all revolutions start as food riots

in 123 bce. gaius sempronius gracchus, who was tribune of the people that year, introduced a "corn dole"...it was not a free service in any way ( although the objectivist crypto-fascist cato institutue [ an extention of the koch brothers' "it all belongs to me philosophy] has a great deal to say about its corrosive effect on rome's population ) but was rather grain sold ( sold...get it? sold ) at subsidized prices...it was derided at the time as a populist move designed to ingratiate gracchus to he masses and was gradually rolled back in the latter empire ( augustus pretty much made it the bailiwick of the elite...feeding at the public trough...sound familiar? )...i am inclined to think it more served the function of keeping the roman rabble from becoming a starving roman rabble...food riots are ugly things..have a look at revolutions in history...more than a few began with some sort of fod riot/protest..france, russia, the "arab spring'..all connected to food in some way..so the elite sought to diffuse the mob through government supported programs...sensible..rational...and it can be cloaked as altruism for brownie points in government morality...the curent batch of objectivist shits in whoretown have lost sight of this rationality in their above-mention "it's all mine" viewpoint..i hear quite a bit of back channel windage from swamptown about the need to end the "broken" social security and medicare/medicaid systems...these are not free government provided services...i , for one, have paid well over $100,000 into these systems in my working career ( which seems to be in hiatus, at least, for the moment...that is another blog though )...i have ( in a non-threatening and, for me, reasonably polite way ) addressed this issue to my elected representatives in the senate...pointing out that i, and i presume many millions of other wage earners and taxpayers ( and voters...a point i brought out ) would consider the repeal of these programs without returning those monies i have paid into them directly to me a criminal act of extortion on the part of the congress and that blustering yahoo in the white house...there are some points that need to be brought home to the minority that control the government and the legislative levers that would allow them to legalize any criminal act they may entertain...it was never intended as a "government of the people" ( for the umpteenth time give the federalist paper a close reading )...still there ar limits ( or should be ) to what the "rabble" will tolerate from them...roman mobs were inclined to show their displeasure by hurling excrement at the elites in the streets...i will confine myself to saying "fuck these people"...and hope for a david meade-like lake of fire targeted specifically at them.

provincials

"it was the first care of the senate to dissolve those confederacies which taught mankind, that, as the roman arms prevailed by division, they might be resisted union." edward gibbon-"the history of the decline and fall of the roman empire" vol.I chapter II___________________________________it is a fact of human nature that, however benignly we look at our fellows, we still think that the group we define ourselves as "belonging" to is better than those outside our own...this exceptionalism can range from mild forbearance to ethnic cleansing, depending on who is pulling the group['s control levers ( and so community is a pharmakon...in reasonable doses it creates a sense of security and belonging...in larger doses the "other" becomes the cause of all problems and their destruction is the only cure...we have seen this...we will see it again )...the n y times "t" magazine "culture" issue came in today's paper...its focus is "56 months that changed the culture"...the culture of n y city...as if that burg had a lock on what passes for culture here...the n y times is an elitist newspaper, acting as the mouthpiece for the hegemonic culture [gramsci] ( elite, the rich, the 1%..the deep state....whatever you call it ) and their intent is to display to me how uncouth, provincial, and culturally illiterate i am......hegemonic culture is in the hands of a distinct minority and it is ion their interest to keep the population at large deflated and subservient...divided and unaware of the fact that they are the majority...a possibility of self-awareness that so troubled hamilton over shay's rebellion and moved madison to decry and "interested and overbearing majority" as faction...an informed and insistent electorate could gum up the works of extraction practiced by the few..the framers of the constitution tried to present the federal government as a neutral umpire of the special interests that make up the polity...( dividing us into interest group...nra/gun control, pro life/pro choice, coke/pepsi, ford/chevy is a first principle for subsuming the individual voter into a bloc where, like it or not, they are forced to compromise their individual positions to the group's which may not accurately reflect how they feel on all issues...and groups are much easier to control than individuals...orwell understood "groupthink" as a weapon of power...behavioral command and control )...the problem is the government is never neutral...influence is bought and sold every day in the capital and no amount of digging will drain swamptown...at some point it will collapse from its own weight into a simpler form ( read tainter )...it has tried to dissolve itself once...it will try again...comparing this decadent empire to rome may be folly...they are not the same entity ( although the sheer amount of greco-roman kitsch in whoretown does reinforce the perception of the founders as being their heirs )...yet the parallels are striking ( and give fodder in the form of uncertain and disillusioned people to manipulators like david meade and the evangelicals who rant about "the end of days"...planet nibiru tomorrow...i will post photos from the apocalypse ) there are more parallels beyond this, and, for an 18th century member of parliament, ed gibbon had some interesting ideas about religion and it purpose in the hegemonic culture which would be the kiss of death to a political career in these uncertain and interesting times...we will get to those...if we survive tomorrow.

