that the statute acting in donny's favor is named while those he may have transgressed are simply "various"...the filing states that the evidence in this case conssits of "428,300 records in excess of 833,450 pages, consisting of 122,650 emails ( with attachments ) and 305,670 documents...also some 57 terabytes of compressed cctv footage ( so far there is approximatel nine months of cctv footage, but the final number is not yet certain. )...that is a lot of ground to cover however the filing also says ,"the defendants expect that various key legal issues will be fully dispositive, thus negating the need for a jury trial."...yes, a lot of evidence but we could cover this all in a zoom meeting and not have any meesy public hearing of viewpoints, evidence, bickering, and tedious testimony that might impung the reputation ( such as it is ) of such a venerable member of the elite...i did find one point of agreement in all this convoluted legalese and that is the filing's contention that there might be a "potential inability to select and impartial jury"...donny is not someone who inspires ambivalence and finding jurors that are impartial could be exactly the delay that would push a trial past the 2024 election...

which is what this is all about...and in a courtroom in the hands of a trump nominee and activist judge they may get their way...perhaps even that "dismissal of the indictment"...the "fact of american democracy" is inherent in this...winning the 2024 election would only defer donny's legal issues for four years after which he could not, constitutionally, have another term...one suspects that donny has little respect for the constitution and its limits on power...he comes from an authoritarian corporate culture...of course the constitution can be changed...a time consuming and uncertain process...or torn up by president for life trump.( the photos are quotes from yesterday's new york times...just to give something of a citation )

"...a tainted, meanly obsequious age"

and objectivity ( if it exisits...we could debate ) has fled...i have said elsewhere that the new york indictment is a tempest in a tea pot and will likely amount to nothing in the way of deterring donny's 2024 run at imperial power...you'd think a federal indicment on mishandling of sensitive and secret documents might have more impact...then again...

the judge in the case is a trump appointee...and if she intends to hold this trial in florida i cannot see where it would be possible to find jurors who were not predisposed to have a verdict in mind ( on either side of the guilty/not guilty divide...divisions everywhere )...donny is a deeply divisive charater...actually most politicians are because they want to present a false image of difference in outlook and agenda...when the reality is they are pretty much in agreement with one another on most issues...or, at least, far closer in opinion that they would like the polity to realize...and, once again, a conviction in either of these cases would not prevent him seeking office or holding it if elected...likely all any of this is going to do is harden attitudes...his base will vote trump just to eveince their visceral dislike ( if not hatred ) of anyone who dislikes donny...just another political "fuck you"...and when did this beocme so overt? i probably said "fuck nixon" and, in fact, have said "fuck these people" about policians as a class repeatedly...i have never flown a "fuck biden" ( or a fuck anybody flag for that matter ) outside my house...well..there never has been a sense of objectivity in american politics...

the 1800 presidential election was well before my time, however, what i have read and what i can scrounge up in the way of primary documents tells me that the division was as deep and as virulent then as it is now...so...where are we? sliding into yet another vile political season where political rallies will keep emotion in place as the prevailing mechanism for political decision-making ( one presumes that , were she stil with us, leni riefenstahl would have more work than she could handle ) and anyone who doesn't agree with your political vision is pure evil and should be disenfranchised ( at the very least ) because they cannot see how righteous your faction is...welcome to politics in the late empire...you'd think it couldn't get much uglier...it's early yet though...no doubt surprises await both sides as the divsions widen...

"the new class"

