“Say the word and you’ll…” You’ll what? Be a meme? “No, that isn’t right.”
Be a me. Nope. Ah, it is “Be like me.”
At least that is what the Beatles said. Play this music embed and read on about my struggle with this not a new thing, I know it goes back much further in time than this Happiness Project post, but I stopped searching when I found this use. I don’t think it became a meme until this year. (Digression: Oh crap, there is another word I need to write a post about. The word “meme” and my time travels with it. )
There is a word meme going round. I have tried to resist. I even considered using the word “resist” as my word. That was just too iterative, and self-negating for me. It tripped the, “Wow, man” circuit. And that is one little connection I try to never fire up. I spent too many years attempting to inform the world that Later Born Baby Boomers are quite distinct as as a Baby Boomer cohort and we really should not be grouped with them at all. So the word isn’t “resist.”
Besides, I don’t believe in resisting. I believe in building new structures, paths, and understandings. To “resist” is just to put energy into a system with which you disagree. I’m a “Field of Dreams” type girl.
The other thing I decided is that my word will not be one of the trendy ones. One of the tried and true ones, maybe. But not one of the trendy ones. I only do trends before they are trends, n’est-ce pas?
It sure isn’t disrupt or any derivative of that word. Neither is gratitude. These are both perfectly fine words, great words, in fact, but frequent usage does not mean that most people who use or select them personally understand the meaning of the words. Neither will my word be bipartisan. I think this will be a big word in the fall. But that would be foolish after so many decades of steady rightward shift. Balance must be restored, but for me balance is not a simple meeting in a middle, no it isn’t the the right word either.
Resolutions or words, it makes no difference. This year will be for me to organize. My files? Maybe. A movement? Perhaps. My life? Always. But is it my word? Nope. Two solid weeks of thinking about this has finally brought me to the understanding that I am a nerdy, techy person, so what I need is something, well, structural. When I realized this I knew what my word for 2014, the Year of the Horse, the year I turn 57 having been born in 57 (that has to be a magical number) is (Can you hear the drum roll?) infrastructure.
Infrastructure inspires me. Infrastructure motivates me. Infrastructure simplifies everything when created properly. Infrastructure is what our country has neglected that has led us to where we are. Infrastructure is cool. Rachel Maddow says so. If asked, the 11th Doctor, the Raggedy Man, would say so too… along with singing the praises of bow ties, fezzes, and 10 gallon hats.
So, tah dah, my friends – you will be hearing a lot about tech, organization, and infrastructure both here, and on my business site, Hill Research Service’s Research and Content during the next many months. It is going to be a good year.
Synchronicity and Hope for America Found in Arizona, Of All Places
I love the concepts of synergy, synchronicity, and the untraceable, invisible spheres of influence that are so very present with every breath in life, and that pervade every molecule in the physical world. So when things align, and I observe patterns of behavior and occurence, I pay attention. There is unfortunately a huge problem distinguishing the line between pattern recognition via intuition, and delusions of reference. Oh well, C’est la vie. I invite you to click and listen to The Police while you read on.
Today is Fathers Day and my husband and my 23rd wedding anniversary. Synchronicity one.
The next area is the unusual and sad coupling of the silent march from Harlem to the Mayor’s home in NYC to end Stop and Frisk with the death of Rodney King, on the West Coast. This tragic event brings up memories I have of the horrific, thuggish police brutality in the near death beating of a black man in L.A., and the lack of ANY convictions of policemen in the case that in turn sparked the L.A. riots of ’91 is a strange co-occurence. Groups who both have been repressed, ghettoized, and lynched, and still experiences these outrages today,are banding together in a joint march that would have been unthinkable even last year. In spirit, I believe Rodney King and Matthew Shepard are walking with them arm in arm.
Political synchronicities seem to abound as of late.
I got really pumped up by attending a political event in support of Richard Carmona’s Senate campaign with the Hubby yesterday at which Rich obviously spoke, but at which Al Franken was the “Headliner.”
I realized at the event that I could feel the energy gathering to be released through a groundswell of Americans, of all sorts, banding together to restore opportunity for all Americans. The core principle of the American Dream was so real it was visceral. We are re-birthing the Dream sisters and brothers.
Rich Carmona, is the GOP’s worst nightmare: a true American Hero, holder of National level appointed post for a recent Republican President, decorated veteran (2 bronze stars), physician, deputy sheriff, SWAT Team leader who supports vets, women’s rights to access to complete autonomous access to healthcare, believes that what his mother told him about how women have never started a war and the real need for equitable reflection of percentages of women in the population to be seen in the government, and in the absolute need for access to education for all so as to allow pursuit of the American Dream. Carmona is such a strong candidate, a Democratic candidate, from Arizona, the proving ground for Republican general weaponry, as well as corporatist Weapons of Mass Cultural Destruction, that it almost makes me giddy. He is part of what looks to be the coalescing of several independent responses and reactions to Republican overreach and repression of rights. This synchronous coming together may well form the perfect storm of bipartisan groundswell to counter the systematic, anti-American, corporate-led dismantling of the American Dream.
