Open Thread - 09-23-22 - Reflections

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 8:21am

What would our ancestors think of us now?

All of history, millennia actually, is held within these precious moments in time. Held in suspension like an overburdened tear drop, straining from the weight of it's own making. Could any of our predecessors have envisioned our modern world, as it is foreign terrene even to ourselves. I don't know, maybe they could, but I doubt it. Hell, I can't believe it myself.

I came of age in the chaos of the late 60s, an era of change, much like today. It was an existential time, as it is today, for a young man about to reach the age when the government could reach out and rapture you up and spit you out in a jungle in southeast Asia. We were conditioned for that time when it was our turn to serve the empire, our archetypal duty to society, post WW II and Korea. I had been trained for that since the mid 50s, at birth. The television, the movies, the magazines, the comic books, were our teachers. I got a special taste of it in my mid teens.

8wDyz2gZSamCihzEJ8i6_Screen_Shot_2017-04-26_at_10.13.51_AM.png

I went to high school in a small town in northern Illinois from 1968 to 1972. It was a particularly tumultuous time, both in my life and in the life of the nation. Around that time I was introduced to The Chicago Seed, an underground newspaper. The Seed, the coverage of the Vietnam war on the nightly news, friends, and weed changed me from the jock I was to the anti war activist that I became. There was one other factor that helped in that transition, our high school military program.

There were only a hand full of high schools across the nation that had a military program that wasn't ROTC affiliated. My high school was one of those. The program started after WW I and ended in the early 70s, right after I finished high school. We males had to participate in military class every Thursday through our sophomore and junior years. If we didn't participate then we weren't allowed to graduate. We also had to attend a military review at the end of the year for those two years, where we had to march around in the gym in front of our parents. Again if you didn't attend the military review you weren't allowed to graduate. There were exemptions but they were hard to get.

In the class we had to dress in military uniforms that were provided for us, we called them monkey suits. We had to learn how to march in cadence, flip rifles around in all the various positions, the proper way to salute, how to take commands, you know, all that brain washing stuff.

There were ranks, our squad leader went on to a full military career. The conditioning worked on some of my friends as well, they joined the service after high school. Some of them didn't come home. That hardened my anti war resolve that I carry with me to this day. The program's purpose of creating fodder for the proverbial cannon also produced many who fought the war machine. Such as it was in that day, and I hope, such as it is for this day.

Our present may be taken from us, as can our future, but the past is ours forever.

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?

― Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder

Some day we'll all return to the stars from whence we came.

"When a man dies a library dies with him." ~ Unknown

Have a good one folks.

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Submitted by JtC on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 8:25am

Good morning Free Rangers...

Not only did my high school's military program end right after I graduated but the ban on long hair ended right after as well.

One year, my sophomore year I think, I had hair that had had grown down over the top of my ears. That was taboo. I was called into the office of doom. I told the principle that I couldn't afford a hair cut so he then gave me the money and told me not to return until my hair was cut. The bastid.

Submitted by usefewersyllables on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 10:05am

"So the sign said

@JtC

long-haired freaky people need not apply..."

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeT5otk2R1g width:400 height:300]

—

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 10:31am

It was a flag...

@usefewersyllables
a freak flag. I finally cut it around 1980. I changed my flag but still flew the same colors.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 10:50am

The conditioning of minds has only gotten worse

Excellent essay from Yves

Is ‘Seize Now, Sort It Later’ Itself an Assault on Liberty?

Yves here. Lambert was early to identify what he called “authoritarian followership” among Team Dem. It’s now going to its logical conclusion as the Democrats and even many supposedly lefties are fine with the trashing of civil rights and liberty if that expedites bringing down Hair Furore.

Two things can be true at the same time:

Donald Trump can be an indefensible excuse for a president and represent a danger to the Republic (the formal institution of our government).

At the same time, the National Security State can be exercising a power grab the likes of which will end both our democracy and our republican version of it.

The point is not to argue our lists. The point is to wonder what made liberals — people who used to hate “spook state” agents like the FBI and CIA — suddenly love them, support their penetration of media via “unaffiliated” spokespeople, and blind themselves to the conversion of J. Edgar Hoover’s criminal, blackmail enterprise into modern angels of democratic deliverance in the present American mind?

A recent democratic angel of such deliverance is George W. Bush, he of torture and war crimes fame. Another is from the Cheney family, Trump-hating Liz Cheney, enemy of all that progressives hold dear save her animosity toward the Previous Occupant.

Are either of them friends of freedom? Not if you look at them — or retain the semblance of a memory — but they’re certainly praised as such, these days that is. Some Democrats might even finance her run for the presidency, should she choose to make one.
….
Hoover’s FBI, of course, has been credibly linked to the murder of Malcolm Xand less credibly linked to the murder of Martin Luther King. And the misdeeds of the National Security State writ large are numerous and indefensible. From the murder of Americans by the CIA drone operation(2010), to spying on the Supreme Court by the FBI (2012), to outright and unpunished lying under oath to Congress by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (2017) — it’s surprising to me that fervent defenders of democracy, folks to the left of the Right, your friends and mine, have become their fast friends as well, some even their defenders.
…..
The DOJ’s Trojan Horse

All this leads me to recommend a full read of a series that appeared recently at Matt Taibbi’s Substack site. In a piece called “What Happened to America’s Civil Libertarians?” Taibbi details how disturbing it is for readers to even see these doubts expressed:

Over the weekend I published a feature on Justice Department use of bullying tactics and unfair practices, called “The Justice Department Was Dangerous Before Trump. It’s Out of Control Now.” Despite the fact that the bulk of the article focused on targets broadly sympathetic to the left, like the late radical lawyer Lynne Stewart and a civil rights firm in Baltimore raided for the crime of representing another lawyer, a flood of emails and social media posts ensued, most on the predictable theme that this piece [—] packed with facts and testimonials by people other than myself [—] was right-wing grift: “What happened to you, man?”

