media and contradictions

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

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

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

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

fixes

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

privacy has always been overrated

joe geobbles once said that you couldn't have good government without good propaganda...which may or may not be true depending on your perspective on what constitutes good government...it seems that the underpinning of "good government" has been quietly shifting from propaganda to data ( not that old joe and company weren't curious about what "the volk" were up to...some things never change )...that politicians, and by extension governments, lie thorough their teeth is a given most ten year olds understand...they understand top down authority and its inherent resistance to change as well so they grow up to become corporate executives, lawyers, and yet another generation of lying politicians...it is the way of things...and authoritarian oligarchs posing as elected officials serving at the behest of "the people" and, allegedly, in their best interest are nosy parkers who want to know what you had for lunch and who you ate it with...and that is nowhere near as deep into the minutia of your life they'd like to delve...facebook and google are pale imitations of the nsa and we all bloody well know it...even though some are in deep denial about the whole apparatus and have bought into the " the system is broke and if we only adhered to the letter of the constitution everything would be swell again" tissue of whoppers hamilton, jay , and madison told to pull a fast one on the proles...system aint broke...working as planned ...but i am digressing here...this wonderful email from my internet provider landed in my inbox today and it is a stunner...of course they're working with the fcc since it is the regulatory body that has, among other things, killed net neutrality and opened they way for them to soak any and everybody...how could they not work with that? and, in a clear effort to improve my "online experience" the want me to sign up for a program that will "measure" my large file download speed and the quality of my video streaming...if i sign up and i am "selected" they are willing to send me a "new t-p link router enabled with SamKnows ( what a fucking giveaway )performance measurement software"...i can give them a categorical "no thanks"...as i see it the government and facebook and google and every other corporate structure you care to name already have a fat portfolio of what and who i am...why should i volunteer more information? let them find it on their own...they are fairly effective at it...they know where i live and what i buy from amazon and what video streams through here already...why should i aid them in acquiring data faster? that is the crux of their proposed "improvement" near as i can tell...fuck these people...where is the lake of fire?

$70,326,699 divided by 52...

renders an average of approximately $1,352,436.52 ( actually it is .519 ) as the cost of a property advertised inside this supplement to today's n y times aimed specifically ( for the most part ) upscale gentrifying ( if not civilizing ) chicago...

in answer to the overt question, yes i have and it isn't in chicago...nor would it have been in any other urban status ghetto for that matter...admittedly the urban landscape and i are mutually exclusive and doubtlessly the anathemas flow both ways..i am alright with that...the urbanists can pound sand and stay out of my back yard ( which could do with a fewer rabbits as well...both are pretty much pests )...

averages lie and the one above is no exception...the high end of the fifty two properties inside this glossy brochure is a $6,900,000 half floor on the gold coast...a deal for the up and coming elitist..a trophy..a physical manifestation of the obvious superiority of the wealthy...even if it is wealth marooned in the "second city" and not manhattan or the more fashionable ( but not fireproof ) sections of london...

oh there are more modest abodes here too...$95,000 will put you in a "starter home" condo out in buffalo grove with the suburban proles..motivation to move up into a better "place in the world "...shuffled off to the back pages, compass obviously equates a sub million dollar price tag as failure on the purchaser's part...

the gem of the collection is on the cover though...another gold coast condo for a trifling $7,850,000...with...apparently...a current owner with a penchant for wood floors and shoe decor...it would be tempting to lay all this imperial extravagance and worship of wealth at the doorstep of trumpist america...unfortunately the robber baron chic has been around a lot longer than trumpy...back past jay gould and charles tyson yerkes even..i am inclined to blame hamilton and his peers among the framers of the constitution...washington wasn't the first president because he was a competent general or a humble virginia farmer...

before i go i do have a question to ask...does nayone else find a 21,000 square foot home a gross misallocation of resources?

counterintuitive or rigged game?

i collected yesterday's mail from the mailbox this afternoon when i got home...magazines, and the usual junk mail...and some stuff from the auto insurance people...among the junk was an envelope from "bernie 2020" soliciting funds for "us"...i scanned it and found the usual appeals to liberal sentiments ( why they confuse me with a liberal is a mystery to me...hubert humphrey was a liberal...why would i crawl into that behavioral sump? we are all more complicated than the hegemonic culture realizes...labels are misleading shortcuts )...it wasn't very persuasive...or even entertaining for that matter...

