jul 3, 2014

the comments here seem to suggest that it's a common view in america that one is not entitled to water unless they are a good slave. bad slaves are best left to dehydrate and die, as they are not producing anything for their masters.

you white racist dipshits are a bunch of fucking niggers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj5dD06Iy9U

John Galt 
Just pay your bills and the water gets turned on.  Do you somehow feel that you can demand the labor of others without paying for that labor?

jessica
+John Galt what does an automated system of water distribution have to do with labour?

and why do you think that automated system has the right to charge a price, or generate a profit?

the real issue is parasitic investors converting humans into profit generating machines, and denying them the necessities of existence if they don't contribute to that extractive process.

so, why do you think that these parasitic investors ought to have the right to force independent human beings into non-consensual labour (which is difficult to even find) in exchange for the things they need to survive?

there's a very simple fix: common ownership. if the people having their water shut off owned the system, nobody would be able to deny them of what they owned, and they would maintain access to what they are entitled to.

the crime here is in private ownership of goods that nobody should have the right to own, or be able to coerce people into forced labour in order to gain access to.

until we collectively pull our heads out of our asses and work towards collectivizing the various ways we produce things, we will continue to live under the slavery of market capitalism that forces us to work or die.

the reality is that the vast majority of employed people do nothing of any substantial value to society, and most of them are going to lose their jobs in their near future to automation.

but, we should look forward to this as a step forward in human progress and seize the opportunity that is finally available to us to truly be free.

but, we have to change how we think about labour, first.

and, john galt is not helping us do that. john galt is keeping us locked in a system that has failed us as workers, artists and inventors - while benefiting a select group of people, most of whom have never done an honest day of hard work in their whole lives.

crowbird213
+deathtokoalas Never worked, never will. What does your fantasy system do about population explosion by the dumbest among us? Keep feeding them? If the whole world naught into your fantasy, what effect would that have on your lifestyle. As the dumbest continue to over populate, what continued effect would that have on your lifestyle? Are you prepared to meet at the lowest common denominator? Before answering that last one, I want you to get an apartment where all those lovely poor live. Then get back to me.

jessica 
+crowbird213 i actually live just about as close to detroit as a canadian possibly could. it's a five minute walk to the tunnel under the detroit river....

i've only been over once, and it was to get my border clearance, which should (finally) show up in the mail this week. and i can state that windsor is not as bad as detroit, but that it does have all of the same underlying economic problems stemming from massive job losses due to massive automation. i live in what is one of the poorest parts of windsor, which is no doubt roughly comparable to some areas in detroit. and, i moved here specifically to exist in the area that has the highest potential to move beyond capitalism in the near future.

starting in august, i will be over to detroit fairly regularly.

the basis of the plotline underlying the film idiocracy is not scientifically valid: there's no correlation between intelligence and genetics. brilliant people will produce dumb children, and dumb people will produce brilliant children. it has more to do with the environment that the children are raised in.

i would consider both of my parents to be stupid people - especially my father, who was a flat out imbecile. but, i was raised with a focus on learning that i've kept up with and have consistently scored in the highest percentiles, while both of my parents would consistently score in the lowest. i'm not a statistical anomaly. you just can't draw those connections, it's a myth.

it's a standard anarchist hope that one of the effects of mass automation and collective ownership of production would be greater community involvement in educating kids (as well as a greater focus on art and education, in general). that kind of freedom from repetitive, dull employment is going to allow parents and other adults to spend more time with their children. to most of us anarchists, this focus on art and education is the entire purpose and value of collectivizing production and resources.

further, the solution to overpopulation issues lies in increasing access to abortion and contraceptives and tearing down religious taboos against their use. it doesn't have anything to do with who owns the resources, it has to do with ensuring that people have access to the tools they need to avoid pregnancies.

intelligence is largely a function of brain plasticity. genetics are certainly passed down, but intelligence is not something that is genetic. there was thinking along those lines in the previous century, but if you move beyond the popular press and popular media and into real journals, you'll see that brain plasticity is now understood as the dominant factor, which places environment as the sole consideration.

this is actually a really important thing to understand in constructing the nature of what human beings actually are. you have to begin thinking of your brain as a ball of plasma that is constructed not by a planned genetic code but by the sum of it's reactions to it's experiences. it's consequently not the same organ that you had when you were born, and it consequently will be an entirely different organ by the time you die. genes code for quantifiable traits, like eye colour and physical sex. despite what the popular press would have you believe, genes don't code for things that arise in our minds like intelligence, sexual orientation or moral value systems.

just as an aside...

the reason people push this "dna is a plan for our lives" hogwash is that it aligns well with the christian idea of "god's plan". it's the genetic equivalent of cavemen hanging out with dinosaurs. the difference is that it cuts a little deeper, and even respectable scientists consequently have difficulty separating the ideas. but the media is relentless in ways that no scientist ever would be because it's seen as bridging a divide.

the reality is that there's absolutely no evidence that there are genes that code for behaviour, cognition, orientation or anything else outside of the basic bio-chemical functioning of our bodies, and anybody that suggests that genes do code for these sorts of things is pushing pseudo-science.

it's chemistry, it's not the magic wand of god.

