sotu

Our regularly scheduled Friday Cat Blogging feature is pre-empted this week by this one-shot photographic essay from Ferguson, Misery: the State of the Union.

The cat is fine, by tje way, beautiful to look at and full of shit, as usual.

Photo schnorred from Charles Pierce's politics blog @ Esquire.com.

House Negro/Field Negro

It's been nearly 50 yrs since Malcolm X was gunned down by Nation of Islam triggermen paid by the CIA, but he remains the greatest expositor on the history of race in America as well as possibly the best public speaker I ever heard in my 70 yrs.

This speech, perhaps his best ever, is pure Malcolm -- aggressive & totally uncompromising. The coffee metaphor at the end of it is dead brilliant. He explains the history of race relations in America in a way that Any One can understand. It's as fresh and pertinent today as it was when he delivered it in 1963 (when he was still a Nation of Islam member).

I disagree with Malcolm on the efficacy of violence, but purely on tactical grounds. The ethics represented in the speech I find flawless.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=7kf7fujM4ag

Some were and will be deeply disturbed by this speech. The truth is sometimes hard 2 take.

let george say it

                                                                         

The war, therefore if we judge it by the standards of previous wars, is merely an imposture. It is like the battles between certain ruminant animals whose horns are incapable of hurting one another. But though it is unreal it is not meaningless. It eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that the hierarchical society needs. War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they might recognize their common interest and therefore limit the destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact. The very word "war," therefore, has become misleading. It would probably be accurate to say that by becoming continuous, war ceased to exist. WAR IS PEACE.

George Orwell. "The Theory & Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism," by Emmanuel Goldstein, the book within the book  "1984." Goldstein-Trotsky is the Great Traitor who split from Big Brother-Stalin, & is the perpetual subject of the two-minutes hate.

Pictured: Goldstein

thank you, vladimir

Thank you 4 lettin us B our selfs...again.


Ukraine has become a watchword & warning for other countries around the world. "Don't let the Americans get their fingers in your pie." Neo-Nazism raises its ugly head. It's a big mess on Putin's western flank, which he's handled with restraint -- aah! -- don't start. You & I both know the kind of restraint this country would exercise if Russia were mucking about w/ the gov't of Mexico, or Cuba (again!). 

 The warmongering throughout the suckazz corporate media 
is incessant, with lurid tales of Putin-Hitler among them. What he's done so far is secure his essential naval base at Sevastapol in the Crimea, and gave aid, comfort, & limited 
military intervention to Eastern Ukraine separatists.

During  that same period, Ukranian military shot down a Maylasian passenger jet & made lots of scary faces at Putin, who's got other troubles besides. Thanks to US connivance w/ the Saudis & our temporarily lavish exports, the price of crude oil has been monkey-wrenched down 2 $75/bbl. That's Russia's main source of revenue, & the party's over 4 a while.

But what good is leadership if it can't handle a crisis now & then? Putin will come out of this smelling like, if not a rose, a marigold, and the Ukranians will probably shake off the fascist regime and interference in their affairs by NATO & the US. It'll start w/ agitation from below.

blogant de chat vendredi

 The Norwegian Forest Cat

is related to the lynx, & if

U look closely at the tips 

of her ears, you'll see 

a scaled-down version

of the little tufts of hair 

That typefy the larger 

species as well as this

particlar breed.

J'ai un trou dans ma tete

...

But it's better to have a hole in your head than it is to have your head in a hole.

I almost took down last Sunday's post, cuz I was in such a horrible place when I wrote it. In the end I decided to leave it, as part of the road map.

One of the symptoms of this little conditionette I have is depression. It's supposedly not existential -- just strictly an inside job, cause z brain isn't producing enough zip-7 to massaginate the hyper-cortisoid, or something like that -- but I'm pretty sure the election had some thing to do w/ my horrible state of mind.

It IS depressing 2 realize yo livin in a place where the vass majority have their heads in holes of 1 sort or another. Such people can be dangerous, & the history of germany in the 30's shows how bad we can get.


However, the worst thing about the sympyomatic depression that comes with a hole in the head is that.you feel like you're dying...literally. You're not really, but you feel like U are. It can scare hell out of the people around you, U kno, cause you're sitting there goin "O this is it...Think I'm goin down 2 nite" & etc & c. But at the time you're sure it's happening, I mean it RILLY FILLS that way. It's I swear not just a pitch 4 attention or sympathy.

But then you wake up next morning, not dead, and actually feeling pretty good, & take a moderate i.e., Normal dose of yr meds and start wondering "What was that all about?" & you know it was just that hole in the head messin with yu.

That doesn't sound like much fun, & it's not, but it's still better than having your head in a hole.

Just ask the yolks in KANSASS.

friday cat

On the sun porch, watching birds..

buy partisan

I never liked the sound of that word "bipartisanship."

It means the corporate ruling class is united & on the move.

The Demolicans & Republicrats is a show put on 2 distract the gapes, tho The players R often quite sincere in their hatred of "the other side."

But They all get their money from the same sources.

4 anyone looking 4 real reform, there R 2 avenues possible:

Transform the Democrats, & pry the party off the corporate tit.

or start a new party with *0* ties 2 the big companies, the war machine, or the fundamentalist Christian establishment -- the People's Party if U will.

When the last Democrat is strangled with the entrails of the last Republican (Thanks M. Voltaire), we can begin 2 have a country here, built on the ruins of USA, Co. Inc.

Painting: George Grosz, (German), "Einpilarsdelasocietat" ("The Pillars of Society"), 1926.

freya'sday norsk skaukatt blogen



Felis Silvestris Catus on the couch in her fave location, on the sun porch.

bill bored

I live with my partner in Mesa, AZ, one of the most boring places in the US. In fact, this town has been designated the ninth most boring American city by Movoto.com, a topical real estate blog.

Texas, with four towns in the top 10 & undisputed possession of the #1 spot, the city of Lubbock, must be the dullest & least happening place in the universe, excepting the Austin-Bastrop area.

Movoto's criteria for inclusion in this list measure such things as number of music venues, age demographics, and so forth. But I'll bet I could get similar results using one (1) datum: locally-owned independent businesses vs. national chains. I'm not talking fast food exclusively (& prevalence of fast food joints plays large in determining a place's boredom index), but also the sit-down chains: Shari's, Coco's, and even classier places, such as Gordon Beer's are unoriginal and predictable spots. A city can only be interesting if its businesses are interesting, and originality requires independence.

I've been in four of the towns on the list; Mesa, a retirement ghetto, is different from Sam Berdino or Stockton, CA., both of which are barrio-ghettoes, as is North Las Vegas. All four are the diametrical opposite, of places like San Francisco, or Port Townsend, WA, however, with their idiosyncratic, lively, and unpredictable business scenes.

The bottom line is that this is only a problem if the people in Mesa, Fort Wayne, & Lubbock see it as one, which they mostly don't.