Signal Wave

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As I'm sure many of you will be unsurprised to hear, this will be the last Signal Wave. I have been privileged to share the last six years with you guys. You have been wonderful interlocutors--smart, kind, challenging in all the right ways, and understanding when my writing wasn't up to snuff, or just plain wasn't there.

We invented this site as a haven for free thought, and a blow struck against bullying and authoritarianism of all kinds. What we have created did not always live up to our dream. But we have been a force for good. Creating a space for independent civil discourse in the current paradigm is like holding a nice dinner party in the middle of a shark tank. We have been more often successful than not, for several years, and that's near-miraculous. Anyone who pokes their head outside of this site to look at politics knows that the kind of discussion we have here is not in abundant supply in the world at large. Helping to hold this space has meant a lot to me.

It occurs to me that that last paragraph sounds like an epitaph. That's not intended! Both I and the site will continue to be here. But it's time for my formal role to come to an end. I'm having a problem with stress, and need to get a handle on that, and that's going to be my focus for the next little while.

I'll end with a word about my name. Someone recently made a joke about how I, CantStoptheSignal, apparently was turning into Can'tContinuetheSignal. I responded that I wasn't the signal. Even Mr. Universe wasn't the signal, as you can see here:

They actually can't stop the signal, no matter what person they stop. Or, at least, they can't stop the signal from transmitting. They can stop it from being received, which is more or less what my last Open Thread is about.

On to my last Open Thread!

The Last Unconquered Kingdom

The last unconquered kingdom is the mind. Do not allow anyone to take it from you. In Ulysses, Stephen Dedalus taps his forehead and says, "In here it is that I must kill the priest and the king." He was right. Do not let the powerful dictate the terms on which you think.

Politics and the media are, for the most part, a large, interlocking multi-billion-dollar operation whose aim is building a prison around the public imagination. The first step toward keeping your mental independence lies in looking through the fence. They're always putting up fences around our thinking. Look through them. Look elsewhere. Look where you're not being told to look.

freedom-of-thought-binscal-paul.jpg

Looking elsewhere can uncover and undo a lot of the operations they're doing on your mind. First, the classic: distracting people from one story with another. You guys don't need me to tell you how to notice that; some of you are better at it than I am. But it's worth saying, especially in a week where the powerful are screaming about war. What are they trying to distract us from?

Looking elsewhere can also counteract the movement of the Overton window. If there's anybody out there who doesn't know what the Overton window is, Wikipedia defines it as follows:

The Overton window is the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time. It is also known as the window of discourse.

This definition is correct as far as it goes, but is also seriously limited. The Overton window does not only apply to what the public finds acceptable, because the very idea of what is acceptable is based on the idea of what is possible. So the Overton window applies to what the public finds acceptable out of the range of choices they believe to be possible. You can control what the public wants by controlling what they believe they can have.

Freedom_of_Thought_Ben_Franklin.jpg

Manipulating people's sense of possibility is at the heart of most political and media operations these days. In false democracies, it's the people who determine the menu of choices that have the real power (not those who select off the menu). So how do you impose the range of possibilities you want on the populace? How do you get them to agree that something isn't possible?

Well, you use politicians and media figures. Divide them up into teams and start a fight. Both sides of the fight should embrace policy outcomes that are acceptable to the elites, or alternatively, one side should be set up to lose from the beginning. If you want to simply erase a concept from people's expectations, the first method is the best. To take a simple example, if you make environmental policy a fight about whether we should use methane to heat our houses or coal, green energy disappears. That happens whether you're making methane or coal the good guy in the fight (at different times, the establishment has done both). Or you can make it a fight about whether or not we sign the Paris Accords. Signing them or not will have little effect on slowing climate change, but that's kind of the point. Neither side includes the option for real change with material outcomes. That's what you want: people getting passionately involved in a fight that won't change squat. Similarly, if you make it a fight between a public option and Obamacare, then Medicare for All disappears from view.