QuartuvLarry
Collectivism: from the same assholes who brought us the Soviet Union

jessica
+QuartuvLarry actually, we're the assholes that loudly denounced marx when he was still alive, split the socialist international in half because we thought he was a homicidal lunatic, did everything we could to prevent the russian revolution and then died in several theatres (spain, ukraine, germany amongst others) trying to fight them off when they stamped us out with force.

jul 3, 2014

i don't think we can talk about hayek being wrong, because his predictions rely on the assumptions of ever increasing state ownership, and the new right stepped in right after he was done rambling and took steps to reduce state ownership, under fears of that serfdom developing (or, more realistically, just using it as an excuse to increase their own power).

when i have this argument, i don't tend to try and convince people that hayek was wrong, i try to point out that my opponents sound like they're stuck in 1973. it's ironic that the right-libertarians tend not to acknowledge that everything they want to see happen has been being put in motion, slowly, by the crony capitalists they're all after. then, when the result is more and more crony capitalism, they call for greater and greater privatization...

so, all you can do is look at the reality and say "well, we've been doing what you want for forty years and the results are exactly what you were trying to prevent. don't you think it's time to try something else, now?".

it creates a sort of irony. we are on the road to serfdom. by eliminating governance as anything but an organization that collects taxes and gives it to military, police and banks, we're recreating a two-class debt-based society that consists primarily of landowners and serfs. rather than push for universal education, we have student loans. rather than keep wages up at levels of inflation, we have a society of people with mortgages.

i'm not sure how hayek would correct the policies of the new right to be more in line with what he was saying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpuNbwysXQc

july 3, 2014


i don't often "laugh out loud", but finkelstein has a particularly effective style of observational comedy.

i get his argument, but i'm not sure the israelis or americans really want this to end. the israelis have been clear for decades that they're not going to allow a two-state solution. the uncomfortable corollary of this is the question of what exactly they plan on doing with the palestinians is, a question in which nobody wants to exist within the reality where it becomes necessary, and people consequently don't bring themselves to ask. surely, some sort of return will be allowed, or some kind of two-state understanding will be come to! but, neither of these things are going to happen, and the question is consequently pertinent, as difficult as it is.

and i think that's what the economy part of this is about. kerry is trying to set up an apartheid state, and perhaps this is because he knows it is the best thing the palestinians can hope for, and it seems to be being resisted by the israelis. this is implying more drastic answers to the question.

the best case scenario that the israelis will allow appears to be resettlement somewhere outside israel. they seem to want gaza to join egypt, to egypt's continuing refusal. they seem to want to expel the population of the west bank to jordan. integration isn't a serious option.

so, if kerry's plan relies on convincing the israelis to abandon this type of cleansing operation and integrate the palestinians as low wage workers, i don't foresee it being successful.

however, that doesn't make finkelstein's underlying logic go away. the west bank is almost full, and when it becomes full something is going to have to happen to all of these people that are never going home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7R8GyplfV8

july 3, 2014

but, aboriginal title is not sovereign land rights. it's just a special type of fief. and, the ruling states that the crown maintains veto over the process, in the end.

they've been doing this for years. it's all a smokescreen. and it's actually directed more at making white settlers feel good about themselves than it is towards any real aboriginal land rights.

of course, some aboriginal activists will want to spin it as positively as they can, under the misguided view that if they push hard enough then the courts will eventually give in. but, that's exactly what the system wants them to do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4D85H7lQxE

 just to clarify.

the way this will work now is like this:

1) the developer will seek consent. if granted, it will be recorded forever. this helps developers regarding ambiguities - it constructs a real contract out of the process.

2) if not granted, the province will declare that it's in the public interest and attack the first nations groups for not behaving in the public interest.

the difference is consequently merely that they're forcing the natives to sign contracts, to clarify the process.

july 3, 2014

so, stephen, is that a four-year plan or a five-year plan?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A95_oilkQxc

five-year plan, this time.