But the piece he refers to is solid and solidly researched. I strongly recommend reading it all.

In it he examines the use of “taint teams” by the FBI, a practice whereby they go into a target’s office, often a lawyer defending someone under investigation, and scoop up everything they can find, with the intention of assigning one of their own (but “not part of the investigation”) to look at everything and sort it out later. They’ve been doing this long before Trump took center stage.
….
And I hope to God that the result is not presaged by the lines of the famous poem “First they came…”, whose middle verse might soon be revised to say: “Then they came for Trump, but I hated the bastard, so f-ck him.”

This comment sums up the shitlibs.

YankeeFrank

What I realized after 2016 was that the thing I had called “the left” for most of my life was made up of largely milquetoast liberals with skin deep morality larping as socialists since being anti-war or anti-corporate was hip. I should’ve realized it sooner given the silence with which they reacted to Obama’s crimes and incompetence in those realms but I think I didn’t want to. Then it became unavoidable

Bingo. WSWS posted an essay on how democrat voters were all of a sudden excited to vote for ex intelligence and ex military people after decades of saying that they were against what they stood for and they have gone even further into wackamania thinking just because democrats told them for 5 years that Trump was very dangerous and a bad man. And he worked with Putin to steal Hellabitch’s coronation. Even though every part of Russia gate has been debunked they won’t let go of the fairytale. Plus Russia gate manufactured consent for war against Russia. The xenophobia they spout about Russians is off the charts. I often ask them what they do if someone said that about Israel and Jewish people. I get a blank look…

I’m not sure when I turned anti war. The only thing I remember about the Vietnam war was the POW bracelets that were in fashion and cool. Got mine at the Ogden airport, but don’t remember why I was there. Maybe some POWs had come home or something.

—

“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 11:08am

It is truly amazing...

@snoopydawg
how easily people can be led around by their nose rings. It's getting pretty obvious where this all leads to.

Great articles, thanks snoops.

Excellent essay from Yves

Is ‘Seize Now, Sort It Later’ Itself an Assault on Liberty?

Yves here. Lambert was early to identify what he called “authoritarian followership” among Team Dem. It’s now going to its logical conclusion as the Democrats and even many supposedly lefties are fine with the trashing of civil rights and liberty if that expedites bringing down Hair Furore.

Two things can be true at the same time:

Donald Trump can be an indefensible excuse for a president and represent a danger to the Republic (the formal institution of our government).

At the same time, the National Security State can be exercising a power grab the likes of which will end both our democracy and our republican version of it.

The point is not to argue our lists. The point is to wonder what made liberals — people who used to hate “spook state” agents like the FBI and CIA — suddenly love them, support their penetration of media via “unaffiliated” spokespeople, and blind themselves to the conversion of J. Edgar Hoover’s criminal, blackmail enterprise into modern angels of democratic deliverance in the present American mind?

A recent democratic angel of such deliverance is George W. Bush, he of torture and war crimes fame. Another is from the Cheney family, Trump-hating Liz Cheney, enemy of all that progressives hold dear save her animosity toward the Previous Occupant.

Are either of them friends of freedom? Not if you look at them — or retain the semblance of a memory — but they’re certainly praised as such, these days that is. Some Democrats might even finance her run for the presidency, should she choose to make one.
….
Hoover’s FBI, of course, has been credibly linked to the murder of Malcolm Xand less credibly linked to the murder of Martin Luther King. And the misdeeds of the National Security State writ large are numerous and indefensible. From the murder of Americans by the CIA drone operation(2010), to spying on the Supreme Court by the FBI (2012), to outright and unpunished lying under oath to Congress by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (2017) — it’s surprising to me that fervent defenders of democracy, folks to the left of the Right, your friends and mine, have become their fast friends as well, some even their defenders.
…..
The DOJ’s Trojan Horse

All this leads me to recommend a full read of a series that appeared recently at Matt Taibbi’s Substack site. In a piece called “What Happened to America’s Civil Libertarians?” Taibbi details how disturbing it is for readers to even see these doubts expressed:

Over the weekend I published a feature on Justice Department use of bullying tactics and unfair practices, called “The Justice Department Was Dangerous Before Trump. It’s Out of Control Now.” Despite the fact that the bulk of the article focused on targets broadly sympathetic to the left, like the late radical lawyer Lynne Stewart and a civil rights firm in Baltimore raided for the crime of representing another lawyer, a flood of emails and social media posts ensued, most on the predictable theme that this piece [—] packed with facts and testimonials by people other than myself [—] was right-wing grift: “What happened to you, man?”

But the piece he refers to is solid and solidly researched. I strongly recommend reading it all.