Terrorist- noun & adjective. A person who uses violent and intimidating methods in the pursuit of political aims. Oxford English Dicionary____________ "an eye for an eye" andy biggs, repuublican representative from arizona___________________________________ "i have a message tonight for merrick garland and jack smith and joe biden and the guys back there in the fake news media, you should listen up as well, this one is for you. If you want to get to president trump you are going to have to go through me , and you are going to have to go through 75 million americans just like me. and i am going to tell you , most of us are card carrying memebers of the n.r.a....that's not a threat, it's a public service announcement." kari lake, failed republican arizona gubenatorial aspirant________________ no keri, that is a definite threat...and so congress and the republican party become terrorist organizations ( with the full approval of the "sinners in the hands of an angry god" set andy was pandering to ) utilizing both implied and explicit threats of violence in defence of donny and their vision of what the country should be...and what might that look like? like any authoritatian state you might look into...an arrogant and doctinare elite bloating itself on wealth extorted from the mass of the polity in return for their shouldering of the onerous burdens of power with a middling group of "politically reliable" cadres to do the clerical work...and another strata of politically motivated denouncers fingering their neighbors lack of orthodoxy for a cut of their neighbor's goods ( a useful mechanism for keeping the masses at war with themselves...diverting their energy and initiative away from questioning why things are the way they are...a stasi state where distrust undermines dissent...and, no doubt, the majority of any confiscated property will be absorbed by "the state" which is, of course, that doctrinaire elite )...a thomas more like utopia where all behaviors are public ( surveiled ) and no private loyalties are sanctioned and where your facial fetures should be set in orwell's "expression of quiet optimism" just to be sure no one becomes suspicious...so is this rhetoric or are 75 million people just like keri ready to act ( and where does that leave the other 259,859,856 remainder of the country's population? )...some are, no doubt, they already have...how many is an open question and where does the comandant of the marine corps stand on all this? i have no idea...i would wager keri probbaly does not either even if she would not admit it ( she won't admit she lost an election so why would she be any less in denial about a lack of knowledge about the motivations of the polity at large? )...if it is rhetoric it is intended to unsettle ( and recall tacitus, "men's minds, once unsettled, are prepared to believe anything." don't let them confuse you ) the opposition and self-reassure the trumpists...if it is a call to action it could be actionable...whatever it is it is set in purely trumpist vocabulary...i have been compiling a list of words and phrases utterly debased by all this rhetoric just so i know who is who.

someone giving away the playbook?

everything old is new again...

"The Nazi members of the Reichstag conducted themselves as a storm troop unit. Whenever representatives of the government or the democratic parties spoke, the Nazi members marched out in a body in studied contempt of the speaker, or entered in a body to interrupt the speaker, thus making it physically impossible for the Reichstag President to maintain order. In the case of speakers of opposition parties, the Nazi members constantly interrupted, often resorting to lengthy and spurious parliamentary maneuvers, with the result that the schedule of the session was thrown out of order." from "means used by the nazi conspirators in gaining contol of the german state" university of south florida_______________________________________________________________________clearly desantis is remiss in allowing a state university to give away the playbook like this...he should be more careful about what he lets floridian intellectuals get up to...that said, am i accusing the staunch public servants of the house freedom caucus of being nazis? probably not...i would say they are doctrinaire ideolouges concerned only in having things entirely their way with a decidedly authoritarian premise and they have stolen a page out of the totlalitarian handbook so carefully crafted over the centuries and honed to a sharp edge in the previous one...they may be out of touch with any number of the polity...then again they do not care about the polity or their needs/interests...they care about being in control and, without doubt, taking everything they can in the way of wealth from those the clearly consider the "lesser kind"...rapcious rule-crazy control freaks...have i said "fuck these people" today?

somewhat diminished exposure

being aged and working part time at "a retail giant" ( which is not sounding quite so "giant" per the last earnings report...however that is just an economists "tool" and so may be disregarded as an "external"...irrelevant to what this is about ) just to keep moving provides a few things besides pin money...observation for instance...coming from indistrial manufacturing i was suffering from a severe case of culture shock in the beginning...this has abated and been replaced, for the most part, by stunned disbelief at how tremendously inefficient and wasteful retail is...no fucking wonder they are in trouble...additionally it has been an education in the ways of manipulation they use to render the discretionary into the necessary...they will jump on any bandwagon if it could possibly mean even a few hundredths of a precentage point in market share gain...so they celebrate a lot of "months" and this month is LGBQT+ month if i am not mistaken ( and let me disclaim here that this is in no way an indictment or criticism of anyone's orientation...we are what we are...we may not understand...we need to live and let live...and that extends well beyond orientation ) and retailers are avidly persuing that market share...however...

when we compare the signage from last june...

with what i found today ( and the month is not over quite yet...this could change...i am wagering it will not ) we can clearly see the message, while still clear, is considerably muted...

one could be forgiven for surmising that the bud light blowback has tempered the vision of the admen and made executives nervoulsy leery of too explicit a disply of market niche pursuit...we will look around..we are not sanguine about finding anything quite as eyecatching as last year's graphics

debt, default, and the doctrinaire ( with accent on debt )

the media have announced that the great compormise has been reached...