July 2, 2014

i may have voted for hillary ten years ago (i can't actually vote in the united states), and i supported her by default as the more left choice over obama (although there was incredible ignorance on the topic in '07) during the last primaries, but she's since proven herself as right-wing as obama. continuing with hillary would just be extending the bush administration into a fifth term.

she lost last time because the banks wouldn't support her. again: people were easily manipulated into being confused over the establishment candidate. obama was the establishment candidate, and he was run by the establishment to defeat hillary, who was rejected by the establishment.

i'm not expecting that hillary will be the establishment candidate this time, either. yes, she just spent the last six years trying to prove she's right-wing enough for office - and she's convinced me, but i doubt she's convinced wall street. i don't know who wall street is going to run to beat her, but they'll find some puppet or other and construct some outlandish media narrative.

but i'm hoping she's lost or will lose enough support that it won't matter. this is a woman who has been trying to break through the establishment for thirty years. she had some good ideas when she was younger, but she's shown clearly that she's not a reformer or a visionary but somebody that is willing to do exactly what she's told in order to advance her career. if she's the anti-establishment candidate, we're fucked.

rather, i'm hoping that a serious candidate will emerge out of the ground. now, i don't expect most people will learn from the obama debacle, but i was able to clearly see what was coming and so were many others. so, it's no surprise the obama carried the bush legacy forward. if you actually listened to him directly, rather than relying on media, you wouldn't have ever thought otherwise. what that *does* mean is that independent media should be able to play a role in debunking the establishment candidate when it appears.

further, this serious candidate isn't going to appear out of nowhere. the american left needs to get to work. it's running out of time....

jul 1, 2014

gee. is it possible that they're actually shutting down smaller banks on the order of the larger ones?

see, that's what "regulators" actually do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzpHUWckpII

june 29, 2014

the ironic thing about the spooky satan-worshipping side of the neo-pagan movement is that they interpret the old pagan gods the way that christians demonized them, rather than the way they were worshiped by actual pagans.

odin was a good guy. wise. kind. generous. more like jesus than satan, actually. maybe a little less naive, but no less altruistic in his motives.

to a medieval christian landowner, however, any competition with the church was satanic, by definition. i mean, you weren't even allowed to read the bible back then. it was just madness. a jesus by any other name is just another representation of satan. it challenges the monopoly. so, it all got perverted and twisted around. and, now these kids are just picking up the bullshit out of historical ignorance. in reality, it's all just christian propaganda...

you see the same thing with these anti-illuminati groups. the illuminati were the good guys. they were into liberty and equality. but, that meant opposing the church, because the church wasn't into liberty and equality, it was into feudalism and ignorance. so, the church did what it does to any person or organization that challenges it (odin, scientists, jews) - it declared it driven by satan. from this, we get the nefarious nwo that wants to take over the world and enslave us all. but it's never been anything more than christian propaganda designed to stigmatize a political movement that challenged it's power. it's just morphed from a right-wing catholic scare tactic to a right-wing military-industrial scare tactic. the united nations is really the only global body that offers the slightest bit of competition to american hegemony, which is why it's loathed so deeply by the people that make real decisions and have real financial power within the united states. a true global order would have to decentralize power from the united states, by necessity - by definition. the conspiracy is actually the conspiracy theory, itself; the anti-illuminati and anti-nwo propaganda is being spread by the status quo in order to maintain it.

if you strip out the anachronistic warrior culture, which is just no longer applicable to a civilization at the stage we're now at, actual odin worship would not be much different than the core ideas present in british liberalism. it would uphold fairness and honour in the face of a strong emphasis on individual sovereignty. a random observer would be forgiven for mistaking it for the kind of advanced form of christianity that most people adhere to nowadays - the golden rule minus the hubris.

june 28, 2014

i think you're almost making a valid point. i've picked up a few pieces that seem to sound roughly like this, but what you're doing is mistaking bad writers for a bad method. i would agree that the problem is compounded by the "academic establishment", who for some reason tend to pick out the worst of the bunch out of some kind of a desire for shock value. there's probably an underlying psychiatric condition that causes music teachers to hate the thing they cycle their life around. whether an expression of the ultraparadoxical or a reflection of self-loathing remains an open question in my mind, but it's gotta be something like that. it's some kind of rebellion, and that's something to cherish in principle if it doesn't always work out in practice. but, let's be blunt: this is a topic for two centuries ago. if you want to create interesting music in the 21st century, you can't be dragging the corpse of music theory around with you. holding on to music theory at this late a date is really something like holding on to creationism. or causality. pitches are mathematical objects. they exist in a continuum. any attempt to order that - be it through conventional music theory or tone rows - is just meaningless, oppressive structure.

