madamski cafone
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So I searched and figured out that this is that Armstrong guy:
The cyclical aspect seems sound but I have no idea where he gets this:
“Like Putin who cannot let go of Empire Building, Western Politicians cannot let go of Marxism.”
Putin is no empire builder. It is his country that had Marxism to let go of. Here in the West, we’re trying to let go of empire-building.
Loved the post, btw. Lovely writing, and the Rhett Butler quotes are sweet.
“No explanations have been forthcoming as to why the Capitol was largely unguarded during the protests, even though Trump had for weeks been calling on his followers to stage “wild” demonstrations on that day. Nor was it clear why Mayor Muriel Bowser waited so long before sending in police and the military to rein in the chaos. The stage seemed to have been deliberately set for disaster..”
I recall similar questions being asked about the Black Lives Matter protests of last year.
I know this is a bit like throwing red meat to a pack of dogs (hey! I LIKE dogs! more than people, maybe!), but:
search results for ‘left wing violence surges 2020’
I googled ‘left wing violence surges in 2020’, which is true. (Not nearly as much overall as the surge in right wing violence, but they were already ahead in that race.) Big news stories were everywhere last year about BLM protests that tended to spill over into mob violence (usually toward property but not always). One can argue HOW violent they were compared to other factions (I deal with this a fair bit in the so-called real world), but there’s no doubt that leftist causes took to the streets, confrontations happened, property was trashed, people got hurt, in numbers an order of magnitude or more than just the year before. Downtown Portland took a double-whammy from covid shutdowns and massive protests, mostly BLM but some MAGA-style events too. Customers stayed away while homelessness increased (always a draw for locals and tourists to enjoy an evening on the town).
The one article the search page has on growing left wing violence and movement toward same is by the WaPo:
Violent memes and messages surging on far-left social media, a new report finds
But otherwise, google shows me a whole page of mostly right wing terrorism articles after a token article on top addressing the rise in left wing calls for violence. How much of this is the ‘new censorship’ that I perceive taking over media, especially Western media, especially the online kind? How much is google tweaking search results and how much is a genuine dearth of articles exploring the fact that it ain’t just Teahadi MAGA proud boys acting up but also BLM antifa justice warriors? The times they are a-changin?
Both groups are in PROTEST. Certain elements in each group plan horrific acts that can be called ‘terrorism’, but both groups, who have legitimate gripes that they feel powerless to address short of physical confrontation and shows of group strength, are reduced to ultimately misguided displays of violent solidarity that generally hurts more than helps their cause.
it’s been obvious for some time that the extreme left subsided by the 90s, with the protest in Seattle in 1999 against the WTO as a kind of parting shot. (It wasn’t a violent protest, but agents provocateur, some sincere, some pros, reliably broke enough storefront windows to justify tear gas, etc, and the thing turned into a fiasco.) Meanwhile, right wing violence was growing big legs, with McVeigh’s bombing sort of a first shot.
I see a public narrative, in great part driven by a monolithic media, pushing a kind of ‘lesser evil’ false dichotomy that has one group focusing on the other group as the Main Threat, when the main threat is obviously a government that has been thoroughly co-opted and corrupted by wealthy colostomy bags like Bezos, Koch Brothers, Zuckerberg, Murdoch and so on.
This isn’t about some pop-gun cigarette lighter flame war between the keyboard kommandos of both sides. I get where both sides are coming from, sympathize with both, and agree with both more than not. This is about both main camps of the USA plebiscite losing trust in their political process to address mounting wrongs and deprivations. One can only go so far down that road before the country looks like downtown Portland last summer… with a baseball bat.
Sadly but predictably, the most consistently lethal element has been what Homeland Security calls WSE — White Supremacist Extremists. People of opposing skin tone and facial characteristics find it easy to mistrust and hate each other. BSE — Black Supremacist Extremists stopped being a thing for decades after Malcolm X and MLK were killed and the Black Panthers were co-opted by the usual gubmint suspects. BLM might brew some new BSE, but I doubt it will have time to attain much power or identity. People will be too busy struggling to get by and fighting in the streets to bother with such ideological luxuries.