however the disclaimer at the bottom of the last page caught my interest and it holds some insights...

that corporations active in politics ( and since all politics is an extension of economics, find me one that is not..if not publicly , then surreptitiously ) might choose not to donate to sanders is more than understandable...the ideologies are in conflict...at least for public consumption...but prohibited? it is in keeping with the war on unions that unions would be prohibited...the desire is to bankrupt them and drive them out of any position that would allow the amelioration of capital's abuses of workers...from wages to terms and conditions of work which are increasingly authoritarian and thoroughly contravening of constitutionally guaranteed civil rights...but corporations are far more powerful than the government...they own it...i actually qualify to be a donor for old bernie...a lamentable loophole in campaign finance law that will inevitably be closed because i am nothing if not a member of the rabble and a proletarian at that...no good can come of allowing me too much political latitude...ask old alex hamilton about that...or his buddy john jay...or their philosophical godfather john locke...read the fundamental constitutions of carolina locke authored in 1669..it will explain a lot...anyway...i can give bernie up to $2800 a year ( this is unlikely )...however if i give him only $200 they have to report my name, address, occupation, and my fucking employer to the feds? so a quiet letter can be sent to my employer ( who reserves the right to terminate me with or without cause [see what i mean about authoritarian and civil rights?] at any time ) can say "get your sorry socialist commie ass out of here"...and corporations whine about "regulation"...have i said fuck these people today? where is the lake of fire?

how much?

the puking buddah and i have been perusing the friday new york times...because we have a day off and some time to kill and the times is always instructive in the contradictory ways of the elite...or, at least, the daily confirmation that we can only perceive a slice of reality at a time because the totality is too complex for limited human cognition and so are completely vulnerable to contradicting ourselves without realizing it until it is far too late...for example...

this is the lede for an article that is to appear in print in the sunday magazine but is all over the website today...for me personally the lancets suggestion that zero alcohol is the safe level of ingestion would be eminently true...i am not everyone nor are they me and that may not hold exactly true for a lot of people...the times may sense this empirically and so feel completely at ease running advertisements like this...

"today and tonight only" you can have a glass of wine or get shitfaced while aiding the reconstruction of a remnant of a medieval institution based on a bronze age cult doing business in the present world...numb yourself to the exigencies and angst of these trumpist times while aiding the splendor that is france...i wonder...would this worthy endeavor make the wine sacramental?

and just so we don't lose sight of the rtime's elitist leanings here is the southeby's international real estate ad ( "your best life begins with a home that inspires you" ) for today's paper with this lising provising $39,500,00 worth of inspiration...the cheapest? $1,750,000...let me hasten to add that there is one "price upon request" listing for a home in harbour island, bahamas that would likely dwarf the cost of the "spectacular terraces overlooking park avenue"...i am, however, disinclined to inquire...it is enough to know such places exist and that there is a class of basically unwarranted wealth out there that inhabits them...frankly we have lost our way as a species...or, conversely, our path as a species has always tended to lead us to self-destructive behaviors and beliefs...either way.

some sunday observations

my ad blockers and anti-tracking add ons through mozilla firefox have vanished and there are ads everywhere they didn't used to be ( except yahoo whom i pay to keep them off )...when i try to download them again the "corrupt file please check your connection" notification comes up...my connection is fine...frontier has cut a deal with the slime at google to force me to accept their miserable ads...i have been clicking on "block this advertiser" on every ad...one wonders if i can exhaust them...net neutrality is dead and the hyenas are at hand...

the luxury condos advertised on pages two, five, seven, and nine of today's n y times magazine have an average starting price of $3998750 ( low $1,655 million, high $3.65 million ) and an average top end of $9916666 ( low $7 million, high $12 million...the one on page seven has no "high" figure..if you have to ask you can't afford it...and "penthouse information on request" )...clearly the times is still the paper of "truth"...they crow about their pursuit of it all the times...whose truth? a look at the ads will sort out who their real target audience is...state run...corporate run...their interests still stand fairly in opposition to mine.