Tag: Machiavelli
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Same old game
I see Tulsi is playing a standard Deepstate game again. As she leaves the top Deepstate job of DNI, she pretends to reveal some truths about the “virus”. She’s continuing the fake Lab Leak shit, treating the origin of the “virus” as the only important question. In the first place, Deepstate NEVER gives information. When…
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Auditioning
It’s interesting to watch the few remaining bits and pieces of the old pragmatic political system. One of the old rules: When an officeholder is unbeatable, the opposite party treats the election as an audition, a chance for random people to try their hand and see what happens. Real power-seekers don’t waste time and energy…
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What’s the half-life of loyalty?
Marketers don’t have a political or cultural slot for the majority of people. I was a standard neocon Repooflican from 2001 to 2008. The shock of 2008 made me start looking in different places. Soon I switched to pure New Deal, and haven’t switched back. My writing here and elsewhere has been pure New Deal,…
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What programming taught me
I didn’t really understand politics or law until I had some experience in programming. When I was young I only knew what the “civics” textbooks taught. I thought written “laws” and “constitutions” and “rights” controlled governments. Programming taught me that code is just random sequences of characters until it’s compiled and executed. If the machine…
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Actions count
The “Pope” celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Vatican Press, urging Romans to read printed books. It’s good advice but too late. Rome persecuted printers for a long time until they gained enough control of the technology to encourage it. Rome killed Tyndale. Actions are stronger than words. Leo started out with a strong appeal…
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Figured it out again
Just recognized something AGAIN after forgetting it for many years. Fools constantly instruct us that social media is an echo chamber. This is brazenly and grossly false. Social platforms DO NOT give you more of what you like. They explicitly and persistently slam you with more of what you hate. The goal is to maximize…
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Constant and variable
The US mint issued a ‘commemorative coin’ with Trump’s face. An old lawyer realized there was a law forbidding the use of living people, so he sued. Constant: Now the two “sides” are screeching at each other in the standard ways, missing the main points as always. 1. Commemorative coins aren’t currency. They’re just a…
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Goddamn fake
Both demon “sides” are roaring their fantastically brainless Shared Lies as the “governor” signs a “law” pretending to impose a new “tax” on millionaires. As fucking usual the Democrats are cheering that we finally have an income tax. As even more fucking usual the unspeakably monstrous Repooflicans are roaring GOD HATES TAXES and GIVE BEZOS…
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Reprint on Okies
Linked in previous Chuck Norris item, worth a reprint. = = = = = START 2017 REPRINT: A couple days ago I tossed in a techy sidenote on UNARY VARIABLES, just as a random pointless pun: ANTI-WAR is the key. Left and right, liberal and conservative, had some meaning in earlier centuries, but since 1946…
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Good for Spain!
A Spanish company and an Italian company have teamed up to help Venezuela maintain and expand its petroleum production. It’s good to see Spain playing its old role as genuine neutral. It joined the Sorosian crowd for a while after 2017. Spain and Portugal, formerly huge imperialists, learned a lesson and stayed out of the…
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Make beauty
Since the Bush-Trump torture chamber of 2020 I’ve been peeling away from Machiavellian shit. Trying to pay near-zero attention to politics and media noise. Focusing on making beauty and order where possible, trying to do the right thing though it’s never rewarded and usually punished. I’ve also been turning off subscriptions to writers who show…
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Bad marketing, halfway good idea
Via the local newspaper: Some state legislators want to add “creating a signature” to civics classes. The marketing focuses on John Hancock, but the proposal is somewhat more meaningful than the usual civics crap. It turns out that poor signatures are a real problem for voting officials. Mail ballots require a signature which is checked…
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They knew how to be fair
Trying for a little non-modern amusement while slaving away on dull alt-text work. Randomly sampled the latest uploads at American Radio Library and came up with a gem immediately. From a 1962 trade journal aimed at broadcasters and advertisers. At that time the Fairness Doctrine was firmly established and ensconced. Broadcasters hated every minute of…
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Arguing about details as usual
Web folks are having a big hissyfit about grade inflation this week. How will the kids ever master life if they aren’t receiving feedback about the quality of their work? It’s a genuine problem, but schools have never solved it and won’t solve it. Grade inflation is NOT new. Grade inflation was a big hissyfit…
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Fish in a barrel shooting themselves
Sometimes it’s just too easy! Headline seen at Eurekalert: Populist parties choose divisive issues on purpose, researchers say You don’t need research, and you don’t need to specify populist. The SOLE PURPOSE of EVERY political party is to create false division and avoid real problems. Ockham and Machiavelli warned us against this trick 500 years…
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