Today the denunciation focuses on right-wing extremism (making yourself heard is extremist, I guess; it certainly takes extreme acts to get attention when the media doesn’t want to see it). But I suspect this will shift.
Pretty soon now
You know I’m gonna make a comeback
And like the birds and the bees in the trees
It’s a sure-fire smash
I’ll speak
To the masses throughout the media
And if you got anything to say to me
You can say it with cash
‘Cause I got the trash and you got the cash
So baby we should get along fine
So give me all your money ’cause I know you think I’m funny
Can’t you hear me laughing, can’t you see me smile
I’m the man
I’m the man that gave you the hula-hoop
I’m the man
I’m the man that gave you the yo-yo
Kung Fu
That was one of my good ones
Well what’s a few broken bones
When we all know it’s good clean fun
Skateboards
I’ve almost made them respectable
You see I can’t always get through to you
So I go for your son
I had a giant rubber shark and it really made a mark
Didja looka looka look it Alla blood
Give me all your money ’cause I know you think I’m funny
Can’t you hear me laughing, can’t you see me smile
I’m the man
I’m the man that gave you the hula-hoop
I’m the man
I’m the man that gave you the yo-yo
Right now
I think I’m gonna plan a new trend
Because the line on the graph’s getting low
And we can’t have that
And you think you’re immune
But I can sell you anything
Anything from a thin safety pin
To a pork pie hat
‘Cause I got the trash and you got the cash
So baby we should get along fine
Why don’t you give me all your money ’cause I know you think I’m funny
Can’t you hear me laughing, can’t you see me smile
I’m the man
I’m the man that gave you the hula-hoop
I’m the man
I’m the man that gave you the yo-yo
I’m the man
I’m the man that gave you the hula-hoop
I’m the man
I’m the man that gave you the yo-yo
I’m the man
I’m the man
I’m the manThe reason the market for chumps stays so strong is we don’t like to admit how chumpish we all really are.
@ Mr. House
I suppose China’s leadership could suffer a massive fit of suicidal insanity, otherwise, no. They would have to destroy each other. And why? They’re at the core of the Belt Road initiative.
China and Russia have had frivolous border disputes now and then. I would guess these were to teat each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
&*(
@ teri
Same can be said of the other voting bloc and the creeps they manage to get elected.
None of us are as smart as we think, and that moron over there isn’t as dumb as he looks. I see very little political wisdom or even sanity in any president’s supporters. Obama shit in every promise-hole he could. Dubya was fantastically destructive.
I honestly don’t see why anyone expends energy deploring one group of detestables over another. At the end of the day, they all fall for toxic leeches who always Make Things Worse.
Honestly, who cares? Ph.Ds go just as apeshit when the lights go out as truck drivers. In fact, often moreso. The USSR was founded by very smart fellows with high ideals and an excruciating sense of moral supremacy.
Stupid is as stupid does, and I see stupid actions all around. Smart people very often do dumb things, and dumb people very often do smart things.
@ WES
“The previous elite’s single biggest mistake was to start debasing the money!”Perhaps the single bigger biggest mistake was WHY they debased the currency: to fund constant endless wars of empire.
As for China as the new Byzantium, it still has its own concluding revolution to endure. Ask me, it’s RussiaRussiaRussia that owns the catbird seat:
“In recent years, Russia has frequently been described in the media as an energy superpower.[213][214] The country has the world’s largest natural gas reserves,[215] the second-largest coal reserves,[216] the eighth-largest oil reserves,[217] and the largest oil shale reserves in Europe.[218] Russia is the world’s leading natural gas exporter,[219] the second-largest natural gas producer,[220] the second-largest oil exporter,[221] and the third-largest oil producer.[222] Fossil fuels cause most of the greenhouse gas emissions by Russia.[223]”
Meanwhile: “With 95 operable nuclear reactors, it is no surprise that the United States is the leading nation in the consumption of nuclear energy. France and China followed with 57 and 47 operable reactors respectively. As of May 2020, there were 11 nuclear reactors under construction in China.”
