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…

papal pretentions

earlier this morning michelle goldberg's column in the new york times ( on line, it isn't in the print edition ) carried this lede...

however when i logged back on this was the new lede...which is just as well since i was having difficulty with the idea that the times editorialists were just now familiarizing themselves with the narcissistic element in politics...i have to think there is at least a touch of narcissism at any level of leadership, coprporate or otherwise, and this would of necessity be a bit more pronounced in the more public and popularity ( even chartisma? ) based world of politics...and , one supposes, the farther up the political hierarchy one examines the more fully embraced narcissim is ( as we have seen in the recent white house denizen )...no lack of hubris in the political world..."i am the decider" was a fully dubya way of expressing it...however it does extend a bit farther back into the history of the office...nixon was paranoid and obsessed with his historical reputation to the point of criminality...and, among other blatant howlers, he said , " i would have made a good pope"...despite his quaker aposticism...even deeper, martin van buren penned a 776 page autobuography...always an element of narcissim in that and i wonder who, exactly, has read it ( to be clear i have not...i am simply admiring the fact that he could find 776 pages of personal detail to write about...must have been a wonderful life )...that krysten sinema should be labeled an narcissit is probably not much of a deviation from fact...so is shumer and that jerk mcconnell...and the rest of the zoo in the nation's capital ( and let us not overlook the jibbering bozos downstate here )...i am simply surpried the times was alert enough to identify its error and send the offending lede down the memory hole.

why such a generous offer?

“for over 125 years the wall street journal has been a leading source of global news. and, since 2008, wine lovers across the u.s. have relied on the wsjwine discovery club to drink in-the-know and explore the world of wine with confidence.” ( who writes this stuff? )______________________________________________ the puking buddha and i were perusing the new york times yesterday when an envelope boldly inscribed “a special offer only for the readers of the new york times" dropped out of the artifact…admittedly we have run across the “wsjwine discovery club” before…they drop these “special offers” in the times about once a quarter or so…as we looked over the advertisement a few things struck us…why 2008? could it be that bear stearns’ collapse and a tanking economy persuaded the editors that purveying “news” was not going to be lucrative enough an activity and the time had come to diversify the journal’s economic activities to keep the ship afloat? certainly “the news” is not what it used to be…it was always biased no matter what the source, but its function as an economic activity was beginning to falter…so much competition for the hearts and minds…so many products being flogged out there with fox and msnbc barking down viewers like carnies to sell them “the facts” and set them on a “right-thinking” path perhaps print was foundering and new areas need to be explored…and the journal’s media moguls were not the only ones thinking along the lines of mind numbing substances for readers…the new york times. rolling stone, and the nation all have “wine clubs” ( not to mention the fucking nra…they have one too although one would have thought a “beer club” more appropriate )…the media have reached a bad patch these days…no one knows what’s what and they all have an agenda ( and a product ) to sell…from left to right they are hawking social wisdom and the proper mind set for the “new reality” of our “new, happy life”…and minds softened by the waste product of yeast devouring sugar are more malleable and ripe for indoctrination...and the wall street journal is willing to take a $180 hit just to get you started down that road…my “wine voucher” is going into the archives...i gave up yeast shit long ago…you may indulge as you see fit in that substance...i am not the final arbiter of behavior...i would suggest that you leave political and social thought for more a cogent moment however…there are enough fruit loops exercising bad judgment out there already.

hypocrisy is a common weapon of power

the new york times has an ongoing feature called "the privacy project" https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/opinion/internet-privacy-project.html?login=email&auth=login-email which purports to give us all the information we need on the accelerating lack of privacy in the world...wonderful...laudable..informative..and, at bottom, profoundly hypocritical...which isn't a surprise coming from and elitist organ of power like the times...but still one that should be openly discussed...the salient point is there is no privacy...or, at least, no concerted attempt to invade that shred of privacy left even on a "privacy project" web page...

when i am on the "privacy project" the "tracking attempts blocked" icon appears in the address bar...when i click on the icon for the anti-tracking software ( an add on from duck duck go ) this is what i see...

and when i click on the "6 trackers blocked" this comes up...the graphic was too large for my snipping tool so ab.scorcardreseach.com is missing from the bottom of the photo...that is the sixth tracker...the point being the n y times is allowing third par5y cookies to be injected into my computer when i a m reading their sermons on privacy...or the sorrowful lack of it...so the hypocrites strike again...their editorial stance is biased anti-trump...which aligns with mast of their readership...myself included...however they are a commercial interest that is in business to make a profit, not disseminate objective fact..they all are...fox news has a store where you can buy books about the "deep state"...the wall street journal has a store where you can buy all sorts of neo-liberal crap...the new york times store sells a lot of new york memorabilia and both the times and the journal have "wine clubs" for their hyper elitist ( or wannabe ) readership wine snobs...so there is no real source of objective fact...just "news" tailored to world views from any political/social perspective and every fucking body wants to send me targeted advertising...this is why i have reverted to reading books eclectically and why this thing is off more than it is on anymore.