the right way to look at it is that it's really just a question of tonal freedom. it's my composition, and i'll flat diminished if i want to, flat diminished if i want to....

the better side of it has a level of artistry that goes beyond the pretension. it just reduces to tension and release when you break it down to it's most basic. does it not seem foolhardy to restrict your emotional expression to a flawed mathematical relation? i think the best conventional composers have all understood this, and it's what really makes them stand out. standing on the other side of webern and cage just means coming to terms with it, without the hubris of pretending otherwise.

which is pretty pretentious, too.

but, i hear you - it's there, especially in the universities, and, sadly, they seem intent on upholding it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pwKMtJxUC0

the queen does all kind of crazy things, doesn't she?

silly russians.

actually, here's the thing with this: i don't think that these are political decisions. i think that these are legal decisions, and should be made in a court of law.

i said from day one that it was going to be necessary to fight the pipelines in court and on the ground. but, i wouldn't see a contradiction in voting for trudeau, then joining the protest.

time for a thought experiment. suppose that trudeau had blocked each of the pipelines. what would have happened next? the pipeline companies would have sued. so, either way, the decision is made in court - which is where it should be made.

and why should it be made in court? because it's ultimately a question of property rights, and property rights are not subject to the popular will. that's a tyranny of the majority. property rights are a question of law, for the courts to determine.

the government's position should ultimately be to minimize damages, under the understanding that the decision was never really in their hands.

http://business.financialpost.com/news/energy/we-dont-give-a-damn-honeymoon-over-between-trudeau-and-anti-oil-activists

see, this is why i keep voting for them, though: it's these quiet changes that don't really make headlines but make a huge difference in people's lives.

the conservatives would never do this, and for all the ndp's rhetoric, they don't have a good track record, either.

i know he probably doesn't want every positive article to mention his father. but, his father spent years promising and pushing for a housing strategy. it never really materialized. it could be why they're keeping this quiet.

but, those waiting lists are really something else. and, the units they get attached to have often been discarded by the market. this creates pockets of decay. so, if this goes through, it's incredibly good news for just about everybody.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/01/12/federal-government-looks-at-creating-new-housing-benefit-for-low-income-renters.html

that vest triggered me.

i'll be ok.

i thought we banished that fucking sweater vest along with the low iq, brainless piece of shit that used to wear it. ugh.

somebody needs to track trudeau down, rip it off of him and BURN IT.

KILL THE SWEATER VEST. KILL IT WITH FIRE. DIE. DIE. DIE.

but, yeah. i get it. it's barely been a year, and trudeau has become harper. i guess he's aiming for a 25% approval rating, and a legacy of mind-numbing incompetence.

we live in a sad world.

ok, so this is the opposite extreme of the dominant old tory media narrative.

i don't think it's quite right; i think that there are valid concerns around his demeanour, and pr reasons to keep him away from cameras.

but, i do think it's leaning in the correct direction, and i do think that this shuffle is broadcasting a strong rightward shift over the next two years that will hurt him in the next election.

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2017/01/12/dion-a-great-canadian-dishonoured-by-trudeau.html

that actually was not directed at trump. it was about a discussion about teacher's strikes in eastern canada.

this is my go-to song about the trump wall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTOv9BU-xRE

this is actually the only floyd record (pre-cut) that i don't like so much.

but it's topical atm.

part of being an anarchist means complaining about the government. but, we pay attention to the news because we're looking for opportunities to resist, not opportunities to participate.

for me, the barrier lies in property rights. i would no doubt choose to involve myself more in a system that put property in common ownership. as it is, i see essentially no opportunities for me to participate; i only see opportunities to resist.

i'm sorry if i've confused anybody, but i actually think i've made it clear that i'm an artist first and an activist/analyst, second.

i have absolutely no interest in involving myself in politics, whatsoever.

i just don't think my life is long enough to spend a portion of it convincing people to vote for me. i think that that would be a terrible waste of my time.

you're right: i didn't "grow out of it".

but, can you provide me with an empirical argument as to why i should have?

in all seriousness, have we not already learned that releasing this material would just increase his poll numbers?

i mean, what are they blackmailing him with? not releasing it?

"unless you pull your troops out of poland, and stop work on this offensive weapons missile shield, we will never release this footage! resistance is futile! ahahahaha......*cough* *cough* *hack*"

this is how you take him down:

dear younger me,

save your money - don't go to the show.

regards,
older me

ps: that whole school thing is a waste of time; follow your heart about what you want to do, instead.

this ep is such a great reminder of the flexibility of midi.