“Russia is the fourth-largest electricity producer in the world,[224] and the ninth-largest renewable energy producer in 2019.[225]
“Russia was the first country to develop civilian nuclear power and to construct the world’s first nuclear power plant. In 2019, the country was the fourth-largest nuclear energy producer in the world; nuclear generated 20% of the country’s electricity.[226]
“In 2014 Russia signed a deal to supply China with 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. The project, which President Putin has called the “world’s biggest construction project,” was launched in 2019 and is expected continue for 30 years at an ultimate cost to China of $400 billion.[227]”
Our nuclear reactors are old. UK’s are ancient. Russia’s are much newer and reliable. But Putin is getting old. We’ll see if he isn’t replaced by a greedy fool.
“I just bemoan the constant focus of documenting the day-to-day progress of America becoming a failed state. ”
At least you rarely see slogans like Fight the Power! or Wolverines!
We all have to bleat some times. Perhaps the most important purpose of a place like TAE is to give various stripes of cognitive dissonance a chance to be heard, hear that of others, and generally console, commiserate, and preferably, make us laugh.
Raul tops his columns with superb art samples. He ends them with, most often, a Calvin&Hobbes cartoon. This, I think, is wise. It’s difficult accepting the apparent loss of the promising stability which virtually all cultural rhetoric says is rightfully ours because Progress, the Ascent of Man, modern humanity, the wonders of science, and ‘we’re beyond all that now’.
I personally took comfort just seeing the word “monastery” in your post. It’s so much more user-friendly than ‘compound’.
Positive proactive measures? Be kind. Don’t cling so tightly to survival that it diminishes what mental health one has retained while watching global lunacy set us up for global havoc.
Some humor is best served dark. First, the darkness:
(youtube comment)
“At the beginning, she replicates, with her voice- the EXACT sound my 1971 Dodge Dart’s starter made in the dead of a Brooklyn winter in 1982. I dreaded that sound of diminishing power in sub- zero wind chill temps stupidly trying to coax to life a 2 barrel carbuerated 318 cubic inch v-8 that was begging for death. At 1:30, she replicates once again, another familiar sound of industrial machinery…this time the EXACT sound my Rockwell table saw makes when I slide a piece of 3/4″ plywood through it. Chapman hit the wrong carbon unit. Just incredible.”
Citing pioneers of rap is fashionable these days. Here we hear the pioneer of glossolalia rap.
^&*
Practically: rocket stove, cistern, propane stove if wood isn’t feasible, coffee, a nice 2-3 digit-figure gallon-count of bottled water, rice, beans, salt, vitamins, mega blankets and pillows, rope, baseball bat and enough ‘scrip pills to die peacefully before they get you if it comes to that. (I know a person whose grandfather/mother survioved the Armenian genocide. They set aside enough bullets to euthanise the household if they couldn’t hold ’em off any more.)
We’re all going to die someday, and even natural death is nasty. But even corpses know how to smile.
What matters, as someone said yesterday in very different words, mentioning communes, monasteries, etc., is what happens on your street. We’ve been hypnotized so long by media we almost don’t realize we can ignore it.
They sent us home to watch the show comming on the little screen
A man named Ike was in the white house big black limosine
There were many shows that followed from hooter to dootyville
Though I saw them all I can’t recall which cartoon were real
The coons skin caps Yankee bats the hound dog mans big start
The A bomb fears Annette had ears I lusted in my heart
A young man from Boston said “sail the new frontier”
And we watched the dream dead end in Dallas
They buried innocents that year
I know it’s true oh so true cause I saw it on T.V.
