View allAll Photos Tagged Cynicism
Patience, frustration, cynicism, sarcasm, disbelief, contemplation.......
All kinda rolled into one.
#SPS #selfportraitsunday #selfexpression #selfportrait
My family is a bunch of little badasses. Thoughtful with opinions about inequality, genocide, and the environment. Sometimes the perspective seems painfully naive, but so far cynicism and disillusioned acceptance aren't proving to be powerful drivers of change. So carry on, tell the man you're unimpressed, and turn the system upside down.
That metallic sheen of cynicism, that grayish shade of gloom, that slowly spreading lethargy, half mixed with sense of doom
A la question « Pourquoi cette idée de peindre des boîtes de soupe ? », Andy Warhol répondait : « Parce que j’en consommais. J’ai pris le même déjeuner tous les jours pendant vingt ans, je crois bien recommencer toujours la même chose. Quelqu’un a dit que je subissais ma vie ; l’idée m’a plu. »
Un des sujets de prédilection de Warhol, qui s’apparenterait plutôt au Pop art, est bien de représenter des objets de consommation de masse. L’artiste reprend ainsi, en ne les modifiant que légèrement, des images de boîtes de soupe Campbell, de bouteilles de Coca Cola, de boîtes Brillo. Il a employé pour cela de la technique de la sérigraphie, qui lui permettait d’effacer toute trace personnelle et de renforcer l’impression de réalité de la représentation.
On peut donc remarquer que Warhol joue sur la notion d’illusion, de trompe-l’œil. On lit d’ailleurs sur le site du MoMa que lors d’une exposition en 1962 les montrant pour la première fois, les Campbell’s Soup Cans avaient été disposées ensemble, sur des étagères, comme pour simuler une allée d’épicerie. Jean-Olivier Majastre explique que « par les pouvoirs bien connus de l’illusion artistique, on nous fait passer la représentation pour la réalité, le titre pour le sujet ». Le fait de créer des œuvres qui imitent des produits ordinaires que l’on trouve dans les supermarchés et de les élever au rang d’icône, en les montrant dans les musées, provoque une déstabilisation des repères artistiques. Tout comme les ready-made de Duchamp, c’est bien parce qu’on déclare que ces représentations du banal sont des œuvres d’art qu’elles accèdent à ce rang. Comme on peut le lire dans le document créé par le service éducatif de l’Abbaye de Stavelot, Warhol utilise le pouvoir des images et remet aussi en question la notion d’œuvre d’art : « elle est désormais consommable, éphémère et reproductible ». L’œuvre de Warhol, qui symbolise bien l’« American way of life », questionne la société de consommation avec ironie et cynisme mais de manière ambiguë. On se demande ainsi si celle-ci est réellement critiquée ou au contraire admirée. De plus, le fait que l’œuvre s’inscrive au sein d’une série et que le motif soit également répété sur la toile amène à réfléchir sur la notion d’original, sur sa valeur et sur le commerce de l’œuvre d’art.
To the question "Why this idea of painting cans of soup?" "Andy Warhol replied," Because I used it. I have had the same lunch every day for twenty years, I think I do the same thing over and over again. Someone has said that I am taking my life; I liked the idea. "
One of Warhol's favorite subjects, which is more akin to Pop art, is to represent objects of mass consumption. The artist thus takes up, modifying them only slightly, images of Campbell's soup cans, Coca Cola bottles, Brillo cans. He used the technique of screen printing for this, which allowed him to erase all personal traces and reinforce the impression of reality of the representation.
We can therefore notice that Warhol plays on the notion of illusion, of trompe-l'oeil. We read on the MoMa website that during an exhibition in 1962 showing them for the first time, the Campbell’s Soup Cans were arranged together, on shelves, as if to simulate a grocery aisle. Jean-Olivier Majastre explains that "through the well-known powers of artistic illusion, we are made to pass the representation for reality, the title for the subject". Creating works that imitate ordinary products found in supermarkets and elevating them to iconic status, by showing them in museums, destabilizes artistic benchmarks. Like Duchamp's ready-mades, it is good because it is said that these representations of the banal are works of art that they reach this rank. As we can read in the document created by the educational service of Stavelot Abbey, Warhol uses the power of images and also questions the notion of a work of art: "it is now consumable, ephemeral and reproducible" . Warhol's work, which symbolizes the "American way of life", questions consumer society with irony and cynicism, but in an ambiguous way. One thus wonders if this one is really criticized or on the contrary admired. In addition, the fact that the work is part of a series and that the motif is also repeated on the canvas leads to reflection on the notion of original, on its value and on the trade of the work of art. 'art.
Strong people of the best country in the world!
I want to begin this address with words of congratulations. On my own behalf and on your behalf, on behalf of all our citizens of Ukraine to the employees of the Security Service of Ukraine. Today is their day.
30 years ago, on March 25, the Security Service of our state was founded.
The Service has come a long way. And we all know that. But we also know that during the eight years of the war in Donbas and during the 30 days of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many members of the Security Service have shown themselves from the best - heroic - side.
They have shown themselves principled, courageous and able to inflict losses on the enemy that the enemy does not expect. This is exactly what Ukraine needs now.
I am grateful to all our heroes from the Security Service of Ukraine. I am grateful to everyone in the Service who during 30 years of our common history broke the plans of enemies and worked in the interests of the Ukrainian people only.
Congratulations on the holiday! Respect to everyone!
And we will always remember all the employees of the Service who died for Ukraine while performing tasks to counter Russian aggression.
During this month of hostilities, 77 employees of the Security Service were awarded state awards. Two of them were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. Both distinguished themselves in the battles near Makariv, Kyiv region. Thanks to their courageous actions, the enemy headquarters and more than 20 occupiers were destroyed.
I can't tell you the names of our heroes. This is the specifics of the service. But I can say with confidence: the memory of them will truly be eternal!
Today I signed a decree on state awards to 63 law enforcement officers of Ukraine. Seven of them were awarded posthumously.
Police, rescuers, border guards, special service officials of the State Bureau of Investigation and employees of the Court Protection Service. Thank you to everyone!
Over the past week, our heroic Armed Forces have dealt powerful blows to the enemy, significant losses. They say that the Minister of Defense of Russia has disappeared somewhere… I wonder if he personally wanted to visit Chornobaivka?
I am grateful to our defenders who showed the occupiers that the sea will not be calm for them even when there is no storm. Because there will be fire. As on those Russian ships that departed this week on the famous route from the port of Berdyansk.
I want to warn all traitors of Ukraine who sided with the enemy in Crimea years ago. You switched sides because you thought you would live better, right? Not because you want to repeat the tragic fate of your colleagues who died on those ships or somewhere else on land or at sea in Ukraine. Well, live. Stay as far away from our cities and our army as possible.
The number of Russian casualties in this war has already exceeded 16,000 killed. Among them are senior commanders. There have not been reports about killed Russian colonels-general or admirals yet. But the commander of one of the occupying armies and deputy commander of the Black Sea Fleet are already there.
The Armed Forces continue to repel enemy attacks in the south of the country, in Donbas, in the Kharkiv direction and in the Kyiv region.
By restraining Russia's actions, our defenders are leading the Russian leadership to a simple and logical idea: talk is necessary. Meaningful. Urgent. Fair. For the sake of the result, not for the sake of the delay.
16,000 Russian servicemen have already died. For what? What does it give and to whom?
The conversation must be meaningful. Ukrainian sovereignty must be guaranteed. Ukraine's territorial integrity must be ensured. That is, the conditions must be fair. And the Ukrainian people will not accept others.
