Nelson Lowhim's Blog, page 76
November 17, 2019
You a Seattlite with half a brain?
Then go here to send an email to your rep and save the funding for our transit. Thing is, we need this (and even car owners need it even more).
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Patreon post
Post I made some time ago. Another one coming up soon.
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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.
November 16, 2019
In the annals of the #resistance and "friends like these"
So here's a reply about the Bolivian coup by some #resistance liberal over at LGM. Not a bad blog, but the amount of people, in the face of a fascist coup that looks ready to kill dark people (the indigenous of that country) and has already started doing so, can only say "well Evo was problematic".
So I get a reply by some one there who does the right things in terms of a presentable set of arguments but has absolutely no references for those claims.
Again, with friends like these... note that it's most likely that this could be plants. All over the internets I see a concerted effort to present Evo Morales as "problematic". No desire to give us actual references for these. Also there was an effort to say the election was problematic as well or someone "illegitimate" because of "irregularities". Like our elections don't have those. (only the OAS has made any mention of things being "irregular" and they are far from a reliable source. All reliable sources say this was a legit election. Yet to get this ball rolling some grain of suspicion must be added. And here it is.
Same goes for claims about the Supreme Court ruling for Morales. Note the "friendly" quote there that scare you off. Absolute jokes, the lot of it, but many people fall for it.
A few things:
1) Morales did not win the election "fair and square." That simply isn't true. The extent to which the election was fraudulent is not yet clear, but there is credible evidence that there were significant irregularities.
2) Morales, of course, lost a popular referendum in 2016 that would have allowed him to run for a fourth term. But then he got the Supreme Court, filled with friendly judges, to rule that not allowing him to run again would violate his human rights under the American Convention on Human Rights. So he chose to stand for election again on this flimsy basis, knowing that 51% of the country opposed this already -- in doing that, he made this kind of dispute inevitable.
3) Morales has been turning away from democracy in many ways in his latter terms. He has knee-capped the very social movements that supported him in his early days. For example, Morales worked to replace all the leadership of the independent indigenous confederation CONAMAQ with people who were friendly to his government (something that the leadership of CONAMAQ at that time called a coup). By weakening these organizations (because if they were too independent, they would threaten his power) he lost allies that he really could have used, say, about now.
I don't say any of that in support of the right-wing coup. But there is no way to understand the current events there without understanding this full context of Morales's actions. And the fact is, while the right-wingers are taking advantage now, a lot of the grassroots mobilization against Morales's fourth term came from diverse sectors (including some indigenous groups) and not only the right-wing.
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So I get a reply by some one there who does the right things in terms of a presentable set of arguments but has absolutely no references for those claims.
Again, with friends like these... note that it's most likely that this could be plants. All over the internets I see a concerted effort to present Evo Morales as "problematic". No desire to give us actual references for these. Also there was an effort to say the election was problematic as well or someone "illegitimate" because of "irregularities". Like our elections don't have those. (only the OAS has made any mention of things being "irregular" and they are far from a reliable source. All reliable sources say this was a legit election. Yet to get this ball rolling some grain of suspicion must be added. And here it is.
Same goes for claims about the Supreme Court ruling for Morales. Note the "friendly" quote there that scare you off. Absolute jokes, the lot of it, but many people fall for it.
A few things:
1) Morales did not win the election "fair and square." That simply isn't true. The extent to which the election was fraudulent is not yet clear, but there is credible evidence that there were significant irregularities.
2) Morales, of course, lost a popular referendum in 2016 that would have allowed him to run for a fourth term. But then he got the Supreme Court, filled with friendly judges, to rule that not allowing him to run again would violate his human rights under the American Convention on Human Rights. So he chose to stand for election again on this flimsy basis, knowing that 51% of the country opposed this already -- in doing that, he made this kind of dispute inevitable.
