Nelson Lowhim's Blog, page 78

The Protest You Know.

Do you know anything about the Iraqi protests? Well they're still ongoing and still very violent. A corrupt government, as usual, is the culprit. But that's not the only thing. There's also the deal with the 91 dead. Yeah. Have you  heard about that?
No?

Yet we do hear about the Hong Kong protests (8 dead so far). And a little about the Nicaragua protests (pushed by us).
Wonder why? [1]
I do hope that the Iraqis find themselves a better government. We'll see. I really think Al-Sadr would be an improvement for them. 


[1] Hint: if the government does our bidding we don't run news stories against them (until there's too much to ignore) and if they are against us, or annoying, we will run stories about their evil ways even if they act better than we do at home towards their protests).

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The War Against the Homeless.

If you've been paying attention to this blog (hi, you), you'll know that I've been trying to, as best I can, deal with ways to confront the homeless population in Seattle. Solve it, that is, or alleviate the suffering [1] they go through. 

Sad stuff, sure, but more of the same from our current right "let's do Nazism in small doses" wingnuts.
Whenever such posts were put up (pleas like "why won't they crack down on them" or "just apply the law"—a favorite for those on the right) I pointed out that I had almost been killed a handful of times trying to cross the road. Usually it was by distracted drivers, but always by a car that seemed to act as if I shouldn't be on a road—walk signals be damned.
I don't know how far the right wing brigading has gone, but I wouldn't be surprised if this "we're under attack from the poor" spread to NYC and now has resulted in these murders. Yes, it's the right, as usual spreading their hate. 
Was the person mentally ill? I don't know. I don't care. Just that the class war continues.


[1](not much, I admit, so that's some sad stuff)  . Still look at this article and the comments. Let the homeless deal with what they have wrought sorta thing.


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More from the Annals of the #Resistance

When Hillary lost in 2016 there were a variety of reactions in this nation (and in my subsection of it, my facebook page was especially telling) and most of them sucked. 
Yes the left and the right. 


Three years later not much has changed. 
To me, the worst of the lot has been the kind who joined the #resistance but are trying hard for a return of decorum rather anything substantive. But there's a secondary kind of centrist—who claims that they do want a big change, do agree that Trump is merely a symptom—who also gets my nerves. [2] Here is one such article. Now, on this blog, LGM, there are different subsections of the left and the center, [3] but this post where the author mocks some love for Bernie seems overdone.
The comments that follow are also a little off. 
Not that I care for the love for Bernie, it's just that the hate against him also seems quite off and misplaced (almost a case of the person who doth protest too much). 
Also it's got nothing to do (when there are comparisons of him vs Warren) with him being an old white guy but rather his methods rely less on plans and more on keeping people on the streets to force the change we need (note Warren, though great, did not get in on the Climate Change town hall). 
Again, this is a valid point (and if Warren told by Summers to be less radical is to get things done, she needs a movement behind her). And when geniuses like Keeanga-Yamahtta claim Bernie is good because of this, then they are, in fact right). 
Which gets to my point about a lot of spaces for discussion, even on the left. They are made to create outrage and judge rather than analyze and create some sort of movement for the better.
Friends like these... but I'm not both sided this thing. Just saying there are fewer clear thinkers out there than one would like.

[1] Besides the usual suspects of dumb on the right (throwing a plethora of so called complaints and trying to act as if there was some movement outside of hate going on, nevermind that most were/are suckers being taken for all they're worth by grifters, nevermind the ways in which they really try to shoot themselves in the foot... but really, how dumb can you get (full article here)? A grifters paradise is the least of it. This is crab in the bucket mentality taken to some galaxy brain level, except here the crabs tell the man who holds the bucket that he just needs to smash a few more crabs (those other crabs) from outside the bucket, dangle them over their bucket and they'll be fine with this arrangement) there were the center left looking to blame only one subsection of foreigners (Russians) working our elections... note, whatever their interference in our elections (nevermind the voter suppression closer to home and carried out by the GOP), the need to just focus on that and not weigh exactly how much was done by other forms of dark money in our elections etc etc etc.
[2] Not nerves exactly, but just an annoying thing to get over. 
[3] Note many will be up in arms about anyone trying to diversify our schools and other real sacrifices needed in this nation (to make it better).
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Best Movies of the Century.

