assessment from a year out

the puking buddha and i have been hashing over the political landscape that is unfolding around the nation and we have reached a tentative consensus on possibilities ( we are not prognosticating...we have no answers...mostly we have questions and are making something of an effort to confront reality as it is not as it is distorted by the media or our desires...a risky, thankless, bitter business )...we can begin with the incumbent who is faced with the agonizingly deliberate process of impeachment which may or may not happen...given the deeply partisan nature of congress it seems likely to happen...a conviction is far from guaranteed however and i would have to give a trumpy who survives a trial a better than even chance of a second term...it would empower the yahoo vote and one wonders how energized the opposition might be in the face of acquittal...the bottom line here is that he has survived to this point because the wealthy are becoming wealthier under his administration ( the current "strong economy" would seem to have passed the working people of the nation by...wealth is aggrandized...my paycheck is somewhat stagnant )...he may be a bozo but he is a greedy bozo and those on his coat tails are not losing money here...and they will take anything in their brazen fashion...even medicare and social security...they want it all...contrary to the shiny constitution, wealth controls the government, not "the people" ( and here i would recommend "the federalist papers" and beard's "an economic interpretation of the constitution of the united states" and if that hasn't blunted your interest bill maclay's journal of the first congress is illuminating )...congress is owned by one donor or another and the handlers are there to make sure they toe the line...a well behaved congressperson is gong to retire well off and enlightened self interest, not public interest, is the guiding principle here...the governmental zeitgeist since at least 1789...radical change is frowned on and the institutions created by that shiny constitution are profoundly conservative and resistant...cosmetic, much less substantive, change is not easy to come by...what, one wonders, became of the "green new deal"? dead in committee someplace...unlikely to see the light of day any time soon...liz warren has unveiled a "tax the rich" plan to redo healthcare that will never even be introduced, much less reach a committee that can kill it...and the 2020 monkey see monkey do democratic take on the 2016 republican circus grinds on with the certainty of making the next election again a negative choice...the only prospective candidate i could have reasonably supported has left the "race"...i may be voting green again because frankly the stench of voting mainstream is becoming far too much to bear...whatever the circumstances in 2020 the ending will not be sweetness and light and a wonderful new life...business as usual...wealth aggrandizing itself...mired in a consumerist based hegemonic culture that insists "growth" is the panacea not the ill...and a slow extinction...unless the data sets are flawed and it shows up much faster

fear drives the machine

"a joyless existence, overshadowed by death and anxiety; human material for the authoritarian personality." herbert marcuse actually talking about martin heidegger's philosophy...but heidegger was a nazi and so it is germane__________one of the more noteworthy aspects of the current mid-term elections is how any and everyone is running a fear based campaign..that the trumpists would be whipping up as much hysterical anxiety as any of their fake news outlets can engender is not a surprise...the "progressives" are no better...and honestly this is no shock either...immigrants are going to take my job or congress will take my medicare...ms-13 will hack me to death with machetes or the government will become authoritarian...the government has always bee, if quietly, coercive and unafraid to employ violence when it feels threatened by substantive change from below which might threaten the elite's ( and the elite is the government...more there in a bit ) prerogatives to maintain and expand a base of wealth and power..have a look at how governments...local, state, national...dealt with labor activists be they anarchists, wobblies, or industrial unionists..leaving out nixon, macarthy, witch hunts, pumpkin papers, domino theories, black lists and a slew of other oppressions from the past...the government is one of special interests...not by or of the people...it just tries to keep quiet about it ( until some jerk like trump, who can't keep his mouth shut, gets into office and begins to highlight the disconnect )...which brings me to another point...the champions of "the street" are no less members of the elite who are playing the game by a somewhat different set of rules but still using fear as a base...warren is worth ( last figures i could find ) $18 million and pelosi has more money than ted kennedy did...they are generating fear for their own gain every bit as much as the trumpists...one wonders who is playing whom and what they are after..honestly the hysteria about a blue wave and the need to "take back" congress is bullshit...take it back from whom? and for whom? i have input in exactly two races for congress...i do not need to be propagandized about the cruz/o'roruke contest...waste of my time and theirs...except that it might make me more anxious and thus more easily manipulated...the media love consternation...sells advertising..moves goods...i will vote...i always do...i will vote what i think is the best alternative in a fucked situation..i always do because the system does not represent me...its priorities are elsewhaere.