time to get out of dodge

okay...history does not repeat itself...the variables of non linear causality prevent that...things never happen exactly the same and the dialectic grinds on...like it or not...but christ on a bike the parallels are getting weird...richard nixon was not a stupid man..he was utterly twisted and he believed fervently that the president was above the law for four years at a time ( he was wrong and when he ordered his counsel to plead that defense in open court his lawyer damn well made sure the judge understood it was his client that was saying that, not him )...even believing he could do anything he pleased he was astute enough to know he had to be quiet about it...inverse of the current washington freak show masquerading as a national government but coming off as being venal as a low-rent county board of commissioners...is this hubris or just stupid? i know where my opinion falls on this...you may come to your own decisions in your own sweet time...but don't dawdle...one of these days is going to be a fast one and you will bludgeoned by events so warped you'll need fun house mirror to see them straight..so..where is this screed going? just a note to point out that old dick flew off to saudi arabia and then israel in june of 1974...in a strong international diplomatic position reflective of his "outhouses in peoria" outlook on public affairs...he cam back and resigned the presidency on august ninth...

( i always keep a copy of dick's resignation handy..have one up on the wall )...repeat..history does not repeat itself...hope spring s eternal too...of course that would leave us with mike pence...hope may be deffered.

oh i've seen failed coverups

when archibald cox ( bottom photo ) issued a subpoena for tapes relating to the watergate break-in held by richard nixon, the president refused and offered the "stennis compromise" on 19 october 1973 instead...offering to allow the notoriously hard of hearing john c. stennis of mississippi review the tapes...cox refused and on 20 october 1973 nixon ordered attorney general eliot richardson ( top photo )to fire cox...both elliot richardson and his deputy wiliamr uckelshaus refused, resigning instead fo carrying out the president's order...nixon appointed robert bork as attorney general who eventually did the deed...the upshot? in the end public opinion forced the appointment of a new special prosecutor, leon jaworski who continued to look at the corrupt practices of the nixon administration...is don trump's canning of comey another cover-up...probably...there was some integrity in the nixon administration despite his example of leadership by "because i say so" ( sounding familiar ) that seems utterly lacking in the current swamptown freak show...there still is public opinion...and there may be some spines left in the house of representatives ( i know...it seems unlikely...but stranger things have happened )...nixon was as venal and dismissive of the constitution as don is...we all know where that ended up..his arrogance detached him from the political realities and he found himself claiming victory ( the famous image of the "vee" salute from the steps leading to the helicopter ) as he resigned...there is still hope...hope that dims when we have a close look at who the successor might be.

corporate agenda

a 21st century corporate labor relations primer 1.) hire those rendered desperate by class warfare at the most marginal hourly rate possible. 2.) accept error and poor workmanship as long as productivity does not fall to more than 40%-50% of previous production standards, lower wages will compensate for losses. 3.) simplify and outsource work processes whenever possible to deny employees as much knowledge based leverage over terms and conditions of work as possible and insure corporate survival as older, skilled employees leave/die/retire. 4.) Automate processes when and wherever possible

coolidge might as well be president

i recently received an email which included the phrase )…in an era when everyone is becoming more focused on personal gain…” which go me to pondering on what that means exactly…it certainly does seem that we are reverting to the “greed is good “ credo of the 1980s and 90s…but where did that come from and why are we reverting? well …smilin’ cal Coolidge said “the business of America is business” and the 1920s were vaguely like the present with their “I got mine, you’d better get into the market and get yours” mentality so you’d have to think the credo of greed is older than dutch reagan and slick willie…it was around at least sixty years before nancy led ronnie into the white house…and the rockefellers got their start by asking the federal government outrageous prices for the goods they sold abe Lincoln during the civil war…so even smilin’ cal had precedents to allow for…i am thinking it goes back to the year 1789 when the twin principles of “ I got mine, you get yours” and “ protect the elite from the mob at all costs” ( by making appear that the constitution guarantees rights rather than limiting them…the bill of rights was tacked on to make the whole contraption fly ) became institutionalized as government policy…so what was the anomaly that the system had to “revert” from? i am inclined to think it was the great depression and the impact it had on our parents ( i am one of those horrible boomers the kids are on about…wait a bit…give them time…they are young, there is still hope they may understand )…it made them mistrustful of authority ( except for roosevelt )…it showed them the elite was not infallible…that authority didn’t always know what it was talking about…that politicians ( except Roosevelt ) lied to achieve their own agenda or those of their true constituents….and they pass those doubts on to us…now we are aging and we have lost control of the kids…we , seemingly, did not have the depth of conviction our parents did and could not pass that mistrust of authority and elites on to the kids ( pardon me but don trump is nothing if not of the elite despite his racist, nativist yahoo credentials…he lied to those people who elected him…they will be unhappy…they won’t like what they get )…two anomalous generations are fading and the institutions that preserve the privilege of wealth are reasserting themselves…and it looks like the kids are buying it.