Always an interesting topic to discuss. Best of lists. Used to love lists, but then the internet (which dug into our id and found this out) made everything a list and my joy for lists diminished. This one, though, has the best 100 movies of the 21st century. 
1. There will be Blood2. 12 Years a Slave3. Boyhood.4. Under the Skin5. In the Mood for Love6. Hidden.7. Synedoche8. Moonlight.9. Zama10. Team America: World Police. 
So, off the bat, I haven't heard of 4 of these. Of the 6 left I have only watched  4. Damn. Of these, I'll agree that Moonlight deserves to be in the top ten of the century. That movie was amazing. It gets worse. I've only seen 2 more in the 11-20 level and I have heard of 4 more. But, really, this movie list is not all that great. 
My list? 
Not in order, because some can't be compared (docs are separate from fictional films). 
FILM: Nadia and the Uprising. Moonlight. Mad Max. Waltz with Bashir, Ida, Exit Through the Gift Shop. City of God. the Handmaiden. Get Out. Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse.
DOCS: I am not Your Negro. Human Flow.
Honorable Mention: Inglorious Basterds. Prophet. Shoplifters. Guardians of the Galaxy.

What are yours?
 

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Faulty (Circular) Logic is the new Holy Trinity

I mean, one could (and I do) say many things today resemble something like a religious edict, or has similar logic to what we once taught were ways left  behind us. If I sound like I'm complaining, I'm not. I'm just observing something in the air (yet again).

Look it's okay to come to a different conclusion as you're speaking (I do this), but you gotta complete that journey and not hold on to the initial conclusion you started out with. With grift as a brain stem trump I understand. Whatever gets you chuckling (fuck da libs) or looking up if what he said is false etc etc, is merely time that allows him more money stuffing his pockets with the public till. With other people... well it's just wrong (seriously, there's no grift, though except maybe being controversial as a social status kinda thing). 
But that's the thing. Though trump is certainly a product of our society (symptom not cause sorta thing) and it's faults, this kind of logic was not so big before he was voted in.
So I suppose the only explanation is that power (#winning and all, that does matter) matters because most apes will mimic whatever the human up top does. Consciously or subconsciously. The damage trump does is to our national psyche. Let's see where it goes from here.
Your thoughts?
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NC GOP

Have you heard what the NC GOP did? Yeah, apparently they told the democrats they wouldn't (did they pinky swear? who knows?) hold a vote on 9/11 when the Democrat reps were out doing 9/11 shit and then they did just that.



Deficit screaming?

All gone right now.

But during Obama's time it was all they talked about.

Of course I knew it was BS but so many people around me acted like it was legit. And now? Silence.

Really feels like a madhouse in this world.

And no, it's not a both sides thing (which people try to tell me too).

Still, in this day and age I'm guessing this kind of thinking is what allows Biden to lead the polls. Man do I hope he doesn't win the nomination. We'll see. Your thoughts?


[1] The Democrat gov claims that 9/11 should bring us together. Has he not gotten the GOP memo? It's never been about that for them. They want certain people dead silent and that's it. Chris Rock got it years ago, it's time other people do too.


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From the Annals of Global Warming. Or Climate Change. Or My favorite...

Climate Chaos! OMG! Snow. CC is not happening libarahl! Fake NEWS!
 There's thunder outside right now. Second big storm this year. My first two years here there was no thunder at all. So I'm glad that now we're getting some real summer storms (this one didn't have as much as the last one which was a solid hour of lightning. Impressive and even more than anything I remember from the NYC, MI or the south—in terms of length at least). On r/seattlewa it seems that most people who have been  here for some time could not remember such a bad storm. 

Still, in the annals of Climate Chaos (CC) I will take a few extra thunderstorms (no tornadoes yet... ) over the dust and smoke we had the past two years. 
But all over the country, people have stories about how the weather has changed for them (and yet so many don't believe... JFC). Stories of AC on all the summer instead of just a few days or about the shrinking glaciers. Even in Florida people talk of how the the king tides are flooding lawns whereas before they did not (and given the the seas/hurricanes, it would seem the real estate market in Florida or Miami would not be sky high, but it is...). 
It should come as no surprise to those with the ability to read (facts, that is) that CC is here and here to stay. Given the destruction of this world what are we doing? The equivalent to hitting the gas pedal to get further in a swamp from which it will not be easy to extract ourselves. 
If Trump's evil (yes, that word is applicable, as is it is to those who support him) is that he knows CC is happening... making sure his properties near the sea are protected from rising seas  is the least of it.  He's setting the policy as we speak.
What he's doing to women and children (and men, of course) from the Bahamas (as he is doing to those in Central America) is only a trial balloon for when CC gets worse. If you think Nazis were brutal, this will be worse because we have the power to turn the entire world into a Warsaw Ghetto. These walls, these actions we're undertaking? [1] Prep for mass murder. We'll use bombs and bullets, of course, (unlike the Germans we can afford them many times over) but we will first try to strangle and starve large parts of the world out. 
Even the mass shooter in El Paso (essentially a person who sounds like a slightly more crazy GOPer) is part of the overt eco-fascism which shows that when the right cannot deny the evidence of CC they will go with their logic of eliminating all colored people (even though that isn't the cause, they will act like it is). 
So what to do with such evidence? Well the Climate Strike is coming up. Act Accordingly.


