Nelson Lowhim's Blog, page 60

Cool find.

Rock art can certainly be nothing short of amazing. This find is just that. The Sistine chapel of the ancients indeed. Well, tbf, it's a hundred times better than that piece. Reminds me of a short I've yet to expand upon. 
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Best books of 2020

That I read this year. (skip past the jump to just read the list of books, otherwise what follows is an overview and also a whine-session.
2020 was supposed to be the year I read way more books than I ever did before. The pandemic, for those of us lucky enough to enjoy the quarantine as a time of introspection, was supposed to allow me to do that and much more. I think the first half I did indeed get things done and read about past pandemics (as well as modern books about the pandemics at hand), but I didn't really or truly read as much fiction. Anyways, as the election and the GOP attempts to steal it came to the fore, the second half was spent dong more scrolling than I imagined or that was good for me. 
Damn you internets and your direct appeal to the lizard brain in us all. Still, even after the election I haven't spent as much time as I would have liked on things like my writing (or transferring all that I have handwritten into stories). I think you could say that I have reached a kind of ceiling in terms of motivation. I'm not sure why. Not to get all whiney here, but there exists the fact that not only couldn't I write, but what I wrote seemed that much weaker than the reality going on around us (and perhaps didn't explain it as well as I think it should). Hell, the best fiction out there is masquerading itself as reality and selling itself better than I ever could sell my own work. Qanon and Fake News yells to distract from actual Fake News? Yea that's some solid fiction that speaks to old ruts in people's brains better than any other fiction labeled as fiction.
Seriously, this is the kind of stuff that religions are based on and it's powerful and should be see as thus. So I wonder where my writing fits in all of this. If you follow my writing you will see that in 2016 came right as I tried to write about the multiple realities and lies hidden in truths that existed out there. I hoped that my writing would provide a kind of inoculation to such thinking but it didn't. [1] To that end I moved towards art as a better (is it?) way of reaching into the zeitgeist. We'll see. 
I suppose this reaches out to what I read too, this lack of motivation. Simply put, too much out there is just too bubble gumish. Even if the publishing industry finally seems to have opened up to voices that aren't just mainstream (or just white) I sense much of what I read doesn't reach deep like I hope my writing does... 
But, I still read some good stuff. So, here goes. 
History of Violence. Non-fiction about Central America. Very violent and not for the faint of heart. But damn is it worth it if you want to know why women and children travels hundreds of miles and risk everything just to come here. I do wish it spoke more to what America did there, but it's worthwhile still.
Broken Stars. You know how I like those anthologies, Johnny Boy, so this one is right up my alley. Scifi, but some damn good stories that really can stretch one's imagination. Love it. Hope you do too. 
Citizen Illegal. Great poetry here. Loved it all. Read and enjoy, though it's tough to swallow, no lie. 
Pandemic. I read a bunch of Pandemic (and flu) books, and this one struck me as the best one. It looks at a variety of diseases (different vectors) and it has a great point that with the Anthroprocene we will only see a higher amount of pandemics hit us (humans encroaching into nature's domain, for the most part). Highly recommend. 
Folly by Tuchman. Reread this (not sure if I mentioned it before) because with the pandemic reaching its heights and America (and let's be honest, the EU as well) messing things up, I had to read about previous fuckups. Essentially it's when institutions get rigid enough that instead of doing what they know is right, they focus on maintaining power. Not sure that was our exact issue here in America (or the EU) but given how Asia seems to have done much better, well, it was certainly a part of it. 
Breast & Eggs. An interesting book that lets you peer into parts of Japan that you might not be aware of. Here it shows how hard it is for women in Japan. 
What is not Yours is Not Yours. Interesting and enjoyable, I'm gonna have to read more of hers. 

Other solid ones:
Exhalation. Very Borges like stories. Some he really hits out of the park. 
Severance. Solid read and enjoyable. 
The Looting Machine. Interesting, and pretty informative, but it also felt a little pieced together. And some of the stuff on China, sure it's damning, but there does need to be a comparison to what Europe did. He mentions it, but not enough. 