We gathered round to hear the sound comming on the little screen
The grief had passed the old men laughed and all the girls screamed
Cause four guys from England tooks all by the hands
It was time to laugh time to sing time to join the band
But all too soo we hit the moon and covered up the sky
They built the bombs and aimed their guns and still i don’t know why
The dominoes tumbled and big buisness roared
Every night at six they showed the pictures and counted up the score
I know it’s true oh so true cause I saw it on T.V.
The Old man rocks among his dreams a prisoner of the porch
The light he said at the end of the tunnel
Was nothing but a burglars torch
And them that was caught in the cover are all rich and free
But they chained my mind to an endless tune
When they took my only son from me
I know it’s true oh so true cause I saw it on T.V.
I know it’s true oh so true cause I saw it on T.V.@ teri
fwiw, I’d call your post above extremely well done both as writing and analysis. But I dislike the “dumber-than-rocks” remark. Intelligence is not wisdom, and at the core, what those protestors/rioters did was wise in intent and method. Their folly was in using Trump as a guiding motivator, but then, a people raised to be led, by people they choose to lead them, tend to need a public figure to rally their hopes and frustrations around.
They’re no dumber than people like me who worked diligently to get folks like Obama and Sanders elected, losing by winning in the case of Oabama, and losing by losing with Sanders (which may have been a good thing for all I know). And they demonstrated some kind of courage and ability to work as a team, even if likely prodded by professional agitators, as is par for that course.
^&*
@ Mr. House
I feel for you. I’ver had similar discussions in the past. I don’t any more. If it helps soothe the cog diss one feels after absorbing such a dialog, I’ll note that BLM protests also targeted govet bldgs including, iirc, a few federal bldgs.
We are entering an age where such discussions will be conducted with baseball bats and blunderbusses.
For nostalgia’s sake.
And now, a brief moment of reflective sanity:
The Moral Dilemma of Every Color Revolution Coup and Democratic Security Movement
“The world is divided over Wednesday’s events in Washington DC and whether or not the protesters were justified in storming the US Capitol to protest what they sincerely believe was last year’s rigged election. In my analysis later that day titled “Color Revolution In DC: Anti-Constitutional Coup Or Democratic Security Movement?”, I explained that the difference between Color Revolution coups and “Democratic Security” movements is intent since they both practically employ the same political technologies. The former aims for regime change and was represented most notoriously in recent months by Antifa and “Black Lives Matter” (BLM), whereas the latter aspires for regime reinforcement (the opposite of regime change) and is driven by members of the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement that Trump inspired. What’s most interesting to observe when discussing these two very similarly executed events is that each side passionately hates the other despite embracing the same tactics. It’s also curious to note that the Mainstream Media vehemently supported Antifa-BLM but is dead-set against its MAGA manifestation.
“On the surface, it appears as though both sides are behaving hypocritically, but the reality is that they each have their reasons for holding their respective positions. The moral dilemma of every Color Revolution coup and “Democratic Security” movement is whether or not they’re legitimate, which is a subjective determination made by each and every person based primarily upon the political cause that they strive to advance. Upon reaching a decision on this, each person then asks themselves whether “the ends justify the means” or not. In fact, since Color Revolution coups are strategically offensive whereas “Democratic Security” movements are strategically defensive, it can even be said that labeling each manifestation as one or the other implies tacit support or opposition to whatever the cause may be. Playing devil’s advocate, Antifa-BLM wanted to violently overthrow Trump, yet they sincerely believed that they were doing so to defend democracy. Regarding MAGA, it resorted to violence to stop the steal which they sincerely believed had defrauded democracy. In other words, both movements are simultaneously Color Revolution coups and “Democratic Security” movements.”
“A quick search will show that the “Viking” double agent is not and has never been a BLM supporter.”
