"you will not be beaten"

it has always been a violent country born of a western culture that has an inherent violence ingrained from its roots...there has already been one civil war here...and i was reflecting on trump's clear incitement of an obvious uptick in that inherent violence and i flashed on slobodan milosevic telling kosovar serbs "you will not be beaten"...milosevic use the kosovar serbs as a vehicle to promote serbian nationalism over a yugoslav identity in the central committee of the serbian communist party...once he gained the support of that committee and put serbian nationalism at the front of the agenda the other constituents ( croatia, montenegro, etc ) were forced to wither accept or reject serbian prominence in the country...that was roundly rejected and the state broke up into its constituent parts with al the resulting violence...

which thrust him to prominence and was a marker along the road to the dissolution of yugoslavia...none of which especially ended well...and now we seem to have a president saying "you will not be beaten" to a group of people who have always been here but have had to "go to ground" in the face of a society trying to be more at ease with diversity...privileging white nationalism as the nationalism of the country over a more inclusive and diverse identity...and using that malevolent base to spew out his own twisted disdain for...near as i can tell...everyone but donald trump...looking around i find i am not the first to make this connection...as pleased as i am to have found it on my own i see it was made early on in this non-presidential presidency by a number of people...that this has significant potential to end "not especially well" should be obvious...what i find myself asking myself is who ( and here i mean in the halls of government ans specifically the whores in the senate )...beyond the fore mention malevolent base...is accommodating themselves to this vileness...and why? personal gain leaps to mind and no one in washington is shy about money...none of them will retire like pepe mujica...government" of the people, by the people, and for the people" has always been a shiny lie...if nothing else the last twenty years or so should have illuminated the oligarchical nature of american "democracy"...it should also be manifestly clear that the likelihood of the senate, in its current configuration, convicting an impeached trump is exceptionally slim...and ever increasing violence could lead to another civil war...or it could be the reichstag fire and suspended elections in 2020...or...it might just be "business as usual" in the west while the orient waits to see what happens to the barbarians...slobo the second has arrived as the decline of the "american century" accelerates and the confused fringe looks for answers as the nationalist indoctrination they have been inculcated with continues to shift farther out of sync with the realities of the new direction of geopolitics...one wonders which identity will ultimately be chosen.