In it he examines the use of “taint teams” by the FBI, a practice whereby they go into a target’s office, often a lawyer defending someone under investigation, and scoop up everything they can find, with the intention of assigning one of their own (but “not part of the investigation”) to look at everything and sort it out later. They’ve been doing this long before Trump took center stage.
….
And I hope to God that the result is not presaged by the lines of the famous poem “First they came…”, whose middle verse might soon be revised to say: “Then they came for Trump, but I hated the bastard, so f-ck him.”

This comment sums up the shitlibs.

YankeeFrank

What I realized after 2016 was that the thing I had called “the left” for most of my life was made up of largely milquetoast liberals with skin deep morality larping as socialists since being anti-war or anti-corporate was hip. I should’ve realized it sooner given the silence with which they reacted to Obama’s crimes and incompetence in those realms but I think I didn’t want to. Then it became unavoidable

Bingo. WSWS posted an essay on how democrat voters were all of a sudden excited to vote for ex intelligence and ex military people after decades of saying that they were against what they stood for and they have gone even further into wackamania thinking just because democrats told them for 5 years that Trump was very dangerous and a bad man. And he worked with Putin to steal Hellabitch’s coronation. Even though every part of Russia gate has been debunked they won’t let go of the fairytale. Plus Russia gate manufactured consent for war against Russia. The xenophobia they spout about Russians is off the charts. I often ask them what they do if someone said that about Israel and Jewish people. I get a blank look…

I’m not sure when I turned anti war. The only thing I remember about the Vietnam war was the POW bracelets that were in fashion and cool. Got mine at the Ogden airport, but don’t remember why I was there. Maybe some POWs had come home or something.

Submitted by NYCVG on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 4:10pm

All True, Snoop

@snoopydawg I have been coming back from the almost dead for a few days now (starting Sunday evening when my daughter brought the shell that is me home from the hospital) and tuning in to MSM, all I can see is total ignorance.

The larger world has no idea that referendums have been called for for months by the oppressed people of the LPR and DPR.

Russia is the language of the Donbas and the Nazi white power heavies have been torturing the rightful residents for 8 years. (Minsk agreements, hahahaha)

The MSM persists in framing what is happening as "Russia invading Ukraine."

Unbelievable.

I'd acknowledged the propaganda before my temporary leave of absence from my mind and body, but now it seems impossible that the Big Lies have been so overwhelming.

Excellent essay from Yves

Is ‘Seize Now, Sort It Later’ Itself an Assault on Liberty?

Yves here. Lambert was early to identify what he called “authoritarian followership” among Team Dem. It’s now going to its logical conclusion as the Democrats and even many supposedly lefties are fine with the trashing of civil rights and liberty if that expedites bringing down Hair Furore.

Two things can be true at the same time:

Donald Trump can be an indefensible excuse for a president and represent a danger to the Republic (the formal institution of our government).

At the same time, the National Security State can be exercising a power grab the likes of which will end both our democracy and our republican version of it.

The point is not to argue our lists. The point is to wonder what made liberals — people who used to hate “spook state” agents like the FBI and CIA — suddenly love them, support their penetration of media via “unaffiliated” spokespeople, and blind themselves to the conversion of J. Edgar Hoover’s criminal, blackmail enterprise into modern angels of democratic deliverance in the present American mind?

A recent democratic angel of such deliverance is George W. Bush, he of torture and war crimes fame. Another is from the Cheney family, Trump-hating Liz Cheney, enemy of all that progressives hold dear save her animosity toward the Previous Occupant.

Are either of them friends of freedom? Not if you look at them — or retain the semblance of a memory — but they’re certainly praised as such, these days that is. Some Democrats might even finance her run for the presidency, should she choose to make one.
….
Hoover’s FBI, of course, has been credibly linked to the murder of Malcolm Xand less credibly linked to the murder of Martin Luther King. And the misdeeds of the National Security State writ large are numerous and indefensible. From the murder of Americans by the CIA drone operation(2010), to spying on the Supreme Court by the FBI (2012), to outright and unpunished lying under oath to Congress by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (2017) — it’s surprising to me that fervent defenders of democracy, folks to the left of the Right, your friends and mine, have become their fast friends as well, some even their defenders.
…..
The DOJ’s Trojan Horse

All this leads me to recommend a full read of a series that appeared recently at Matt Taibbi’s Substack site. In a piece called “What Happened to America’s Civil Libertarians?” Taibbi details how disturbing it is for readers to even see these doubts expressed:

Over the weekend I published a feature on Justice Department use of bullying tactics and unfair practices, called “The Justice Department Was Dangerous Before Trump. It’s Out of Control Now.” Despite the fact that the bulk of the article focused on targets broadly sympathetic to the left, like the late radical lawyer Lynne Stewart and a civil rights firm in Baltimore raided for the crime of representing another lawyer, a flood of emails and social media posts ensued, most on the predictable theme that this piece [—] packed with facts and testimonials by people other than myself [—] was right-wing grift: “What happened to you, man?”

But the piece he refers to is solid and solidly researched. I strongly recommend reading it all.

In it he examines the use of “taint teams” by the FBI, a practice whereby they go into a target’s office, often a lawyer defending someone under investigation, and scoop up everything they can find, with the intention of assigning one of their own (but “not part of the investigation”) to look at everything and sort it out later. They’ve been doing this long before Trump took center stage.
….
And I hope to God that the result is not presaged by the lines of the famous poem “First they came…”, whose middle verse might soon be revised to say: “Then they came for Trump, but I hated the bastard, so f-ck him.”