terra incognita

yesterday's new york times promised "a map of every building in the united states" in, seemingly, an "interactive feature" and "a poster sized view of one of six major cities, depending on where you live" in today's paper...

and so they did...a stunning four page fold out map of chicago and a significant chunk of its western suburbs delivered to my doorstep down here in back-yard goat tending indiana...the boondocks where cornfields and apple orchards ( and oh my, there is an entire post about fucking orchards just waiting to be written ) abound...

unfortunately the map ends abruptly at the state line and indiana becomes terra incognita for the urbane west of the border...no guide to those rural wonders is deemed necessary by the editors of the times in their profound urban bias..the "new urbanism" is something they adore, subconsciously if not overtly, and if it isn't urban it is mostly disdained...

and there are rural areas...once you get south of the subdivisions of mcmansions alive with folks who have fled the big city and its taxes and it's politics and what is quaintly termed "urban blight" and made a new home in the boonies...that is a soybean field ready to harvest for the unfamiliar...

there's dense yellow # 2 down here as well...feed stock for all those extruded hot pockets and mountain dew that are ubiquitous...even in chicago...

i actually ran across farmer brown harvesting some of that corn yesterday...keeping the industrial food pipeline flowing...from conagra, staley's, and nestle to your table...which brings us to the actual point of this screed ( about time, right? )..in "the structures of everyday life" fenand braudel wrote "the town only exists in relation to a form of life lower than its own...there is no town, no townlet without its villages, its scrap of rural life attached; no town that does not impose upon its hinterland the amenities of its market.."...what braudel fails to mention is that, in their urban bigotry, the "new urbanists" and city dwellers fail to recognize that no city is self-sufficient...solar panels and vertical farms aside they do not produce anywhere near the material support their existence demands...they are delusional in their denial of what economists would term "externals"...braudel is correct...the city does not exist without its "scrap of rural life"...he simply neglects to factor in the city's preeminence as sink for resources and an epicenter of greed...chicago became wealthy by underpaying rural produces and over charging urban consumers..i have no use for cities or urbanist fantasies...old wendell berry is far too utopian in his view of the rural life...his is a bias in the other direction...still...a more palatable vision that that of the times.

advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket-or grabbo disappoints

so today is the day we "listen to the world" with the new york times sunday magazine...given the times recent up-swelling of anti-trump, pro democracy and "for the street" populism i had hoped there would be a series of stories humanizing the segments of the population vilified by the howling ,nativist, xenophobic, wildly distasteful trump base...with general electric leading the corporate charge of tolerance...i was somewhat optimistic in thinking this ( those of you who know me should stop gaping at that howler and remember the capacity for sarcasm )..what i got in my bulky sunday paper ( we will get to the causality of that bulk soon enough ) was the annual "voyages" issue

the times' annual paean to the wonders of travel photography...there is something of a difference this year however and it is the key to the ears that have cropped up in high definition photographs in their pages of late...

this editor's note stapled to the binding outside the magazine...

and this page of "detailed instructions" informed me that in an effort to move towards a more appreciable simulacrum of the natural world the times has provided a soundtrack for the photos i can listen to while i peruse the magazine if i sign into the times' web site...imagine my excitement...i was somewhat surprised at the dearth of advertising in this week's magazine...there were only ten pages of it and that was all dominated by general electric...and, since this whole effort to make my sunday a more natural place was "supported by" the same general electric one supposes that the pages were provided at a substantial discount...we should, however, not be over concerned about the times' fiscal health...

the bulk in today's times came, in part, from the "t magazine design and luxury" issue ( you know how we all crave luxury...the times wants us to and they want us to move beyond voyeurism and, if necessary, into debt to taste a bit of it ) 228 glossy pages of articles about the wonders available to us if we have the cash and 105 color pages of advertising for such necessities as italian leather couches, patron tequila, vacations in alabama, and tod's shoes that brought $11,467,575 into the times' coffers ( per the latest advertising rates i can find at the ny times )...they may have discounted general electric but they didn't lose money...so...fiscal health at the cost of social responsibility...it is the corporate way and the media are nothing if not corporate entities whose purpose is to make money, not necessarily by disseminating factual information...

i have closed with a photo of pepe mujica ( on the left side ) to cleanse the palate.