and , no doubt, the doctrinairians in the house freedom caucus and the congressional progressive caucus are whining, if not plotting procedural sabotage of something that doesn't meet their stringent, dogmatic standards...given the conservative tilt in goverment these days ( where, one wonders, is the new "tail gunner joe"? ) the thoughts of sabotage are likely more prevelant in the freedom caucus..and why? the few detail i have about this compromise entail more stringent work standards for those receiving food stamps and aid under the assitance for needy families program...ah..targeting the already underprivileged...nothing new in swamptown about that...yes, defense, social security , and medicare are shielded...no conservative is going to cut military spending and, say what you like, the whores still fear the boomers as voters and rightly so...i am a boomer and the neocons can go pound sand...social security is not a handout...i paid for it all my working life ( and am still paying into it ) and medicare is not free either ( and , yes i am ranting but this is a fucking rant blog and i did not force you to come here so shut the fuck up or leave )...however social spending is the target...throw in cuts to the irs budget which biden expanded, allegedly, to go after wealthy tax cheats...a fine idea..i pay taxes, so should they...and the "streamlining" ( read rubber stamping ) of the permitting process for "major" ( define Major ) energy projects and you can see that the burden of the "compromiise" is going to be shifted onto the less economicaly advantaged...why? i said "with accent on debt" in the header for a reason...and let's start small and work up...the "major retailer"i work for ( and we could get off on a whole seperate rant about the retail world and the second law of thermodynamics ) relentlessly sweats its salespeople to flog its pricey credit card...why? they want people to incur debt and, hopefully ( for them ) to carry a balance and service the interest...prefferably making the "minimum payment" to extend the indebtedness in perpetuity because interest on debt is the only thing that creates "new money" all the other financial shenanigans simply move wealth around...and retail is so sloppy it needs all the money it can get..now extrapolate that out to the great "compromise" and ponder if that will ease or exacerbate the debt of the "lesser kind"...i continue to come back to debt as the national political agenda in a congress ( and, by extension, an entire political system ) dominated ( or wholly owned ) by capital...debt penury in perpetuity for as much of the polity as possible because greed drives the machine and congress is owned by the top tier of greed...to borrow one from chamfort "it's easier to make something legal than to make it legitimate"...whatever these people do it is not done in your interest or mine...old samuel langhorn clemens had it right.

can you say "irrelevant"?

if you cannot, the times can do it for you...

one wonders ( and wonders at ) who, aside from the east coast elite, would be all that concerned about a "tablescape"

gail collins is in a snit

“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 stimulation of…loyalties.” george orwell form “notes on nationalism”______________________________________

well gail, so am i…it is true that third parties have never fared well in this country…mostly because they were an expression of a minority opinion…however they did once serve to alert the major parties to significant discontents among a fair number of the polity which they could choose to address ( or not , being politicians )…that said i must admit that since, say, h. ross perot they have been mostly expressions of megalomania ( except for the randist stench emanating from the libertarians )…still, i refuse to heed gail’s call to suck it up and vote for biden because he is the lesser of two evils…one wearies of the continuing political necessity of making a negative choice…that. However, is a result of the ruling elite’s lack of concern for the needs and/or desires of the mass of the polity…they represent wealth and power and present the interests of their donors ( owners…handlers…take your pick ) as the interests of the polity at large and that is patent falsehood…there needs to be an expression of dissent external to the two wings of the political status quo…in today’s column gail goes off on a rant about third party voters costing hillary Clinton electoral votes in pennslyvania, michigan, and Wisconsin…well gail I live in a winner take all state and even the half bright governor knew don was going to kick hill to the curb and my vote ( providing i did not vote for don ) was negated…disenfranchised by law…what about that? and i am not remotely convinced that hill would have been any less venal than don…they are both of the elite…

both self- interested narcissists ( as are politicians as a class )…from here she goes off on a rant about “no labels” and lieberman and his poor debating prowess...who cares about a washed-up political hack gail? not me…if I find a third-party candidate that even remotely reflects my needs and/or interests guess where my vote is going? This state will go trump in ’24 and there isn’t much any opposed voter is going to be able to do about that, much less gail collins…orwell was correct…gail and her column and the new york times and the rest of the biased media will survive no matter what the electoral outcome is…

okay, so i voted...

"both parties require a good deal of watching...there is not prodigious difference between the moral characters of the one and the other." james thompson callender. richmond recorder 1 novenber 1802.__________________________william safire maintained that callender was slime because he put paid to an idealized, consensus vsion of the "founding fathers" while callander said he was doing "whatever was in my power to give a candid account of what went on in that place." ( specifically he was writing there of his tenure as a stenographer in the house of representatives...however his political reportage went well beyond the house )...well...safire was a nixonite speechwriter so i feel justified in calling him slime and the "founding fathers" were trysting long before there was a swamptown if you actually look into it...power hates those who present it with its less than noble actions so callender has been maligned and marginalized for reporting what he saw...politics in this country has always been a sleazy business and no less so on this election day...admittedly a local primary election with virtually no interest to virtually anyone given the turnout i witnessed this morning at the poll...

