Nelson Lowhim's Blog, page 34

Good news.

For once justice is kinda served. Seems like the conservative end of things (that isn't out to grift with screams and clicks) agrees that such an outcome. Really, I'm shocked at the comments and how level headed they are, about this case. Of course, some claim Rittenhouse didn't do anything and that race isn't an issue in out justice system which is always good for a sad laugh. [1]
Still, I hesitate because when the first video of the George Floyd conservatives agreed that it was horrible and then the quick change to the "there's no problem here" and screaming about how bad Floyd was etc etc. What I'm saying is not only watch what the right says, but how the scream machine slowly influences all thinking.
This happens a lot and it happens in some sectors of the left, but it's not so obvious as watching it on the right. That ability to gin up screams over anything (CRT!!!!!) is still a political superpower they're not going to give up anytime soon. 
Then you have something like this. Woman gets rich from a book which is partially a story of her throwing an innocent man in jail. Read the comments, btw, and you can see half the commentators (in a problematic sub as is) trying to claim any anger is victim blaming. And sure, one does need to think of PTSD etc, but what a system, huh? That allows you to point out the wrong guy more than a few times. I know what I'd do in that situation. Yeah, but I'm guessing given the state of everything, to include the trad publishing industry, I wouldn't expect much. 

Well enough that the comments were locked and goes to show that people really do want their books to be about nothing in the world, even when you discuss the things around them (what kind of work they are situated in and so forth).
[1] with another note that some think other conservative internet cesspools are being the worst
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10 Years!

Holy s%* it really has been that long. 10 years since my first post as well as first short story I put out there. Most of you are from the states, followed by France. Maybe that's where the webbots are. 

 Well, look at that map of people. Interesting stuff, though I will admit I haven't been writing enough for any of you. I'll put out some more stuff soon enough. I have been wondering if I should rethink where these shorts should go (reedsy? some where other than what I've come to know?). And yes, that novel will be churning up soon. 
Be safe out there. 
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Rittenhouse Acquitted.

So it goes. Part N. 
Of course, no one was surprised by the verdict, least of all me, least of all the judge who tried his hardest to make sure this was the outcome. Again, given that we know the right is also allowed to run over protestors as they please, we truly are in a dark place. Maybe if I were on FB I could see the other side more clearly, but I'm not. Not going to entertain the idiots who think what he did was right (though they would scream bloody murder if some darker people went to a right rally, taunted people, then shot them). 
Then: remember how Trump boasted about the execution meted out to a guy who shot a proud boy? Yeah, I'm old enough to remember that:Yeah, no false equivalency here. Of course given all this, the trajectory is still pretty dire in terms of open season on anyone siding with the new civil rights movement. 
Then we have the complete and open bribery of Senators and the failure of the COP26. With the environment as well as civil rights (intertwined in many ways, tbf) we also have violence being done against anyone who dares to stand up in any meaningful way. 
Yeah, sad stuff. So I saw this video with Chomsky and Yanis and Pettifor

GOod stuff. Indeed, without more grassroots actions we may very well see the world turn to ash. Truly the side of science vs tribalism (with CC stoking more tribalism as it picks up)



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Dune

Watched Dune. Thought it was solid. Very dreamy feel to it all and the visuals are brilliant. Story was .... well interesting. I did find all the Islamic references to be pretty on the nose. So looking at it as some scifi movie rather than a kinda different story about the current ME was hard. I did want to know how the author was inspired. So I looked it up and apparently this book about the Russian war against the Chechens (in the 19th century) was a big influence. 
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On COvid

Well cases are going back up in the US again, so that's not optimal (not in my state... so far). I'm not WFH anymore so that's not great at all. And it looks like Long Covid might partially be in one's mind? Interesting, though, again, it's one study with quite a few pointing the other way. 

