28 December 2017

Going Rogue Again With Rogue Columnist Jon Talton

Your MesaZona Blogger says Hooray! for this real-life reporter and purveyor of pulp fiction.
Here's a teaser for him most recent posting:
Rogue Columnist >The Winter of Our Discontent
Washington_Crossing_the_Delaware_MET_DP245003
These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

— Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776
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"We've made it through the first year of the presidency of Donald Trump (let that name attached to that title sink in) without a nuclear war with North Korea. But there's next year.
Meanwhile, despite all the speculation and hope for a Democratic wave in the fall, great damage has been done to the republic. Total Republican control of the federal government resulted in the passage of a ruinous tax bill. Among its worst consequences will be the opportunity costs — no nice things for us, such as high-speed rail or rail transit for our metropolitan areas — because $1.5 trillion will be looted from the Treasury for the very rich. . . "
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Blogger Note: Some snippets from the current piece are included for you interest below.
Here's a link to Jon Talton's blog

About Rogue Columnist

www.roguecolumnist.com/about.html
THE BLOG: Rogue Columnist focuses on sustainability, urban issues and politics in the Great Disruption that is our future. Phoenix and Arizona are a specialty. THE WRITER: Jon Talton is a journalist and author. His 12 novels include the David Mapstone mysteries, the Cincinnati Casebooks and the thriller "Deadline Man.
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I've had an extended discussion of our new abnormality with a journalist. He's a very smart guy but unable to publish his insights without losing his job. So I thought I would offer a few here to get your reaction:
I think the tax cuts issue needs to first, "break the frame," and then people on the left end need to "name it and frame it."  Frame-breaking is replacing the assertion-rebuttal trope of media communication with a counter-assertion in place of a rebuttal . . .
So why does the GOP insist upon reducing the tax burdens of the rich when their claims of job creation and economic stimulus not only never materialize — on  but also follows a pattern of asset bubbles, overheated investments, asset crashes and recessions? . . .
Trump, the GOP and the Deplorables are three points of an unholy trinity. If they find any success, like they did with tax cuts, they will crystallize around it to remain a coherent political entity. Success creates a positive feedback loop that can only be stopped by a negative feedback loop. Just wait for the recession. . .
What will be the point of failure for the coming economic downturn? I see it from cryptocurrencies (a computer simulacrum of currency flows in theory and practice, then using the simulacrum to lay claim to real goods — gee, what can go wrong?), . .
This creates two incompatible and irreconcilable frames on how to analyze society with the progression of time. If you are liberal, you see the broadening definition of individualism to non-white non-males as justice, the righting of a historical wrong. If you are a conservative, you see justice as a personal affront and a humiliating defeat. You see equality as a degradation in cultural status and a devaluation of self-worth; taking of half of everything you have or half of your self worth to give to a nobody and then meeting that nobody halfway. So, yeah, the "good old days" were really good for certain folk, but that's because they yearn for a return to a position of power and status that has been lost and gone forever.
The thing is, it's effective because that exclusive power is a "felt experience" that has been transmitted across generations in a way that liberals stopped transmitting right about the time of the Vietnam war and Robert F. Kennedy's assassination. Since then, the prevailing attitude toward power is that it is an inherently corrupting and corruptible phenomenon that is to be categorically renounced. It's very idealistic and hopeful at a time of violent conflict at home and abroad. The problem was that the sentiment was shared only by a population whose only encounter with power was being on the receiving end of it. A similar renunciation of power did not occur on the right, who began gathering up the power neglected by the left.
SPOILER ALERT: In 50 years since then, the left has only grown only more estranged from power while the right has only grown more enamored of it. The right is legitimizing authoritarianism through the capture of legitimate institutions and the testing of cultural boundaries that go unchallenged. The left, on the other hand, developed an elaborate vocabulary of victimhood and meditated too deeply on oppression as the basis of social relationships. This represents the collective effort of the left experience: sjwiki.org You have to consult that website, not because you want to internalize some or all of its ideology, but if you ever see a young person — say on Twitter, a college campus or a protest — and wonder why they speak a language that sounds like English but carries an emotional connotation not explained by an objective definition of the term, you'll get some idea of their outrage.
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