of little interest or not i have made an effort to vote in every election i am eligible to cast a ballot in since the above mentioned nixon stomped george mcgovern flat in 1972 ( and we all know what that led to, right? )...so i wandered down to the polling place this morning where i was completely outnumbered by poll workers, much less the shills, sycophants, and actual political hacks that were outside bombarding me with literature,screaming names, or, like one aged hack, creatively openeing his coat to flash a "vote for____: ( i am not going to shill for this bozo ) in gold letters on a red tshirt...perhaps the "committee to elect_____" was desperately short of cash this political season...who knows? moreover who cares? my main motivation in voting is that politicans don't like a turnout...it makes them nervous...if more people voted they just might have to pay a bit more attention to the polity's needs rather than serving their owners ( did i write "owners" instead of "donors"? or did i just think it? )...gerrymandering ( ah...elbridge gerry...one of those "founding fathers" ) is, after all, simply an attempt to make elections more predictable by selective disenfranchisement of those whose needs the political machinery wants to marginalize or completely ignore...as usual it was a negative choice...i went to vote ( past discomfiting the pols ) to make an effort to keep one specific dingus off the autumn ballot ( which entailed actually declaring a party allegiance...if politicans can be deceitful so can i ) and so off the city council...the municpality has enough trouble functioning as it stands...they don't need to complicate matters with someone who wouldn't make a good dogcatcher...and in doing so i ensured my name would remain on the roll of registered voters so i can, at least, try to make them think about what they're doing come november...possibly a forelorn hope but, to borrow one from alexander dubcek, hope dies last.

inside a swill bucket

"advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket"-george orwell

what do these people have in common?

it seems they are all shilling for rolex watches...oh time and rolex have provided an esculpatory out..."rolex is proud to partner with time 100 leadership esries, an initiative which heralds meaningful changes to come and celebrate those who strive to enact them,virtuously."

their virtuousness certainly makes me want to drop $84050 on an oyster day date 40 mm in platinum...and one wonders if he celbration included some rolex swag...is that an oyster i see on hindou's left wrist or some symbolic indigenous bangle? okay the entreprenuer...the sports stars...even the damned opera singer one could see...they are part and parcel of the hegemonic culture...grossly overpaid for what they do and in line with the consequentialist nature of capital...i am inclined to ignore them for simply that reason...they may be part of the staus quo however that doesn't make this any less of a vile subversion of what are clearly necessary changes in the way we do things in the interests of the precise people who are the root cause of the balance of the problems...greedy bastards to a man...so, seemingly, are the individuals who "virtuously" shill for them...you may, if you are so inclined, disagree with me...you cannot undo the fact thay, to an individual, they allowed their photgraphs to be utilized.

always some sort of scam in texas

they do everything big in texas...and that includes grand theft as well as stolen ballot boxes...

and so, completely uninvited and/or/provoked, some scammer outfit in austin texas called netspend all-access, promising me that i can get my paycheck "up to two days earlier!" ( presumanbly so i can move closer to bankruptcy by spending more quickly ) has sent me a debit card, replete with computer chip and with my name spelled correctly so i can access my hard won earnings through their...i am uncertain here...bank? savings and loan?payday loan store?...they claim my deposits will be "fdic insured up to $250,000" through the kind services of something called pathward national association...which, per their website, engages in "banking as a service" (BaaS)...what might that be?____ " How Banking as a Service Works____ In traditional banking, a banking license is required as is following strict government regulations. However, a banking-as-a-service partnership means that companies can seamlessly integrate financial services directly into their existing platforms while avoiding the hassle of government rules and licensing that starting a bank would require. "___oh...those pesky regulations setting limits on just what a half-bright texas boy with a full head of hair, good teeth, and a glib line of bullshit might be able to do for himself...things become clearer...being paid faster so i can spend faster and, no doubt, be subject to some "hidden fees"? nah..i still remeber "credit default swaps" and lehman brothers...sure they tightened up the regulation after that meltdown...but memory is short and the time has come again for bold new innovations in the banking sector that feed the greed imperative that drives the economy ( and, as if i need point it out, the government on every level...debt as national policy...reduce the population to debt penury and pay them enough to service the interest on their debt in perpetuity...the whores are transparent by dint of their unrelenting hubris )...money is an abstract expression of work...and i have no desire to work for the aggrandizement of some yahoo ( in the swiftian sense ) from fucking texas...i will take a pass...but the unactivated debit card goes into the archives...fuck these people.