So, it is the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend. one of the minor messaging streams in progress this morning was about other messages, some quite old in origin. The Salts had dug up a fascinating string about USS Harder, an American submarine of note that was lost in World War iI. She went down with 76 crew and was lost for 80 years. Their stories rise from the depths with emotion untinged by the global struggles of today. Here is the start to a story that got the Salts spun up yesterday:

So, that image is a tocsin to honor the memory of sacrifice long ago. Legal sent their Intern by the special Holiday Production Meeting on The Patio to remind us to stay away from anything partisan in our presentations. That is a bit of a challenge, since nearly every story in which we are all immersed appears to have a partisan thrust. They are deliberately emotive, whether you agree with the content or not.. We are saturated with memes, and do not intend to “support” or “oppose” anything in particular. We are attempting to discern who is saying what to get a clue as to the consequences of what the messaging is intended to achieve.

Let’s get the disclaimer stuff out of the way and keep the Intern happy. We do not claim what we produce is “Objective” analysis. That was an occasionally accurate term in what “journalism” claimed to be about. Here at Socotra House, we are making a feeble attempt to discover what the object of the messaging under discussion was to begin with. We try to remember that what is presented as “news” is generally not New, but rather a segment of an information campaign to produce a desired end-state.

That means taking a look at the messaging to deconstruct the product to determine how the components were put together. It is boring by intent to keep our focus on the headlines and away from the details that have brought that headline to the limelight.

Current messaging streams have periodic and recurring notoriety, like old claims of infidelity or the hard drives of discarded computers that allegedly contain valid data with alleged evidence of alleged crimes.

it is tiresome to have to talk about it that way, but without a periodic reminder we are at risk of appearing- or being alleged to be- partisan. As a group we have our flaws, of course. But we really would prefer to form and execute public policy in a way that is fair and benefits everybody.

Oh well. See how difficult the analysis of messaging is just to get to the Subject line?

This morning starts as a matter of fabric. There has been a stern letter sent to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court about a matter related to our governance. Or not exactly that since it is actually a personal attack on a serving official intended to impact what someone else wants to happen to our system of governance. Without actually mentioning what that end-state might be.

Which is why we shout bumper stickers at one another, rather than talk about how to actually make things better in a manner in which we can (generally) agree, What does a fabric embroidered rectangle have to do with that?

We start at the basics, so we assume the attempt is to de-legitimize the Court and its major role in running Constitutional Republic composed of three operational elements. One of them- the Executive Branch, is supposed to manage how the whole enterprise works. A second branch was entrusted with managing the money and constructing the basis of law under which the Executive manages things. The courts are the third brnch, who determine if the laws and management techniques are legal.

The point of the torrent of messaging in progress? It is designed to influence a Government that no longer works that way. If you include the interests of the administrative colossus in Washington and the Media/Messaging machine you can see there are at least two more, plus whoever tells those elements what they need to accomplish in their messaging to benefit another set of interests.

Oh? The fabric thing? That is how we get lost in the emotion and lose the actual issue. In this one, if the national flag of the United States is displayed inverted, it has long been used as a means of signaling a non-partisan request for assistance. We were unaware of anything controversial about it in a navigational context, but apparently there is an opinion that such display actually represents an appeal for unspecified national help. That was a second step in the campaign, since another Justice had been subject to indirect assault directed at a spouse. This one is part of an evolving procerss, first undermining one and then another over the fabric issue.

It was reported.a few days after the fabric inversion messaging that another cloth rectangle was displayed outside a vacation home. The fabric allegedly contained a provocative image of a small pine tree. Possibly unfurled by another spouse of a person who needs to be officially admonished. Which of course means the messaging is not about the alleged message but something else. The use of an image of a pine tree clearly has the potential for conifer-oriented controversy.

But irony side, a look at the messaging suggests there is a well-funded campaign to use character assassination against law-abiding spouses of government officials to impact judicial decisions that could hamper a partisan agenda. No surprise there, since that basic game is based on facets of human nature that our system was intended to curtail. We are struggling with gender, sex, age, the notion of social fairness and something called equity.

We don’t understand the last term, since we were taught the word represented the product of something contributed to the purchase of a house or something of value. Now, it is something society apparently owes to any who show up with outstretched hands. That is actually what we seem to be talking about, along with whoever it is that picks the hands reaching out for some complementary equity.

So, in this smaller part of the messaging campaign, it is the time of year the Supreme Court traditionally issues decisions on the cases they have agreed to review. Some call it “Decision Season.” At issue are a broad number of case with direct impact on the undetermined number of power centers. By topic?

LAWFARE: Immunity Claim, Ballot Disqualification, Obstruction of Justice.

GOVERNMENT: Federal Agency Powers, Exchange Commission In-House Enforcement, Ozone Emissions, Voting in South Carolina, Social Media and Government Officials,

SOCIAL: Reproduction issues in Abortion Pill Access, Access to Abortion in Idado, Guns:
Bump Stock Prohibitions, Domestic Violence Firearms Curbs, Free Speech Protection for the NRA.
We count a lucky thirteen in the issues presented in this Decision Season, That is a dizzying array of deeply emotional issues, That accounts for the character attacks in the media campaign. The timing of Court decisions will also impact other messaging streams aimed for a bigger target in November.
Possession of the Executive Branch is one of the larger issues in the messaging. And that is how the fabric rectangles became part of the information stream. Wait until the decisions start to flow from the Court. Pine trees in distress?
We think we can all agree on that, at least. Which is why it is part of the messaging about something else.

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com