Monday, January 27, 2020

New York Slime slams Bernie Bros as Deplorable.

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After months of strenuously dis-reporting on Bernie Sanders' campaign and ignoring his supporters in much the way that it ignores the homeless and anyone else not within the palace gates, the New York Slime finally did an “in depth” report on the movement.   In its frenzy and its panic it could think of nothing better than to call Bernie supporters *deplorable.*

What is the world coming to!?  Bernie Bros have dared to push-back against the corporate Democrat narrative!

As is usual with gutter hit jobs, the Slime's article is short on facts and long on labeling.  Typical are lines like

“Some progressive activists who declined to back Mr. Sanders have begun traveling with private security after incurring on line harassment.”

Well now... When I was a cub reporter FOUR WORDS were drilled into me: who, what, when, how.   It seems that the Slime's polemicists have forgotten them

Some progressives... who? how many?  In logic, “some” means “one or more but at least one.”  

Harassment.... when? how?   Anything can be labelled anything... this is the chief smear tactic of sophists and demagogues.  A real reporter would abide, “Just the facts m'am”

Further down in the article we are told that “former Senator Barbara Boxer of California, a Clinton supporter who had been at the Nevada convention said she worried for her safety after being booed off stage.”

Is that the “some” progressive the Slime had in mind?  Being booed is a threat?  Maybe the Slime ought to do an article on Boxer's narcissistic paranoia?  Since when is booing not permitted in a public forum in a democracy?

Since whenever it is directed at the self-annointed sacrosanct of the corporate democrat elite.

According to the Slime,Sanders fans were sharing details of Ms. Harris' recent fund raising swing in the Hamptons with Hillry Clinton donors.” 

Awh...it's really unbelievable the depths to which these Berni Bros will sink!

Worse! Worse!  Senator Sanders himself “elevated” the message by himself saying that “I don't go to the Hamptons to raise money from billionaires.”

Shameless!  Pure shamelessness to point out that Harris was a willing whore of the wealthy elite just as she was a chief prosecutor in a justice system designed to be both oppressive and sadistic, while giving a pass to fraudulent bankers.

No doubt fearful that this kind of arrogance by itself would be seen for what it is, the Slime wrapped its gutter tactics in the unassailable mantel of Feminst Identity.... which, in the United States today, serves the same function as La Santa Virgen del Pilar in Spain.  Wanna get ripped to pieces?  Attack either.

"Several well-known feminist writers said they had received death threats...."

Not nice.... but nicer still would be to know what was actually said and in what circumstances.   As the United States Supreme Court has recognized a statement which is facially a threat can be legitimate and legal rhetorical hyperbole. (Watts v. United States, 394 U.S. 705 (1969).)   Back in 1969, when Boxer herself was either at Woodstock or protesting the war,  a draft protestor publicly stated “I am not going. If they ever make me carry a rifle the first man I want to get in my sights is L.B.J. . .”  The Supreme Court held that, in context, the statement was not a criminal threat.  “The language of the political arena ... is often vituperative, abusive, and inexact.” In order to objectively qualify as an illegal “threat”  the words spoken must state a threat, must be intended as a threat and must be capable of being realized in the circumstances. A person's neurotic over-reaction does not ipso facto turn something into a threat.    Without being told what was allegedly said, it is not possible to form an opinion as to whether these feminists writers were seriously threatened or not.

"A Portland lawyer saw her business rating tumble on an online review site after tussling with Sanders supporters on Twitter."

Uh huh.  Post hoc ergo propter hoc, right? 

Let's just put the shoe on the other foot... or the fork in the other mouth.  Would the pro-LGBTQ bastion of political correctness be aghast and outraged if a certain baker saw his “ratings” tumble after exercising his First Amendment Rights not to bake a cake?   Of course not.  They would gleeful cheer his bankruptcy were it to happen.  So then....

Since when are certain people immunized from the consequences of their publicly stated opinions?   Ah ha... when they are (a) feminists, (b) corporate centrists, (c) Hillary supporters and (d) those whom the Slime has anointed as Sacrosanct.

The Slime can play this card all it wants, it holds water only in an ever shrinking circle of Narcissist Affluent Feminists, who thinking “all politics is personal”  (that's their motto) take everything personally.

Last but not least, the Slime's screed notes that “for some perceived Sanders critics, there has been mail sent to their home addresses. ... The message is clear: We know where you live.”

No.  The message is whatever was written in the mail.  Since when is it unlawful to send political mail to someone?  Since when do certain people deserve to live in an “off-limits” security bubble that immunizes them from any contact with fellow-citizens.   Is that the kind of Open Society a George Soros would support?   Evidently, for the Slime, there is “open” and then there is “open to a few.”   Par for the course.

