Wholesale incarceration and involuntary labor are legal according to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and justifies the behavior of agents of government, as do all the rest. Legal scholars would have us believe that the Constitution does not intend what it says, because for centuries it has proved convenient to discount the language and face up to the truth. The American Dream is the realization of intent where none actually exists. Continue reading →

Not good to put all eggs in one basket and count on the retirement of one Senator to retain the majority. Capitol Hill has four decades of dereliction to answer for. The fumes of the Soviet collapse were a deadly intoxication. The sins of Mephisto were shared by many.
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It is the affliction which causes public servants not to know their place.

How shall we categorize media-made America? ‘Tis not a dream or a nightmare. Not a myth or mystery. Perhaps a fable? Ein Märchen. Fabelhaft.

Idolatry is not prompted by the idol. Celebrity is not prompted by the celebrant. Or is it? When the idol or celebrity is a person, does there not have to be at least tacit solicitation of the adoration?

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The object ia primarily attention. So surveillance is not a deterrent and doubling down is to be expected.
Individuals who are reluctant to expose themselves to restraint are content to share in the escapades vicariously via schadenfreude: pleasure experienced not because an enemy has been chastized, but because an icon has provided an example criminal behavior and avoided meaningful restraint.
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PROPAGANDIZING
ADVERTISING
PROSELYTIZING
MARKETING
BOOSTING
PERSUADING
IMPACTING
PROMOTING
INFLUENCING
SCHOOLING
MENTORING
SOCIALIZING
The notion of the blank slate satisfies both the impulse to control and to negate autonomy. Autonomy is the antithesis of authority even as the negation of autonomy creates the demand for authority.
I am not anti-social, but I am against socializing.

“Black Voters are Silenced, Again.”

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I knew that image would be memorable.

The effort had some merit but not as Trumpists intended.

Fact is, the assumption that record keeping would protect the environment and prevent pollution was wrong. The assumption that development is a positive for man or nature was wrong. Applying the presumption of probity to artificial persons, which are set up to evade responsibility, was wrong.
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