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The extremely long "election season" does nothing but emphasize the power of money on the one hand, and create a huge 'news shadow' obscuring news on the other.

Also, while a congress lasts for 2 years, over half of that 'governance period' is cancelled by the posturing and fundraising required by campaigning. Thus in addition to a 'news shadow' informing the public, there is 'campaign shadow' paralyzing civil and straight communication in congress obviating chances of compromise.

Minds have been made up for months on presidential candidates. As we review what we have done to ourselves in the name of democracy I hope we can observed how we, the parties and the system that the 2 parties have created a bribe-a-thon which has all to do with money.

That the FEC is unstaffed and dysfunctional and a hostage to those same parties and the current administration. All composes a tawdry charade.

posted 5 years ago
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Some of our art will outlast our civic culture. Certainly our laws! The conflict the city is legally is an outcome of the incoherent legal judgement that money is speech. That makes
businesses people and gives them rights. Until this is fixed, culture cannot be other than broken.

Right here in river city. We cannot discriminate between art and advertising. You and I can!

posted 5 years ago
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Why was the first amendment written? What does free speech grant to society? An artist friend of mine, Roger Long, commented on G H W Bush's quote : "I am not good at the 'vision' thing".

He said: "I am an artist, I AM the vision thing."

posted 5 years ago
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Just six comments in response to blather. I post this weeks after.

As a veteran I am familiar with the wonderful clarity of order. Exceptionally clear language that half wits can get instantaneously. The Congress here, I sense, is perceived as the enemy.
Military languange is well presented in the Taguba report. That clarity is critical for a military to function. (NOT that hill, the other hill)

George Orwell wrote clearly on this 60 years ago:
From:
I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

Here it is in modern English:

Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account. ____ from Politics and the English Language (1946)

You know the fine General had to practice to say as little in so much time as he did. Was he miming Orwell or was it Greenspan? But he did it under orders, for that is what good soldiers do.

The problem lies up the chain.

posted 5 years, 2 months ago
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The angle on this story is who pays the piper. In Ben Franklin's time the average citizen ponied $1.50 a month for a Free Press. Free referred to freedom and liberty as opposed to "free of charge", tab picked up by the business interest that somehow is not covered in the press. The ethic of the free press has been lost. Subscribe for "getting a gift"? Seems like the principle of a free press is lost. Are we citizens just purchasing another entertainment product?

There is one angle.

Angle two: Who pays for the press when the advertising model crashes? In the 50's it was
big money. Whiskey, appliances, cars, tobacco spent big bucks on vehicles to present their version of display advertising on TV. Times have chaged. Margins there might not be so fat. Plus Google is has trasformed the display ad model to a far more intelligent and less annoying thing. Problem: No funding for broadcast media any more.

A direct bottom line assault on the "free press". With no ethic of supporting a free press we expect our spoon feeding for nothing.

Now all our free press money goes to utilities sans content. This must be fixed. Oh, and good-bye to World Have Your Say... who wants to be shouted at? Let TOL go for two hours.
Why have your good work followed by a radio exit ramp?

posted 5 years, 2 months ago
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As a registered Republican I am aghast at the party's indifference to the
constitution. As a veteran I took an oath to protect the constitution. Same oath as elected representatives swear to. Just today the Republican head of state lobbied congress on the radio to retroactive, rescind the forth amendment. This very day! Rights were won with blood. To give them away, or even fight against their existence is close to treason. I moved to Oregon years ago because of Wayne Morse, and Mark Hatfield, and the tenor of political discourse here. The Republicans..... sure have changed.

Remembering the constitution in fact and civilly would be a change back.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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You know, there are three kinds of people. Those who can count, and those who can't. ............ I believe Angela is of the first sort, and perhaps Serena is of the second. I will not state to which grope( sic) I belong. An other way of saying this is that statistics talk to large groups, where chance is a factor, and anecdotes, which describe a single, if significant, experience. speak to others. We observe this difference in the discussion above, and at large. Statics would purport that when a large number of mortgage holders default, unrelated to the personal circumstances (job loss, sickness, divorce) that the banking system is at fault.
Angela makes a case on this point. Serena may never accept that point. They have two ways of looking at the world.

And so many people think money is a thing. Coastrange, purporting that exchanging a lump sum of debt for a cash flow (every month) is tying up money is a case in point. That money was created from...... ? well, nothing. Well not quite nothing..... It was created from agreement. Since Nixon, it has agreement not representative of anything tangible.

So who is a fault when a loan goes bad? the divorced or the divorcee? The unemployed? the ill considered person who... got ill? Or the bank, that takes its odds. In this gambling room, who is the House?

All I can say is that in my opinion, the banks currently own the legislature. If the legislature does not wake up and realize that money is agreement...... the money, the dollar, value,
and many, many agreements will fail.

In sum. When the House has made a lot of bad bets, it must pony up. Or the whole house of cards will fall. There is much pride in ownership, however. Pride can be stubborn.

posted 5 years, 4 months ago
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test

posted 5 years, 4 months ago
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The oceans are Huge, man's technology is Immense. Our industrial technology is murdering nurseries. Trawlers clearcut and plow the garden nurseries of the sea. I have commercial fished in the 60's, 70's and 90's. We must turn the technology down, like our ancestors did with fish wheels. We don't have to keep people off the beach. Simply no fishing or diving in reserves. When will our species accept the responsibility of being a steward AND member
of nature? It would make for a civilized and life filled planet, no?

posted 5 years, 4 months ago
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