This comment sums up the shitlibs.

YankeeFrank

What I realized after 2016 was that the thing I had called “the left” for most of my life was made up of largely milquetoast liberals with skin deep morality larping as socialists since being anti-war or anti-corporate was hip. I should’ve realized it sooner given the silence with which they reacted to Obama’s crimes and incompetence in those realms but I think I didn’t want to. Then it became unavoidable

Bingo. WSWS posted an essay on how democrat voters were all of a sudden excited to vote for ex intelligence and ex military people after decades of saying that they were against what they stood for and they have gone even further into wackamania thinking just because democrats told them for 5 years that Trump was very dangerous and a bad man. And he worked with Putin to steal Hellabitch’s coronation. Even though every part of Russia gate has been debunked they won’t let go of the fairytale. Plus Russia gate manufactured consent for war against Russia. The xenophobia they spout about Russians is off the charts. I often ask them what they do if someone said that about Israel and Jewish people. I get a blank look…

I’m not sure when I turned anti war. The only thing I remember about the Vietnam war was the POW bracelets that were in fashion and cool. Got mine at the Ogden airport, but don’t remember why I was there. Maybe some POWs had come home or something.

—

NYCVG

Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 4:38pm

I’m constantly on the Twit explaining to people about that

@NYCVG

How Ukraine has been attacking their own citizens in the Donbas just because they refused to accept the results of Obama’s brutal coup in 2014 and don’t want to be ruled by actual Nazis. Most people who reply to me have no idea that happened or that those Nazi bastards have been torturing and killing Ukrainians in other areas there. Imagine if Trump supporters taped people to light poles and invited others to hit them with weapons they supplied. The media would be all over that, but they are silent on what has been happening over there. Most don’t know about the 14,000 people who have been killed either.

But sure it’s Russia propaganda to point that out. Or being pro Putin. Americans have no idea about the level of propaganda and brainwashing they are subjected to daily. They believe that Russia just decided to do an unprovoked attack on Ukraine because….reasons.

Hope you are recovering from your event. Just take it easy and take your time. I’ve been there and have the T shirt.

—

“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

Submitted by NYCVG on Sat, 09/24/2022 - 3:25pm

Sorry to hear

@snoopydawg that you've been here.

But it is great news that recovery is happening already and full recovery? IDK, but may be possible.

You seem 100%. So great things are possible.

—

NYCVG

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 09/24/2022 - 5:56pm

Actually I’m nowhere near a full recovery

@NYCVG

No one knows how much work it takes me to sound coherent and how many mistakes I make before I hit save on my comments, but I have recovered a lot since it happened. My memories are hit and miss and the joke with my friends is was I there? Then we all laugh, but it took me years to get over feeling embarrassed about my memories. They are like an alcoholic blackout where short term memories aren’t saved to my hard drive. It is what it is and I know how lucky I was.

I was also young when mine happened and I still wonder how I was able to teach myself my career as an ophthalmic photographer and the anatomy of the eye and ophthalmology because I learned it just after it happened and during a time I was experiencing great pain. Most days now I’m in a lot of pain and on high meds for it. But lol it still gets through when I screw up the grammar in my comments and thank gawd for spellcheck. Again it is what it is. I think some of the worst aspects of a brain injury is that people feel shame over it unlike no one feels shame if they break their arm or have other health issues that they have no control over it. I finally decided that when I’m feeling dumb at least I’m still here to feel it and shrug and move on.

Like others have said just take your time healing and accept you are where you are and hopefully tomorrow is better. You are still here and that’s lucky for all of us!

ETA

I just remembered how when I first started posting here how frustrated I would get when I couldn’t remember what people said when I replied to their comments and I had to scroll back up to read them over and over until someone mentioned that we could open reply in a new tab and the comment was right there. I still do that and hopefully it helps others if they don’t know about the trick. Thanks to the person who first mentioned it! It’s saved a boatload of frustration and swear words for me.

—

“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

Submitted by on the cusp on Sat, 09/24/2022 - 6:58pm

You just taught me a new trick!

@snoopydawg I deal with lots of people who have health issues that realize a will and some other estate planning issues need to be addressed. I do everything I can to make them feel good about themselves. After all, like you and NYCVG, this was not their fault.

—

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

Submitted by QMS on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 4:39pm

Sometimes having a time out

@NYCVG

when you get back to basics, the 'new' reality seems a bit off.
Trust me when I say, this is the same as it ever was. You are lucky
to see it with newly unfogged eyes. Hope you get better soon.

—

truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security

Submitted by NYCVG on Sat, 09/24/2022 - 3:26pm

Thanks, QMS.

@QMS Your clear and consistent comments are deeply appreciated.

—

NYCVG

Submitted by Enchantress on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 11:04am

Dress Codes

I grew up like you outside of a large city, (Detroit) in the lily-white suburbs. I also remember getting rid of the dress code around 1970. The stupidest thing about having a dress code was that girls could not wear pants. I guess you learn better in a dress.

My high school was small. Only around 1500 students compared to the others which had around 3000-5000 or more kids. That is probably why we did not have any ROTC programs, but the military did come in at the end of the year to talk to the senior boys graduating. The girls had something else, which I can't even remember what it was.