Also, it appears that anti-vaxxers and all are in places like Germany. Then again, many of our hospitals have been overwhelmed, to little fanfare. Also we have not made it under 1000 deaths (on the 14 day average, I believe) in a few months and we will be going back up soon... most likely. Yeah, so apparently everyone's tired of trying to convince anyone about getting vaxxed. 
Still, read the German article. Mainly because they seem to be freaking out over something less dire than what we've been through. I do wonder if our odd silence (how much is the media? though I've heard few people talk about it, though they did talk about the BLM protests) plays a part and the reaction is the anti social behavior as the social fabric has just been ripped just a little more. 
Again, knowing that Germany is failing (to a lesser extent than us, but still failing) shows how much dealing with this virus comes down to administrative competence (rather than any ideology). 

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All the Morality of an Insect.

That's the West. And, ostensibly many in the #theresistance are of this ilk. Sure, you can "blame Putin" for weaponizing refugees (is there any actual evidence for this claim?) but it's BS. It's projection of the worst kind. Thousands dead at the bottom of the Med Sea, deserts in Arizona and all by design of specific policies. And all we get is talk of some Russian oligarch "making us hurt the innocent". Fuck right off. 
I still remember this mural in Rome. An ode to refugees dying in the Mediterranean Sea. Of course, the reaction was to paint it over. 
Note what the people on the ground are saying, the human rights groups: that talk of weaponizing refugees is both vile and doesn't help those who need it. 
Note also that with Climate change there will be plenty more refugees coming. Also with the current rise in bread prices. Yeah, we're in eco-fascist territory. 
Again, all the morality of an insect. Act accordingly. 
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Hero's Journey, denied. Or another Round of Revolutions

Wrote a short story a while back where I teased around with the idea that the perfect conditions will create a movement and a leader thereof, if need be. Main one was avoiding a full on famine (which seems to weaken too much) while only seeing a slight increase in the price of bread. That's what gets people in the streets, tbf. 
And so, we have global food prices at an all time high. [1]
Note that Covid was sandwiched by protests all over the world and these were against a corruption that stemmed from our allies (the Neo liberal Washington consensus) as well as in some other places (sometimes from our sanctions making things worse). 
This corruption either caused or was accompanied with austerity for the poor and or the middle class. Once and always the poor should suffer from such ills. You add the rising cost of bread while a certain subset of their population remains wealthy (from corruption) and you have the makings of a lot of revolutions around the world. 
So buckle up, 2021 is looking to be much worse. 

[1] It's why it's hard to take anyone seriously who simply blames all inflationary ills on Biden (here in the US). Sure there are some things that could be done (note tariffs on China, note the sharp decrease in immigration and some other things that could be dealt with, but, ultimately, there's no wiggle room), they rarely take the worldwide inflation into account. 
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Kingdom

Been thinking about Kingdom and why it's been sticking in my mind lately: it's not because it's zombies meets game of thrones, though there is something to that [1]. I think the main deal is that it has a very realistic set of bureaucrats (aka intellectuals) who seem to have no sense of reality, while worshipping the arcane rituals that they deem important (sound familiar?). 
And this can seem borderline funny, but only because the consequences are on screen. I sometimes wonder about our own little set of politicians married to some old ritual (not that old, all of them have been made up recently) and not exactly understanding how some men or women are married only to power and use them as they please (gaslighting all the while and doing what they please). 
It reminds me of a more recent Japanese Gojira film that was truly hilarious as it talks about red tape that gets in the way of dealing with the monster (with some academics getting skewered, and rightfully so). 
Funny enough, when it came to COVID, these two countries still did better than we did. Our marriage to arcane rules takes on a different tone, tbf. 
[1] And though GOT has zombies in terms of the army of the dead, they are very distant to the story until the near end. Meanwhile, Kingdom is a lot more realistic in other facets (no dragons etc) that make it worth a look, IMO. Also calling anything in the East "like GOT" is kinda annoying, though I understand the marketing attempt there. They have 3 Kingdoms and other novels they draw from that have palace intrigue that's usually more than what GOT has, and certainly precedes it. 
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Kingdom

Is another brilliant show on Netflix. Korean, of course, with zombies no less. But man is the mix of palace intrigue and zombies really well done. Highly recommended. 
As far as reading, Nervous Condition is still brilliant. 
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The Democide by Cars Continues.