Evicted. This also came highly recommended and though it was solid, I don't think it spoke enough to the forces behind what was done. Worth reading though, and I'm not sure there's a better book out there. 
Defoe's Journal of a Plague Year. good to read and see the similarities to today. Yeah they had trolls back then (worse than now, then you had to be at the mass graves and mock people directly to their faces). This is free at Gutenberg, btw. 
A Small Key can Open a Large Door. The Kurds and Rojova. Solid read that gives an idea about what the Kurds were thinking (even with their current betrayal by us, though that's something I imagine most anyone would agree to, Dems or GOP, just because of the importance of the Turks). We'll see if that revolution begets anything worthwhile. 
I read and others like, but I don't know why:
Plague by Camus. reread (and might do it again). Basically everyone I know likes this book. I don't like the Stranger either, btw, but this one, though better than that, is solid, but I can't understand the level of praise it gets (nor the tie in to fascism that I see some people try to say). Emperor without clothes? We'll see. 
Billy Lynn. I have read about this book and seen the praises for it (the definitive Iraq War book) so I had to give it a try. No, just no. I found it wanting on many levels, though I can see why the people who like it like it. It reads like a what you would think is the mainstream understanding of the war and veterans. yeah, not even close enough to being deep enough for me. Give me your thoughts, though. 
[1] Hell some readers of mine turned out to be Trump supporters. Yeah, I didn't get it either. 
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Yeah GOTV and beware the distraction game

liberal twitter et al all in on Trump since he's "crying" "melt downing" over the whole #daiperdan deal seems to only further my thought that many on the supposed left only want to scream and get clicks when it comes to Trump rather than stop and see that much of what he does (especially on Twitter) is can be a distraction game. So it goes, I suppose. 
Here's the real news:
"Israel is doing everything that it can to stoke a war with Iran before Donald Trump leaves office. Today, in an act of flagrant disregard for international law, Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated outside of Tehran by Israel with the possible assistance of the Iranian terror group the MEK. "
My guess is Bibi probably has Trump's blessings to do this. Kinda crazy that we're pushing for war still in that area (after tearing up a peace deal we created). The right has a mix of hawkish geopolitics mixed with crazy "prep the world for a second coming of white Jesus" where Iran is some remix of their syphilitic lead-addled reading of the Bible. And just cause trump is out doesn't mean there aren't people who want this in DC and/or that the old normal is not what we want to go back to. 
Let's see. 
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GOTV for GA. No Other Analysis Matters.

Yeah, sure the right and iTrump are trying to steal the POTUS election, but there's still Georgia that we need to stay on top of.[1]  So, here are some good campaigns for you to spend time on.

You from GA?  Well make sure you're registered to vote.

Votefwd is all about letter writing. Right now it's voter registration and next it will be getting people to vote. So start up!

Fairfight is Stacey Abrams and given that she's mainly behind the GA flip, well, do as she says! The donate button on that page takes us right to this. So splurge some cash. Volunteer nationally or in GA. Seems that you can text and call (non-GA peeps). 

 Then there's the two Senator's campaigns. 

Warnock is here. 

Ossoff's  campaign is here. 

 

PEC has this GA voter registration Drive including some other methods you can use to help. (and PEC here showing letter writing could work though in person canvassing is the best)

Let me know if I should add any!

 

 

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Oh, My Art

Did I share this?  You'll see some of my art here. Note that it's quite the piece and I started it at the start of Covid (and it's still going, though my iPad can't handle the size... le sigh). Share it and I'll post the society 6 prints you can get too.

 

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On Book Reviews of the "Classics"

Yeah, sure, the one star reviews of any classic can be great, but I think this, which is essentially a form of Trump, in that it's kinda tribal maybe even classist rather than based on anything "deep." See defenders of DFW for more. Also WM defending DWM isn't new, so that they only do it using mockery seems telling. I know I wrote about classics, and now I think a little differently: how in many ways what is written has to both strike a chord as well as be backed by some power (or rising power or in the halls of power) otherwise it will rarely gain traction. It's the same reason the Nobel prize of lit has gone as many times to a writer from Sweden than from all of Asia. Do you really believe ~4.5 billion people have contributed as much as 10 million? lol.

 

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GOTV Part 2

Yeah, sure the right and iTrump are trying to steal the POTUS election, but there's still Georgia that we need to stay on top of.[1]  So, here are some good campaigns for you to spend time on.

You from GA?  Well make sure you're registered to vote.

Votefwd is all about letter writing. Right now it's voter registration and next it will be getting people to vote. So start up!

Fairfight is Stacey Abrams and given that she's mainly behind the GA flip, well, do as she says! The donate button on that page takes us right to this. So splurge some cash. Volunteer nationally or in GA. Seems that you can text and call (non-GA peeps). 

 Then there's the two Senator's campaigns. 

Warnock is here. 

Ossoff's  campaign is here. 

 

PEC has this GA voter registration Drive including some other methods you can use to help. 