During the week we managed to establish 18 humanitarian corridors. A total of 37,606 people were rescued from the blocked cities.
In particular, 26,477 Mariupol residents were evacuated from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia via the humanitarian corridor. The situation in the city remains absolutely tragic. The Russian military does not allow any humanitarian aid into the city. They only use Mariupol residents in fakes for their propagandists. Pretending to start giving something to people.
I will continue to inform the nations of other countries in great detail about such disgusting cynicism of the occupiers, about all the war crimes of Russia against the civilians of our heroic Mariupol and other cities of Ukraine. It is very important. I want to emphasize: not only politicians and government officials, but nations. Everyone on the planet needs to know what Russia is doing. So that the responsibility for crimes against the Ukrainian people becomes inevitable and as severe as possible for the Russian military.
During the week alone, I addressed the parliaments of Italy, Japan, France and Sweden. I spoke at the summits of NATO, the G7 and the leaders of the European Union.
Each of these speeches attracted maximum attention in the respective countries and in the world as a whole. The reviews show that the Ukrainian position was heard. And this is my main goal in such speeches.
You know perfectly well what a powerful system of state propaganda Russia has built. They have spent and are spending tens of billions of dollars on it. Probably no one in the world has ever spent such crazy money on lies. But they did not take into account one thing. Where the path of lies needs to be paved with money and the result is not guaranteed, the path of truth is difficult, but the path of truth paves itself. The main thing is to be honest.
Next week I will continue this important work for our interests. Interests of Ukraine. Interests of freedom and independence.
I had a conversation today with Turkish President Erdoğan. The results of the NATO summit were discussed. Of course, we also talked about the efforts that could bring peace closer to Ukraine and end this senseless Russian invasion of a foreign land.
There is important news from our government officials.
First. They have already started paying pensions for April. In particular, the Pension Fund has transferred to Oschadbank the entire amount of pensions for the Chernihiv and Luhansk regions. Tomorrow people will have money on their bank cards and Ukrposhta will deliver cash.
Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, the payment of April pensions will continue in other regions of Eastern and Central Ukraine. The other day a wave of payments will cover the entire state.
This is one of our priorities: the Ukrainian state has fulfilled and will fulfill all obligations to our citizens, to our pensioners.
Second. Under the eSupport program, more than 20 billion hryvnias have already been paid to people who have lost their jobs or the opportunity to have business. The amount of payment is 6,500 hryvnias.
Third. Officials are preparing a new support program for our IDPs from the war zones.
Regional administrations have been given a clear task to quickly allocate land for the construction of temporary housing for displaced persons. I want to emphasize once again - this is temporary housing. Once we establish peace, we will begin the immediate, large-scale reconstruction of our state. But now people need a temporary home. Their home.
And it is better to have a home in Ukraine than somewhere abroad. We pay aid, we give a job. Native people. Native country. All the details of this support program will be presented by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
And a few more words about the path of truth. About those who bring you and us true information about everything that is happening in our country.
I would like to express special gratitude to our journalists today. To all those who ensure the work of the national telethon "United News", to all our media people. Correspondents, presenters, editors, media managers, cameramen, directors, video editors, make-up artists, producers - everyone without whom it is impossible to imagine television. Everyone who united and together with other defenders of our people provides Ukrainians with truthful information and, last but not least, confidence 24/7.
I am grateful to all of you! And, I'm sure, I can say this on behalf of all Ukrainians.
Glory to you all!
Glory to all our heroes!
Glory to Ukraine!
Anima Series 6
Whites Beach, Broken Head NSW Australia 2025
TRUST IN HOPE – HOPE IN TRUST
It seems chaos is contagious – that when the scale of strife in the world reaches a critical point there’s a flow-on effect permeating all walks of life.
Including our willingness to trust.
For ‘some’, there appears a very widespread mistrust and cynicism in all things institutional – governments, academia, the law, the entire economic system in which we live.
There’s talk of collapse, extinction!
Right at that point when having faith in ourselves and each other would seem crucial to our future, there’s instead a dearth of confidence and a growing virus of despair.
Yet I fail to see any value or benefit in despair.
A lack of trust or confidence, a profound pessimism are self-defeating qualities that diminish our ability to co-operate and organise – whatever our circumstances, regardless of the obstacles we face.
They are a state of mind or attitude that limits our ability to deal with current events or work towards future solutions and, in the long term, can impact our mental health.
Negativity is negative all ‘round.
Maintaining our ability to trust in chaotic surroundings is especially hard and especially important, because trust can give us something we can’t do alone.
It offers the courage, a hope of investing in someone and receiving the same in return.
I think the value of hope only becomes truly obvious when it’s lost.
With NAIDOC starting today, I was reminded of this sculpture when i tried to access a nearby "public park" that was closed to the public. Andrew Mackenzie writes this stinging assessment of this sculpture and the general failure of public art at Docklands:
"Compare this to the sculptural fundamentalism of Bruce Armstrong’s Bunjil. Based on the spirit creator of the Kulin nations, which include the Wurundjeri people whose forefathers lived in and around present day Melbourne, Armstrong’s fundamentalist white sculpture represents one of the Docklands’ most monumental failures. Perched high on a totemic timber plinth between the east and westbound lanes of the Wurundjeri Highway, Bunjil’s location seems hand-picked for aloof detachment. Defying close observation and with no safe or legal way to experience it as a sculptural object [at close quarters], it can only be viewed either by the passing driver or distant tourist [from the new Collins Street bridge], reducing its apprehension to that of the purely iconic. But what is it an icon to? This Bunjil, which once protected the Wurundjeri people, safeguarding the land and fending off predators, has now been downgraded to the mute task of overseeing the building boom of one of the country’s largest cash-cow real-estate developments. That we blithely accept Bunjil’s symbolic failure to protect the land and the people of the Wurundjeri and rather parade it as cultural restitution, is an act of sheer cynicism that beggars belief."
www.artprojection.com.au/html/articles/guilty art.pdf
(I am having trouble with the link, so you will have to select it manually)
Alternatively, get involved with NAIDOC week:
www.naidoc.org.au/get-involved/2019-theme
080-4762
20010818UK On the 21st October 1966 Elizabeth M. was one of a handful of schoolchildren at Pantglas Junior School who escaped being swallowed up by a coal tip which had been put over a spring. Incessant rain had destabilised the tip, the base liquified and 110,000 cubic metres of slurry slid down the mountain, hitting the school as lessons began. 116 children and 28 adults died. Incredible cynicism by the NCB and the government of the day (Labour) were partially made good later, The trauma which had affected the the village could never be repaired. No one was prosecuted for criminal negligence. Aberfan Wales Great Britain #blackandwhite #237 #ptsd #aberfan #slurry #tip#ncb #nationalcoalboard #labour #criminalnegligence #pantglas #knownknowns&unknownknowns #art #realpeople #reallives #truestories #portraits #b&w #photography #instagram #street hughes-photography.eu www.flickr.com/photos/michael_hughes www.hughes.berlin#knownknowns&unknownknowns #art #realpeople #reallives #truestories #portraits #b&w #photography #instagram #street hughes-photography.eu www.flickr.com/photos/michael_hughes www.hughes.berlin
It`s that time of year again , MoNovember the place to go with your Mono`s from the month of November ........ why not drop by and join in MoNovember Here
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With age I've learned
the error of my ways,
time wasted being reserved,
back in my younger days.