Close. The correct version would be that no evidence as yet demonstrates that he is a BLM supporter or a double-agent, but there is evidence that he supports and is involved in the Trump jihad. Proving a negative is difficult, like squaring a circle.
I’ll venture this paranoiac notion: he could indeed be a paid agent provocateur aimed at the q-anon crowd to incite them to violence and rabid displays. That the q-right has taken a liking to a photocropped deception adds further confusion and distrust, which Emperor Palpatine always enjoys.
One problem with crowds is that accountability and credibility lessens as numbers increase. Get that many dogs together there’s bound to be a son of a bitch in the bunch.
Old school perspective
“There’s more trouble at the depot
With the general workers union
And you said, “They’ll never change a thing
Well, they won’t fight and they’re not working”As for John Sullivan from Utah, the assumption that his presence somehow stinks is just that.
This article sheds some light:
Utahn inside US Capitol describes chaotic scene
His words, however, do smell funny to me. He estimated there were 10K people in the Capitol. Another reporter estimated 1K pushing at the inauguration stage. BUt what do I know? I haven’t done the math. Maybe 10K is a reasonmable estimate.
I think it hardly matters insomuch as you can’t polish a turd. False flag “color” revolutions only work if the populace is already unhappy with their governments. Whoever is pulling whomever’s strings behind the scenes, the unhappiness and discontent they manipulate is genuine.
Divide’n’conquer. BLM/Antifa vs Q-anon/Proud Boys. We love to look down on the other.
My impression is that we come here to vent, get some sense of temporary relief, a touch of camaraderie, obtain some idea of what reports are accurate enough to mentally digest, amuse ourselves, show off a bit, and even exchange ideas.
I note that you didn’t provide any solution-oriented material in your post.
Got some? Wanna share? Got some capital we can borrow? I’m broke.
People I know who identify with the left voting bloc called Trump and friends’ attempt to disprove the election the Coup Clutz Clan. Not bad as jokes go.
Now we see the same clown foot on their foot, and it looks even funnier, because they’re wearing a right shoe on their left foot.
No one will be removed from office before their time. That time is 13 days from now. The entertainment will continue until someone pulls the curtain.
I vote that the Viking double-agent is genuine, while the antifa poster is obviously as phony as a 60s narc wearing white socks and a black suit.
My, how slowly rense loads. I even click the ad it holds before as it loads, attempting to appease it, and it still took 30 seconds to get… this:
GET VISIBLE! Advertise Here. Find Out More
Share Our Stories! – Click Here
Report The Queen Warns World Of A ‘Plot By Certain
Forces’ To Unleash Their Vision Of A ‘Hell On Earth’
1-6-21In an impromptu, unscripted moment, the Queen said, “One cannot over emphasise just how diabolical these evil doers are. they do not hold the light of God within them,” according to BBC production staff.
The Queen warned her subjects that world leaders are secretly pursuing the ‘Great Reset’ in order to create a “dark new dawn” for humanity.
Senior BBC production staff and palace advisors scrambled to cancel the filming, but not before the Queen detailed her deepest fears that the troubles of 2020 marked the beginning of humanity’s battle against evil.
[end]EIther their servers are overloaded and/or internet neutrality is evaporating or what’s left or rense’s always dicey credibility is shot.
I want to thank Dr. D for that nifty comparison of our times with the Yeltsin period. Very handy interpretive filter. WIll we be lucky enough to acquire our own Putin?
I nver cared much for so-called Cubism. Poor Picasso had to carry that label to his grave.
But O’Keefe uses it here in a manner appropriate to the subject: the fractured, disorienting, schizoid nature of modern urban architecture and the life it harbors.
^&*
I don’t think it was theater even if some astro-turfing was likely involved. Just as I don’t think Occupy Wall Street was mere theater even if some astroturfing was involved. People are frustrated to the gnawed bone of frayed sinews.
A precedent of action was set. I suspect more action will build from this base. That’s how these things generaly work.
