Nelson Lowhim's Blog, page 50

Ah, I like it.

Good thing about my age is I hear songs that are new to me even if they've been uploaded almost a decade ago. Heh. This long remix is on spot. Same with St. JHN.  Was new to me a few months ago so even remixes like this are too. And whatever the kids are listening to, is good too. What else? Chopin works best for writing, and Latin trap is still great. 
So no, this isn't a scree about how easy the kids have it these days, though, really, the work that went into listening to 96.5's top hits of the day and recording the best songs on cassette was fun in its own way. Peace.
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This is Amerika.

How goes it? Tough times here in the household, but just to show people that things do get worse: read this piece on a UK student's experience in TN. 
Rape, attempted rape and racism, basically. Not that this surprises me (I didn't include it all, but you should read it for sure). 

Refused birth control by campus healthcare thing due to being 20. Had letters from my dr in the uk. Called a liar , had to go to I think a planned parenthood place. Obviously got called names as I walked in. 

Party- got dragged into a room by a man I didn’t know. I threatened to glass him, I was released. 

Got put in a headlock by another American guy who tried to move me to an empty room. My Swedish friend , who was like a Viking, saved me. Humiliated the attacker by picking him up shaking the living shit out of him. Me and Swedish guy are still friends. 

Got told by a prof that I needed to stay in America to mate and improve the gene pool. Then he wrote a letter to my uni in the uk saying how wonderful I was if not a little distracting due to my eyes. My university in the uk freaked out and various things were said.

No surprise, but goes to show how crazy the ungovernable tribal regions of America are (not to say this isn't an issue everywhere non-rural, it's just definitely apparent in some areas... that is rural areas). A comment in the section gives voice to some of what I've said: that many of the rural areas are filled with very hateful people. And sure one can point to things like economic backwardness of those areas, but they also drive away a lot of their youth. The different ones. Sexually speaking or racially or otherwise. So essentially their youth with creativity. [1]
These people end up being internal refugees in the cities. And though cities have their issues (housing and other forms of discrimination, up to and including reactionary police force that mainly draws from small towns) these people do find it better out here rather than in rural hellholes [2].
And that rural tyranny that currently has more representation in the Senate than it's worth is what's driving the world over the Climate Change Cliff and tearing our country apart. And, mind you, still the purveyor of a cancel culture that the left only ever hopes to match in terms of power and tyrannical reach:





Yeah, and in a way Trump not facing any consequences for his actions (for 70+years and here and now) is much of what the right's screams about cancel culture are: they don't want their own hegemony on cancelling any culture they don't like to go away. Now, there is definitely a discussion to be had on free speech and not taking "any offense means it's offensive speech" ideas too far, but this is the fight right now: the real cancel culture of the right. 
And on that note, I think Homeland elegies does not grasp this idea enough, IMO. And by doing so misses a lot, even if it's worth a read. 
What else? Well, my baby is crying so I have to go, but we just spent 100Billion on nuclear tech that will make the world a less safer place (read the article, it's a great and sobering breakdown). But it brings jobs so what can you do? Oh, spend on things that will make us safer? Like a better pandemic response? Climate Change response?
But as we reach 480k dead, surely you must know it was worth it? [3]

And, anyways, more people dying everyday than on 9/11 means... well I can't tell you, but since our reactionary wing couldn't take advantage of it to gain power we can only assume it means nothing. 
Take care out there people and write your thoughts. 
[1] Again, not all but many.
[2] And that's what rural people and the current culture war is about, isn't it? The ability to make life hell for people you don't like, essentially the right's stance right now. Note too how much of the right screamed bloody murder that these same cities dared to vote in larger numbers than them. Nevermind that they have prisons of people who can't vote but who also pump up their dismal population numbers. Man, going on a OT rant here, but in Gods Fail, I tried to point out that the people who would survive strikes on the cities would be the rural types and none of it would lead to anything good. I think I was too rosy in the picture I painted. 
[3] /s for the ones in the back. 
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I Know How You Like That Art, Johnny Boy,

So I thought this would look good on your wall. This piece, is now out there, thanks to Toho Pub. Good stuff, I would think. Yeah, it's a piece I've been working on for some time. It's a real piece, though what you see is mixed media. Enjoy for now and peace everyone
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Cool.