Or it should. Why didn't it? Because people needed Medicare for All too much. And, as is not the case with green energy, they knew they needed it.

When the people stubbornly refuse to give up a concept, the second method comes into play. It becomes necessary to display the repeated defeat of the idea:

"Single payer will never come to pass!"
--Hillary Clinton

If you can't persuade people to simply forget an idea, you can bludgeon it out of their consciousness. Show them the idea (or the guy with the idea) getting defeated again and again. Convince them there's no hope and soon they will forget the idea even existed. It doesn't always work, but it works often enough.

Fabricated fights, tailor-made to serve the interests of the establishment, constitute a large portion of the elites' strategy to subjugate our minds. They work by playing on people's emotions, drawing them in, and getting them to identify with one side or the other. It's actually a lot like internet trolling, but on a massive scale. The elites are always looking to start a flame war.

One characteristic of recent times is that more and more people are buying into these flame wars, holding these fabricated conflicts in such importance that they're willing to give up principles they've held for years in order to stay loyal to "their side." We saw it with Trump, whose election was basically the liberals' 9-11. Suddenly liberals sounded just like George W. Bush supporters: advocating for censorship, calling people traitors, engaging in witch hunts, talking about Russia like the Cold War hammerheads they made fun of in their youth--all in order to (supposedly) oppose Trump. But at least their mistakes were obvious. It's much worse when you've got fabricated fights built around real issues.

"By mixing a little truth with his lie, he made his lie far stronger."
--C.S. Lewis

Racism is a real problem. So is sexism. So are all other forms of bigotry. These can, in fact, constitute mortal problems: matters of life and death. But these days, bigotry as a concept is used to draw people into both sides of fabricated fights. The people who want to be bigots flood into these fights with little resistance (and have been doing so since the late seventies). White, right-wing, working-class racists used to be the establishment's favorite tool, mainly because they would accept (and deliver) any treatment as long as they could deem themselves superior to somebody. They are also great at diverting blame from the elites. (Ask anybody to draw a picture of a racist. I bet you'll find more people drawing pickups than Maseratis.)

But as time went on, it became less acceptable to be a bigot. More people didn't want to be bigots--and even more people than that didn't want anyone to think they were bigots. The elites started using people's fear of being called bigots to shut down discussion, curtail freedom of thought, discredit policy ideas, and destroy reputations. In essence, the elites realized, under Obama, that they could make just as much use out of the fight against bigotry as they could out of bigotry itself. Now both sides of the race war fueled status quo American politics and reified the current power structure.

You can see the elites' seamless switch to the other side of the race war by comparing Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign to her 2016 campaign. In 2008, Hillary was saying "Hard-working Americans, white Americans, will not vote for Barack Obama." In 2016, Hillary was showing everybody the hot-sauce bottle in her purse. Nobody remarked on the switch. Everybody just accepted the various political factions at face value, and lined up with the ones they liked.

Why do so many intelligent people buy into these fabricated conflicts? I think some just want a distraction from grim reality. But I believe that others buy into these mass media binaries because they're afraid the conflicts are real. After all, racism is real, and the damage it does is real. It's easy to assume, therefore, that every call to fight racism is also real. If it's really a fight against bigotry, people don't want to be on the wrong side.

That's admirable, but no excuse for abandoning your common sense. I've been accused of being racist because I didn't support drone strikes. I've been accused of being racist because I didn't support mass warrantless surveillance. I was even accused of being racist because I *did* support Social Security. Basically, online--or in the world of broadcast media--you are bigoted whenever the loudest people say you are, regardless of what you have or have not done.

To use a real, life-threatening problem to enmesh people in fabricated conflicts requires more than just controlling the menu options (if you want to stop racism, join this group; if you like racism, join this other group). It requires redefining the problem. For example, actually fighting racism would bring down our entire social system, and the elites don't want that. Racism has to be redefined so that fighting it does not interfere with business as usual. Social justice has to be edited. And it has been. The same is true of sexism.