When I had attributes
most anyone would want,
I was ashamed and bashful,
way to shy to flaunt.
Now, age as taught me wisdom,
some cynicism, too.
My actions are not guided
by what you say or do.
My figure's far from perfect now,
my hair is turning white.
You say I'm way too old for that,
it just would not be right.
But I object, I disagree,
I am just what I am,
I'll sunbathe anyway I please,
and propriety be damned.
Since I’ll be away until later next week I thought I’d leave you something to reflect on. It is happening everywhere right now, all over the world. The problem of homelessness for refugees is tragically always with us. Wars and internal conflict lead to millions of displaced and homeless people every year. But there is a growth in homelessness in our relatively wealthy and peaceful cities too, and the results can also be tragic.
Several decades ago it became fashionable in psychiatric circles to close the institutions that once cared for people with severe forms of mental illness. Many of these former patients ended up on the streets. Drugs and alcohol continue to claim many too. You see them now in every large city. Some people even step over the homeless on their way to work, barely stopping to take a sip of their latte. It is awful and as I’ll show in the story of this triptych, people are dying on our streets while the comfortable complain about forgetting to put on their electric blanket. Excuse my cynicism, but truth is always more important to me than being liked. So if the truth hurts, so be it. We need a revolution in our societies at so many levels.
With hyperinflation and interest rates on the rise, real estate values getting out of hand, and people taking their houses off the rental market to turn them into even more lucrative Airbnbs, many ordinary working class people are now sleeping in tents under road overpasses (yes even in Launceston, until the local council moved them on, as they always do without any solution to the problem!), single mothers with children sleeping in cars in a freezing winter. These are people who just a few years ago would never have dreamed of being homeless.
The working poor are now a reality in our once egalitarian societies. And all the time we pay our politicians more to do less at solving our social problems. Oh but they are good at talking! And then the vast majority of the population turns into ostriches and sink their heads into the sand.
By now I’ve probably lost most of my readers. Never mind, I’m more interested in radicalizing the few who will do something. This is not about politics, Marx or Lenin (though I much prefer the message of John Lennon), Left wing or Right. I couldn’t give a damn about ideology or party loyalty. People are dying every single day in countries regardless of their political system. This is about common human decency and whether we as a race care anymore about each other. I mean look at all the empty rhetoric in the West about the poor people of Ukraine being made homeless in their millions - talk, talk, talk, and nothing done about ending the Russian aggression. Never mind as long as Wall Street doesn’t collapse.
Have we been so brainwashed completely by the narcissism that social media was designed to condition us all to, that we just carry on commenting endlessly about meaningless stuff? You may have seen the graffiti that’s been around a while now: “Shut up and shop!” Well that’s what the authorities of any political persuasion want from us right now. They’ll milk us dry of our cash and strip us from our meaningful social bonds. The pandemic taught us to be compliant, but really the process of conditioning started with the events of 9/11 and the new security measures. This has been coming for a long time. But so is the day of reckoning.
So if you’re still wondering about why I’m so angry perhaps one day I’ll show you some of the graffiti that’s spreading through our cities like wildfire. You may also have seen this painted on street walls. Just one word: ANGRY.
The reality is people are dying on our streets. So let me quickly tell you about these three photographs that I’ve tied together.
LEFT: “What’s the upside?”
This notice was hung in a tree by some local activists. The Peter referred to here is the former Premier of Tasmania who boasted about how well the economy had survived the pandemic restrictions. Well it has for the well-heeled, but the housing crisis has led to a large rise in homelessness.
CENTRE “People are dying on the streets.”
Daniel James Tommerup (1970-2021) burned to death when he caught fire cooking food on a gas stove outside Milton Hall across the street from Launceston’s Princes Square. He was part of a growing homeless community that was moved on from the city centre where they were sleeping outside an empty city building. The City Baptist Church allowed them to use the facilities at Milton Hall, but as you’ll see the result after Daniel’s tragic death is that the homeless have been moved on again and a fence has been put up with chain and lock. Given the dire state of the retail rental market there are empty shops all over town, but no room for the poor to lay their heads. What would Jesus say? WWJD?
You can read Daniel’s sad story here.
www.examiner.com.au/story/7477642/a-scallywag-with-a-good...
RIGHT: “Catafalque”
It’s an interesting word “catafalque”. Every Anzac Day in Australia it is mentioned in relation to the tomb of a dead soldier. The dictionary definition is as follows, “a decorated wooden framework supporting the coffin of a distinguished person during a funeral or while lying in state.”
This photograph was taken in Launceston’s City Park in the bandstand. In it is a bed for the homeless. But not a real bed (because that would have been moved on very quickly by the authorities), no it’s an art installation. The artist has designed it to reflect on the issue of the homeless, but if a real homeless person dared to lie down there it would be a problem.
This is a catafalque for the homeless, but it might, if what Peter Kingsley says is true, be a catafalque for us all. I mention Peter Kingsley in relation to his two volume work, “Catafalque: Carl Jung and the End of Humanity”, which surveys the wreck of Western civilization. Peter spares none of us in his social critique, and he would agree with me that a day of reckoning is at hand. peterkingsley.org/product/catafalque/
Have you ever read Matthew 25:31-46 in the New Testament? You might be surprised by its implications.
* These photographs were all taken on the streets with the Leica D-Lux 7.
Inspired by Alkaline Trio's song, "You've Got So Far To Go": '...cuz we talked so much I think we filled this ashtray twice, and I'm pretty sure we've emptied every bottle in the place...'
This photo, like those specific lyrics suggest, is supposed to represent a sleepless night between old friends who are simply catching up with each others' lives. It reminds me everytime Dave Zimmerman visits me, and although I don't really smoke, a full ashtray and a few empty bottles of hard liquor are left on my kitchen counter.
The mug adds a little cynicism because, you know, cigarettes aren't necessarily the holiest little things.
Name: ????
Nickname: Jetera
Position: Master of Storms, Toa Vihagu, Stormhawk (?)
Powers: Weak control over lightning, premonitions
Alignment: Neutral Good
Tools: Faera (Stormhawk's Blade), Sable (rapier), Surgical Knife, Chronicle of History
A stranger whose past is uncertain. Jetera has, though various occurences, been linked to a forgotten figure of Matoran mythology called "The Stormhawk." Quiet, detached, and often confused, but with a streak of cynicism and sarcasm, Jetera has slowly learned about the world around him, the Toa Vihagu which he rather suddenly found himself a part of, and the lightning powers that he possesses.
Monsignor Orfeo smiled at his host. Don Marquez - His Majesty King Fernando's Prefect of Kingsport - was a greasy fellow. To a lesser negotiator, his presence might have been off-putting. But the church man had worked with far worse, and in far more uncomfortable circumstances. He sipped his coffee, and listened politely.
"It's not a question of money, Monsignor," the King's man was saying, "It's the *influence* of the opposing parties we must fight."
"Indeed, my Lord," he replied, politely. "This is where the Shadow Council believes it may be able to support His Majesty. Merely provide us with the relevant names, and we will have their influence suitably... reduced."
"Really?" replied the Eslandolan, skeptically. "You think the Order has more power in Eslandola than its own king?"
"Possibly not, my lord. But we have the freedom of conscence that your own people might struggle with."
They wandered on across immaculate lawns that, only a year ago had been pock-marked by impact craters.
"And when do we get to the real reason you're here?" Don Marquez asked. "What do your lot get out of all this?"