3) Morales has been turning away from democracy in many ways in his latter terms. He has knee-capped the very social movements that supported him in his early days. For example, Morales worked to replace all the leadership of the independent indigenous confederation CONAMAQ with people who were friendly to his government (something that the leadership of CONAMAQ at that time called a coup). By weakening these organizations (because if they were too independent, they would threaten his power) he lost allies that he really could have used, say, about now.
I don't say any of that in support of the right-wing coup. But there is no way to understand the current events there without understanding this full context of Morales's actions. And the fact is, while the right-wingers are taking advantage now, a lot of the grassroots mobilization against Morales's fourth term came from diverse sectors (including some indigenous groups) and not only the right-wing.
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Big News
It's right here. Right wingers going after judges. You have to respek their one-minded drive.
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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.
Seattle Cafes.
I'm not sure what it is about Seattle cafes, but they are great except in one facet: music. Well, some seem to have improved in recent months. But almost all will aim for something like most regressive kinds of music that screams "we're trying to be cool with real america". Not entirely surprising, but still something that makes studying in many places pretty bad. Yeah, this is a rant, but it still seems to be quite fitting with the PNW.
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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.
November 12, 2019
Another piece accepted
Not out yet but glad to have a piece accepted over there at
Genre: Urban Arts.
Good site, you should check them out.
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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.
November 11, 2019
Chile in flames
Chile, one of the more unequal countries in the world, is still amidst a large outbreak of protests. Note that this is the place where the Chicago boys (aka libertarians aka the same sickness that has taken apart all democratic institutions worth knowing here in the US) got to create a Constitution that allowed for authoritarian oligarchs and military heads to control the country more than the people do. In other words, it only, just barely, has the facade of democracy.
What Chile has is a pure neoliberal system (where people like Clinton, but especially the GOP, believe that the market will provide for those needs of the people) from the ground up. When the brutal dictator Pinochet came in, he invited these people from Chicago and other elements of American libertarianism to help him with this Constitution.
This is something like the world the Kochs would like. (Read Democracy in Chains for more on this)
This ahistorical view claims (though I'm not sure how much they believe this) people want this, they just don't know it. But it has always been implicit that violence will make sure people obey the market (21 dead in Chile. Again, notice how the Times only has Bolivia and Hong Kong on their front page and even on their World subsection...[1]).
It seems that people will be able to rewrite their Constitution. Let's hope that they are able to have some say. It's been a long time coming for them.
Meanwhile there are other protests, but are they legitimate? No. Evo Morales has been pushed out in a coup. Any information about the history of that nation should point people that way. That it was done after fair elections should warn people about how bad the right is (and patient, to be fair) in terms of giving no fucks about overturning elections [2].
That being said, I had mentioned the timing of these protests and the fall of the Berlin wall. Both happened because of a kind of forced austerity. But the Warsaw pact countries fell because of Gorbachev no longer having the will to use force to prevent the protests from going further. As you can see in Chile and other places, some of the violence being used by the right is pretty bad. How far will they go? We'll see.
For now, let's hope it's a new day in Chile (and not a night in Bolivia). [3]
[1] Ask yourself, why? Why are they so adamant about only showing these two protests over all the others?
[2] Here in the US we have most of our left and right who help push a kind of rightist foreign policy which, especially with austerity of Climate Change, only further destabilize our world.
[3] Random note: the center left # resistance that is claiming Evo Morales is illegitimate in some way are really some of the biggest fools around. This would be like making a big deal about the small time shit Hillary did in the election instead of focusing on Trump's full on grift of America.
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.
What Chile has is a pure neoliberal system (where people like Clinton, but especially the GOP, believe that the market will provide for those needs of the people) from the ground up. When the brutal dictator Pinochet came in, he invited these people from Chicago and other elements of American libertarianism to help him with this Constitution.
This is something like the world the Kochs would like. (Read Democracy in Chains for more on this)
This ahistorical view claims (though I'm not sure how much they believe this) people want this, they just don't know it. But it has always been implicit that violence will make sure people obey the market (21 dead in Chile. Again, notice how the Times only has Bolivia and Hong Kong on their front page and even on their World subsection...[1]).