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 11:19am

My high school's...

@Enchantress @Enchantress
military program wasn't ROTC based. The school implemented the program on it's own and forced us to participate. I remember it said that there was only 4 or 5 high schools across the nation that had programs like that.

We had another unconventional program as well. During the winter we had a swimming class in the indoor pool. There were separate pools for the girls and boys. The boys had to swim in the nude. Some were allowed to abstain from the class if they objected. Not me, it didn't bother me, I loved swimming and could swim like a fish. It did get kind of awkward though when we played water polo.

The girls got to wear swim suits.

Thanks for your reflections, Enchantress.

Submitted by QMS on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 12:51pm

un-dress code

@JtC

now that's a horse of a different color!

[video:https://youtu.be/YGAPKnHcGDM]

—

truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 2:58pm

One other little tidbit...

@QMS
before we could enter the pool, our instructor that we called Squid, would line us all up and inspect us for lice before we could jump in the pool. We called it cheese-checks.

Yes, that actually happened.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 4:42pm

I was one of the top athletes in my school

@JtC

but I got a D in gym because I wouldn’t shower. The teacher was my friend and said that she would give me an A if I just showered on the last day. I got a D. Glad I wasn’t a boy at your school. Did any of them refuse to swim naked?

—

“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 4:44pm

Yes...

@snoopydawg
some did and were exempted. I didn't give a shit, it was the best part of the day for me.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 1:39pm

Good morning JtC et. y'all. We is back.

I believe that it is by now well established that there has never been a time as fucked up as this. For the record, I didn't fuck it up, nor, I hear, did Katie Goodman. So where does that leave us?

Beyond that, I doubt that any larger cultural milieu has ever had a place for the proudly incorrigible, but that's a different matter. After all, with randomness in the universe there should exist at least one time-space that isn't totally fucked up, but this clearly ain't it.

A couple of telling facts about our situation, both a bit aged and both from Gore Vidal

The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent.

There is only one party in the United States: the Property party... and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat.

and the real central fact about today's reality and the entire history of the US, also from Vidal:

Envy is the central fact of American life.

Which is why we cannot solve this crisis or dig our way out, because everybody want's be be on top or at least ahead of everybody else. Nobody whatsoever is satisfied, and this fact has been the goal of the political, financial, and merchant classes from day one. It is a sin against everything that our country and its economy stand for to simply put your hands in your pockets and declare yourself to be satisfied with what you have. Meanwhile, of course, it is impossible to be satisfied with the socio-political milieu and the operation of the economy, though tptb will insist that that this is the best of all possible worlds in that respect. Thus, angst abounds.

be well and have a good one

—

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 --

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 2:21pm

Exactly right, mi hermano...

@enhydra lutris
decades of televised propaganda pitting our psyches against our neighbors, both near and far, in an endless cycle of envy/keeping up with the Jones. It's not evident to the eyes that cannot see, until ones opts out of the game.

Anyway, that shit is so deeply ingrained that it probably wont change until mankind has a collective frontal lobotomy, a reset of reason, if you will.

I have one little addition for the Vidal quote:

There is only one party in the United States: the War/Property party... and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat.

Thanks old buddy and welcome back!

Submitted by NYCVG on Sat, 09/24/2022 - 3:30pm

OMG

@enhydra lutris Everything I've been thinking and feeling since my return from the almost dead.

All objections to the miasmic fog of bullshit Lies have been strangled. No protests on the horizon, as far as I can see.

Please tell me that I am mistaken.

Can the American Idiot thing really be all That Remains???

—

NYCVG

Submitted by humphrey on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 1:53pm

A heads up for those who might be impacted.

Submitted by QMS on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 2:06pm

Interesting that the projection

@humphrey

goes from H ( > 75 mph) to M ( > 110) when it hits western FL.
Sheedaddles.

—

truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 2:25pm

Thanks for the heads up, humphrey...

@humphrey
I'm thankful for the model that shows it's not heading for Texas where I live, and I'm fearful for our friends in Florida.

Submitted by ggersh on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 2:10pm

Yep swimming in the nude for guys was mandatory in

Chicago also. For me it was a horrible situation as I hadn't fully
reached manhood being the youngest kid in the class. Plus it was
the first year that our HS bussed afro-americans in. Those were
the days my friend.

Pancreatitus kept me out of Nam. I had actually passed the physical
and then asked to see to see the Major/Colonel and showed him my
Doctor's paper and he promptly gave me a 4-F

Why we average americans can't have things explained in one sentence

A simple explanation of trickle-down economics. pic.twitter.com/ziFK0121KL

— The Exploding Heads (@Exploding_Heads) September 22, 2022

—

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 2:40pm

I did some research...

@ggersh
on the nude swimming classes a few years ago and it happened in pockets around the upper midwest, not just northern Illinois. I don't know if it's still happening but with the woke thing it wouldn't surprise me.

That video is accurate and amusing. I explain it as, "pennies trickle down while dollars float upwards".

Chicago will probably become much more interesting with the new Safe-T Act, be careful out there my friend.

Submitted by ggersh on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 4:53pm

Unfortunately it's a tad too late to be anything but

@JtC careful in Cook County. The police no longer policing has
accomplished everything a pig could dream of, being going to work
with the only action is to make sure they get home safely.