Here's a good trick. If someone claims to be anti-racist, ask them what their plans are for changing the prison system. If someone claims to be feminist, ask them what they think of shortening the work day so that parents can adequately care for their children--or, alternatively, simply paying people to stay at home to raise their kids. People who are actually concerned about racism or sexism will try to grapple with the issue you raise. People who are not will find ways to make your question evidence of your bad character.

Defining our politics as The Democratic Establishment vs Trump has been the elites' latest and best move on the national chessboard. It's worked like gangbusters for the richest few, regardless of which side you are on and regardless of which side wins. The only winning move for someone who wants to maintain their freedom of mind is to withhold your allegiance--and I'm not talking about your vote. Vote for whomever you please, belong to whatever political party you please. That matters little, at this point. But retain your intellectual independence, your freedom of thought. Do not allow yourself or your concerns to be defined by the manufactured conflicts purveyed by our politicians and press. Remain free.

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
...
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

--from "Manifesto: the Mad Farmer Liberation Front," by Wendell Berry.

P.S. Hey, y'all. I forgot to mention that I will be dropping by the site fairly regularly; if you haven't seen me in comments lately and want to touch base, feel free to PM me or send a message to electricmayhem1968@gmail.com

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

even though what we're talking about isn't all that great. Smile

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13 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Thanks for the many thought provoking essays.
It is a pleasure to share your mind space.

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12 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@QMS

It's been lovely talking with you. And I will still be around, so I look forward to talking with you still more in the future!

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8 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

mimi's picture

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7 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@mimi

You be well too!

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6 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Thanks for all your thought provoking writings over the years. Today’s has a lot to absorb and carry on with those thoughts.

Your health and well being are most important and know you are doing what is best for you. I have to agree all the chatter of the news and those most powerful makes thinking of what is best for myself and those I love much easier. At present looking out at the morning fog and waiting to see my first glimpse of the river as it clears.

Have a great future and look forward to hearing from you occasionally.

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15 users have voted.

Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@jakkalbessie

or other places. Smile And I might even post an essay once in a while: just not one per week!

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9 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

I loved reading your work and thank you for it.

These are indeed challenging times. It's exhausting to write opinions because the limits of the conversation are so clearly delineated even in this, the most open of forums.

Rest up, renew, and hopefully, we'll meet again. Don't know where, don't know when....

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11 users have voted.

NYCVG

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@NYCVG

Also, it just occurred to me, if you guys want to touch base and haven't seen me in the comments lately, feel free to PM me--I will be checking that a couple times a week.

Also, a while ago I made the email address electricmayhem1968@gmail.com just for C99 (so I could feel comfortable sharing it out in front of God and the whole internet). So that's another place you can reach me.

I should put that into the essay.

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8 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Lookout's picture

influenced not just by the corporate world but the mafia branch of Government, the CIA, and MIC. So, we're captured in endless war ... with ourselves and other nations.

Matt's book, Hate Inc, describes well how media was carved up into tribal units (thanks mostly to Clinton's telecommunication bill) and used to divide us into camps.

There are many other aspects of this decline of the empire which your essay addresses. At this point it is obvious this is not a democracy, if it ever was. You often address the left right divide, but of late I find I agree more with those accused of being RWNJs than those that self label as progressive or left as they support mandates, censorship, conflict, and corporate control.

Wishing you well in your stress reduction program. Remember to eat well... avoiding processed foods and seed oils. Get plenty of sleep, it is curative.

All the best to you and yours!

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13 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Lookout

I don't *always* agree with Matt Taibbi, but he's a real journalist and a freethinker. Worth his weight in gold, these days.

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10 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Lookout

as RWNJs....

to me, it looks like we're supposed to do that. Because that's the only place there's any anti-authoritarianism remaining. I definitely feel herded in that direction. That's why I'm refusing to go there.

The elites have destroyed the left and rewritten its dictionary definition so that "left" now means something it doesn't and never has: support for a fascistic police state, endless war, brutal assaults upon human rights, austerity economics, monopoly capitalism, and a million methane wells leaking into the air and water.

