I can't do what ten people tell me.

 Okay, well. It seems we've got the internet fixed up. Guy came by today and did some rewiring. Of course, the dad-blame internet stayed connected all day today. Typical.

 Anyhow, we're back in business, such as it is. Took Otis and Fuzzy to the vet today so Fuzzy could get his haircut and Otis his check-up. The result is quite satisfying. Fuzzy's half the dog he was and is probably much more comfortable without all that hair. As for Otis, he's got hookworms but otherwise is still healthy as a horse, if a horse was a Jack Russell Terrier. He is getting older, bless his little heart, turns out his hearing and eyesight is going. He's changed a lot over the past year. I still can't wrap my head around him completely ignoring the cats rather than trying to tear them to shreds.

 All right, then, what else is there? Yesterday's News didn't get posted until this morning. I need to re-write one of last week's Actual Paying Work. Little things, just getting into the groove of how it's done. Hell, I don't know what else. I finished The Dispossessed, and I don't think I'd read it before. Regardless, I do like how it presented an anarchistic society as possible but still flawed. Way too many writers would and do take the easy way out and present their utopias as flawless and perfect. This one actually feels more real, and sort of rung true to me with my own problems with the overall "anarchism cultural," whatever the hell that is.

 Like the cyberpunk thing, I really don't feel like I belong there despite my affection for and interest in it. Granted, the nice thing, the appealing thing, about anarchist thought and theory is that there's no real set rules apart from a general dislike of unearned authority and rules for the sake of having rules. Working within the system to change it or even just be able survive without betraying your conscience. Working with what works and discarding what doesn't, with the dual purpose of surviving with your values intact while maybe making the world a slightly less shitty place.

 Man, that book took a lot out of me. That hasn't happened in quite a while, so consider The Dispossessed highly recommended. I admit to being a man of habit and any deviation from my routine gets up my nose. So not being able to use the internet like I prefer - to write, to blog, to research, to listen to music, to work - made me a bit distracted. So I haven't done much the last couple of days besides read that book.

 Beyond that, I don't know. It's been a pretty active day and I'm a bit worn out. I'm half tempted to tie this off here and come back to it after a nap. I'm hitting bottom and can't even come up with a clever folksy colloquialism to describe how slow my brain is right now. I will say I don't care for the new Blogger writing layout, if that means anything.

 Been on a big Otis Redding kick lately. I still think it's one of American Pop Music's biggest tragedies that he didn't get to record more or build on what he started with "(Sittin' On The) Dock of the Bay". I would've liked to think he stuck with Booker T. & The MG's as his band for recording. His touring band was solid enough, but nothing compares. Also, in case it's ever asked, I think he'd have done a killer bee cover of "Highway To Hell".

 Okay, that's word count and my head's killing me. I am tying it off right here. Might come back after a little lie down or if anything clever comes up. Otherwise, we're back to normal business tomorrow. I do have some Actual Paying Work due Thursday, but things are a bit squirrelly there because a client's being a pain. And let me take this opportunity to offer my services to anyone who needs something written or edited. Cheaper than you'll find elsewhere, if nothing else.

All is not lost, it is only mistaken. That's small consolation, but I know just how you feel.

 The internet's dropping in and out again. Hasn't done this all week after Momma got the new modem from the telephone company. She thinks it's due to the heat, and hell, I don't know, it might be. It's in the high 80s outside and fairly humid.

 Anyhow, I got the screen open, so we can do what we do. I can always add links or look up stuff later. Since I'm remembering it this weekend, let's take a lot at what we saw with the News this week.

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 I'm particularly proud of Friday's offering, a fairly deep dive into the Breeona Taylor execution. Another black person murdered because white shooters had to kill someone, another cover-up by local law, and another killing that went unknown for months until social media raised hell about it. This time, however, the killing was done by the local police in the most murderously Barney Fife way possible. They thought they were hitting a drug den which was actually 10 miles away, searching for a suspect who was already in custody.

 Check out the piece and keep your eye on this one. Wingnuts may raise Cain about how their First Amendment rights are being trampled because they can't post Nazi propaganda on Facebook or gun losers think it's perfectly natural and sane to go to Starbucks loaded for bear, but if the Fourth Amendment gets anymore tattered, none of that will matter. There is definitely a racist element, sure, and the American people as a whole are far too generous to cops who kill the wrong black person when killing anyone wasn't necessary. But if we as a culture keep giving authoritarians more and more leeway, we're going to wake one day wondering how that boot got on our neck.

 Governmental authoritarianism is nothing new. Once nations started actually becoming nations rather than kingdoms, their governments felt the need to keep a close eye on the populace, for good or ill. It is what it is. Read your Roman history. Read about John Dee. Read about the development of the Chinese Empire. I don't know how much we'd fight it, either, as we all carry locator beacons in our pockets as a part of the super computers and Hitchhiker's Guides. Hell, I'm using Google to look up some of this stuff, and they've long since given up on the whole "don't be evil" thing.

 As an aside, I don't fret too much about the "surveillance state", either from the government or Corporate America. I don't like it and know it can be abused, and it is, but I don't have to worry about it. I'm a straight white male, I'm good. I hope the System comes crashing down, but figure since it will do it to itself anyway, there's nothing I can really do to help. But the main reason is I don't think I should have to hide what I say or think from anyone. There's nothing I do that needs to be hidden, I feel. Not my love of mind-altering substances or flirtations with anarchism, I don't see any of that as anything to be ashamed of. The law changes, as the Good Doctor said, but I don't feel I have to.

 Well. I've reached word count. During my constitutional, I thought about writing about the corporate press, the mainstream media, and why most people who complain about it really don't know what they're talking about. I don't really feel like doing a deep dive now, but in a nutshell, the mainstream, big corporate press - CNN, the networks, The New York Times, even the big-time websites like Slate or Politico - are all owned by rich people or groups of rich people who incorporate themselves. Most of them are worth ridiculous amounts of money themselves. CNN is worth about five billion dollars, and Fox recently sold assets to Disney for $71 billion.

 These companies and people have a vested interest in keeping the Status Quo. That is, whatever societal changes (you think) they promote, the cold, hard economics of things aren't meant to change. That's how they got rich and how they get richer; they're not going to change that. If you honestly think CNN or the Times wants to destroy capitalism, you are a goddamn moron. Ted Turner might have wanted to change the world for (what he thinks is) the better, but he doesn't own CNN anymore.

 This is reality, but people don't want to acknowledge it and that's where the problem comes. Everything about it makes much more sense if you can recognize that little bit of wisdom and keep it in mind when using the media. It's easy to rage at Maggie Haberman and her limp approach to the Trump Administration, but her job and The New York Times' mission isn't shaking up the Status Quo. They are the Status Quo, just as Trump is, and both of them have a vested interest in keeping the gravy train going. The mainstream press is still useful, just keep that in mind.

 So, one of these days I'll get deeper into it. I keep saying that about a number of things but I haven't yet. That being said, I would totally do it if someone wants to pay me. I'm getting pretty good at deep dives to explain things, especially when I'm getting paid. Just something to think about. Just putting it out there.