someone should tell them art is subjective

while the n y times continues to tell me almost daily how they are ferreting out the truth about the president ( pro tem ) and their sterling objectivity and utter detachment in doing so they also serve the interests of their advertisers as they try to sell me...among other things...condos that start from "$ 2 million" ( and those are the cheap seats folks ) and $8,890 leather couches ( on sale! ) from some elitist outlet store called rochebobois...i am deeply skeptical about their objectivity in any of this and i am convinced of their manipulative propensities...they have mostly the same agenda as don trump...make me rich(er)...the media are corporate entities with editorial boards that decide what and how much i should know...i have been a subscriber for some time..but not because i think they are purveyors of truth...it is a fin insight t into what the elite is thinking about and they have definite impact on other media...always good to know what the other side thinks i should think...i am, by the by, mostly disinterested in the music they are hyping in this "music issue"...with the exception of leonard cohen and james macmurtry this stuff is pointless dreck ( see? subjective )..i will pursue my own tastes ( and play my own music ) at the risk of being unstylish...fuck these people.

an elite perception of work

i have been perusing the new york times sunday magazine "work issue"...a weakness, i know...but i am always interested in what the elite thinks and i have a difficult time thinking any periodical as elitist as the nyt magazine...trump hates them...he has called them, among other things in tweets, "incompetent", "dopes", "poorly run", and maintained, "allows dishonest writers to fabricate stories"...i know...the times published a slew of his tweets a few weeks back...don is a hater and unfit to be a small town code inspector, much less president...he thinks libel laws should be patterned after some arcane and byzantine system akin to what the brits labored under for years...he thinks the times should be sued...primarily, i believe, because the times has labeled him what the "uneducated" he so loves would call an asshole...may be true in don's case...and someone should hip him to what happened to mussolini...pompous blowhards are ultimately very unpopular...however i am digressing from the point....in between ads for $50 million condominiums designed by zaha hadid ( the cheap rat holes go for $4,895,000...steerage among the elite ) and $10,000 sofas there are articles about what the times perceives as "work"..about how to build a better "focus group" or why meetings are so horrible, or the travails of diversifying the workplace...and how people are being replaced by robotics...or the demise of "lunch" as people eat at their desks because a "lunch break" wastes valuable corporate time...all valid points i imagine...some work must get done in offices...but in all that there in virtually no mention of what most people would call work ( well...there is an article about janitors...the people who clean up after the people who do the "real" work...a tossed bone...or,perhaps, the only "workers" the office folk come into close contact with )...but no mention of transport...or construction...or retail..or fast food..or manufacturing..or heavy industry...all of which, presumably, the stuff that goes on in offices is actually related to...or are offices like the stock market? utterly detached from reality of most of daily life? going by what the times focuses on as "work" i'd have to think so...or...just maybe...the times has a distorted vision...crawled up its own ass and died...i find don loathsome...but i may have to grant him some valid points about the times...by the way...the design director said she wanted the "work issue"..." to have "the feel of a corporate manual " what a giveaway........and as a post-script...there should be a special place in hell for madeleine albright...probably condi rice and fucking henry kissinger too...fuck these people.

