We are trying to figure out the messaging swirling around us. Some of it is up there above.
Those are just some of the strands this morning. They are obviously deliberately intended to mold opinion, not convey truth. But we all know that is as old as human communication, and an intrinsic part of our species.
Technology has changed that around a bit. The digital revolution has upended the old concepts of basic things, rendering old protections obsolete. Like “speech,” which isn’t uttered anymore. It is also now keystrokes or fingertips pressed on small screens. Or “papers,” which are cyber files flying about at the speed of light.
So, you can see a couple topics worth amendments in our founding documents are sort of irrelevant. Like the ones reserved to the “States” or the “People.” We won’t even start on the things of which ‘possession’ is supposed to be ‘unrestricted,’ since it was worth fighting a King about one time, but now is subject to the dictates of an anonymous official in a cubical someplace.
But s/he has a keyboard!
We saw some of this in a curious episode yesterday. We used to live in Aurora, Colorado. It was a long time ago, when it was a close-in suburb of Denver adjoining Lowery AFB. The base was then used for training and logistics after the airplanes stopped using it. It got us reay to go out to the big struggle against the Commies. After the great Victory over the scourge, the facility was closed, and the large area re-purposed for mixed use affordable housing. Apparently world Communism or something like it has apparently made a resurgence lately.
A couple of the nice apartment complexes in Aurora have been taken over by an armed Venezuelan gang. It is a little surprising, since the last time something like this went on was in the Chicago gang-land days of the Great Depression. The foreign gangs, like this one- “Tren de Aragua” has used the US open borders to spread from the Tocoron prison down there to the central location in Denver.
They are a progressive gang. They made the prison where they were held pretty nice, constructing restaurants and swimming pools inside since they controlled it. The Government was offended and recently took it back from them. In response, the gang decided to come here. The pools are better, we understand.
It is similar to what Castro did with the residents of his prisons when he shipped them to Miami. Anyway, the Tren de Aragua gang is now establishing itself in Denver where they run human trafficking and drug distribution at the junction of I-70, east and west, and I-25, north and south.
The video in question was taken on a phone cam of a group of three or four young men with rifles who were knocking down the door to ‘Apt. 301’ with the butts of the weapons. It was both casual and dramatically violent, since there was no response. The messaging this morning was from the Governor of Colorado, who apparently was alarmed at the messaging that implies his state now has formerly autonomous areas controlled by armed foreign gangs. He told reporters it was a “figment of our imaginations.”
We know, we know. It all sounds kind of weird. But all of the messaging is. Some of the other ones set the tone for the close of this chaotic week and the start of the last holiday before we get serious about changing our world in the next one, relaxed and refreshed.
One of them was the latest barrage of Trump messaging.
A civilian employee of Arlington National Cemetery, a place where some of us plan to spend eternity, sought to enforce federal regulations barring partisan political activity at the reservation. We support that, of course. Former President Trump was present at the invitation of some family members of two of the 13 military personnel slain in the bomb attack on Kabul airport three years ago.
The incident became part of a messaging campaign within the election tumult. The image of Trump placing the wreath was as powerful, in its way, as the fist he raised after being winged by a sniper bullet. There was some controversy about how it would be treated.
The ‘raised fist’ mostly got the spike, although we have seen it on t-shirts and an occasional tattoo. The more solemn one, which would have received respectful coverage had he been there in an official capacity, instead was used to attack him as a shallow publicity seeking hound. The Trump campaign faulted the cemetery employee, calling her “despicable” who had a “mental health episode.”
We have asked our families not to invite anyone associated with the Executive branch, active, aspirant or retired, to attend our funerals even if the 3rd Infantry Division Tomb Guards happen to have a horse and carriage to take us to the soil.
The other morning incidentals? Shoe giant retailers ‘Foot Locker’ is shifting its headquarters from New York to Florida. They say the overhead required to do business there with social engineering requirements having nothing to do with feet is a key factor. It is also possibly imaginary, just like the other stuff the Soviet government used to do.
That resulted in social habits that became automatic. Like, if you saw a line, you got in it since there might be something available if you got to the front.
The 27 Club thing? It sort of sums it all up. It is a sort of morbid reference to the sudden departures of some great musicians at the unwarranted age of just 27. That includes Janis Joplin, Kurt Kobain, Jim Morrison and Amy Winehouse. And of course, the great Jimmi Hendrix. He had attended a party with his girlfriend Monika in London, where he complained to friends about the pressure from Manager Mike Jeffrey and pending lawsuits. He indulged in a cocktail of amphetamines and alcohol, and upon return to their flat, added a heavy dose of barbiturates. He passed away as a result.
We have taken to calling this season our version of the 27 Club after we watched one of the candidates do the interview she has been preparing for over the last few weeks she has been incommunicado. She is not only running against the MAGA guy, but also her own administration. They say there might be some tumult in there with the people who claim to be running the most powerful nation on earth.
And with that sort of messaging, we feel we are now ready to party!
Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com