One hardly ever see's a pig on the street when you might need one
but as soon as there is a shooting 100+ show up to do what 10-20
can do. City government under Rahm/Lightfoot has failed.

Under neoliberalism this is a feature not a bug

—

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Submitted by karl pearson on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 2:38pm

Down Memory Lane

Your post reminded me of the good times c. (1969-70) I had exploring Old Town with my college suitemate, who was from Chicagoland. We rejected the war and materialism and believed things would change. The atmosphere of Old Town reinforced these ideas. That bubble burst with Kent State and for the last 40+ years, only the memories exist. Recenrly, I checked up on that old suitemate. She is a rabid right-wing Republican.

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 2:49pm

Back in my DKos days...

@karl pearson
I PMed OPOL during one of his diaries and asked him what happened to our generation. We were going to change things and instead things went to hell. He attributed it to Kent State as well. Getting shot down by the man will do that to a movement.

I have a couple of friends that are instructors at the Old Town School of Folk Music. I haven't been there for decades, what a cool place that was.

I'm pretty sure your avatar is a scene from south central or southern Illinois, it's beautiful there.

Thanks Karl.

Submitted by karl pearson on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 3:45pm

You Guessed It

@JtC Picture was taken just outside Alto Pass, IL. One is looking at the Shawnee Hills. Thanks for the OPOL story.

Submitted by mimi on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 6:06pm

So you were raised like the Hitler Youth to fight against Nazis?

There were only a hand full of high schools across the nation that had a military program that wasn't ROTC affiliated. My high school was one of those. The program started after WW I and ended in the early 70s, right after I finished high school. We males had to participate in military class every Thursday through our sophomore and junior years. If we didn't participate then we weren't allowed to graduate. We also had to attend a military review at the end of the year for those two years, where we had to march around in the gym in front of our parents. Again if you didn't attend the military review you weren't allowed to graduate. There were exemptions but they were hard to get.

In the class we had to dress in military uniforms that were provided for us, we called them monkey suits. We had to learn how to march in cadence, flip rifles around in all the various positions, the proper way to salute, how to take commands, you know, all that brain washing stuff.

There were ranks, our squad leader went on to a full military career. The conditioning worked on some of my friends as well, they joined the service after high school. Some of them didn't come home. That hardened my anti war resolve that I carry with me to this day. The program's purpose of creating fodder for the proverbial cannon also produced many who fought the war machine. Such as it was in that day, and I hope, such as it is for this day.

(Sorry forgott how to end the blockquote properly)
Wow, it hurts so much to think this through. During the same time, we in Germany could at least rebel against the parents generation nazis still surrounding us in the publick political life.

If I could I would cry. And would give a vitual hug. I am so sorry for the mess the Third Reich created for decades to come on so many people. I feel i live through the saddest time of my life.

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by QMS on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 7:02pm

Hey Mimi, don't cry

@mimi

The amount of misery the US is causing the world is about as bad as any dictatorship in
the past. Hope some live to see its' defenestration.

—

truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 10:26pm

Don't take the ...

@mimi
nazi reference wrong. I was highlighting how the propaganda that is so prevalent today was around when I was a wee lad as well. We've been programmed by our cultures.

There's plenty of guilt to go around for WW II on all sides.

Submitted by mimi on Sat, 09/24/2022 - 4:51am

i didn't get your Nazi reference wrong, don't worry.

@JtC i have probably expressed myself poorly again.I am so glad THAT YOU write AND put it all out.Thank you so much for doing so. Are you my amigo? Mein Freund! YEP IN MY MIND YOU ARE:

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by Linda Wood on Sat, 09/24/2022 - 12:34am

Germany's Nazi force

@mimi

was sponsored and armed by U.S. corporations before and for the duration of the war. My feeling is that the German people were victims as were everyone else.

And as for being propagandized into supporting the Nazis, the American people today are unwittingly doing the very same thing. It seems it is shockingly easy to create this catastrophe.

Submitted by mimi on Sat, 09/24/2022 - 5:46am

unwittingly ... that reminds me of what

@Linda Wood
my motther replied to my sister when she (my sister) asked my mother what she thought of Hitler etc.when she (my mother) was young in 1936 (17 years old).
"Ob, we were in love (she and my father, highschool sweethearts so to speak)".So apparently there was much "schmusing and knutsching" and not much thinking.

That's just as it is or was. What else is new?7

I hope someone can translate 'schmusen und knutschen' ...:)

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by dystopian on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 8:37pm

Hi all,

Hi all, Hey JtC, Hope all are well!

GREAT reflections JtC! Yeah man what a heady time to come of age. I was a year behind you. My first three years of high school were in tract home in Huntington Bch, CA when it was 40k people and cool.

Last year 72-73 was in a fairly redneck town in east central CA, Big Pine. The place was awesome, but the people fairly intellectually challenged. Were 22 in graduating class, half were dead in 10 years. My 12th grade required American Government class text in Big Pine was my 8th grade Hunt. Bch. Junior High Am. Gov. text. Academically, four years behind! Just 256 miles from L.A.

High School in H.B. was 4000 kids in a newer suburban four-year high school with a) a moat around it, b) cement single story block house rooms, c) with no outside windows. A police officer with the H.B. badge Number 1. Obie Moore. That's right, Obie. 6'6" and about a hundred pounds wet. But a world class industrial arts department where any kid could learn trade level skills by graduation. At the prison. They also had the best extra-curricular experiments in chemistry for mind and body clubs.