^&*
If I were China, I’d stall WHO until hell froze over or the ice caps finish melting. (Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice…)
Orlov’s social persona is one thing. His analyses are another. I don’t spend time on his comment section for the reason that he is an erratic, impulsive, and often domineering moderator. Any person dumb enough to moderate their board for any reason other than removal of obvious trolls doesn’t deserve my input.
As for fear the word as I used it: it’s a trope. I could have as easily said “I suspect” or “I believe”.
As for fear the thing itself: anyone tells me they aren’t scared, I figure they’re lying, numb, dumb, or using way too many drugs. None of which are mutually exclusive.
I would prefer you stop projecting onto me. To help you in this, I will stop replying to you.
@ V. Arnold
Hardly a despot:
“a ruler or other person who holds absolute power, typically one who exercises it in a cruel or oppressive way”
Trump was able to hire and fire and little else.
@ Geppetto
I respect Orlov. His style annoys me sometimes, but he’s been calling ’em for a long time.
I have no idea what you mean about fear. Apparently, you have the telepathic ability to misread minds?
As for 911, everything about the Official Explanation stinks, bldg 7 or not.
As for Patreon: how dare he try and monetize his work? Doesn’t he know this is the Internet, where everyone works for free?
I really have no idea what you’e getting at, Geppetto.
And this is cute:
(risks of DNA vaccines)Limited to protein immunogens (not useful for non-protein based antigens such as bacterial polysaccharides)
Risk of affecting genes controlling cell growth[citation needed]
Possibility of inducing antibody production against DNA
Possibility of tolerance to the antigen (protein) produced
Potential for atypical processing of bacterial and parasite proteins[6]
Potential when using nasal spray administration of plasmid DNA nanoparticles to transfect non-target cells, such as brain cells[17]“This RNA virus and RNA vaccine do not need to alter the cellular DNA to make RNA and proteins.”
That they don’t need to is one thing. That they may, after countless iterations, do so, is another.
So far, no DNA vaccines have been approved for human use in the United States.
If the corpses were piling up in the streets, I might accept the risk although I think it would be risking our future generations’ DNA hygiene. But they aren’t.
I fear that the gist of this is true:
Re: the ‘what could possibly go wrong?’ field of inquiry about this “vaccine” that, last I heard, does not confer immunity, making the word ‘vaccine’ in this application suspect at best:
“A retrovirus is a type of virus that inserts a copy of its RNA genome[a] into the DNA of a host cell that it invades, thus changing the genome of that cell.[3] Once inside the host cell’s cytoplasm, the virus uses its own reverse transcriptase enzyme to produce DNA from its RNA genome, the reverse of the usual pattern, thus retro (backwards). The new DNA is then incorporated into the host cell genome by an integrase enzyme, at which point the retroviral DNA is referred to as a provirus. The host cell then treats the viral DNA as part of its own genome, transcribing and translating the viral genes along with the cell’s own genes, producing the proteins required to assemble new copies of the virus.”
Just food for thought. I so weary of we little folk having to play doctor to try and understand WTF our health authorities are doing.
@ kultsommer
“My idea for “top down” single minded government is that they provide law and justice. That’s all.”
That “all” has proved consistently elusive since recorded history. Oh, the law part is easy. Kings and parliaments pass laws the way cows pass gas, in similar vast quantities, and with similarly negative effects on the atmosphere. But “justice”? I don’t wish to sound harsh, but the only honest response I have to that is: you’ve GOT to be kidding.
” “Someone has been shot”…
Meanwhile the market is up 450 as I type… ”I think my parents said know has captured the spirit of our times with uncanny pith.
Futures are down but stocks are up, you might say.
We’ll see if this thing has legs or is more astroturf than grass roots. Surely a mix of both but which is the predominant ration is probably the key.