[1] Note that I'm not talking like Obama was much better. Many of his bad policies are only being extended/made worse by Trump.

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Uncertainty

As this march of apes continues, I've been starting to write something like a novel again. Except it isn't and I'm a little afraid, given the lack of ways to tokenize it, that it will fail hard. But I'll write it anyways. Only thing that makes sense at this point. All the best, people. 

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What is Friendship in this Era of Ethnic Cleansing?

 It's been some interesting times, living in the age of Trump. Of course, many try to claim he's not stoking the embers of white-nationalism, but that has more or less been proven a lie. And for those who hated Obama [1] on whatever level but now love Trump or claim the race-stoking started before, I could tear apart that idea, but won't for now. 

Suppose if they think people like me need to be ethnically cleansed from the nation that makes sense. 
I don't doubt, now, that these same people will cheer on my destruction, or the destruction of my family, but I will say I didn't expect that it would come so easily. Some had always had racist undertones, [3] but to see the cruelty and idiocy come forth has been an unfortunate education. 
If you've read my books and my essays such as "We're all Apes, stay Vigilant" you might be wondering how this is possible. Hell, I know I predicted this, but I really did not expect so many people to have so much bloodlust. Or maybe it's the visceral aspect of living through such a time which has been so instructive.


[1] Not legitimate criticism of his policies, of which I had plenty to criticize, but the bull shit ranging from concern-trolling about the deficit (which I now take to have been a form of racism because, you know, black people can't run the economy, and now look at the outrage over the deficit... oh yeah there's none. Note I also took this forced austerity to be a form of democide... plenty of people died because of the attempt to make sure the economy suffered and Obama "was a one term president")
[2] And for those who want to cheer on Trump or regressive GOP policies and claim they are not racist or that they are not white supremacists, well, then, can't call this anything more than moral cowardice. 
[3] This isn't confined to the south. I hear similar racial concern-trolling here in Seattle from many people. Like I said, moral cowards. Still, to paraphrase a character in Mrs Maise: you want friends who will stick with you through thick and thin, not point at the attic and say "there they are!"

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Icelandic Saga like Consumption of Earth. Are We the Locusts ?

Here in Iceland and I’m truly impressed by what I’m seeing. The cracked land with moss and sharp rocks and grass all smeared by a persistent mist, dreamy weather in any other land, but here it’s something else, almost as if it adds to the landscape’s desolation. Of course, I wonder what it is about such desolation, such nothingness, that draws me in. One could easily make some mention of how this island, growing as we speak, is a throwback to the beginning of the world, a chance to start on new land, but in reality, it’s not that, it’s really the light that attracts us humans, that willful self-destruction, that requirement to destroy our habitat. 


So they destroyed trees here. Carbon-wise, it’s still a hopeless place. Tourists like us, flying in, probably don’t help. On the bright side, though, at least Erik the Red's grift of calling Greenland green will finally come true. 

Anthroprocene? Oh my, tldr, but seeing the world as the end-state of humanity is just what this island feels like. Oh, I like the sound of that and I accept the blurred dreariness with all I can.
Then the sea. Dreary too. Its horizon gone, but at its moment of lashing at the land a crispness, a brightness strikes the eye. 

A white edge of perfection. I gasp and soon I’m back on earth. 
At the geyser too, a billowing witch belches at the misty air. Bulbous now, this break from the monotony is still clear, still something other worldly. 
Now I’m sitting in the Thorbergur Museum, a place for a writer who was, apparently, famous here in Iceland. His descriptions don’t seem like much, but the place, as a natural cornicopia in which he grew up, really does seem to serve as a great place for inspiration. Well, assuming one cares for such things. I do assume that inspiration can matter more when it comes to people one is surrounded by. For example, being amongst strangers can help in some uncaring way.
Or, to know that one might be married into the bourgeoisie life where by that sitting and creating is seen as a waste of time rather than a moment to properly absorb reality. 
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