"It may be hard to believe, but the Order simply wants a more stable world. Situations like the Terraversa Incident must not be allowed to happen again. The best way to avoid this, as we see it, is to allow divinely-appointed monarchs to do their job. Revolutions and anarchies serve no-one."
"How very noble of you."
"We do try to lead with altruism," Orfeo responded. "But I hear a note of cynicism in your voice. If you doubt our commitment to this purpose then we are prepared to add ulterior motives to our agreement."
"Better now than later."
"Naturally, we would expect His Majesty's ongoing support for the Order's activity inside his borders. He would also owe us a favour of significant magnitude. To be repaid at a time and in a manner of our choosing, with appropriate notice."
"Ha!" replied Don Marquez. "You know that Eslandolans prefer gold to favours?"
"And The Shadow Council of Hades prefers faith. Consider this a demonstration."
"I'm sure we can come to an advantageous agreement. Let me relay this to my people for consideration."
And so on they walked, their conversation turning to lesser concerns.
I had to think carefully about whether or not to share this one, and what I wanted to say. There are reasons to put it away, but more reasons to put it out there. Kristina was a huge influence on me in my early years; to an unfathomable extent she shaped who I am today. She saved me from post-adolescent cynicism and self-pity; from her I learned how to live more fully and deeply. Knowing her was a sort of trial by fire, but it also unlocked manacles that I didn't even know I was wearing.
Now the tragic part. All it takes is a head case with a knife, and in a flash you can lose your life - and that's what happened to her at age 26. Is this story even relevant in the midst of a pandemic, with hundreds of thousands of people worldwide losing their lives? We all experience loss; we all encounter tragedy. And I don't want to exploit her memory. But she was an extraordinary human being, despite not having a chance to live to her full maturity: beautiful, brilliant, athletic, intense. She was in the process of applying for post-grad studies (psychology). Then it all came crashing down one night in mid-October of 1974, through no fault of her own. No rhyme, no reason, just the end. Swept away as if she were nothing.
I was devastated. In a way, I still am. I've done my "healing work", but do we ever get over such events? I was 25 when she died. Even after 46 years I cannot help but imagine what she might have done in her life, had she lived. The world carried on, of course, as it must, never knowing what it had lost.
And so, these many years later, poring over old negatives, I found some shots of her that I had never printed or scanned. This one was overexposed, very dense, and had accumulated some scratches and a lot of dust over the years. (How does dust get into those negative sleeves? It just seems to find a way.) Anyway, I scanned it, and in processing I reduced the "clarity" to give the image a misty, faded, ethereal look, appropriate to the location and the day (west coast intermittent spring rain). Her face began to emerge, so happy and carefree. After all these years.
This is the final black and white retro shot for now, but I'm not done with the past quite yet. Tomorrow I hope to start a new set of scans from old slides, in full colour, five shots spanning 30 years. Kodachrome! Velvia! Not to be missed :-)
Photographed somewhere along the Olympic Peninsula, WA, on Kodak Tri-X film, and scanned from the original negative. Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©1974 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Here again are the TMNT Classics Bebop and Rocksteady, with custom weathering by my Canadian pal heymilt. The title is taken from a Salman Rushdie story.
I'd wanted to utilize this construction site as a setting for months, but didn't have suitable figures for it until now.
Im going to give myself some credit, I always seem to have this unwavering optimism underneath all the cynicism I tend to exude. When I get fucked, I will always try to squeeze something else in for the possibility of a consolation prize, sometimes I end up with something better, and this one of those cases. I walked down to the old NYC Gardenville Branch bridges over the NS and CSX mains here in Blasdell bright and early with my head on a constant swivel for CSX vehicles and any others, as I was expecting the OCS to be departing against the sun and this was all I could come up with for a shot. Lo and behold, when I got to the bridge I received confirmation it left and hour before I even fuckin arrived. So, I decided to go on a walk around the area surrounding the tracks and ended up with a nice morning of exploring what's left of a section of railroad we lost many years ago. After some time this CSX intermodal coming in to work Seneca started yapping on the radio and I squatted down under the girders of the CSX side to wait for my moment to pop up for a shot. The dirt from the construction facility off to the left provided some interesting background for this single YN2 leader as it rolls through the morning sun gaps and underneath a happy railfan. I don't exactly recommend going back here, but it was fun as hell for this guy.
Introducing "Banter Books" –
Impress guests with your intellectual facade, or just enjoy a good laugh at life's absurdities. Because who needs serious literature when you can have a side of sarcasm served with every page?
With titles like "It's all Overstimulating" dive into the chaos of modern life, while "Lurk, Laugh, Loathe" offers a guide to mastering social media cynicism. And for the adventurous foodie, there's "100 Ways to Eat Cock" (it's about chicken recipes, obviously).
📚 Copy / Mod
📚 100% Original Mesh
📚 6 Book Titles
📚 Right/Left Holdables
📚 2 Different Holds each
📚 Decor: 1li
Available at The Men's Dept from Jan 5th from January 31st
Available at the Mainstore
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Check out these other amazing photos with Aardvark items in our Flickr Group
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Inworld : Marketplace : Facebook
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Ukrainians!
All our defenders!
Today we have significant news for our state, for our defense.
First, the United States has prepared a new support package for Ukraine worth $ 33 billion. In particular, more than 20 billion can be allocated for defense. More than $ 8 billion is planned for economic support. Another $ 3 billion will be allocated for humanitarian aid.
This is a very important step by the United States. And I am grateful to the American people and personally to President Biden for it. I hope that the Congress will quickly support this request for help to our state. President Biden rightly said today that this step is not cheap. But the negative consequences of Russia's aggression against Ukraine and against democracy are so large-scale for the whole world that, in comparison with them, this support from the United States is necessary. Together, we can certainly stop Russian aggression and reliably defend freedom in Europe.
We are also working to direct the blocked assets of Russian individuals subject to sanctions and the Russian state to compensate Ukraine for this war and to restore normal life.
The investigation into the crimes committed by the Russian military against our people is underway. Ukraine's position is absolutely clear - every Russian criminal must be and will be brought to justice. Whoever they are and wherever they hide, we will find them all and make them bear responsibility.
The first ten Russian servicemen from the 64th motorized rifle brigade of the Russian Ground Forces who committed crimes against our people in Bucha, Kyiv region, received the status of suspects. Their surnames are known. It is established what they did. We know all the details about them and their actions. And we will find everyone. Just as we will find all the other Russian thugs who killed and tortured Ukrainians. Who tormented our people. Who destroyed houses and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. None of these bastards will avoid responsibility.
However, some of them may not survive until trial and fair punishment. But for one reason only. This Russian brigade was relocated to the Kharkiv region. There they will get retribution from our military.
Prime Minister of Bulgaria Kiril Petkov paid a visit to Kyiv today. We had very substantive and very warm negotiations with him. Bulgaria is one of those countries that reacted to Russia's aggression in a principled manner and quickly. I am grateful to both the Bulgarian government and the Bulgarian people for not delaying the support for our state.
Defense, energy and transport issues were discussed with Mr. Petkov. Sanctions pressure on Russia, which is necessary for peace. We also discussed our cooperation at the EU level. A very important agreement is on the repair of our military equipment at the Bulgarian production facilities.