” “Come the lightning and the thunder / You’re the one who’ll suffer” — Paul Simon
“It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder / how I keep from going under.” – Grandmaster Flash
“Such a blunder makes me wonder why why I even bring the thunder” — Hamilton ”
Well, they do say that history may not repeat but it does rhyme.
Well done, Docster.
^&*
Roald Amundsen is one of my heroes alongside his buddy Peter Freuchen. Both were uncommonly tough as males go.
Either he is overcome by the Holy Spirit of Deception and Virtue-Signaling, or he’s getting a blow job. Maybe both?
@ kultsommer
Electoral politics being a team sport, and such being entirely about winning (at virtually any cost), our ability to blind ourselves to the sins of ‘our guys’, if it means that we ‘win’, means that everyone loses in the end.
We tell ourselves that they’re only cheating in order to win by going along to get along, and that once they obtain sufficient leverage, they’ll right the wrongs.
When that doesn’t happen, we hide behind whatever resistance the losing team is still able to provide. ‘He wanted to but Congress wouldn’t let him’, etc. I’m sure we all know this. I just have a compulsion to articulate things. Sort of my own mental flea circus.
^&*
@ Raul
Paul Simon always tries to keep his lyrics light, not in terms of superficial topics but in avoiding ‘pontifics’ or anything coming across as too preachy. You see this in The Boy in the Bubble lyrics. He doesn’t point moral fingers but he aptly describes things that give reason to make us cry like babies and question the morality of our culture.
Your man, Dylan, after his early preachy years, was able to do the same thing lyrically but still swing the bat with heavy gravitas.
Dylan on a topic:
Simon on same topic:
Leonard Cohen, with limited musicality but profound verbal insight, produced less material than Dylan and Simon, but when he truly nailed something, he outshone either of them. I let Anthony sing it here rather than Cohen because Anthony does for this Cohen song something like what Hendrix did with Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower::
“Aviptadil (INN) is an analog of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) for the treatment of erectile dysfunction.[1] ”
These are the days of miracles and wonders.
Hmmm… is it correct to assume that the name The Automatic Earth comes from Paul Simon’s lyrics in The Boy in the Bubble?
@ Thomasjkenney
This adaptation of Lt. Kije is fun both for the music and for showing us a certain kind of self-indulgent egghead in public action:
The music itself sounds really good to my ears. Eddie Sauter, for my money, beat the star egghead jazz arranger of those days, Stan Kenton, by a smiling mile.
@ Dr. D
Please. 40% not 400%.
“Queensland Cops Pay Home Visit to Author Who Bragged on Twitter About COVID-Violating Jog”
“Who was entirely outside, entirely alone, not near anyone. KillKillKill!!! Ego demands it! Say the police on the home visit, who endanger him, spread disease to a man who was isolated, and don’t wear masks.”
The guy was dumb enough to post on Twitter that he broke a law that he apparently may or may not have broken but insisted on bragging about anyway. Dumb people deserve dumb cops. R. Buckminster Fuller once wrote, I think in a book called Critical Path, that people informed enough to know something is wrong, and concerned enough to be angry about it, should use their heads to find solutions, not as battering rams in street protests.
%^&
The early touting of hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic/therapy for covid was made more than a wee fringe theory because the trusted authorities, holographic mannequins like Dr. Fauci and the various acronyms he represents directly or by association, couldn’t tell their left from their right. I know we all know this. I say it to ease any feelings of folly we might feel for taking it seriously. It was all we had at the time, a time when the bodies were piling up in Wuhan.
%^&
Dr. D is swell. I hold his feet to the fire sometimes because he has considerable stature in these parts. The stature is deserved. So is the footsie flambeau.
Regarding that hypnotic Pissarro (what a name, eh?):
“First electric streetlight used arc lamps, namely “Yablochkov candle”. It was first used in 1878 in Paris. By 1881, some 4000 were in use, replacing gas lanterns on the poles. After the spreading of the arc lamps in the United States, by 1890 there were more than 130,000 arc lamps installed as streetlights.”