I was applying for jobs at 18 to run a Multi 1250 litho press (for horrible pay). From my socialist public high school education. Then later got a good job (in '75) due to my years of woodshop and actually was at one time a custom cabinet maker.

In 1970 I was 15, a sophmore in the protests and sit-ins that got the hair length code abolished for boys, and made it so girls could wear pants. The thrill of it all. As a freshman they checked hair after P.E. showers, it could not go over the collar, when wet. You should have seen us a year later. The barber shops were complaining to the moms. We had olympic pools, but would have been suspended or worse if one did not wear their gym shorts and jock.

We were interestingly required to take a year of foreign language amongst those required elements to graduate. I always heard there were only four countries that did not promote bilingualism: the U.S., the U.K., Oz and New Zealand. English speaking snobs. I thought it was a great requirement, most hated it. But there were 5 languages offered, four years of each! I just did my one. My wife that went to LA Co. schools had no such requirement. In JUNIOR high, 8th grade, we were also required to take a year of Spanish to graduate. In totally white new tract homes suburban Hunt. Bch, Orange Co. CA. So I took Spanish again in high school. Later after high school took an adult school class in it too... slow but dauntless learner here.

Interesting thoughts on Kent State, it was a shocking game changer and a rude awakening. Yes they would kill us. Probably a lot decided it would be easier to just shut up and keep the head down. And then went on to do so in various institutions, corporate, or gov. service. Most of the gang sold out and walked on to the machine, sucking up the slime oozing out of their TV sets. Took the job for the toys, here in status symbol land.

Most became either bluenomatterwhos or rabidrepubs, the parties of war and Wall St., both of whom we had so detested in the idealism of youth. As was so well represented in the music of the day. White collar conservative pointing his plastic finger at me, the man in the suit just bought a new car from the profit he made on your dreams. etc., ad. inf.

I didn't change my values and ideals, they did. Like the Democratic Party inc. now of war and wall st. They abandoned me and my principles which have remained unwavering. Love, peace, happiness, and pacifism for all. Come on let's work together.

Realizing this is a bit trite...
Reflections - Interesting live version, unlike radio single, with no horns, etc.

Thanks for the reflections fearless leader!

best all!

—

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

Submitted by janis b on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 8:53pm

What a celebration of reflections, dystopian

@dystopian

Thank you for your ever enduring idealism.

Hi all, Hey JtC, Hope all are well! GREAT reflections JtC! Yeah man what a heady time to come of age. I was a year behind you. My first three years of high school were in tract home in Huntington Bch, CA when it was 40k people and cool. Last year 72-73 was in a fairly redneck town in east central CA, Big Pine. The place was awesome, but the people fairly intellectually challenged. Were 22 in graduating class, half were dead in 10 years. My 12th grade required American Government class text in Big Pine was my 8th grade Hunt. Bch. Junior High Am. Gov. text. Academically, four years behind! Just 256 miles from L.A. High School in H.B. was 4000 kids in a newer suburban four-year high school with a) a moat around it, b) cement single story block house rooms, c) with no outside windows. A police officer with the H.B. badge Number 1. Obie Moore. That's right, Obie. 6'6" and about a hundred pounds wet. But a world class industrial arts department where any kid could learn trade level skills by graduation. At the prison. They also had the best extra-curricular experiments in chemistry for mind and body clubs. I was applying for jobs at 18 to run a Multi 1250 litho press (for horrible pay). From my socialist public high school education. Then later got a good job (in '75) due to my years of woodshop and actually was at one time a custom cabinet maker. In 1970 I was 15, a sophmore in the protests and sit-ins that got the hair length code abolished for boys, and made it so girls could wear pants. The thrill of it all. As a freshman they checked hair after P.E. showers, it could not go over the collar, when wet. You should have seen us a year later. The barber shops were complaining to the moms. We had olympic pools, but would have been suspended or worse if one did not wear their gym shorts and jock. We were interestingly required to take a year of foreign language amongst those required elements to graduate. I always heard there were only four countries that did not promote bilingualism: the U.S., the U.K., Oz and New Zealand. English speaking snobs. I thought it was a great requirement, most hated it. But there were 5 languages offered, four years of each! I just did my one. My wife that went to LA Co. schools had no such requirement. In JUNIOR high, 8th grade, we were also required to take a year of Spanish to graduate. In totally white new tract homes suburban Hunt. Bch, Orange Co. CA. So I took Spanish again in high school. Later after high school took an adult school class in it too... slow but dauntless learner here. Interesting thoughts on Kent State, it was a shocking game changer and a rude awakening. Yes they would kill us. Probably a lot decided it would be easier to just shut up and keep the head down. And then went on to do so in various institutions, corporate, or gov. service. Most of the gang sold out and walked on to the machine, sucking up the slime oozing out of their TV sets. Took the job for the toys, here in status symbol land. Most became either bluenomatterwhos or rabidrepubs, the parties of war and Wall St., both of whom we had so detested in the idealism of youth. As was so well represented in the music of the day. White collar conservative pointing his plastic finger at me, the man in the suit just bought a new car from the profit he made on your dreams. etc., ad. inf. I didn't change my values and ideals, they did. Like the Democratic Party inc. now of war and wall st. They abandoned me and my principles which have remained unwavering. Love, peace, happiness, and pacifism for all. Come on let's work together. Realizing this is a bit trite... Reflections - Interesting live version, unlike radio single, with no horns, etc. Thanks for the reflections fearless leader! best all!