This overlaps, for those of us in Tucson, with Ron Barber’s win to serve out the remainder of Gabrielle Giffords term in the U.S. House of Representatives. What may be even more important is that the extremist Right-wing candidate, Jesse Kelly, who has had full Republican backing in the last two House races for AZ District 8, announced he would not run again. In his concession speech on Tuesday night he said he would announce his intention to run again, or not, within a couple of days. I personally believe he wanted to run again, but that he had to check with the big money, national boys to see if they would pump the huge sums of money Kelly needed in order to even come close, and yet still lose, to his Democratic opponent in recent elections.
I think the big money boys said, “No.” Southeast Arizona should have campaigns that are fairly low key, and, of interest primarily to residents within the district. The Southeastern-most corner of Arizona, has always seemed to draw more national and big money attention from the RNC and the DNC than would be expected. This was true when the Rep was Jim Kolbe, when the Rep was Gabby Giffords, and now when the Rep is Ron Barber. I will have to write another piece to dig into the dirty dish that is that story.
Arizona has been pivotal as a symbol, a symbol that has been carefully constructed by the neo-con, tea-bagging, prison-and-guns-as-a-growth-industry, corporate backers. Our state has taken on iconic proportions. The people who have made Arizona the laughing stock of the nation are falling victim to one of the common pitfalls about which political strategists warn their clients; that is believing your own propaganda.
Our southern border, that happens to be a state and national border, has been “guarded” by Nazi-connected, child and family slayers. Much of the national press coverage depicted them as proud American patriots. Bull pucky. Our citizenry fell victim to cold blooded murder in an attempted assassination of a U.S. Member of Congress by a mentaToolslly off balance young man who read Mein Kampf and probably was influenced by the antipathy of outrage, lies, and vitriol that formed the center of an ideological war being waged in our backyards just like Sheriff Dupnik said. Sheriff Dupnik, synchronistically, has been Rich Carmona’s boss in his role as a deputy for over two decades.
Arizona isn’t what has been depicted in the media for so long. Our supposed State Leaders, who gather in Phoenix reflect political manipulation of legislative district lines, huge influxes of national and international corporate money in podunk elections, actual election rigging, far more than they do the Arizona people. The un-balance of power in our State House that lists toward ultra right wing king pins, uber-Christian zealots, and Mormons whose families were too conservative to live in Utah make up a disproportionate block there. This in no way reflects Arizona’s amazing diversity and eclectic richness. The oligarchy has ruled here for quite some time.
It allowed extremist Russell Pearce to preside over the Arizona Senate until he was recalled through bi-partisan efforts to oust the “Man behind Jan” and good friend of known neo-Nazi J. T. Ready. Ready was Republican candidate for Pinal County Sheriff and Minute Man Militia Member and also falls into the category of mass murderer who killed his family, including a toddler, before killing himself earlier this year.
I attended a debate between all the parties running for Congress in 2010 on the University of Arizona Campus. The person with whom I attended was holding a Giffords sign outside the venue after the event. Neo-nazi thugs who had been evident inside the venue as Jesse Kelly supporters came up to us with their German-esque lettering, Nazi slogan-infested black t-shirts and other skinhead regalia, and attempted to push over and intimidate my friend. When our ground was firmly stood, they spat on my friend’s shoes.
I have spoken out, for years about these disturbing connections between out of control, intimidation wielding, murder threatening thugs, and rogue cops within Tucson Police Department. This was even before the local and state level Republican Party has allowed the likes of Kelly and Ready to represent them. I still firmly believe the Tea Party funded by the Koch Bros tested their on the ground “astro turf” tactics right here in Tucson all the way down to the border. I am not the only person to notice these connections that seem to link neo-Nazis with government “leaders” in Arizona. Tucson housed retired mafioso, but Phoenix was where the dirty work was done. Just like Vegas, the glitz and bling of false, neo-con idolatry was probably planned near Tucson.
The equal and opposite reaction that cultural systems theorists would predict in reaction to the massive swing toward fascism this country took over the last several decades may well be building as I write. Being inside the systems in which these sorts of homeostatic properties operate, we cannot see or understand what is really happening. But just like in math and physics, we can observe patterns, that may or may not signify anything.
But really, a former Surgeon General who heads up SWAT teams and was awarded two bronze stars hanging out with a former Saturday Night Live comedian surely signifies that “the times, they are a changin’.”