Another issue we agreed on is the supply of Ukrainian electricity to Bulgaria and the use of the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline together with the Bulgarian side. I am grateful to Bulgaria for the opportunity to use the port of Varna to export our agricultural capacity.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres was also in Ukraine today. It is very important that Mr. Secretary-General visited Borodyanka, Kyiv region. And saw with his own eyes what the Russian occupiers had done there. Hundreds of Ukrainian cities and hundreds of communities have experienced the same thing as Borodyanka and Bucha. The Russian army in Ukraine consciously and without any doubt trampled down everything on which the global order was based after World War II.
The UN Charter, international conventions, declarations, the rights of people and states... Everything that should guarantee freedom and security in the world is simply destroyed by Russia's aggressive actions. So the key issue in the talks with the UN Secretary-General was how to stop Russian aggression. And this is not just a question of Ukraine, our fate. This is a question of the fate of the United Nations, the fate of international law, the fate of many nations - and not just Russia's neighbors who may become the next victims of Moscow's aggressive ambitions.
Of course, during the negotiations we paid a lot of attention to saving our people from Mariupol. I believe that with the help of the UN it is possible to organize an evacuation mission. Ukraine is ready for these steps. But it is also necessary for the Russian side to consider this issue without cynicism and actually do what it says.
Moscow claimed they had allegedly ceased fire in Mariupol. But the bombing of the defenders of the city continues. This is a war crime committed by the Russian military literally in front of the whole world. Russia's shelling of Mariupol did not stop even when the UN Secretary-General was holding negotiations in Moscow.
And today, immediately after the end of our talks in Kyiv, Russian missiles flew into the city. Five missiles.
And this says a lot about Russia's true attitude to global institutions. About the efforts of the Russian leadership to humiliate the UN and everything that the Organization represents. Therefore, it requires a strong response.
Russian missile strikes at Ukraine - Kyiv, Fastiv, Odesa, and other cities - once again prove that we cannot let our guard down. We cannot think that the war is over. We still have to fight. We still have to drive the occupiers out.
Today, the Russian army continued its offensive attempts in the east of our country, in Donbas. Tries to advance in the southern regions.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine repel the invaders. And I am grateful to each of our defenders who are holding positions.
We are doing everything to help our army, to provide the military with all the necessary weapons.
Every time I contact my partners, I emphasize that weapons for Ukraine right now, the very types we ask for and just when we need them, are salvation not only for our people. This is salvation for all of you - for all of Europe.
I am grateful to those partners who understand this. And who help convince others.
Before delivering the evening address, I signed a decree awarding our heroes. 214 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were awarded state awards. 14 of them posthumously.
Eternal memory to all who gave life for Ukraine!
Eternal glory to all who stood up for the state!
Glory to Ukraine!
I was rather dreading going back to Mt Gorongosa for the first time since 2011. All the social and political turmoil since then made visits impossible and we can still only go as far as Morumbodzi Falls, which really is just at the base of the mountain. What would still be left? When I expressed this someone asked if this was my sarcastic streak showing but the last thing on my mind was sarcasm. It was the sad and honest fear of what I might be going to see.
As far as the Morumbodzi Falls are concerned I can say that it really hasn't changed all that much but this is largely due to the sad fact that the last tiny little fringe of forest left around them was already pretty !"£$%^@&* messed up even when I first saw them in 2006.......
......Now that is what sarcasm/cynicism sounds like!
Format: 35mm
Film: Fuji S-400
Camera: Pentax MX
Lens: Voigtländer Color-ZOOMAR MC 70-210mm
"If I were not Diogenes, I would also wish to be Diogenes."
Selected for the gallery "Through the Lens - Film Photography Explored" (curated by Flickr) www.flickr.com/photos/flickr/galleries/72157723704827769/
Selected for Flickr's Explore image gallery (November 26, 2025)
The art ‘establishment’ seems to lavish its attention on ‘artists’ that deal primarily in ideas, over ones that focus their attention on aesthetics. It does seem common practice to criticise art that doesn’t have an ‘obvious’ meaningful concept, you need only to visit any contemporary gallery to see this elitist philosophy in practice.
Now before I go on with this text, please don’t misinterpret my distain for this practice as total disregard. Unusual, dare I say new ‘ish’ ideas; certainly have the ability to inspire on a conceptual level. I’d even go so far as to say that I’ve been inspired into deeper thought by work that I personally wouldn’t be paid to hang on my wall. But puzzlingly there still does seem to be a tendency to give prominence, (rather than balance) to the beauty of the ‘idea’, over and above the aesthetics. In fact I'd go so far as to say that many of these conceptually weighted ideas have an almost venomous rejection of ‘beauty’.
Maybe the desire for intellectualisation of the critical art world born out of justification insecurity, is partly responsible? (The ‘starving artist’ is a secondary choice for many parents when advising their children into professions such as law, medicine or even accountancy.) let’s face it in our western culture, art is deemed to be icing on the capitalistic economic cake and like the icing on the main body, the conceptualists are desperately trying to dig a serious of defensible trenches underneath the sweetness.
It does however puzzle me who started this elitist modern art philosophy? Is it human nature to work against the mainstream, attempting to stand out, to be (pseudo) fresh? I do have to say that this pretentiousness, (or more accurately, my perception of it) does get my back up. “To be deserving of the prestigious title of art the piece must have an ingenious slightly pretentious concept tagged on” and this mantra is religiously unquestionably followed. (Healthy cynicism or too much exposure to immature poorly thought out art student ideas?) Anyway why should a small minority established media savvy critics dictate mainstream views of what makes good art. Funny, I’m not even sure ‘they’ know themselves where this philosophy its coming from, but supporting the highbrow trend, keeps everybody else thinking they must be right.
In my own artistic philosophy, arts purpose is to first satisfy my own creative aims. I’m lucky to be able to produce art for myself alone, without the commercial pressures I once faced, (working in computer games). Yes this is a very selfish and insular aim, but deeply rewarding, as I can be free to develop in any direction, not worrying too much if the audience is following me.
My second aim from the work I produce is to catalyse some kind of emotional response. Again principally for myself, but this is where it changes slightly. As my insecure ego’s desire to be acknowledged wants others to be moved by the images I produce, as a form of recognition. This is where I want to communicate, but as an emotional response not an intellectual concept. This communication is a subtle thing, not a grand in your face message, but simply to explore the feelings of wonder and beauty emerged in the slender of the natural world. I’m not trying to capture people’s minds but their hearts. (Sorry for sounding all soppy and romantic, but the feelings I try to capture are the ones I love to feel when looking at our beautiful world. The wonderment, the joy, and the deep recharging connections I experience when amerced in raw nature).
Before I get all idealistic, let me be congruent. You may have spotted my own defence mechanism woven in to these words, as I try to justify my own philosophical standing and fight the establishment’s definition of what makes ‘good’ art. Maybe I am deluded and what I do is not ‘art’ at all and I should just accept that and stop worrying? But for me at least, it does deal with subtle communication of feelings towards nature, for the purpose of attempting to explore and develop my own relationship with it. I want my work to championing the deep spiritual beauty that our natural world has and highlight my own desire to preserve and protect it. Granted, not gritty social realism, but I don’t what that, I don’t live in a city, and I hate concrete and graffiti. To stereotypically conceptualise what I do would seem to dilute what fundamental creative purpose, it would feel like tagging on concepts. Rather than exploring the beauty of the nature and the natural would, I would be manipulating it to serve my own ‘desire to be recognised as an artist’ ends... this internal struggle I face is a tough circle to square, as I do see the advantages of both, but I first and foremost want to explore and document my own perception of beauty based on the places I choose to represent. And if a concept that fits my notion of beauty materialises, then great, but it must fit my philosophy
My art is about escapism. I want to remove myself from the destructive selfish economical greed of man. I want to place myself in a safe place, and nature for me has a natural balance, it doesn’t take more than it needs, it provides balance in everything it does, ultimately it offers us as a species valuable lessons, if we are prepared to see them that is. Why can’t more people see past their own selfishness and recognise that we must work with it, as ultimately or environment is what sustains us, without it we cease to exist.
