The Trial....one day should have been enough

       Chief Justice Roberts intercede only once, then to protect decorum, offering  "I do think those addressing the Senate should remember where they are.  They need to remember that they are addressing the world’s greatest deliberative body. It has earned that title because its members avoid speaking in a manner and using language that is not conducive to civil discourse."

 
      The world will little note nor long remember what was said there.  The Blues repeated in exhausting detail what they had said thousands of times before in every conceivable public venue.  The Reds said the Blues were stupid and substantially nothing else. Convening to talk past one another, whether on Facebook, or on the floor of the Senate, seems to be what we moderns do best.  Why our species is becoming increasingly tribal is hotly debated, but that it is true is generally concede in all corners.

      My sense is that it is about time that we stop pretending that "civil discourse" is likely to prevail at any hierarchal level, or at any foreseeable future time. As such, we need to move toward reformatting our species' "dispute resolution meme".   The sooner we get past this "rule of law" myth, and quit invoking the Constitution and the Supreme Court, as though these are uniting elements, the closer we will be to "Next Culture".

      In the mean time, the disadvantaged Blues should, having been fully informed, have simply conceded and moved on.  Presumably moving on to the upcoming election, where it is less certain that they are disadvantaged, even though the board suggests it is near time for the Blues to turn over their King.

...to end on a bad pun.

Guns & Roses in Richmond

    

     We just love pious.  Nothing turns up our endorphins like "looking down", unless its "looking down a barrel".  We invite all of you opposing "woke people" to rally to our support. You do want to protect a maximally pluralistic society, don't you?  Help us insure our right to be evolutional throw-back primitives.  

PS:  Overlook Lincoln's caution:  "Among free men, there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case, and pay the cost."

All Teams are Equal, but....

some are more equal than others! 

God only knows how we parse the landscape of "games"

Clearview AI

     Today's  New York Times offering on the secretive surveillance company Clearview AI was certainly a shot across the bow for we humans now being delivered into a Sara Connors worldscape.  David Scalzo one of the companies early investors was reported to have earnestly said, “I’ve come to the conclusion that because information constantly increases, there’s never going to be privacy.  Laws have to determine what’s legal, but you can’t ban technology. Sure, that might lead to a dystopian future or something, but you can’t ban it.” Other start-up investors were reported to trace to Peter Thiel and Rudy Giuliani. 

      Funding this seemingly significant commercial advancement in the science/art of facial recognition is, I presume,  just evidence of the groups capitalistic acumen and has nothing to do with the "common color red".....just sayin!

     Albeit that the "poiesis player" is an Australian Vietnamese named Mr. That, and his support came from coastal investors, the companies first commercial surveillance applications were in Indiana, very far culturally from San Francisco where all government access to facial recognition is unlawful.  Regardless, with face/name identities for approaching half the planet population avaiable to every "google glass" sporting  doorman, cop, realtor, et.al.... well,  it's a species game changer. 

     Google, et.al dismissed such a pursuit almost a decade ago.  The Times investigation referenced the FBI database to be paltry by comparison.  Whether this is true, only Barr and Snowden know.  I guess we will all find out.  No need to respond with a "smile",  you see your already on "Candid Camera"

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/technology/clearview-privacy-facial-recognition.html

“The State is the coldest of all cold monsters”

       at least in the words of Nietzche.....and also many moderns who live in the political lane.  You don't have to be Will Durant to figure out that there are only two fundamental ways to "do civilization".  Either acknowledge,  refine, and institutionalize the hierarchical nature of our species (capitalism), or em-brass the conjecture that human's, possessing reasoning/imagination attributes, can defy the hierarchical imperative and manage the human dynamic to "balanced happiness" (socialism).

        Of course these two baseline sensibilities actualize in various hybrid forms, each evolving over time.  
Unfortunately a historically attribute of both civilizing strategies is that they often evolve/devolve into the pre-civilized default pattern "fascism".  As such it is obvious that we must continue the quest for a more perfect union.  Surely we can keep tinkering with the various platforms looking for optimum.  Trotsky's worlds-cape is not ours and neither is Vanderbilts.  Bernie is not hoping for a Swiss Account and a palace in the Hamptons....he is more evolved.... further, Congressional Republicans do not wake up oblivious to global warming and infant mortality....they are more evolved. "If all we ever do is all we've ever done, then all we'll ever get is all we've ever had".

(Probably most who dabble in armchair philosophizing know that there is a forever controversy within  Darwinian Evolution regarding whether evolution is excusively a property of discreet entities or whether it is a more universal attribute governing all change.  Best guess is that all complex systems are evolving including civilizing socio-economic patterns).

     While all civilizations oppose fascism, deciding between Capitalistic and Socialistic aligned strategies is problematic.  Of course, everyone wants the species to survive and prosper, but, should we optimize the landscape for the higher endowed individuals hoping that the masses will live ever more prosperous in their draft, or alternatively, should we mandate and crowd source global equality solutions, allowing everyone a fair stake in whatever "ca sera" brings?

    My personal sense is that I would go with Capitalism and thereby it's political mask, Democracy.  Not because I believe in the profundity of Democracy.  As a cultural strategy Democracy went sour a long time ago.  That it still reigns in name is a testimony to the hollowness of the electorate who most certainly should not be trusted with our general welfare visa vi Socialism.  By default, I put my money on the present wielders of real power, those effecting change in the shadows of the Democratic/Capitalist State.  the corporate elite.  These praxis people are much more evolved than their historical predecessors and are, most importantly, now constrained by a laundry list of existential global risks. Yes, their predecessors brought us most of these risks, but if they can be neutralized it will likely come from these same poiesis sources, not working in concert with the incredibly shallow and ineffectual Deep State, but in spite of it.

     Niertzche was right.  If we seek to prosper, indeed survive, lets face it, the State is stone cold. If we further empower the Trumps, the Schiffs, the Barrs, the Pings and the Putins, we will surley meet "stone cold".  I know it sounds bizarre, but lets keep the Lobbyist welcome, the State weak, the Corporations powerful and pray that the Bills Elons, Tims, Jeffs, Peters, et. al can harness our global runaway so that there children will have a decent place to play at the pinnacle of a functional planet....and thereby save us.... "the tired, the poor, the huddling masses yearning to live for free, we the wretched refuse of yesterdays teeming shores, now homeless and tempest tossed,  we lift our phones and cry help, here beside the once golden door."