Here's Hoping The Lean Toward Political Sanity Lasts
I’m still somewhat awash in happiness over local and far-off year election results of yesterday. While I would have loved to see Mary DeCamp as mayor of Tucson, a Green Party Mayor isn’t in the stars for us just yet. I am very, very happy that the lobbyist for Rosemont Copper, also known as the Republican candidate for Mayor in yesterday’s election, aka Rick Grinnell, was soundly defeated. The airwaves were blanketed with anti-Democratic candidate ads for the days leading up to the election and pro-Rosemont mine ads have been everywhere for the last month. Lots of corporate money went into anti-Rothschild and anti-Democratic, and pro-corporate mining ads before the election.
Arizona knows mines. Abandoned mining towns such as Ruby are evidence of the temporary nature of mines. The toxic warning signs posted around what is left of Ruby are evidence of the long-term impact of the use of toxic substances in the mining process. The Santa Rita Mtns are some of the most beautiful, and avian species rich, land in the U.S.A. Just take a look at Madera Canyon in the Santa Ritas. Birding, nature, hiking, picnicking, vacation cabins and the like are apt to last much longer than a mine while bringing in tourists and providing respite for locals. Of course the owners of Rosemont Copper Company, a subsidiary of Augusta Resource Corporation are sort of like tourists too, just ask the Canadians at its headquarters in Vancouver, BC, but ones with heavy equipment and massive need for limited water supplies.
So I’m still pleased as punch, to the point of being somewhat punchy, over the City of Tucson not being home to a Lobbyist Mayor. I believe small local business will benefit from our more traditional soon to be mayor Jonathan Rothschild even though one large foreign corporation may not want to hear that.
The second happy thought generating event that is still buoying my disposition today is the resounding defeat of Russell Pearce in the recall election in Mesa, AZ.
The fact that the loss of the mayoral race by my friend Mary DeCamp, Green Party Candidate, to a middle of the road Democrat and the election of a moderate Republican, Jerry Lewis, over Pearce, actually makes me happy shows just how extreme the concerns of Progressives like myself have become in the last few years in this state.
The sensible defeat of the attempt to grant personhood status to blastocytes in Mississippi and the reaffirmation by the people of people to be able to gather together and discuss labor issues and act collectively in Ohio are also quite heartening, and overall I am very, very pleased that some sensible movement away from extremist positions seems to have begun across the country including in my own state.
I do dearly hope that the right of individuals to have control over their own lives is being reasserted in opposition to Religious Group and Corporate Group attempts to usurp the sovereignty of the individual over his or her own body and behavior.
Who Owns the Media VS. Who Drives the Media?
I’m trying to get ready for BlogHer San Diego (Woot! Woot!) and have so much to do! But I wanted to talk about how markets may change significantly because of a potential change in media ownership. Don’t know how as yet. I’m not psychic. Just astute. But I’m so darn busy I haven’t been able to update everything as yet. So, if this is cryptic, leave a comment and we can talk. Social Media folks better take note of what is coming down the pipeline for Corporate Media. Just look below at this Ad Week screen capture from my computer this a.m.
Ads drive media. Even we little gal bloggers and sole proprietors know that. So while Corporate Media wields incredible amounts of power, it may be declining with the evolving downfall of Murdock Media Manipulation. Advertisers go with the flow. If ADWEEK has “Hacked” as a banner story and when you click on it you get this page, you something is going down for News Corp. I watch the news, I follow lots of stories, but the times I’ve anticipated trends, which is one of the things at which I excel, it is because I see something that is glaringly obvious such as this page.
Oh, as an aside I used Gimp to blur the ads and my open tabs on this screen shot so you can see the useful nature of Gimp, which I still LOVE. Open source, community based, I get tingly just using phrases like these.
Ad Week covers the ad industry. The ad industry drives media. The ad industry will not back corporate media if it is disadvantageous to them. After the dust settles on this issue (in about two and a half years) small dispersed media will be more important sooner than anyone had expected due to total lack of trust of Big Media (and maybe Big Business too, wouldn’t that be nice for us little persons?) So social media moguls in the offing, be aware of what is changing in your world at this very moment.
Social Media will be the frame for media even sooner than expected because of what I like to call “Fox Fall.” Isn’t that poetic?
Now, how to make some money on that…. let’s talk if you have ideas. I added a contact form on this site. It will be shaping up to be even more useful soon.
I’m finishing up a website for someone, I’m hoping to do before and after images, but am waiting on permission for that) and restructuring everything in my life, again, as I have been doing all year — but with a difference. I’m healthy and raring to go for the first time in a long, long while, have lost 15 lbs so far, can breathe easily — nose surgery — who’d a thunk it? I’m writing up a storm, but I’m ready for more website work so send me some info about your website needs and we can discuss simplification and standardization. And remember, “Buy Little & Buy Local.”