If I were to communicate a message it would be to highlight just how selfishly destructive we as humans are, I would need to show this in some way and introduce this in to my aesthetics. But herein lies the problem, I want to avoided, escape this. I want to champion the purity of the natural world; I want to transmit optimistic emotions, so that I personally can escape our selfish, capitalistic world. I’m sounding naive here, and I accept that I probably am to a degree, but my message is backed up by fact, not jump on the popular bandwagon tree huggers.
Bringing obvious concepts into what I do does seem very appealing, Christ I even went to my local river the other day, inspired by half writing this text and photographed a sewer pipe juxtaposed against the beautiful surroundings. But it felt like I was tagging on a form of humanisation for the sake of it. It felt very wrong! I personally want to seek out and champion the absence of humans and any of their destructive systems. So why would I want to destroy my escapism by introducing conceptual elements.... conceptually congruent with my views but paradoxically opposite to my escapist purposes...
Note: this was taken leaning over a fence, in the pouring rain with two kids in my guardianship trying to kill each other next to the river... as you can imagine I was somewhat stressed and had to work quickly. (o:
10:15
Anticlimactic is so many ways.
I couldn't let Ramirez go into the basement alone, even if he's being a big, J.Crewish jerk. Neither of us heard or saw anything even remotely odd down there. Sure, the door was there, but it's a door with security issues, big deal. He used his big, strong man-hands to get the water main open (which I could have done if I had man-hands), but when we went back upstairs, the faucets still weren't working.
He's worried there might be a break in the pipes, somewhere on the grounds. So, we're going outside to have a look around. At least it's not raining today, it's actually sunny. The fog lifted and a happy frog is croaking out there, totes obliv to the seasonal faux pas.
My cynicism says this morning is just "too right."
Something is bound to go wrong.
(Excerpted from Peter Wehner's article in The Atlantic)
"Beyond that, and more fundamental than that, we have to remind ourselves that we are not powerless to shape the future; that much of what has been broken can be repaired; that though we are many, we can be one; and that fatalism and cynicism are unwarranted and corrosive.
There’s a lovely line in William Wordsworth’s poem “The Prelude”: “What we have loved, Others will love, and we will teach them how.”
There are still things worthy of our love. Honor, decency, courage, beauty, and truth. Tenderness, human empathy, and a sense of duty. A good society. And a commitment to human dignity. We need to teach others—in our individual relationships, in our classrooms and communities, in our book clubs and Bible studies, and in innumerable other settings—why those things are worthy of their attention, their loyalty, their love. One person doing it won’t make much of a difference; a lot of people doing it will create a culture.
Maybe we understand better than we did five years ago why these things are essential to our lives, and why when we neglect them or elect leaders who ridicule and subvert them, life becomes nasty, brutish, and generally unpleasant.
Just after noon on January 20, a new and necessary chapter will begin in the American story. Joe Biden will certainly play a role in shaping how that story turns out—but so will you and I. Ours is a good and estimable republic, if we can keep it."
Nantes, France’s largest slave port. Between the 15th and 19th centuries, numerous European ports such as Liverpool, London, Bristol, Nantes, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Amsterdam and Lisbon were involved in the slave trade. During the 18th century, Nantes became France’s largest slave port. Shipowners, bankers, industrialists, traders, shopkeepers, shipbuilders and sailors all benefited to varying degrees from the trade.
Forgotten for a long time. In 1848, after a drawn-out battle and thanks in no small part to the campaign led by Victor Schœlcher, the abolition of slavery was voted. Nantes moved on, but between cynicism and a guilty conscience, a cloak of silence fell over the subject and it was forgotten.
It was not until the 1990s that the people of Nantes, along with the town council, actively sought to face up to their history. In 1992, with more than 400,000 visitors, the exhibition « Les Anneaux de la Mémoire » facilitated an understanding and analysis of these historical events.
Nantes comes to terms with its memories and begins new struggles for today and the future.Since, Nantes has continued to move along the path of these new-found memories. Over twenty years, this path has been punctuated with local and international projects: cooperation and twinning with African and South-American towns, support for associations, organisation of the World Forum on Human Rights, opening of rooms dedicated to the slave trade at the Nantes History Museum, opening of the Institute for Advanced Studies with its original approach to North-South relations, etc. Finally, in 2012, the building of a Memorial in homage to all those who fought in the past, fight today and will fight in the future against slavery marks the end of one cycle and the beginning of another: that of the present and future.
Mémorial de l'Abolition de l'esclavage
Lors du 150e anniversaire de l’abolition de l’esclavage en 1998, le Conseil municipal de Nantes adopte le principe d’édifier un monument commémoratif sur le quai de la Fosse. Par un acte politique fort, la Ville entend assumer son passé et donner une forme à la mémoire, inscrite dans l’espace public.
Conçu par l’artiste Krzysztof Wodiczko et l’architecte Julian Bonder, il marque symboliquement une période de plus de vingt-cinq ans d’action publique pour développer la connaissance et la reconnaissance du passé négrier nantais. Au-delà de la mémoire des victimes de la traite atlantique, il s’agit de rendre hommage aux luttes contre les traites et les esclavages dans le monde.
Aujourd’hui, l’Organisation des Nations Unies et l’Organisation Internationale du Travail estiment que l’esclavage contemporain et le travail forcé concernent au moins 200 à 250 millions de personnes, dont une grande part d’enfants.
Implanté sur et sous le quai de la Fosse, le Mémorial de l’abolition de l’esclavage n’a pas pour vocation d’expliquer et d’exposer l’histoire, mais de se souvenir, d’alerter et de transmettre un message universel.
Un parcours urbain composé de 11 panneaux d’information relie symboliquement le Mémorial, monument commémoratif, au musée d’histoire de Nantes, situé au Château des ducs de Bretagne. Le Mémorial est implanté à proximité immédiate de sites et de monuments en relation avec le passé négrier nantais. Ces panneaux permettent aux lecteurs de décrypter les traces de ce qui fut une activité majeure de Nantes aux 18e et 19e siècles. Sont ainsi mis en valeur et analysés les hôtels d’armateurs négriers, le quai d’où partaient les navires négriers vers l’Afrique et les Antilles, des lieux symboliques comme la passerelle Schoelcher ou économiques comme la Bourse…
The following was written on May 7, 2020. I have added a follow up today, April 22, 2025. Incidentally, let me state categorically that I am NOT a Democrat (or Republican). I'm Independent and will never be a member of any political party--other than the party of the human race.
This photo headed my latest essay, this one directed toward Democrats and Independents, which follows (sorry, it's relatively long):
IF AMERICA IS TO BE SAVED, WE MUST BE PREPARED FOR A LONG WAR OF ATTRITION
Like so many others, I have a relative who is a bit hard to be around these days. Both this person and their spouse have had professional careers and are reasonably intelligent people, and yet both of them are avid, dye-in-the-wool Trump supporters—utterly blind to the incompetence, ignorance and narcissism on full display every time Trump speaks or acts.
How is this possible?