It seems that people will be able to rewrite their Constitution. Let's hope that they are able to have some say. It's been a long time coming for them.
Meanwhile there are other protests, but are they legitimate? No. Evo Morales has been pushed out in a coup. Any information about the history of that nation should point people that way. That it was done after fair elections should warn people about how bad the right is (and patient, to be fair) in terms of giving no fucks about overturning elections [2].
That being said, I had mentioned the timing of these protests and the fall of the Berlin wall. Both happened because of a kind of forced austerity. But the Warsaw pact countries fell because of Gorbachev no longer having the will to use force to prevent the protests from going further. As you can see in Chile and other places, some of the violence being used by the right is pretty bad. How far will they go? We'll see.
For now, let's hope it's a new day in Chile (and not a night in Bolivia). [3]
[1] Ask yourself, why? Why are they so adamant about only showing these two protests over all the others?
[2] Here in the US we have most of our left and right who help push a kind of rightist foreign policy which, especially with austerity of Climate Change, only further destabilize our world.
[3] Random note: the center left # resistance that is claiming Evo Morales is illegitimate in some way are really some of the biggest fools around. This would be like making a big deal about the small time shit Hillary did in the election instead of focusing on Trump's full on grift of America.
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.
Happy Armistice Day
Yeah, I'm that kinda veteran where the idea of Veteran's Day is more or less the BS I know it to be. Whatever.
Just so you know, I have a piece up on my Patreon (essay) that's a take on the plethora of pieces by veterans who want to restart some kind of draft. Not that I think it's entirely wrong-headed to have something like a civil draft, but the ones that focus on the martial aspect of things can be especially misguided.
Read it and tell me your thoughts.
Also best you read this piece too. Good stuff.
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Just so you know, I have a piece up on my Patreon (essay) that's a take on the plethora of pieces by veterans who want to restart some kind of draft. Not that I think it's entirely wrong-headed to have something like a civil draft, but the ones that focus on the martial aspect of things can be especially misguided.
Read it and tell me your thoughts.
Also best you read this piece too. Good stuff.
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.
November 9, 2019
Cheese with my whine
Almost got run over again by a car. Twice. Walk signals are hard to understand, I suppose. Both times it was an Audi SUV. Maybe we need to ban them and until our questions are answered. I'm somewhat kidding, but if the right was actually consistent with their fear mongering they'd pick on something like this (they usually pick topics that don't make a difference in terms of actually mattering to America, though one does have to appreciate how they will scream about something until people pay attention just to shut them up).
But, of course, they don't.
The lady who almost ran me over, proceeded to then almost run over another pedestrian going the other way. I mean, what the hell are you on?
That's a double attempted murder[1] right there.
I only slightly jest. It is something of a truth that a place like Bellevue that plays to research that shows people in rich cars are more likely to behave aggressively to pedestrians, especially in times of high inequality.
This, also with the background that as we're trying to improve our public transport a vote (statewide the shitkicking rural counties have tried to take Seattle's money for public transport... which we voted for in this area and are willing to pay for but somehow was a statewide vote to cancel). Hopefully we do something like tell these counties they only get the money they put in for their roads and see how far they fall from there.
Time to teach em a lesson. But it shows the pro-car aspect of even a state like WA.
Well, I've contacted Bellevue City to see what they could do about it.
On other notes, few in the corporate media (Fox or the center right, which is CNN, MSNBC, the Times et al) are talking about all the protests around the world. Mainly they focus on Hong Kong and forget that there are plenty of others (our allies, usually with our tacit backing, get away with worse than what our enemies do. Think of the body counts in HK vs IRaq or Haiti and try to think about why that isn't being reported as much.
Also remember Occupy where the NYPD crushed a protest movement. Wonder how they would have reacted if Occupy actually damaged property? Yeah, they would have been a lot more violent than HK currently (not to say that it's right, just add some self awareness to these topics, people).