That is indeed electric light we see.
The dead, the gentle dead – who knows? –
In tungsten filaments abide,
And on my bedside table glows
Another man’s departed bride.And maybe Shakespeare floods a whole
Town with innumerable lights,
And Shelley’s incandescent soul
Lures the pale moths of starless nights.Streetlamps are numbered, and maybe
Number nine-hundred-ninety-nine
(So brightly beaming through a tree
So green) is an old friend of mine.And when above the livid plain
Forked lightning plays, therein may dwell
The torments of a Tamerlane,
The roar of tyrants torn in hell.Poem by “John Shade” in Vladimir Nabokov‘s novel Pale Fire (1962)
Re: Trump as a moral actor. I will clarify further, or try: Trump most likely thinks of himself as a good guy. A good guy who has been mIsunderstood, unfarily judged, singled out… we all do this in our own ways. We’re all prone to rationalize away our mistakes and flaws, sins and embarrassments.
Someone like Trump can rationalize like a mood ring run by a Cray supercomputer. He does not see a villain in his mirror. The ego does not feed on ‘I am evil’; it feeds on ‘I am good’. Some rare extreme psychopathic exceptions surely exist, but those being are far too socially isoloated to run for president. Even Jeffrey Epstein is likely to have seen a misunderstood ‘superior being’ in his mirror. I have read apologetics for Epstein’s behavior by people who knew him: ‘the poor man suffered severe satyriasis’, etc. (He probably did but that’s no reason to pimp and rape children.)
So I feel it is a mistake to place a ‘sordid filter’ over what we perceive as Trump’s moral lens. Trump is quite capable of doing the right thing for the right reason, and his ego surely needs him to do such things now and then. Just as it other times needs him to do the wrong thing for the wrong reasons.
Assange has powerfully embarrassed people Trump despises. This seems likely to incline Trump favorably to him right there. Trump is highly unlikely to sacrifice himself (except in minor ways) to help someone, but if he can do the right thing for the publicly perceived right reason, while also satisfying personal selfish, often wrong reasons of his own, he would likely do so.
Trump’s ego wants more than anything to be seen not as a crass banal evil actor, but as a righteous hero who proves himself right above all others. So, I see reason to be carefully optimistic that Trump will release Assange although I don’t invest in that hope, and frankly, I care far more for the millions of American citizens in prison for venal and political reasons rather than those of criminal justice, than I do for one man. Assange is indeed a hero, but so are many many others currently doing harsh sentences for crimes they did not commit and so forth.
As for the cause of free journalism: like everything else, quality journalism will increasingly come from decentralized sources for local markets. I see no hope at all for national or international journalism. It is very powerful, and that which is very powerful is doomed to be either destroyed, or co-opted, by the prevailing wielders of power.
If Assange is freed, it will likely lead to as many Seth Riches as Daniel Ellsbergs. Globalism is dying. Nationalism is dying. Our kids and grandkids will be the ones to see how small, local, decentralized governance and journalism will become. How small can it get? How low can we go?
@ Doc Robinson
I wish to gently point out that you’re assuming moral reasons for Trump’s pardon of those soldiers. With Trump, we don’t know if he felt morally inclined when he did so. (He does have moral inclinations; they’re just inescapably bent around the black hole of his insatiable insecure ego.)
If His Holiness decides that pardoning Assange would make him look good in a way that fit his strategic urgencies without getting him into major trouble with too many big players, he probably would. His moral lens is turned in on itself. It is impossible to understand Donald through the moral lenses issued to most human beings. That includes the standard view most people have: if it’s bad or awful, Donald will do it. He is no more a demon than he is an angel. He is a very frightened insecure human being with a serious mental disorder in advanced stage probably colliding with early mental senescence.
Think of Trump as Gollum and ego-sustenance as The Ring.