We all know people like this. How can so many otherwise intelligent people be sucked into the black hole of ineptitude and corruption that is Donald Trump and his Republican enablers? I keep thinking/hoping that perhaps some of these Trump followers haven't been entirely lost and are merely skirting the edge of Trump's event horizon, waiting to be snatched away from annihilation by . . . something. They're intelligent people. Surely they can be reached.
So, every once-in-awhile, my hopes are aroused when Trump says or does something so outrageous, even by his standards, that I think, “Ah! This, THIS is so vile, so absurd, surely this will finally open the eyes of some of his followers and they will be freed of the crushing gravity of Trump's corrosive malfeasance and come to their senses.” I dared to think that when the details of his inhumane treatment of migrants came to light. Surely the heartless kidnapping of small children—ripped from the arms of their loving mothers—would be the catalyst that would finally change their perception and reveal to all the inhumanity of this president.
I was, to understate, wrong.
I should have realized at that point, if terrorizing and abusing children could not dissuade his followers, nothing could. I am ashamed to say, however, that there have been many other times when an outlandish comment or action by Trump, in spite of the mounting evidence to the contrary, made me wonder if some of his support might peal away with the new revelation of idiocy or mean spiritedness or solipsism. And each and every time my hopes are completely dashed—yet still I continue to search for glimmers of hope. I guess it's time to acknowledge that at my core, I must be an optimist. It sickens me to admit it. It goes against all the layers of cynicism, pragmatism and despair that surround it and that usually color my perception of everything. How can I be an optimist in a world with Trump as president?
But how can I deny the reality of that core when, on April 23rd, I heard Trump muse on the possibility of injecting disinfectant “like a cleansing” into the body to treat the virus, and my immediate reaction (after retrieving my jaw from the floor) was that this absolutely nutty and dangerous idea might be SO nutty, SO dangerous, that some of his followers might at long last recognize Trump for what he really is—a profoundly, dangerously ignorant blowhard?
After being wrong so many times before, my reality testing was intact enough to recognize that these hopes might very well be dashed again (though the use of the word “might” in that sentence, instead of the more accurate “would be” shows how insidious that kernel of optimism really is). Still, I was buoyed by the prospect. I wasn't so deluded to think in my wildest fancy that his supporters would desert him en masse, but surely a few would be jolted to their senses.
Surely?
A couple of days later, I bumped into my unnamed relative and spouse. We chatted a bit about nothing in particular, and then I offered a joke: “I suppose you're out shopping for some disinfectant to inject in case you come down with the coronavirus?”
I'm sure that you, dear reader, lacking that infernally unrealistic core of optimism that I am afflicted with, can anticipate the reaction far better than I did. I wasn't expecting a full-throated disavowal of Trump, mind you, but I was expecting some acknowledgment of the insanity of his ideas—maybe a shrug of the shoulders or a wry smile as a tacit admission that yes, he was way off base at least in this particular.
Of course I was wrong . . . again. What I received from them was an agitated, all guns blazing, defensive assault on the very idea that Trump is anything but a remarkable president [here I could agree, remarkable indeed!]. Attacking his critics, they said, “The media is so unfair!” [How dare they insist that the idea of ingesting/injecting Lysol is dangerous!] “Everyone just loves to nit-pick him to death.” [Read: kidnapping children? no big deal.] “And anyway, he was just thinking out loud.” [Can you really call musing about injecting Clorox—into the human body—“thinking?”] “No one ever talks about all the good things he does, they just fasten on his few mistakes.”
Well, I had to hand it to them, they were right about the media rarely talking about the good things he does (not counting “Fox,” of course). But unless you happen to be a billionaire, or a bigot, or think nature should be paved over, it's darn hard to point to any of those “good things.” As for the “few mistakes” that phrase, in reference to this administration, could, in the real world, be nothing except high satire.
They said more than what's quoted above, but that will give you the flavor of it. They’re just two people, and statistically, they can hardly be held up as models for all Trump supporters. But they aren't the only Trump supporters I know. Everywhere I look I see the same refusal to see facts as they are, the same blind support, the same adoration. Maybe there were a tiny number of individuals who were actually jolted to their senses by the remarkable nonsense that tumbled out of Trump's mouth that day, but it's very clear that it's nigh on to impossible to tear people away from the Cult of Trump. To hope that a significant portion of them will see the light come November is way beyond the capacity of my annoying little core of optimism. (Hmm. Maybe some injected Lysol would rid me of it?).
Armed with the knowledge that Trump's supporters are implacable and determined to see him re-elected, we need to recognize that we face nothing less than an existential threat . . . and that threat is us. Those of us who can still tell the difference between fact and the alternate variety must act as if the survival of our country is at stake, because it isn't an act. These United States have already suffered such grievous injury at the hand of the Trumpublicans that we are on the brink of becoming a failed state. Only decades of sober leadership and a motivated, thoughtful and sane majority can pull us back from the brink and heal those injuries. We can't wait for or hope that the GOP comes to its senses. We who understand the threat must simply out muscle the GOP and overwhelm them at the polls. We must be willing to overcome all of the many hurdles the Trumpublicans throw down—the gerrymandering, the voter suppression,the dirty tricks, the ruthlessness. We cannot let our guard down . . . ever—not for November 2020, not for 2022 or 2024 nor any of the local elections occurring in between. If we—Independents and Democrats—cannot become a determined, impassioned, yet reasoned force that endures (and votes!), this country will not endure.
This brings to mind an early speech Abraham Lincoln gave which we should all take to heart as a warning for all time. After noting how fortunate all of America's citizens were to inherit this country—the greatest on earth—from our forebears, he said it wasn't from abroad that we should fear attack, but from within.
"All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined . . . with a Buonaparte [sic] for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
"At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
If we are to die by suicide, i.e., allow this president a second term, or allow any Republican to win the White House in the foreseeable future, we will not be able to blame Trump, or McConnell, or the GOP, or their followers. That they are the most destructive internal force this country has faced since the Civil War is certainly true, but if they succeed in destroying America, it will be the rest of us that must shoulder the blame. We will have allowed it. Like someone releasing a lion onto a crowd of children—it isn't the lion who'll be blamed for the resulting carnage.
There is no room for complacency, no room for voting for a third party as a protest, no room for staying home because your favored candidate lost the primary or because Biden is far from perfect. There is too much at stake: the very survival of our country. We must resign ourselves to a long war of attrition and remain eternally vigilant against the Republican threat (as well as malfeasance by Democrats—which is equally important). Electing Biden will not be the end of this war, nor will regaining control of the Senate. Though vitally important, these are merely the opening battles that need to be won—the beginning of a long series of such battles—the battle for the soul and survival of our nation.
The question is, are the Democrats and their Independent allies up to the task?
[April 22, 2025] The answer to that last question, we now know, was no. Yes, Trump was defeated in 2020, but we are now living in the nightmare of his resurrection. Sanity won the battle but has been annihilated in the war. And that nightmare is even worse than I'd imagined, and my imagination had painted a pretty awful portrait. Nothing, no individual act of this would-be tyrant in obvious tyrant's clothing, has been particularly surprising--it's the speed and the extent of his authoritarian take-over that has stunned me.
It really shouldn't have.