Knee deep in diapers here, but this fact, that the banjo is an African instrument is a fact that I'm not sure many in the south know. Huh. 
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A Billion Broken Clocks Now

Somewhere in the reaches of the tech industry, or perhaps during the interview portion for a position in the tech industry, there's a question of how to tell time with a billion broken clocks. Maybe there's a solution that actually works and maybe there's a solution you can sell to the rubes to make $. Who knows what gets you hired. 
But looking over this piece in Nature about Qanon and conspiracy theories leaking into reality. Well, this kind of thing was happening a while back in Obama's time, especially coming from the right. I noted it here and had a run in with normal people evacuating because of Jade Helm. 
So if you're me, many of the insights in the article don't come as any surprise:

“We see this interplay between the elites and their audiences, who are actually collaborating with each other to create false narratives,” says Starbird. Social media becomes a testing ground for ideas that then gain momentum and are often picked up by conservative media outlets such as Fox News, she adds. “What we’re learning is that mass media and social media are actually very integrated.”

Well, of course, the mass media and social media mixup has been happening for a long time (probably coming of age in Obama's second age). Also that high up GOPers have propagated it is no surprise. This was true with Fox News and the crazies back in Obama's time, though now with the President spewing tripe it has only become more clear. 

I do feel annoyed that the scientists here decided to use party-neutral language as well as conflating all conspiracies together. Again, there are issues with the MSM (and I note them) but the crazy conspiracy theories are basically a phenomenon on the right. Sure there's a little  on the left, but many of those are actual researched insights into real conspiracies (though left anti-vaxxers aren't that). 

Of course, this picture of left vs right vs crazy right networks (no talk of crazy left networks) is quite the statement of our times:

Beautiful stuff. Good article on bots as well as understanding the human mind and social networks through things like Facebook and twitter et al. That being said, what people do online may affect what people do in reality, but to say it's indicative or even parallels what is done in reality seems a bit too far to me. It's a whole different paradigm and that's about it. Sure, tracking people through their phone GPSs will make a big difference (rather than asking them) but I fail to see how it's exactly how people act in reality. That being said, extremists can make a difference in the margins. Your thoughts?

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Taxes: the More You Know.

Tax time is near. So here's a piece on how TurboTax tricks many people into paying when they don't have to. Maybe one day we'll get something like a functioning gov that will simply tell us what they took in taxes, and if we disagree we can file and try to get some back. No reason the gov can't have all the numbers they need for all that. 
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Veterans & Violence.

I've written a lot about violence and veterans. Some of my writing (the earlier stuff, certainly) dealt with this, to include some aspect of madness. This goes from the war abroad to the war at home (or within, really, though, man, what was I thinking about that cover? time for a change soon, right?[1]). Many of my posts have also talked about it. And, to recommend something good to you, this novel definitely hits the nail on the head.
Now, this article talks about the veterans (on the right, OFC) sowing violence in the world. So it goes, I suppose. 

In movement vernacular, Boogaloo refers to an inevitable and imminent armed revolt, and members often call themselves Boogaloo Bois, boogs or goons.

In the weeks since Jan. 6, an array of extremist groups have been named as participants in the Capitol invasion. The Proud Boys. QAnon believers. White nationalists. The Oath Keepers. But the Boogaloo Bois are notable for the depth of their commitment to the overthrow of the U.S. government and the jaw-dropping criminal histories of many members.

Sounds like this might be getting out of hand, especially when you understand that many of them have military training. Now, there are plenty of the people in the article who don't sound like combat arms. One handled 1000# bombs. Okay, sure, but that doesn't speak to any specific training for combat. Not that them training civilians isn't a problem:

In another instance, an ex-Marine gathered at least six men at a wooded property in McLoud, Oklahoma, a small town outside of Oklahoma City, and taught them how to storm a building. In a video posted to YouTubelast year, the former Marine, Christopher Ledbetter, shows the group how to enter a house and kill any enemy combatants inside.