Let me know if I should add any!

 [1] Seriously, going around liberal blogs and twittersphere and few are mentioning this important race. Instead it's all about outrage (hippy punching or aiming at the right, the latter being fine) instead of actual action that works (and for some reason my dumbass can't stop scrolling these crap figureheads). Seriously, I wonder whose side they're on, because if I were some rich billionaire wanting to diffuse the energy of the left, I would create/pay just such figure heads who only create outrage (in a faux intellectual manner, so only less trollish than iTrump) and weaken the opposition. It could very well be some form of signal boosting, but I really do wonder if any of these people are arguing in good faith. But, I suppose that's the outrage hustle and that's not my thing.

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The Attempted Coup by White ISIS & Our Future.

Who knows how this Biden admin is going to be able to rule? I'm assuming he gets in office. Though Trump is throwing the fuel out there, nothing seems to be catching, but one can never rule it out entirely since the dumb really likes to go hard in the paint around here. The Georgia elections are going to be important going forward, but we all have to understand, win or lose, the struggle shall continue. First, Biden (and who knows how he'll decide to go about this or whether he will decide to break norms) is going to have to figure out a way to open the spending spigots. Otherwise, if we basically have "spend like no tomorrow" with a GOP President and "oh no deficits" for Dem Presidents, this nation will continue its slow decline into both irrelevancy and possible complete collapse. Yeah, I know, 250,000 dead and counting...we really are a failed state in many parts of the country, but not all of it just yet. 
So domestically Covid and the Economy. Will the GOP decide that election politics matter more than the country? I'm betting that they are. So Biden either breaks norms to spend (rebuild, counter covid get green) or his and most dems are out of power for even longer. 
The other issue domestically is the fascists at home. For example this story. 

Born in 1966 in the Philippines, to a U.S. citizen father who was serving in the Navy and a Filipina mother, Bowman moved to the U.S. with her parents as an adolescent. “I always thought that I was a citizen of the United States,” Bowman said. She has two U.S. citizen children and is married to a U.S. citizen, whom she is separated from.

Yep, part of the Trump (yeah some started by Obama, but Trump has deported thousands of citizens while Obama did a handful so not comparable) era is that we find out our neighbors and fellow Americans are wearing masks of fascists. Overnight, basically. So when brown people who are citizens are deported by the thousands or tens of thousands (much like the Nazi regime did at the start of their "testing" to see how far Germans would let them go) without much ado. [1]
We have the attempted feticide by the right who want women to die for existing, and perhaps when that comes to a head, everyone will have to protest like the women in Poland. 
Overseas we have the issue of increasing international cooperation for pandemics (more will come because of the anthroprocene and Climate change) and Climate Change. It appears both dems and GOPers are enjoying bashing China when it's the elites who are at fault for any wrecking of the economy (GOPers mainly). But we have to work with China to deal with Climate change. And nukes (though Russia figures larger in that equation). 
So a lot of work coming up, at least for those with a brain. What do you see as being important in the next few years?
[1] Numbers show that Obama did deport more people. But Trump's methods are crueler and more racist as their aim is to carry out ethnic cleansing as you can see with a citizen being deported in that story. 
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QAnon, Satan, and the Right.

Jon Voight, people, is out there talking civil war, talking stolen election (probably projection and the right being tired of seeing darker people vote), and, OFC, talking Satan (with the left). Good times. It's kinda funny thinking about the many forces that animate the right. Belief in a Satan who dances with the left (to make up climate change, to steal an election, to have a pedophilia ring, to have the proper conditions for a second coming  etc etc) probably is the strongest one out there. They're using it now. Talk like this can easily get out of hand. Must stay alert for them to actually run an election. 

But it reminds me of Satan's Plea, my short I wrote a long time ago. Funny how my thinking differs so much from these folk. Mainly, I'm thinking that for them, the people with power, and for the most part, the people behind much strife in the world, are all in on "I'll blame some evil cabal for all that" and also "let's make sure we know it's only Satan that's behind all these progressive attempts at improvement of other's lives". 

Batshit crazy, but they make up around 40% of the nation, so what do we do?

 

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Here's some art, Johnny Boy.

Probably shared this, but will do so again. Small collage about 6x6" or so. Interesting, I think.

 

 

 Enjoyed it? Share it via email, facebook, twitter, or one of the buttons below (or through some other method you prefer). Thank you! As always, here's the tip jar. paypal.me/nlowhim Throw some change in there & help cover the costs of running this thing. You can use paypal or a credit card.