Liberalism has sometimes meant some of those things. But as I recall, "liberals" and "left" weren't synonymous until the late 80s, when the assault on us really got cranking.

It's not that I can never agree with someone on the right. I can join hands with them on some things. But I don't have to become right wing to do that--or to express my values. Like Justice Stevens, I'm the same as I ever was: the world has just changed around me (somewhat forcibly, it seems).

The anti-authoritarianism of the right seems a little thin to me anyway

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9 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Lookout's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

...and agree. This community is one of the few places where thinking outside the box is encouraged. Too bad there aren't more places like this.

Again wishing you the best and maybe we'll cross tracks in FL. I'm going to the festival. As usual over memorial day weekend.

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6 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal [video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx4dFHzIZ_Y&t=560s]

Jimmy Dore covers the link we've been discussing with Max Blumenthal.

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4 users have voted.

NYCVG

@Lookout Me, too. Anti-Mandates places us in that camp. When the NYFD and Sanitation Workers in NYC marched this summer I was with them and their slow-downs all the way. Marching days behind me, I stopped in at my local FD station---yes that famous "Ghpostbusters" one in Tribeca, and asked how they were doing.

So we've joined another marginal group, as if it matters.

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6 users have voted.

NYCVG

I wish you all the best handling your stress.
This commitment is one less pressure upon you.
Drop in your ideas all over the joint any time you feel the urge!

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11 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@on the cusp

Gotta find a way to put water back in the well.

Current circumstances in this country have really thrown a wrench into my coping mechanisms.

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6 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

magiamma's picture

For so many thoughtful and informative essays for so many years. Six?

Your essays have always provided food for thought! Here’s hoping that your brilliant and creative energies continue to bloom.

Take good care of yourself as your health is the most important thing you have. Enjoy the ones you love and shine on...

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13 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@magiamma

It's really heartening to hear that my essays were thought-provoking. What a great compliment.

As I was saying to otc, gotta find a way to put water back in the well. Been tapping the internal aquifer a little too much. I've always been one of those people who just pushes through and expects to find some energy somewhere to get things done (buttressed by caffeine).

Now I can't drink nearly as much caffeine, and circumstances are making it hard to replenish my energy other ways.

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8 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

zed2's picture

"Single payer will never come to pass!"
--Hillary Clinton

This is because the dveloping countries firms were promised market access to those jobsn and the scheme they envision is one where the better paying jobs here are replaced by low paid foreign workers by the millions.

Single payer is more efficient and it allows our high skill workers to keep working, delivering everybody high skill performance butthe problem is like the UK, we sell health insurance so the rules say that since we sell it, "on a commercial basis" we cannot "unfairly compete" with the commercial delivery of it in any way. NHS must become for profit insurance at market rate (determined by the invisible hand)

And that means we cant give people anything cheaper, because that would devalue the market. That would not be minimally trade restrictive As defined by entities like the various trade restrictiveness indices. (such as STRI).THis is unless we left the WTO first, Bernie Sanders was lying to us.

The ugly fact they don't want us realizing is that the Democrats sold us out in the early 1990s and propagated a big lie since then, that nothing had changed. They sold us and our future out so they could trade our nations high perceived value jobs like money. To people who wanted entry level jobs. And were willing to pay big bucks for them, toget better jobs later.

We've been very stupid and gullible - which they took and ran with, selling away the future jobs to other rich people from all around the world.

Imagine you, like young Americans did, had an "expectation" of inheriting a future country and jobs and prosperity that in the real world your rich uncle had actually sold off before his death (Even though in your mind he you thought held it in trust for you) leaving you and all your brothers and sisters with nothing. Because they had sold it to the rich elsewhere. In exchange they got lots of money which they could stash in secrecy jurisdiction. This is called "conversion" I think.

Thats why they wanted to keep you potential protestors close, not because they actually liked you or cared about you. Its because they wanted to keep a close eye on you as a potential adversary so they could turn up their screeching noises whenever you got close to the truth. To distract you and the entire country like the howler monkeys they are.