Oh and 'member how I mentioned that the right was trying to make BLM look bad? Yeah, well will you look at this?

According to the prosecutor, the men intended to join a protest over the death of George Floyd and hurl firebombs at police, and they had made plans to bomb an electric power substation and a federal building, actions they hoped would spark a wider anti-government uprising.

No shock here. Mind you, as BLM actually protested real injustice, we had people saying that it was some Bolshevik revolution (like Russia in 1917). Well, guess what? The right really has no end to its idiocy, or Baghdad Bob-ness. Though unlike BB, they don't seem to have too many consequences to what they do. 
Some of the article says the Military doesn't stop one from joining extremist groups, but I think that's way off. In basic we were all checked for tattoos for gang or hate group (Nazis et al) affiliations. Doubt that's changed. Not to say everyone who gets through doesn't have hate. 
Scary stuff, though I wonder without Trump around if all this can be tamped down soon. Your thoughts?

[1] This, of course was my lsat novel, but was about the war coming home in many ways that it ended up doing. 
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Gamestop et al

Good link on the Gamestop issue. I mean, anyone should enjoy the big players on Wall Street (or anywhere, really) take a hit, after being pumped full of money since forever. But to call it some revolution seems to have been premature. Only proper regulation will tame the finance monster we have created and that requires boring slow politics. No other way, I'm afraid. Thoughts?
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Science.

 The news about the vaccine, how it came about and how good it is, is definitely a testament to science. The story behind it (I've heard a couple, so we still need a full breakdown of how it happened) points to some weaknesses to the academic system (the scientist pursuing the method was doing the long hard work necessary for her field but her Uni didn't see published papers and wanted her gone/to try something else). Well, it's great that she didn't, right? And, in fact, private (was it all private $? I would like to know) $ and organizations are what helped this vaccine come into being and quite possibly, academia fucked up. Indeed academia does have adverse incentives (nice comic on that here) but given at least one piece of the vaccine story and how that has saved so many lives, one has to think that this part of our R&D system is working pretty well. Thoughts?

 

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How Go Things?

I'll have a list of shorts that will be in the collection soon. I suppose I'm kinda iffy on the whole leave in or out the pictures for some of them... Thoughts?

Anyhow, how is the Times doing in these less crazy of a POTUS days? Not well, friend. Speaking of which, wtf do we still have old elites in our ranks? Now, the GOP is worse, but this kind of shit will get the entire party tainted.  We allow this to happen and the next strongman people vote for, will actually do the work to subvert democracy (of course the GOP is doing pretty well on that mark). Not worth a single finger on AOC's body, IMO. Get these corrupt politicians out. Now. 

Also I'm getting texts from the right. Yeah, they're not about U-N-I-T-Y at all, but seriously, friends, which one of you sold my number to them?

As for the GOP going full Q, well there you have it (with our MSM trying to equate that with AOC, OFC). But why oh why do some pundits (what does that mean, how can you not tell that the GOP wants to create havoc?) even try to think that they "should" want to make a deal with Biden rather than run the country into the ground. 

Oh, and Biden doing Ex-Actions is fine by me. He seems to have a reversal of Trump's polls, but man if it changes as little as Trump's (no matter what he does) it means we're in a bad place, IMO.

And I have no opinions on GameStop. I'm fine with hedge funds (and billionaires) being squeezed as they do it to everyone else. And yeah, the stock market is casino and nothing good is being learned right now (and if no decent regulation comes of it) so I don't know if it matters, long term that is. I keep remembering how trillions were dumped to into the stock market and all we got were inflated asset prices and stocks. And though it happened in Trump's watch, there was no Tea Party. Shocking.

Oh, and more on the publishing world and its sexism issues. This is focused on the MSM (even the "liberal" places).

 

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