(no subject)

A path of dead leaves into a dark, cold pool
Where edgeroots tooth brief caverns where lost fish
Move thoughtlessly and goallessly until
First moonlight like a current grabs each eye.

Deem this life. The dead leaves are the days,
The downward path our bodies' sag to death,
The pool that death itself, the fish the thought
Of what might spark beyond the sog - or not.

Moons come and go and yet there's only one,
The one that's never gone and never here.
Our downward stagger won't stop once begun
But sometimes moon-tuned rays those waters clear,
Sun-rays - in which the deeper sight's undone -
Spun down to trickles on which love can run.

(no subject)

Livejournal's not the best medium for political memetry, but this one seemed admirably thorough and succinct:

If you are puzzled by the bizarre "press conference" put on by the White House press secretary this evening (angrily claiming that Trump's inauguration had the largest audience in history, accusing them of faking photos and lying about attendance), let me help explain it. This spectacle served three purposes:

1. Establishing a norm with the press: they will be told things that are obviously wrong and they will have no opportunity to ask questions. That way, they will be grateful if they get anything more at any press conference. This is the PR equivalent of "negging," the odious pick-up practice of a particular kind of horrible person (e.g., Donald Trump).

2. Increasing the separation between Trump's base (1/3 of the population) from everybody else (the remaining 2/3). By being told something that is obviously wrong—that there is no evidence for and all evidence against, that anybody with eyes can see is wrong—they are forced to pick whether they are going to believe Trump or their lying eyes. The gamble here—likely to pay off—is that they will believe Trump. This means that they will regard media outlets that report the truth as "fake news" (because otherwise they'd be forced to confront their cognitive dissonance.)

3. Creating a sense of uncertainty about whether facts are knowable, among a certain chunk of the population (which is a taking a page from the Kremlin, for whom this is their preferred disinformation tactic). A third of the population will say "clearly the White House is lying," a third will say "if Trump says it, it must be true," and the remaining third will say "gosh, I guess this is unknowable." The idea isn't to convince these people of untrue things, it's to fatigue them, so that they will stay out of the political process entirely, regarding the truth as just too difficult to determine.

This is laying important groundwork for the months ahead. If Trump's White House is willing to lie about something as obviously, unquestionably fake as this, just imagine what else they'll lie about. In particular, things that the public cannot possibly verify the truth of. It's gonna get real bad.

Copied from http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028514920


Only thing that leaves out involves the timing: Right now is the point where voters can do least about any of this, since it's the beginning of a four-year lock-in for Trump (barring disclosures that even the GOP Congress will consider it career suicide to not impeach and evict him for - which would be what exactly?), and a two-year lock-in for his cushily-gerrymandered party. So even enraging that final 1/3rd of us is a plus if they can get us so goddamn enraged that we soon burn out. Before our voices get hoarse, the opposing 3rd use our shrillness as more reason to deride - and not listen to - those people who always sound like the sky is falling (what with the sky being dismantled), the overwhelmed middle 3rd just notice that both others 3rds are yelling and cover their ears. And then we go back into give-up mode, or into scrap-the-system levels of disgust, evaporating or misapplying enough political energy for them to get away with another couple years of immunity, which they can use to outrage and dishearten us further. And if the corporate media-cowing works, which it often does, if something big finally reawakens us we'll be dealing with an even crazier far 3rd and even less-informed, so more-confused, middle 3rd so might soon burn out again.

We've seen it all before. Our only way back in is when they do something amazingly, destructively, and obviously dumb (common enough) for which they can't confuse the bewildered middle with superficially plausible scapegoats (less common, but still gave us 2006 and 2008). Trump himself seems like the perfect example of such a dumbpocalypse, even if he doesn't cause more (which one can hardly doubt he will), which is why they're dialing up this risky daylight-gaslighting tactic. And why they'll assume they'll have to keep doing it just to stay in power. Gerrymandering and Fox will both have to be broken, and pretty much now, since democracies stalled to this degree quickly fall apart and it's clear enough which direction they fall in - American has not been proving exceptionally exceptional. And they really might be broken, or broken enough. This is either our downfall or our big chance, the endgame that those third party or paradox voters often claim they wish to force. Wasn't worth the risk but here it is.