There, I said it. We've all been "pwned"

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6 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@zed2

Like this?

I've always thought this story was a metaphor for American politics.

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6 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@zed2

I thought of Bernie as a good guy, but certainly not able to take over the Democratic or any other major American political party. As you said, the policies are cooked in.

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8 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

for all you've done for c99. Your work here is has been top notch and immeasurable. Your OTs will be sorely missed.

Take care of yourself, my friend.

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13 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@JtC

I will be around. Smile

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5 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

enhydra lutris's picture

we choose to make it so or to so define it). I hate to see your columns end, they've always provided food for thought and assorted insights, but your health and wellbeing is the primary criterion of what is good and what should be done. They say that ashwagonda is good for stress, twice per day, also CBD and even the hormone melatonin, taken at bed time. (You are far too wise to rely upon the "ignorance is bliss" route.)

Some content from the highlighted matter brings grins to the mind:

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.

I absolutely love the exhortation to do things that don't compute, as I love such things,
doing them, and those, often artists of some sort, who have trod that path. An ironic aside is that the ability of the human to be counter-predictive (and of the universe to be random) is one element of the disproof of the existence of the God of our fathers because his omniscience goes into the toilet. Wink

Ask the questions that have no answers.

The greatest compliment I ever got was upon meeting a guy's wife for the first time when we were in our fifties and she told me "I know all about you, J said that you were the kid who always asked the questions the teachers couldn't answer". Definitely do that, but also ask them of yourself.

As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it.

Wu Wei, always and ever wu wei.

Practice resurrection.

Meet each day, if not each moment with a new you. Seek not the buddha nor godot, they aren't here.

I will miss your columns but hope to still see your commentary as the occasion arises.

be well (above all) and have a good one

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9 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@enhydra lutris

I already get a fair amount of CBD and THC. Smile Need to cut down the caffeine even further, and perhaps try those mood altering things you recommended a couple weeks ago! And sleep, of course.

Sadly, I *can't* do the ignorance is bliss route--except by diving into the news media stream less frequently. If I could do more denial, I would, but I often know when I'm tricking myself. Damn it.

An ironic aside is that the ability of the human to be counter-predictive (and of the universe to be random) is one element of the disproof of the existence of the God of our fathers because his omniscience goes into the toilet. Wink

Well, that actually makes Berry's poem even more funny, because it makes "Love the Lord" something that does not compute in that context!

The greatest compliment I ever got was upon meeting a guy's wife for the first time when we were in our fifties and she told me "I know all about you, J said that you were the kid who always asked the questions the teachers couldn't answer". Definitely do that, but also ask them of yourself.

Too many people think those late-night sessions at coffee houses indulged in by overly brainy college students are useless. They're not. They're a peculiar exercise of the brain. The least they do is give your brain a practice flight.

I will be around. If we haven't popped into the same discussions for a while and you want to touch base, just PM me or send an email to electricmayhem1968@gmail (that's my caucus99 email addy).

I might even, after a while, write an essay or two. Just can't do it weekly.

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4 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

enhydra lutris's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

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2 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@enhydra lutris

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2 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

I too have enjoyed your thought filled essays. I don't post much but I always try to read what you've written. Please take care of yourself. Stress is the one problem which will cause multiple problems if you don't take care of it.

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8 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Enchantress

I always hope there are some folks out there that I don't know about.

I appreciate you coming by and taking the time to read my work.

I started getting stressed about things that aren't bad. Like not having enough to fill peoples Xmas stockings sufficiently. Really minor, minor stuff.

I don't want to go down *that* road. Time to take care of it (or of me, I guess)!

