#1600

This blog has artistic pretenses aplenty; however, when it comes right down to it, it is a Tumblr sex blog–the degree of privilege (having the time and resources enough to keep this project going) is not something that is lost on me; as such: I take a break every 50 posts to contextualize the proceedings here within the scope of what’s happening in the larger world.

I can’t possibly hope to cover everything that’s happened in the 1.5 months since our last post. That’s a simple statement of fact but it’s also well worth identifying as an anti-resistance tactic–it’s physically not possible to keep up with everything but leftist guilt is a powerful sentiment to co-opt and I feel that this is one way in which the current US government is truly succeeding.

Sadly, there have been other successes. Shorn troll doll with a permanently smug, shitstained grin–Ajit Pai, led the FCC in revoking Net Neutrality protections and the House and Senate voted to pass a sweeping tax code that creates a $1 trillion+ deficit and offers graduated tax cuts that will mean (in practice) that the more you make the less you pay in taxes.

These two ‘victories’ for the GOP are both unpopular from a bipartisan standpoint. Both are guided by a strict conservative orthodoxy which maintains that the world functions in a fashion that is not anything like the way the world actually works.

Conservatives believe that regulation stifles innovation. They trust that corporations know best and that we should trust them to do what they do best. Climate change should be enough to categorically disprove this. Ah, yes–but there’s the rub. (Also, I believe that conservatives are aware that while strong title II protections likely also serve their interests, they do realize that capital being what it is they trust the unregulated system to be attuned to profiteering and as such feel that non-regulation likely serves their interests more than anyone elses–I mean even with regulation Russia was able to effectively manipulate opinion via social media.)

Short term, there isn’t likely to be a great deal of fallout over the Net Neutrality repeal. It’ll be litigated ad nauseum–it may or may not shake out in favor of those who favor regulation or those who oppose it. At this point there is no way to tell.

However, the tax cuts for the wealthiest of the wealthy will have immediate ramifications. If you recall those anti-austerity riots in Italy and Greece several years back, that is the future these craven shits are steering us towards. It doesn’t matter if you view the end game as the creation of a neo-plantation system or whether you see this as a long game on ridding the state of minorities, LGBTQ+ folk, atheists and Muslims–I personally believe that when those idiots who voted for this president start having to watch their children starve, they are going to accuse (righteously) those they voted for of abandoning them. And which point it will be easy for leaders to embrace their favorite distraction technique–screaming fake news before deploying the time honored tradition of blaming the other for social turmoil.

It’s gotten so bad that the US ambassador to The Netherlands, was asked about disturbing afactual, Islamophobic comments he is on video spewing. He responded that it was fake news and when pressed about his lie he referred to it as fake news again as his comments were clearly taken out of context. (They were not.)

What worries me is with it looking more and more likely that at the very least the Predator-in-Chief’s campaign colluded with non-American groups and governments in an effort to manipulate the 2016 election. The thought I keep having is that even at this point when collusion is proven (and that’s an assumption but it seems fairly clear where this is headed)–will anything be done about it? Or, will the rallying cry be more fake news and then other outrages will mount and we’ll lose track of it?