Let's get one thing clear.  The New York Times has ever and always been the organ for American Corporate Imperialism.  They are very good at hiding assumptions under a veneer of reporting and very good at varnishing their real agenda under a coating of “humanistic” and “liberal” causes.   They will adhere to a high-minded, disinterested tone so long as things are going their way... but when faced with a real threat, the fangs are bared, the hissing starts and the lashing out begins.  

©barfo, 2002

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Cultural Feudalism


A few years back, all I Love Lucy episodes could be watched -- and laughed at -- on YouTube.  Then they disappeared.  It was hardly a secret why.  Lucy and Desi's heirs imposed a copyright lockdown.   Pay to laugh, peasants!

Why should this lock-down be allowed?  The social policy behind copyrights is to give the original creator an incentive for the exercise of his  -- or in this case -- her and his genius.   It is a sound, fair and unobjectionable policy.  The public enjoyed and benefited from the aesthetic, intellectual, musical or dramatic genius of the creator who was in turn rewarded with the public's gratitude in the form of money.

But what have Lucy's children done to reap the rewards of their mother's efforts and talent?  Nothing; nothing at all.   They are not even analogous to the children of counts or dukes who take over and continue to manage the estate.   In this latter case, the heirs don't simply inherit benefits they inherit a job and obligations as well. The same is true for the heir of a tycoon, who takes over the running of the company.  In either of these two cases the successors in interest put their own work into the matter.   But other than hire accountants to manage their royalties, Lucy's children don't do a damn thing.  They simply live off the copyright their parents earned.

But the purpose of that copyright was to act as an incentive for genius -- “to stimulate the useful arts and sciences.” That purpose was served.  Holding on to an inherited copyright stimulates nothing. Copyright was never envisioned as analogous to a fee simple absolute in land.  On the contrary it expired after some term, at which point it became public property in the common realm. 

Allowing successors in interest who are not themselves original creators of the work simply creates a form cultural feudalism in which all peasants must pay fees for grazing on what was intended to be common pasture.

The regime of capitalism in its furious demise is relentless, heartless and implacable.  Its parasites and robed whores are privatising everything making everyone else pay for what ought to be held in common and enjoyed freely for free. 


Saturday, January 18, 2020

The West Crumbles


Another screed from the WokeLib Guardian. Simon Tisdall scrawls...

it is crystal clear Putin fears the sort of political liberalisation that might facilitate greater economic competitiveness and international investment.

Uh huh... translated:  “political liberalization,” “more democracy,” “human rights” and “FREEDUM” are Trojan Horses for “international investment” which is code for “us buying up you.” Tisdall is too stoopid to realize he just gave away the game.

He goes on to scribble

The continuing drag on Russia’s development caused by western sanctions, imposed after the illegal annexation of Crimea, symbolises the broader, negative aspects of perpetual Putinism.

Actually... the sanctions reflect the broader aspects of American hegemony. It is absurd to blame Putin for an economic drag cause by sanctions.

Simon-the-Moron goes on,

Putin’s poison meanwhile seeps through other western institutions, bamboozling Donald Trump, weakening the Nato alliance and the G7 (from which he has been banished), and undermining European democracy with his glib talk about “obsolete” western liberalism.

So... Trump was not a mole but just simply “bamboozled” ? Okay. But Putin undermined European democracy by talking? PUTIN SPEAKS THE WEST CRUMBLES!!!! How Biblical! Why, it's a miracle beyond the realm of known physics given that Putin's talk is virtually never reported in the Western press and certainly not on the channels of mass media delusion.


©barfo 2020

Friday, January 17, 2020

Wokehounds sniffing for Analogies


"Brazil’s culture secretary, Roberto Alvim has been fired after he appeared to paraphrase the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels ... 'Brazilian art in the next decade will be heroic and national,' said Alvim, to the music from Wagner’s Lohengrin, said to be Hitler’s favourite opera."   (Alt Fem Wokian)

Gawd these jerks are stupid.  “Said to be....”  by whom?  When I was a cub reporter it was drilled into us always to provide our sources.   “Said to be” is not only lazy, it bespeaks falsity.   Actually -- according to John Toland's biolgraphy -- Hitler's favourite opera was Meistersinger





Oh what the hell.... we need to link this guy to Hitler in some fashion.... a fellow Lohengrin-Liker!    Oh how horrible!

But to the point.... art can't be “nationalistic” ?  Who says?  Was David nationalistic and heroic?  What about Siquieros?   How about Diego Rivera?  What of Shostakovitch or Sergei Eisenstein?  Lully anyone?  What about ....