the irs investigation team, nikki haley, and the decline of empire

the "irs investigation team" called me today...seems i have "four serious charges pending" ( same as last time ) and if i don't act in the next 24 hours the "local cop"' will take me into custody...they want me to call ( the number is 1-657-201-1354...call soon i am about to drop a dime to the treasury department ) so we can "discuss about this case"...what the fuck...who created this robotic call? a bunch of thirteen year olds? no federal agency is going to term them "cops"..."local law enforcement" maybe...but not cops...and "discuss about"? doesn't discuss imply the "about"...or are my language skills that lacking? i'd call but i am concerned about how many i-tunes or pre-paid debut cards it would cost me...i heard nikki haley chasten the russians for vetoing a security council resolution about syria this morning on the bbc...she said that "history will record" that this resolution was "blocked by one country"...diplomatic doublethink...in december she vetoed a resolution rescinding trumpy's recognition of jerusalem as israel's capital...and said the u s was "taking names" ( talk about a school yard bully ) of those who supported it which happened to be the rest of the security council..so the resolution was "blocked by one nation"...how will that go down in history since all it can do is exacerbate palestinian/israeli tensions which have been poor for decades to begin with...seems killing palestinians is qualitatively different that killing syrians...true it is hard to tell who fired the first shot...and this deep into a revenge cycle neither side is going to do anything but point at the other...still..when the brits held their noses in 1948 the zionists hands were not clean ( king david hotel terrorism ) and there were still people who were dispossessed when the world's bad conscience let them be...so nikki isn't doing anything but playing the game...okay..she is a politician ( the only real whores there are ) so it comes natural...still..between her, trump, and that sociopath bolton almost anything could happen...( as a side note i heard a syrian refugee interviewed as well...he asked pointedly why the use of chemical weapons garnered a response from the "international community" while years of sryians being killed by conventional ordinance did not...answer that one nikki )

there's a reason joe goebbels admired madison avenue

i have read a few pieces around the interweb and in the n y times about the relentless pro-party propaganda that inundates the people of china...and how the police are using smart glasses with facial recognition capability to finger "suspects" ( i would read "dissidents" there...thoughtcrime...a favorite of enforcement officials and authoritarian politicians everywhere...from beijing to swamptown )...but here in the egalitarian and freedom loving west we are unvexed by these machinations...right? i have my doubts ( which, incidentally, is how you know it is actually me and not some fucking hacker writing this )...the newspapers arrive while i was out and i have seen serious flaws in the whole "freedom" thing...

the editorial boards ( read advertisers...the media do not want to fuck up the revenue stream by offending the source...so let the advertisers have a large say in content ) have been busy forming my opinions for me and packaging them in a form i pay to receive...quite the system...i pay to be bludgeoned by institutional opinion...or is it that i am researching what the want me to think...opinion varies...i know what i think...and they know what they would like me to think...

the feminist icon and trend setter judy chicago ( "the oracle of feminist art-and the culture that finally caught up to her" ) has made the glossy cover of "T" magazine in the n y times...alas..it is the "women's fashion issue"...

which is chock full of glossy $107,000 ads presenting what the well heeled and chic feminist should be wearing as she asserts herself...the n y times cares about women almost as much as they care about me...but propaganda isn't confined to media ( or..media isn't confined to print or electronics...where the fuck did i put macluhan? )

here is a stunning photo i took this morning of dawn over the junction of indiana routes 6, 53, and 130...we are overwhelmed with propaganda everywhere we go to the extent that we do not even recognize it as such..it's just part of the scenery...and if you look closely just tot he left of the billboard above the route signs, you can se one of the surveillance cameras at the intersection...china got nothing on us.

returning to its destiny

after a hiatus of several weeks ( and with the dow tanking last week there may be another extended moratorium on this sort of propaganda...something i have been pondering recently...advertising as propaganda...it is ubiquitous...almost unseen...virtually subliminal...but there all the same, indoctrinating...engineering the desire to consume...supporting the hegemons...there's a reason why joe geobbels admired madison avenue minds ) the n y times has returned to its bedrock, elitist roots...

