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When spells break
Thinking about broken spells and busted myths today. When spells break, weird shit happens. We’ve had a lot of broken spells in the last 30 Bush years. 9/11 broke the spell of “terrorism” and Wilsonian “democracy” imperialism. 2008 broke the spell of honest banking. 2020 broke the spell of “public health” as a healing profession…
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Metaupflation
Bloomberg does a good job with brief Features describing an interesting trend in business. Here they discuss upflation, which is a new name for a VERY OLD tradition. Packaged grocery items, in the ad or on the package, suggest new ways to use the biscuit mix or soup or tomatoes or scouring powder. These suggestions…
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We stopped because
If reporters have any purpose at all, they should be remote sensors or antennas. They should go into places where ordinary people can’t afford the time or money to go, or where ordinary people aren’t allowed. Reporters should talk with people who know stuff, not available to us by money or time or status. And…
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We should think about…
The existing devils in Congress are unsalvageable. They are firmly ensconced in the 50-year-long culture of making endless noise and Innovating new Disruptions to prevent themselves from DOING SHIT. There’s no chance of changing the presidents. They will be the worst demons in the universe for the foreseeable future. The Supreme pressure on Congress to…
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Extending again
In previous item: Every real experience has non-verbal cultural factors that can’t be acquired through books or Google. This meshes with my assertion that secrecy is the default. Secrecy in this form is not enforced by government rules and censors; it arises from the natural barrier around the culture and experience of a group. The…
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Not deflowered yet
I started adult life in prison where I was literally and figuratively deflowered. The illusions of “freedom” and “democracy” and “justice” learned in school were stripped away and replaced by reality. Later in the 90s I fell back into neocon illusions. After turning off the TV in 2011, the illusions quickly dropped away and reality…
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The house wins
Macron is Wall Street, so I figured he had a criminal trick up his sleeve. Wall Street is crime. Wall Street is mass murder. Sure enough he did. Most of the “left” and “center” candidates were fake, paid by Wall Street to pose as politicians. Now they’re pulling out of the runoff, leaving France (LePen)…
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Trying an extension
Extending a definitely valid rule. I’m not convinced the extension is valid, but want to write it down for later examination. Definitely valid: When you have real experience, whether it’s a job or jury or prison, you can instantly spot an “expert” or “journalist” who hasn’t been through it. Every real experience has non-verbal cultural…
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Somebody gets it!
Pacific Legal Foundation was among the plaintiffs in last week’s Supreme decision that restrains the authority of agencies. They were suing on behalf of a South Dakota farmer who lost the use of part of his land after a federal agency decided that temporary snowmelt was a “wetland”. They also sued for a trucking company…
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Crazy twice
Saagar highlights the weird response from Dem officials who are trying to have it both ways. “It’s up to him.” First, this is bizarrely illogical. “We know that Biden is no longer able to make decisions. THEREFORE we trust him to make the right decision.” Second, I’ve been hammering on the comparison between our intentionally…
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I never understood…
Vintage.es has a picture of Martha Stewart during her honeymoon in 1961, sitting on the trunk of a Mercedes 190, wearing a dress she made. She looks confident and happy, prosperous but not arrogant. I watched her TV show once or twice in the 90s and got the same impression. Old rich, confident and easygoing,…
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Pointless bitchery
More pointless bitchery about conventional wisdom in auto history. Every writer tells us that Buick was the first to adopt names for its subtypes in 1936. Special, Century, Super, Roadmaster. Nowhere near true. From the start of horseless carriages, some makers used letters like Model B, some used numbers like Series 16, some used dull…
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Goddamnit.
I’m fucking tired of our fake ideologies. LePen is not “far-right”, whatever that means. She’s French. She’s just like DeGaulle. We called him “commie” because he frustrated our imperial lunacy. Now we call her “far-right” because she wants to frustrate our imperial lunacy. China is emphatically not Communist. China is Chinese. Mao adopted some of…
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What’s the inverse?
In previous item I distinguished Tech Talk and Patron Talk, which turned out to be a useful variable. = = = = = START REPRINT: When we see absurd crap floating around the media and ask Do they really think we’re stupid? we’re asking a meaningless question. We don’t count. We aren’t in the loop.…
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Reminds me
It’s fun to watch Room 101 in real time. Yesterday all the official DNC sources were telling Biden to quit. Now they’re predictably forgetting what they said yesterday and returning to the cult. Reminds me of something that happened in 2006. I don’t remember the details, so I’m going to make up some details to…
Polistra's Mill
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Polistra's Mill 