Politics is done in the darkness audio for 5/19/17

https://johnyorks.tumblr.com/post/160891307813/j-politics-is-done-in-the-darkness-51917

Politics is done in the darkness for 5/4/17

https://johnyorks.tumblr.com/post/160301280858/like-to-do-things-different-ways-sometimes-so-for

Common Sense Show on future of communications

Good analysis from CounterPunch on the "Resistance"

The "resistance" is really the neo-liberal establishment. They were clever to pose as a "resistance" when the ones resisting are the "deplorables" resisting impoverishment due to the neo-liberal agenda. But, in the end, as Kurt Vonnegut once wrote, I am "a man without a country." Neither side in this two-sided debate represents my interests correctly, and if truth be told, the nationalist anti-globalization Trumpsters have a better argument than the faux neo-liberal left. Still, we must continue to point out neither of the two really represents the interests of the majority of people.
Link

politics is done in the darkness podcast 12/7

(S)election 2016 briefly

Haven't posted here in a while, and thought this was the place for a brief post about the upcoming elections. We are in big trouble. And, in spite of the overwhelming conventional wisdom that has Clinton as the lesser evil, that likely is not the case. As Assange stated, "A vote for Hillary is a vote for endless, stupid war." While Trump at least wants to get along with Russia, Clinton wants to establish a no fly zone over Syria, which will mean direct confrontation with Russia. This is very dangerous.

And Trump is a disaster in every other way..... We the people, no matter the outcome, have already lost this election.

On Carroll Quigley

Good overview of Quigley's very big book.

A Lady Pole like feeling.

Sometimes, when I attempt to explain anything pertinent to our politics, I feel a bit like the character Lady Pole from the novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.  Whenever she would try to explain to people about the harm caused to her by the evil faerie prince, she was compelled to speak a kind of gibberish instead. This was because of the spell the faerie had her in.

Outside the land on Faerie, and more specifically, in the United States of today - there are many possible reasons why our political discourse can turn into gibberish. These reasons range from the mundane to the incredible. By "incredible," I mean that which is often relegated to the realm of "conspiracy theory"

A simple reason we might be inclined towards political nonsense is because we are constantly exposed to political nonsense. Mass communications, often one-way communications (with the possible exception of the internet) fill our minds with fantasy. What has become the mass media, including television, radio, and the internet to some extent, assaults us with the greatest illogic  history has ever known.

So far, I have been speaking of the mundane, which should be fairly obvious to most. Moving beyond the mundane, into the realm of ideas often relegated to "conspiracy theory," there is much to consider.

Let's start with one that is a little less controversial. For decades, we have known about the potential for subliminal messages to alter thought and behavior. Some would say the potential is exaggerated. For instance, it has been claimed that for one to be motivated to buy a soda at the drive-in movie, one first had to be truly thirsty. And, there is some quibbling over how "subliminal" is really defined.  The above link makes the case that sometimes we mean "supraliminal" rather than "subliminal."

To move further into the realm of "conspiracy theory," There are allegations that, whether this counts as subliminal or not, the US government has technology to broadcast audio messages directly to a single individual.   In fact, here is a video that shows a private individual demonstrating the technology allowing him to do this very thing.

Of course, there is much more, and I haven't even mentioned things like MK Ultra and Project Mockingbird. There certainly are cases when fact is stranger than fiction, but at least it is still unlikely that one could be manipulated by a faerie prince.

Strange Geopolitical Relationships Continue To Unfold

Iran and Turkey call for joint efforts against terrorism Press TV tells us. What? Wait, were they not on opposite sides of the fence regarding the situation in Syria?

As an aside, but still relevant to the point,we are constantly told that Russia and Iran are, more or less, allies of of a sort. But is this true? After all, there were several times it was reported that Russia would sell the s-300 anti-aircraft system to Iran, but then didn't. It has recently been reported that the Russians will now fulfill the contract to provide the s-300 to Iran. Or, depending on which story one is to believe, perhaps they already have.  These things are hard to know with any certainty. The point is, the Russians had been dragging their feet regarding the s-300 sale to Iran for a very long time. Would they do this if they were such great allies?

Does it make sense that at the time Turkey is literally sending artillery shells into Syria, an ally of Iran, and Russia is at odds with Turkey as a result of the Turkish government's decision to down a Russian military plane several weeks ago, that Iran would discuss "joint efforts against terrorism?"

But maybe it does make sense in a way, as both Iran and Turkey, at various times and to various degrees, have had conflict with the Kurds.  After all, the Syrian Kurds are the ones that Turkey is mainly shelling.

But wait, now we see we must put Azerbaijan into the mix. Azerbaijan? It is a tangled web that is weaved as politics make strange bedfellows during the age of declining American power, and the rise of the multi-polar world. Who is on the side of whom?

(*note: This article captures what I tried to convey about the s-300 deal.)