Good article and discussion here on Truereddit. It mainly focuses on the amount of protestors run over (left wing protestors, mind you, because if right wingers got run over, you know the cops and DAs would arrest anyone involved[1]) and how the drivers get off without any sort of punishment. [2]
Only problem is I want to talk about how this is only the latest manifestation of something that has been going on since 2009. 
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_v...
Do you see that absolutely clear and sharp change? Go online and you hear "SUVs"!!! and yet here is another one for SUVs on the road:
source: https://css.umich.edu/factsheets/pers...
Note how it only really starts going up in 2012-13 or so. I'm sure it plays some part, but how does that explain 2009's inflection point? I've even heard people [3] claim it's the recession that sent people walking [4]. Just a look at the chart above and see how the previous recessions affected things? Yeah I see nothing at all. 
So what is it?
Well, let's look at what else happened in 2009 that could have caused such a spike, shall we?
Uber started. So that means the increase of cars on the road started (and drivers going fast trying to hustle). I'm sure that's something, but I'm dismissing this because there's no way it was big enough back then to have made a dent, you know? Few even knew about it back then. 
Well, the other major thing was a black man being voted POTUS. Now we all know the backlash to that (still ongoing today) and we all know how angry a subset of white America was with that. I lived in the South, was in the Army (ostensibly a more diverse place than the rest of the south) and the reaction from the whites to this was pretty uniform and pretty angry that he would ever get voted in. 
Hell, I remember how angry whites in the south are with people, especially black people, walking on the side of the road (a serious visceral anger that is kinda hard to get used to). Even remember a couple of racist jokes about using the car as a vehicle and I remember riding with a cop who was similarly aggressive towards black people (this in Washington) walking near the road. 
So this is something that has existed for a long time and most certainly was exacerbated by the voting in of Obama into office. 
Look at this chart: 
https://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/states...
Most of the places with a high amount of pedestrian deaths/capita are in the south, matching up with what my experience tells me. Studies show that minority pedestrians are in fact more likely to die at the hand of cars, but it's more than what the talking/typing heads over at r/urbanplanning will say (which is the design of roads is all it is).
In fact, many studies show that cars are more aggressive to black people who are pedestrians. Hell, this book has a whole section on how inequality makes people in cars (expensive ones especially) more aggressive to pedestrians. Hell, even here in Seattle I've almost been killed 20 times. I can scream to the city about these attempts at murder, but they ignore them. 
So that's the story. Obama becomes president and racists start being more aggressive to minorities who walk, killing many more. Then when the first BLM protests happen, they continue their fantasy of running over innocent civil rights protestors knowing that the law will never lock them up. Hell, GOP passes laws protecting them and we still aren't willing to call this what it is. Democide. 
Now on twitter you see "all lives splatter" signs by right wingers and more attempts to kill with their cars and still nothing. Just a bunch of fools on twitter screaming about SUVs, as if intent was never a thing.
Your thoughts?

[1] For proof see how those idiots on 1/6 are getting 60 days for misdemeanors and a left wing veteran gets a lot more time than that for online posts. Like Germany and Japan before their takeover by fascists, we're seeing a similar pattern of light sentences for the right and hard ones for the left. 
[2] I still remember my book, rebel , and how I mocked the right (rednecks mainly) for taking a hezboallah sign for their own. But now reality shows them calling themselves "the base" (aka al Qaeda) and now mimicking ISIS in terms of running over innocent people. 
[3] Holy crap the amount of people with this take. I really can't explain it. I imagine it's because they think in terms of solutions that they want? I mean they're usually for road diets, which is something I want, but they just seem blind to this and I imagine it's that smart subset of elites who have very little experience outside a very limited track in life. You know... 
[4] Seriously, who comes up with this?
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