What about the fucking morons writing for the  Alt Fem Wokian?  "Hounds" is too good a word for this plague of angry imbeciles



 
©barfo 2020

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Qui Bono?



NOTED: Die Zeit reports that the Boonystag is about to pass a bill outlawing the burning of any foreign flag. Oh gee.... I wonder whose flag they had in mind?

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Man and Cockroach


Is there any difference between this mob and a swarm of insects on a log?  No; certainly not from a cosmic perspective.  From the infinitude of space a man and a cockroach are the same in size and significance.   But “God loveth all his children....”  In other words, should we adopt a less cosmic view; ought we to consider each one of these creatures, swarming over the train like insects, as a human being full of inherent dignity, unique of character and born with inalienable rights.... blah, blah, blah.

Whether we ought to or not, the inescapable fact is that we will not.  This Earth is at its breaking point thanks mostly to our unquenchable greed and unrestrained self proliferation.  The Market Moloch which needs an endless supply of consumers to fuel its profit-driven production will, in the not too distant future, be incapable of feeding these same mouths.  It will be unable to house them, to educate them, to care for their health, to give them employment (much less meaningful employment) -- in short to do anything to keep alive the myth of inherent human worth and dignity.

Our rulers will then simply give up trying.  They will shelter themselves in eco-bubbles, guarded by well fed, de-sensitized goons, who will employ pest control tactics to keep the swarm in line while -- as a residual sign of humanity -- shoot blasts of synthetic food chips over their heads for them to hungrily scramble for.

More than Huxley and Orwell or even Stanislaus Lem,  Harrison/Fleischer were prophetic geniuses.   And what did the New Yorker have to say about Soylent Green?  “This pompously prophetic thing of a film hasn't a brain in its beanbag. Where is democracy? Where is the popular vote? Where is women's lib? Where are the uprising poor, who would have suspected what was happening in a moment?” 

Ha ha.    Ah yes!  the Uprising Poor would have rebelled against Chezzoh's at Walmarts!  Women's Lib would have alerted us to the terminal systemics of capitalism!  The  ever vigilant and suspecting popular vote would have protected us from Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Blair, Bolsonaro, Modi, JinPing, Al Saud and, last but not least, Mitch McConnell. 

 God, Gentrified Liberals are idiots. 



©barfo, 2020

Friday, January 10, 2020

Another Boating Accident!


BBC reports that the CCTV of Epstein's cell was “accidentally erased.”

Ranting against Facebook


Once again, a scribe for the WokeLib Guardian raised her pen (or jabbed her pad) to excoriate Zuckerberg and Facebook for....

Actually, I'm not quite clear what the article was supposed to be about but the gist and drift of it appears to be a complaint that Facebook allows "right wing demagogues" to post content.  Bleh.  I'm pretty tired of pseudo-left warriors calling for censorship, which is what all the wokeness boils down to.

All media at all times have engaged in omissions, half-truths, exaggeration, misrepresentations, doctored images and rhetorical manipulation. Anyone who thinks that the New York Times or the Guardian don't filter their output to conform to their ideological views and political agendas is living in a land of self delusion. The same can be said for Le Figaro or Razón.

The underlying fallacies of the outraged, woke brigades are the assumptions (1) that "true facts" exist and (2) that information is something we are fed... like food. Actually, the realm of true, indisputable facts is rather small. Most so-called "facts" are based on individual perceptions and opinions -- "testimony" in lawyer talk. Even polls are subject to distortions. As Mark Twain cracked, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."

What this means is that "news" and "information" is never anything we should trust or rely on. What is called being informed is not passive intaking but an occasion to exercise our mental faculties. Anything we read calls for us to bring to bear our experience and use our judgement. What makes us informed is exposing our brains to as many lies, damned lies and statistics as possible.

If people want to be stupid and just gulp down anything that CNN or Facebook or Junge Europa put before them, that really is their problem but it should not be used as an excuse to make safe and sanitize information for the rest of us.

©barfo, 2020

Sunday, January 05, 2020

Alt Fem Guardian Craps on Berni

Typical bunk from a gentrified liberal perspective pretending to be progressive.

Number One. The headline is misleading in that it suggests that Warren is the "best chance" since FDR. But that is not what she said. When asked about a die-hard Sanders supporter, Warren replied "“C’mon guys, this is the best chance we have to elect a real progressive since FDR.” As the article itself states "That might be the strongest statement she has made about Sanders."

Number Two. "Senator Bernie Sanders could argue that he is addressing those same themes." Could? COULD? C'mon, there is no doubt whatsoever about it. None. Zip. It's not debatable. For all of his life and for 40 years in Congress he has consistently been the often LONE voice for progressive causes.