And again, RT is problematic (I mentioned them talking about Turkey, Syria and the Kurds and not once mentioning Afrin) but this news source is still better than anything we have (outside of the small leftist sites like truth dig/out). The Times has an article on Iraq (300 dead so far and note that it's spreading around the country like I predicted. It's only going to get worse because that gov is corrupt and it seems that militias are only hurting things) but it's not front page news, my friends. Why?
Nevertheless, nevermind the Center rights MSM and their reaction. Something is really happening around the world. This on the 30th anni of the Berlin Wall falling. Remember the Warsaw pact countries fell because Gorbachev said he wouldn't interfere as previous Soviet leaders had (with tanks, at that). [2]
AND they were running austerity programs because they had loans due to the west. Now we have some austerity on the poor in many of these countries as well as austerity via corruption. Will a major change come of this? We'll see.
Your thoughts?
[1] this is what the right should say, right? Again, the level of crazy with the right is impressive. Some people are just idiots, but imagine 99% of scientists in any field believed some right wing talking point. What would the news be showing?
[2] With regard to US interference, it doesn't have to be as direct, not with our style. Plus we usually have a more patient game (see Egypt etc for more recent examples)
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.
But, of course, they don't.
The lady who almost ran me over, proceeded to then almost run over another pedestrian going the other way. I mean, what the hell are you on?
That's a double attempted murder[1] right there.
I only slightly jest. It is something of a truth that a place like Bellevue that plays to research that shows people in rich cars are more likely to behave aggressively to pedestrians, especially in times of high inequality.
This, also with the background that as we're trying to improve our public transport a vote (statewide the shitkicking rural counties have tried to take Seattle's money for public transport... which we voted for in this area and are willing to pay for but somehow was a statewide vote to cancel). Hopefully we do something like tell these counties they only get the money they put in for their roads and see how far they fall from there.
Time to teach em a lesson. But it shows the pro-car aspect of even a state like WA.
Well, I've contacted Bellevue City to see what they could do about it.
On other notes, few in the corporate media (Fox or the center right, which is CNN, MSNBC, the Times et al) are talking about all the protests around the world. Mainly they focus on Hong Kong and forget that there are plenty of others (our allies, usually with our tacit backing, get away with worse than what our enemies do. Think of the body counts in HK vs IRaq or Haiti and try to think about why that isn't being reported as much.
Also remember Occupy where the NYPD crushed a protest movement. Wonder how they would have reacted if Occupy actually damaged property? Yeah, they would have been a lot more violent than HK currently (not to say that it's right, just add some self awareness to these topics, people).
And again, RT is problematic (I mentioned them talking about Turkey, Syria and the Kurds and not once mentioning Afrin) but this news source is still better than anything we have (outside of the small leftist sites like truth dig/out). The Times has an article on Iraq (300 dead so far and note that it's spreading around the country like I predicted. It's only going to get worse because that gov is corrupt and it seems that militias are only hurting things) but it's not front page news, my friends. Why?
Nevertheless, nevermind the Center rights MSM and their reaction. Something is really happening around the world. This on the 30th anni of the Berlin Wall falling. Remember the Warsaw pact countries fell because Gorbachev said he wouldn't interfere as previous Soviet leaders had (with tanks, at that). [2]
AND they were running austerity programs because they had loans due to the west. Now we have some austerity on the poor in many of these countries as well as austerity via corruption. Will a major change come of this? We'll see.
Your thoughts?
[1] this is what the right should say, right? Again, the level of crazy with the right is impressive. Some people are just idiots, but imagine 99% of scientists in any field believed some right wing talking point. What would the news be showing?
[2] With regard to US interference, it doesn't have to be as direct, not with our style. Plus we usually have a more patient game (see Egypt etc for more recent examples)
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.
October 27, 2019
Some posts up (short stories and such)
If you haven't checked it out, here's a (all behind a paywall, I'm afraid) short story over at my patreon account.
Yet another one is here, and an essay about the muse here.
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Yet another one is here, and an essay about the muse here.
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.
Nelson Lowhim's Blog
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