Too late II

THE LUXURY ISSUE 2014 View All Issues » T's Luxury Issue offers an intimate look at some of literature, art and design’s most respected figures. In the issue’s centerpiece, authors including Philip Roth, George Saunders, Marilynne Robinson and Lydia Davis revisit, in candid prose, the circumstances and motivations that shaped some of their greatest works. (They also share annotated pages from those books — a sampling of a December auction of annotated first editions by 75 authors to benefit the PEN American Center, the range of which can be seen on T’s website.) Next, we celebrate the master decorator Robert Kime, whom we encounter at his picturesque farmhouse in the north of England; Rita Konig tours the property and gets a firsthand look at the English eclecticism that Kime has brought to his high-profile clients’ homes for decades. The polymath Danish artist Olafur Eliasson opens the doors to his sprawling studio in a converted brewery in Berlin and explains how art is just one of the ways — along with politics, philanthropy and cooking — he hopes to change the world. Elsewhere, Cathy Horyn answers the question, "To fast or feast?" by doing both in Germany’s Black Forest; Andrew O’Hagan opines that, yes, life really is better in the iPhone age; Christine Smallwood puzzles over a bizarre new theme park in Rome dedicated to Italian film; and one of T’s very own editors explores New York City on three wheels in an ode to the trusty and stylish, if oft-forgotten, tricycle. See all stories from this issue >> HIGHLIGHTS William Eggleston, The Third Way: Tricycles By EMILY STOKES Long a favorite of toddlers, three-wheelers have also attracted the attention of British lords, Indian maharajahs — and now, one writer hopes, a bold new generation. Top: the fruit juice “lunch” served during the 10-day fast at the Buchinger Wilhelmi clinic on Lake Constance. Bottom: lunch at the three-Michelin-star restaurant Schwarzwaldstube in Baiersbronn includes grilled quail, a Breton lobster and a granite of sour cherries. Famine or Feast? By CATHY HORYN Is it more rewarding to subsist on broth and cold mountain treks at a German clinic for 10 days or to settle into five-course Michelin-starred meals? One writer heads to the Black Forest to find out. Slouchy Suede Bags By T MAGAZINE A luxuriously supple carryall, just in time for fashion’s new ’70s groove. The Elegance of Time By T MAGAZINE While smart watches are grabbing headlines, there’s something thoroughly modern in bucking the trend in favor of a handsome gold timepiece with no complications. Diamonds in the Rough By T MAGAZINE Jagged stones, graphic settings and a touch of black give the new gems a strikingly youthful edge. Vintage furniture and custom pieces by Vincenzo de Cotiis in his former office in Brescia, originally a sock factory from the ’40s. Industrial Elegance By STEPHEN HEYMAN The interior architect Vincenzo de Cotiis — sought after in his native Italy for the dynamic monastery-meets-laboratory approach he brings to designing furniture, homes and hotels — deserves our attention. Philip Roth at home in September. “I certainly didn’t understand while at work that henceforth I was never to be free of this psychoanalytic patient I was calling Alexander Portnoy.” Old Books, New Thoughts By PHILIP ROTH, LYDIA DAVIS, ROBERT A. CARO, GEORGE SAUNDERS, MARILYNNE ROBINSON, JENNIFER EGAN, JUNOT DÍAZ On the occasion of an auction of annotated first editions to benefit PEN American Center, seven authors look back on their early books and younger selves. Anya Hindmarch’s World of Inspiration By EVIANA HARTMAN The beloved British accessories designer turns to playful influences to breathe a little life and laughter into luxury. Unfinished wooden sculptures at Studio Olafur Eliasson, which occupies a converted brewery in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin. Olafur Eliasson on How to Do Good Art By NED BEAUMAN On the eve of his exhibition at the new Fondation Louis Vuitton, the artist discusses his work — which includes a school, an architecture practice, a charity, a cookbook and a herd of Icelandic sheep, and which is meant to make the world a better place. Really. Backstage at Dior’s spring 2015 show, where the creative and image director of Dior Makeup, Peter Philips, created subtle drama with adhesive strips across the eyelids. At Dior, Icing on the Cake By SARAH NICOLE PRICKETT Sugary pastel eyeliner made from strips of satin conjures worlds of romance and solace. One of the entrances to Cinecittà World, which opened last July. Hollywood on the Tiber By CHRISTINE SMALLWOOD What could be more melancholic, extravagant, alienated, operatic and deeply strange than Italian film? Try turning Italian film into a theme park. Poetic Justice By T MAGAZINE Finally for evening, a mood of natural elegance with loose, unadorned dresses and flat sandals._____________________________________________________________ the new york times rises to my bait every time...they go to great lengths to defend themselves as the "paper of record" for the general public and then they publish thinks like the T magazine "Luxury 2014" issue...in ethnography the rule of thumb is to write about what people say they are doing, what they think they are doing, and what they are actually doing ( not losing sight of the fact that even the most objective of ethnographers is going to have biases about what people are doing )...well...here's a quick run-down on what the n y times is doing...making money by pandering to a wealthy elite...among the tokenish articles on designer clothing, interior design, yet another article on phillip roth, and elitist kitsch they call art, are 74 full page color ads and 4 full page black and white ( full page ads were all i found )...revenue of $7,923,550 from the former and $293,680 from the latter...$8,217,230 total from an artificial section of a "newspaper" dedicated to "all the news that fit to print" as long as it turns a buck...i'll read it...but i won't trust it.

too late

comments are doubtlessly closed on this howler of an op-ed piece ( if, indeed, they were ever opened )...but despite what the public editor has to say about a broader readership the nyt is an elitist newspaper...how do i know? pick up your copy of the new york times sunday magazine...got it? open the cover and what do you find? a two page black and white advertisement ( about $146,000 and change )for a patek philippe wrist watch that you don't own, you, " merely take care of it for the next generation"...no price ( if you have to ask you can't afford it )...my guess would be around what we paid for the house...flip to the next page and what do we find? a two page color advertisement ( $214,000 and change ) for 2,282 square foot condominium ( residence D5-05 ) for the bargain price of $4.8 million ( that explains why they can afford the color ad )...i think i could swing the monthly payment...how about you? or maybe just cash on the barrel head...no sweat...i subscribe to this rag specifically to find out what the elite are doing and thinking and saying as the carom though their daily routine existence...there is no better source for what madisons's "minor party" is up to than this..if comments were open i'd have to say "too late...your shameless pandering to the wealth of wall street is showing"