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 09/23/2022 - 11:36pm

Testify brother...

@dystopian
lest we know the chronicle that we leave behind.

You got it man, we need to tell our stories of life during the apex. The future needs to know what was lost.

Thank you, my friend. I hope to say that over a drink some day.

Hi all, Hey JtC, Hope all are well! GREAT reflections JtC! Yeah man what a heady time to come of age. I was a year behind you. My first three years of high school were in tract home in Huntington Bch, CA when it was 40k people and cool. Last year 72-73 was in a fairly redneck town in east central CA, Big Pine. The place was awesome, but the people fairly intellectually challenged. Were 22 in graduating class, half were dead in 10 years. My 12th grade required American Government class text in Big Pine was my 8th grade Hunt. Bch. Junior High Am. Gov. text. Academically, four years behind! Just 256 miles from L.A. High School in H.B. was 4000 kids in a newer suburban four-year high school with a) a moat around it, b) cement single story block house rooms, c) with no outside windows. A police officer with the H.B. badge Number 1. Obie Moore. That's right, Obie. 6'6" and about a hundred pounds wet. But a world class industrial arts department where any kid could learn trade level skills by graduation. At the prison. They also had the best extra-curricular experiments in chemistry for mind and body clubs. I was applying for jobs at 18 to run a Multi 1250 litho press (for horrible pay). From my socialist public high school education. Then later got a good job (in '75) due to my years of woodshop and actually was at one time a custom cabinet maker. In 1970 I was 15, a sophmore in the protests and sit-ins that got the hair length code abolished for boys, and made it so girls could wear pants. The thrill of it all. As a freshman they checked hair after P.E. showers, it could not go over the collar, when wet. You should have seen us a year later. The barber shops were complaining to the moms. We had olympic pools, but would have been suspended or worse if one did not wear their gym shorts and jock. We were interestingly required to take a year of foreign language amongst those required elements to graduate. I always heard there were only four countries that did not promote bilingualism: the U.S., the U.K., Oz and New Zealand. English speaking snobs. I thought it was a great requirement, most hated it. But there were 5 languages offered, four years of each! I just did my one. My wife that went to LA Co. schools had no such requirement. In JUNIOR high, 8th grade, we were also required to take a year of Spanish to graduate. In totally white new tract homes suburban Hunt. Bch, Orange Co. CA. So I took Spanish again in high school. Later after high school took an adult school class in it too... slow but dauntless learner here. Interesting thoughts on Kent State, it was a shocking game changer and a rude awakening. Yes they would kill us. Probably a lot decided it would be easier to just shut up and keep the head down. And then went on to do so in various institutions, corporate, or gov. service. Most of the gang sold out and walked on to the machine, sucking up the slime oozing out of their TV sets. Took the job for the toys, here in status symbol land. Most became either bluenomatterwhos or rabidrepubs, the parties of war and Wall St., both of whom we had so detested in the idealism of youth. As was so well represented in the music of the day. White collar conservative pointing his plastic finger at me, the man in the suit just bought a new car from the profit he made on your dreams. etc., ad. inf. I didn't change my values and ideals, they did. Like the Democratic Party inc. now of war and wall st. They abandoned me and my principles which have remained unwavering. Love, peace, happiness, and pacifism for all. Come on let's work together. Realizing this is a bit trite... Reflections - Interesting live version, unlike radio single, with no horns, etc. Thanks for the reflections fearless leader! best all!

Submitted by on the cusp on Sat, 09/24/2022 - 3:55pm

We had a dress code.

When I got to 9th grade, girls were allowed to wear pants on Fridays, and could wear curlers in their hair. The curlers thing gave the cheerleaders and baton twirlers who would be performing at the football games a chance to look their best.
The code went nuts during the days of mini-skirts. A male teacher called me out of class, had me kneel down on the floor, and he measured knee top floor to hem bottom. It exceeded 3 inches, but he said since I had such pretty legs, he would ignore the rule.
The next time any man required me to let the touch me I told them I would go home and stay home for 3 days. No, they were not going to measure me or paddle me.
Typically, the school counselor would come to the house, speak with my parents, and when they stood firmly with me, I would be allowed back in school the next day. I spent my day of riding my horses around the edge of the campus, chatting with my school mates.
I also got damned tired of a couple of teachers who scored everyone in the class on a scale of 100. Except me. For me to get a perfect score, I had to score 120. I was given permission to stay out of those 2 classes, do a self-study and write lots of essays, under the supervision of the librarian. One of the teachers got fired for what she did to me.
Girls weren't allowed to take industrial arts. (drafting.) Well, I raised hell, got to take it. My jobs as a drater helped send me to law school.
I took correspondence courses and summer school, graduated early, headed to Baylor. More dress code, and mandatory church attendance. I was glad to get out of there and finish up at another university.
For all the hell raising I did in school, years later, I have taken on legal work for my former principal, a couple of my teachers, and the superintendent who tried successfully to paddle me.
When in doubt, raise hell.

—

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