notes on notes, the punditry, and objectivity

"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 the stimulation of nationalistic loyalties,,,much of the propagandist writing of our time amounts to plain forgery. material facts are suppressed, dates altered, quotations removed from context and and doctored so as to change their meaning. events, which it is felt, ought not to have happened are left unmentioned and ultimately denied...the general uncertainty as to what is really happening makes it easier to cling to lunatic beliefs. since nothing is ever quite proved or disproved, the most unmistakeable fact can be impudently denied." notes on nationalism.george orwell.october 1945________________goeorge's "nationalism" is a bit broader than the ordinary...he includes "isms"...ideologies...and religion...and ideas that set themselves solely as counterpoints to other ideologies with no positive ideas for alternatives...and so this framework would lend itself to an analysis of the present state of politics and mass media where the divisions are clearly along partisan ideological lines and have little to do with fact as opposed to the subjective matter of "truth" which is what the media distortions are pandering to...reinforcing world views in spite of what may actually be happening...and all to the benefit of corporate profit and political expediency...shopping around the web ( and bearing in mind you can find anything here that will support your views...the web is media too )https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/...this site finds most pundits "counterfactual" and they do have a fair cross section of the political spectrum...from micheal moore to rush limbaugh...and then have a look at this:https://www.medicaldaily.com/being-confident-better-pundits-being-correct-246304 if pundits are correct 47% of the time they are doubtlessly doing better than politicians who basically lie for a living...we seem to be awash in a flood of allegations, counter allegations, distortions, lies, emotional assaults and blackmailing, banalities, outrageous claims ( "when you lie, tell the big lie" ), and a deep dose of denial about a lot of things we should be paying attention to but can't because the distortions and existential hum of all the bullshit are in the way...that i have no faith in politicians and very little in media is apparent...which begs the question, in the face of that what do we do? the political system is geared towards interest groups...it does not respond well to individuals...we get to vote for elected officials who then, for the most part, go on to work for the interests of their donors more so than their individual constituents...“[democracy is an]institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for the people’s votes.” Capitalism, socialism, and democracy p.269...that is from joseph shumpeter...an early to mid 20th century political economist and harvard professor who maintained that elections were popularity contests and not much more in terms of actual representation...i find myself inclined to agree...which leaves the ballot box as a poor vehicle for change...i am an individual and so will act as an individual despite the systems inherent bias against them..my actions are the one one thing i exert some control over ( we could go off on to the hegemonic culture and how, since, like everyone else, i am so deeply embedded in it that some actions that run counter to it are not possible without a good deal of negative sanction...but read gramsci instead...if you have the patience )i have some choice in what i do or do not support and some choice in how i spend money ( but not really complete control for instance, if i stop paying my utility bill to protest my power company's use of coal fired generators they will, eventually, shut off my gas and electricity at which point everything in my house ceases to function..and what do i do? pay the bill...embedded )...so i can choose not to patronize say fox news ( electricity costs money ) or (ugh ) the national interest ( subscription costs ) or buy products made by nestle or nabisco at the supermarket ( but it is difficult to avoid the supermarket altogether...seeing a pattern developing? )...and i can sift through as much media noise as i can stand to try to ferret out something of a balanced picture of events...as far as that is possible given my own biases...past that i can work towards making as much of it as possible irrelevant...willfully ignoring pundits of all stripes...eschewing as much electronic media as possible ( yes print is still biased but it takes longer to assemble and you can see events unfold in some anticipation of it and make value judgements as there is a bit of a lag )...and shutting off the media and going out in the yard to think instead of just passively listen...most of it isn't simple and it may well be ineffective...but i have to say stalking dragonflies with a camera cuts down on the angst...the zeitgeist is awful...do what you can to stay whole.

this is not a political farce

i have been consciously avoiding the foul political landscape in this tired and frightened country for a number of complicated reasons...mostly because in the emotionally charged atmosphere no one is is listening to anyone anyway...which is lamentable because i am inclined to believe that this is exactly what that entitled self-absorbed clown wants...if we are busily spending our time arguing and threatening one another we are not going to have the time to look even remotely closely at the corrupt kleptocracy this wannabe authoritarian is running out of the white house..nixon was paranoid but he wasn't corrupt ( and if you know me you realize what a stretch it is for me to make even the slightest positive statement about tricky dick )...this plutocrat is as venal as they come...der fur hair has never been presidential...how could he? he clearly was never socialized as a child...amoral...asocial...sociopathic...the corporate zeitgeist incarnate...corrupt and vile...his latest insults aimed at members of congress over their ethnicity and origins are just another line of evidence of his racist intent and his empowering of racist elements in this country to underpin his authoritarian pretensions...sad angry belittled bewildered frightened people doing what humans do...looking for reasons why and finding all the wrong ones in this ego run riot...this should be a wake up for congress and they should seize the opportunity to kick this fat turd to the political curb...remove the legal protections the presidency confers on his venality...unseal all the indictments...and let him finish his days in detention..or in an ignominious exile in putinville...as impotent and bloated as ferdy marcos in hawaii...unfortunately far too many of the people who should be acting in defiance of this insult to "the people" have no real interest in the people and are involved in trying to take his place...or, at least, insuring their continued presence in the august assembly of whores called congress...the"american century" has been dead for about twenty years now and as we slowly fade into a parody of great brittan this is the sort of "leadership" we can expect...backward looking ( and trumpy is reaching back to lynchings people...he is fucking dangerous ) and indulging in recidivist and/or self interested behaviors reminiscent of "the gilded age"...jay gould...charles tyson yerkes...bathhouse john...hinky dink kenna...everything old is new again...this will not end well.

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?