putin on the ritz

just a short note to wonder out loud if the president is responding to what seems to be a chemical weapons attack by the syrian government...or is he dissembling and redirecting attention from the probe into the russian connections in his administration by lobbing tomahawk missiles into an airbase and tacitly saying " would i do this if i were in bed with vladi?" once again, just letting my mind wander...no megalomaniac politician ( for that is what he has become...if he weren't one all along ) would pull such a transparently manipulative stunt, right?

we are the people publius warned us against

"...that we may avoid erecting a numerous democracy..." john locke. the fundamental constitutions of carolina. 1669_________ "measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority." james madison. federalist X._______"on some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the white house will be adorned by a downright moron." h.l.mencken in 1920________john locke was the philosophical godfather to the framers of the constitution and madison, hamilton, and jay worked mightily to limit the franchise to the "better" sort...it is important to note that the constitution is about limiting rights, not guaranteeing them and that the first ten amendments were a rider tossed in at the last minute to make the whole thing more palatable to the state's righters...i had thought of bush the junior as the preeminent moron in the white house...this may need revision..the jury is still out on the bafflement that emanates from whoretown...is this idiocy or just a lack of a filter? we have time to find out...however we will need to know soon...the unquiet grave of reaganism is stirring and there is no telling where that could end...mencken was prescient in his statements...there have been many unenlightened tools of special interests in the executive branch...there seems and endless supply...some are better schooled in the arts of camouflage than others having absorbed more of their ivy league educations than others..others have been transparent in their ineptitude or malevolence...whichever is ensconced in the executive mansion you can be assured that if you work for an hourly wage you can be sure their interests are in direct opposition to yours...we are more numerous...that "interested and overbearing majority"...yet they find ways to keep us from realizing it..and we bite...every time...why they "love the uneducated"...time to smarten up people...this foolishness has gone on long enough.

advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.

"and it is important to realise that its [totalitarianism] control of thought is not only negative, but positive. it not only forbids you to express, even to think, certain thoughts but it dictates what you shall think, it creates an ideology for you, it tries to govern your emotional life as well as setting up a code of conduct. and, as far as possible, it isolates you from the outside world, it shuts you up in an artificial universe in which you have no standards of comparison. the totalitarian state tries, at any rate, to control the thoughts and emotions of its subjects at least as completely as it controls their actions." george orwell. from literature and totalitarianism_______________________________"all things not forbidden are compulsory". t.h. white. from the once and future king_____________________________i hear a lot of calls to "resist" don trump...which is fine as far as it goes but i am inclined to think he is just another mouthpiece/bit player in an ongoing corporate agenda that is focused on creating control through debt peonage and, in and of himself, not that important...ridding the white house of him won't alter that agenda one scintilla...you can bemoan the passing of barry obama but the trans-pacific partnership was moving along on his watch and that was no friend of anyone who works for an hourly wage...and hillary wouldn't have been less venal...just less obvious..the header is another orwell quote and it demonstrates that the corporate agenda is the totalitarian agenda...we are branded...divided..made to compete for the privilege of going into debt ( and so creating wealth ) for material goods that we are manipulated into desiring...totalitarian control need not be overt and it has been with us in a highly refined system that is so enculturated we hardly notice for a long while...and it takes a great deal of strength, work, and disregard for the prevailing cultural norms to see what is, to borrow from orewell again, what is "in front of your nose"...the current administration is just one more act in the play publius drafted long ago.