"residences" in new york and miami starting at $2 million ( some with expected tax breaks to go along with the "gimme" zietgeist of the current kleptocratic government )...

charles shwab wanting to give investors a "satisfaction guarantee" ( i hear bernie madoff in the background )

eulogizing barry obama's administration...which in no way pandered any less the interests of the hegmons...he was just more subdued about it...less of an attention attracting jerk...

and lauding billionaires as privatized social activists...( we will see if and or how the whole "health care" rigamarole pans out...best bet is there's a profit in it somewhere )..you simply cannot go wrong with the "paper of record" a s a social barometer...pay attention people...they are trying to tell you something.

5:16 p.m. and what the fuck is this pray tell? it is page 16 of today's nyt arts and leisure section and it seems to be an ad for coca-cola...or maybe jusy coke and they're adding an "alkaloid crisis" because the "opioid crisis" is getting stale.

community? collective? both pharmakons

"in fact, when i consider any social system that prevails in the modern world, i can't, so help me god, see it as anything but a conspiracy of the rich to advance their own interests under the pretext of organizing society. they will think up all sorts of tricks and dodges, first keeping safe their ill-gotten gains, and then exploiting the poor by buying their labor as cheaply as possible. once the rich have decided these tricks and dodges shall be recognized by society, which includes the poor as well as the rich, they acquire the force of law. this an unscrupulous minority is led by its insatiable greed to monopolize what would have been enough to supply the needs of the whole population." thomas more. "utopia" i have read utopia any number of times rather closely and i still cannot decide if it is serious, satire, or subversion...more was under sheriff of london and i could see where he would want as much behavior as possible to be public...peer reinforcement of the prevailing social structure by self policing drones..it is, in some ways, a very catholic ( or maoist...take your pick ) document with tinges of the authoritarianism that the overly collectivized society brings along with it...true collective action can help the majority resist the control of a wealthy minority, however, in the end, the focus becomes maintaining the individual's loyalty to the collective by coercion...that "peer reinforcement"...still...this is as concise an explanation of hegemonic culture as gramsci could ever hope to come up with...the collective and the community are closely related and both are pharmakons...panaceas in small doses...toxic in overdose...henry may have had more reasons beyond his refusal to recognize the supremacy for wanting more dead.

some musingss from bill maclay

" 'if our new government does well,' said our vice-president, 'i shall be more surprised than ever i was in all my life.' mr. carrol said he hoped it would be sufficiently powerful. if it is,' said mr. adams, ' i know not from where it can arise. it has neither rewards or punishments.' mr.carrol replied that the people of america were enlightened. information and knowledge would be the support of it. mr. adams replied, information and knowledge were not the sources of obedience; that ignorance was a much better source. somebody replied that it had formerly been considered the mother of devotion, but the doctrine of late was considered rather stale. i began to think of what mr. morris had told me, that it was necessary to make mr. adams vice-president to keep him quiet." william maclay's journal of the first congress 28 may 1789...so...donnie dimwit wasn't the first american politician ( is he a politician? if he wasn't he is now i believe ) to "love the uneducated"...you can see why_________________"lawyers have a keenness and a fondness for disputation. wrangling is their business. but long practice in supporting any cause that offers has obliterated regard to right and wrong. the question only is, which is my side/" william maclay's journal of the first congress 5 june 1789...according to the congressional research service 170 representatives ( 39% ) and 60 senators ( 60% [as if you couldn't figure that one out] ) are attorneys...so 42.9% of congress has experience at "wrangling" as paid advocates who, in bill's eyes, might be ethically suspect...wondering who is doing the paying...not the salaries we taxpayers foot the bill for...i am talking about the "real" money.