Since the Guardian likes to focus (obsess) on identity issues: Sanders was arrested back in 1963 [sic] protesting for Black civil rights. He has consistently supported a woman's right to choose even before Roe v Wade. He was in favour of gay rights way before the term LGBTQ or LGBT or LGB became current.

He has opposed every war the U.S. has engaged in since Vietnam.

For those who don't have cushy medical and retirement programs, Sanders has pushed Medicare for All since before 2016. He has pushed a decent minimum wage since 2014. He has consistently advocated secure, affordable housing, free higher education, student debt relief, renters rights, disengagement from fossil fuel and an aggressive new green deal.

Could? Gimme a break. He is the one tried and true and proven progressive in the race without doubt. I know bias when I read it.
 ©
©barfo 2020

Saturday, January 04, 2020

Hey Sinner Man

There was a popular folk song in the early Sixities, the refrain of which was "Hey sinner man, where ya gonna run to, all on that day...?"

“We’re only here because nobody’s acted quick enough,” said Corrin Mueller.   Exactly.  That creature known as  Man, which prides itself on its superior-to-animal faculties and its supposed ability to make "objective" and "disinterested" decisions based on reason  has preferred instead to burn its candles at both ends.    Was there anything more ludicrous than Australians gathering to gawk and goo at fireworks blasting against a particulate saturated sky while their country burned?    Ridet et moritur.

Let it be an object lesson to climate deniers here and everywhere.  

My sorrow and pity goes to all the beautiful animals, birds, insect and fauna that have paid with their lives for Man's self-indulgent rapacity.  



©Barfo, 2020

Friday, January 03, 2020

Slime Speak



"Reshape the race" is New York Times-speak for "oh goody, this will boost plus ça change corporate centrists!" .

Thursday, January 02, 2020

Priorities



A man abandoned his dog at a church altar with a note that read: “"Life has taken a really bad turn for me and I couldn't imagine him being outside with me cold and hungry."   Officials “urged any pet owners struggling financially to contact their vet, a local rescue centre or a charity like the RSPCA.”

So... they'll rescue the pet but not the human?  


To the Slime: "Countless animals..." = 500 million animals burned or choked to death (Independent UK.) Not only that but the entire insect bio-sphere on which wildlife depends has been wiped out.
This ecocidal holocaust is brought upon us by fossil fuel whores like Morrison, in Australia, McConnell in the United States and Bolsonaro in Brazil. If a crime against humanity is an outrage what do you call a crime against all living life?
And to the niebelungen who censor this blog -- "whores" is exactly what they are -- that's what it's called when a "position" is paid for. To insist on effete gentilesse when the greatest of all crimes is being committed is itself an obscenity. No doubt you would insist that King Lear have begun, "Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear!"
Howl!
©barfo, 2020

Wednesday, January 01, 2020

Australian Apocalypse






While newscasters blabber about homes destroyed in the Austrialian fires, I have been wondering about the animals. Of course, not a word about them in our anthropocentric news, until today:



Up to 500 million mammals, birds and reptiles – including 8,000 koalas – have been killed, say ecologists from Sydney University, prompting fears entire species of animals and plant life may be lost for ever. More than 300 baby flying foxes have been abandoned by their mothers trying to survive, experts said. Jenny Packwood, a wildlife rescuer, told The Herald: “Mothers are abandoning babies at two weeks after birth because there is no food for them. Last week we had 300 come in, and we’ve been flat out feeding since then. “I’ve never seen anything like this before – we’re calling it a starvation event.” “There’s no grass for the ’roos, no insects for the birds, the leaves on eucalypts are brittle, ensuring starvation for koalas, gliders, possums, birds, insects.”



THIS is a true holocaust -- a real fire of apocalyptic proportions. “Five hundred million” -- the number is almost unfathomable. It is an ecocidal wipe-out of a continents innocent wildlife... beautiful creatures all of them who never deserved this fate.



I could give a shit for the humans rushing for safety to the ocean... the ocean whose dead sea corral they killed with their avarice and indifference. May the sea break out in flames. I have no pity for them. None. Zip.



The Greens have called for a Parliamentary commission to look into the Government's handling of the climate crisis. What candy assed bullshit. Morrison and his gang of industry pimps and thugs should be lined up against a wall and shot. Better yet, they should be forced to walk into the flames at gunpoint. All of them....



But the average “decent, hard working, hard playing Australian” is no better. While a holocaust consumes his homeland and wipes out its wild-life, what are they doing? Watching fireworks in Sydney. The drooling, stupid, indifference is as criminal as the Government's ecocidal avarice.



The human race is a complete, utter, disastrous failure. A mistake as colossal as Creation itself. We deserve to be wiped out. The tragedy is that before we are, everything else will be wiped out first.


©barfo, 2020