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5 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

enhydra lutris's picture

It says above, in the cited "Manifesto"

Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.

and, whatthehell, it's really foggy out today, foggy like the coast where they grow, so

Not so much gigantea, but the wondrous sempervirens can be planted or preserved for a relative pittance with great ease:

1) Sempervirens Fund
Address: 419 S San Antonio Rd UNIT 211, Los Altos, CA 94022
Phone: (650) 949-1453
http://sempervirens.org

2) Save the Redwoods League
111 Sutter Street, 11th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94104
(888) 836-0005
membership@SaveTheRedwoods.org/
www.savetheredwoods.org

be well and have a good one

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6 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@enhydra lutris

I'll stop by and check 'em out.

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3 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

snoopydawg's picture

Again my thanks for your invite to join the site all those years ago. I can’t imagine being rudderless after leaving DK, but thanks to you I landed here.

I’ve enjoyed your writing and so thanks for all the fish. Hoping that things get better soon and I’ll see you when I do.

Snoop.

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9 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@snoopydawg

It's been fun talking with you over the years. And I'm sure it will be again.

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2 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

The Enlightenment values this country was founded on never killed (possibly due to a Batman-like counterproductive moral sense that chose rules at the cost of Reason?) the Puritan slave-morality that reached this hemisphere first; Chris Christie established the fallacy perfectly:

"You can't enjoy your civil liberties if you're in a coffin."

"Enjoy???"

Freedom isn't some self-indulgent vice (here is an EXCELLENT article on what's wrong with the Plymouth/Virginia-American concept of liberty as compared to the strictly-superior French model: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/How-French-k... ); freedom is a NECESSITY - civil liberties are there *not only* to keep you OUT of a coffin (I mean, unless you're into mummies and vampires and whatnot, I get it), but to save you from an even worse fate: The one known by way of West Africa and the Caribbean as "zombie" - and to modern Jews as "Muselmann": https://www.holocaustmatters.org/musselmann-losing-body-and-soul/

Also noteworthy is the profoundly troubling contemporary universalist-academic concept of the "philosophic zombie" (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/zombies/); I trust present company to all be capable of delving the implications at your respective leisures.

I was once told by a Dunning-Kruger poster-child (to say nothing of any number of other pathologies) on another site that "Right to free speech does not trump right to exist" - a less catchy version of Christie's line above, from someone I'm pretty sure would be aghast at the suggestion the two of them have anything in common.

THIS is the lie that has managed to run laps around the world while the truth, despite having already been fully-dressed beforehand, now struggles to escape its bindings to the train-tracks.

Freedom of speech is a practical necessity for the sustenance of freedom of thought - and freedom of thought IS existing. Any action justified by the defense of life is an order of magnitude moreso in the defense of independent thought.

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5 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

dystopian's picture

Hi CStMS, Just wanted to say I have always enjoyed your thoughtful and thought provoking posts. Only rarely do I get by in a timely fashion to comment, but have read and appreciated your writing and work here alot! Not to mention hosting.

As you think you are. So think positive. Positive thoughts put into positive actions bring positive results. See the half that is full. Live in the moment, the here and now is all we have for sure. Be well!

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4 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

let me know, chica.

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1 user has voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

lotlizard's picture

Hospital staff told me to let go of the obsession with politics and Weltschmerz, unless I was bent on raising my blood pressure and decreasing my remaining lifespan.

So I understand completely. I too feel full of gratitude for all your contributions and wish for you the same healthier course and better future I wish for myself.

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4 users have voted.
zed2's picture

zed2's picture

Its leading to a murder a hopeless dead end situation. Why do they keep lying telling us they can or do help when its a shameless LIE?

Bullshit is not help when they betrayed us long ago! Lying endlessly to us! Why cant they admit they are trying to kill us, their own country, and help the rich people who spend vacations with them in tropical tax havens, sucking the blood out of the planet? Vampires all.

They should all go to hell, the DNC spammers and their lies.
Get a real job, they wouldn't last a week. Such half assed idiots.

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0 users have voted.
Sima's picture

I have read most of your work and your comments here. I've always found them thoughtful and often illuminating. I'm going to miss your open thread, but look forward to your comments and hope that the stress your are undergoing will subside and life will be good for you soon.

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1 user has voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so