After our fascist leaning Supreme Court ruled that presidents are free to do whatever they want with their authority without fear of legal repercussions (a ruling that clearly flies in the face of any reasonable "originalist" interpretation of the Constitution)--Trump, who is devoid of the tiniest shred of morality, could unleash all of his bigotry, lust for power and corruption--openly, with no fear of reprisal. And he is aided in this unvarnished destruction of democratic norms by something he learned in his first term--bolstered by this Supreme Court's sympathy for the authoritarian idea of the unitarian executive. In this ideology, all bureaucracy, every facet of the executive branch is controlled absolutely by the president--no independent Justice Dept., or any of the various bureaucracies. If the president wants to send the FBI to investigate his enemies, there is nothing to stop him. Well, excepting any honorable and competent appointees. But there are none in this administration. In his first go-round, among the too many corrupt cronies he appointed, he also named a good number of well-qualified individuals who ended up resisting many of Trump's worst impulses. Having learned from this "mistake," there are zero honorable men/women in his cabinet or any other position of note. They all bow to Trump--the Constitution be damned. Sending people to prison without so much as a sham hearing? It's all fine and dandy to his attorney general (who insists the Supreme Court approved--when they actually ordered him to bring them back).
And virtually all of Trump's core supporters are eating it up. The veil has been drawn. It was pretty transparent all along, but now Trump supporters see his dictatorial efforts and they applaud him.
So, has that infernal core of optimism I spoke of been finally annihilated by our current state of affairs? Sadly, not entirely. My optimism that Trump's MAGA core might someday see the light has been fully extinguished, but I continue to hold out hope for those who orbit him more distantly. Recent polls show some slippage of support. Weirdly, his overall support has been hovering in the low 40's, but regarding his individual actions/stances, they all are even lower--with the exception of immigration (always where he drew the most support), but even there, support has dropped below 50%.
I can't really say I'm optimistic about his support dropping to such lows that even his rubber stamps in the legislature begin to desert him, but I am hopefully. The chaos he sows is so great that more and more people are taking notice, as is his disregard of the health and welfare of Americans (gutting Medicaid, cutting back on--the FDA, the CDC, Head Start, and on and on, not to mention putting someone in charge of Health and Human Services that does not believe in science). But he's also cut programs that help combat Russian, Chinese, N. Korean and Iranian efforts to steal our secrets and disrupt our economy all the while planting seeds of disinformation to disrupt society. This too makes us less safe--as does cutting to almost zero our support of global health initiatives. Millions of people, mostly children, will die throughout the world because of this. Thousands of Americans will also die needlessly.
Electing an utterly immoral, hateful, unqualified and profoundly ignorant person to lead the most powerful nation of earth has consequences. How could they be anything BUT bad?
In a recent interview, Trump was asked, ". . . don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?” His response: "I don't know." THIS is who we elected president!
mega rich, mega star, ringo starr whose fame rests primarily on some drumming he did 50 odd years ago with a little known group from a northern city somewhere in england. while he is almost certainly the best known drummer on the planet, when john lennon was asked the question "is ringo the best drummer in the world ?" lennon replied with his usual blend of cynicism, wit and candour "he's not even the best drummer in the beatles" a reference maybe to one time 'ringo replacement' jimmie nichol or possibily paul mccartney who reputedly often entered the studio at night to replace ringo's worst drum parts?
The food factory, an assembly line where living beings are treated as commodities, brutally killed if they do not meet profit standards, and cultivated as if they were carrots or potatoes, and in fact "preventively" antibiotics are given, to the detriment of human health (antibiotic resistance).
Cynicism, corruption, the destruction of the environment show their political face in a Europe that should protect the consumer, and instead protects and finances the producer.
La fabbrica di cibo, una catena di montaggio dove gli esseri viventi sono trattati come merce, uccisi in modo brutale se non rispondono agli standard di profitto, e coltivati come fossero carote o patate, e infatti "preventivamente" vengono dati antibiotici, a scapito della salute umana (antibioticoresistenza).
Il cinismo, la corruzione, la distruzione dell'ambiente mostrano il loro volto politico nell'Europa che dovrebbe tutelare il consumatore, e invece tutela e finanzia il produttore.
Povero Sonny ...
Povero giovane orsetto dal grande testone...era poco più di un cucciolo, si affacciava alla vita solitaria, nei suoi primi tempi da individuo indipendente, senza la mamma .
Inesperto e fiducioso, muoveva i suoi passi nel bosco e nelle valli.
Lui non dormiva al sicuro in qualche tana, ma girovagava in cerca di cibo.
Il bel sonno del letargo non ha protetto Sonny.
Peccato si sarebbe salvato.
Le invernate miti, infatti, hanno ormai confuso e influenzato il ciclo naturale degli orsi.
Il loro ritmo sonno/veglia, legato alle stagioni, si è alterato.
L'incontro da lontano con due persone gli è costato la vita... per aver solo incrociato lo sguardo del bipede tiranno .
Non ha mai fatto male a nessuno Sonny. Condannato, braccato e freddato a fucilate per non aver fatto niente.
Tutto in modalità rapida come conviene ai vili che agiscono a tradimento.
Un esecuzione contestuale all'emissione del decreto di uccisione, senza lasciare spazio alla società civile di impostare un' azione volta a salvarlo, ricorrendo al Tar.
Ucciso perché confidente, perché si serviva dei cassonetti sempre disponibili e mai modificati, ucciso perché anche i sentieri in Trentino non sono mai stati ben disciplinati e tutti possono spingersi ovunque, per poi creare allarmismi collettivi.
Mentre gli orsi non hanno più una zona sicura e devono solo scomparire.
Presi i denari del progetto di reintroduzione Life Ursus, ora i plantigradi sono di troppo in quelle valli e forse di intralcio per qualche altro disegno che porta soldi .
Il suo giudice e carnefice è il Presidente della tristissima Provincia autonoma di Trento, Fugatti, determinato a farli fuori tutti.
Questo soggetto ostile e sprezzante della vita dei selvatici, ricorderà bene questi giorni. Segneranno la sua esistenza perché tutto il Paese ha conosciuto bene il suo cinismo, la sua ossessione fuori controllo per queste creature e verrà ricordato come l'odiatore degli orsi, aguzzino dalle doppiette e dagli ergastoli facili ...
Re indiscusso del Casteller.
Ruth Lemma
Poor Sonny...
Poor young bear with the big head... he was little more than a puppy, he was facing a solitary life, in his early days as an independent individual, without his mother.
Inexperienced and confident, he took his steps in the woods and valleys.
He did not sleep safely in some den, but wandered around looking for food.
The beautiful sleep of hibernation did not protect Sonny.
Too bad he would have been saved.
The mild winters, in fact, have now confused and influenced the natural cycle of bears.
Their sleep/wake rhythm, linked to the seasons, has altered.
The encounter with two people from afar cost him his life... for just having met the gaze of the bipedal tyrant.
He never hurt anyone Sonny. Condemned, hunted down and shot dead for doing nothing.
All in rapid mode as befits cowards who act treacherously.
An execution at the same time as the issuing of the killing decree, leaving no room for civil society to take action aimed at saving him, resorting to the TAR.
Killed because he was confident, because he used the bins that were always available and never modified, killed because even the paths in Trentino have never been well regulated and anyone can go anywhere, and then create collective alarmism.
While bears no longer have a safe area and just have to disappear.
Having taken the money from the Life Ursus reintroduction project, now the plantigrades are too many in those valleys and perhaps an obstacle to some other project that brings money.
His judge and executioner is the President of the very sad autonomous province of Trento, Fugatti, determined to kill them all.
This hostile and contemptuous subject of the life of wild animals will remember these days well. They will mark his existence because the whole country knew well his cynicism, his out of control obsession with these creatures and he will be remembered as the hater of bears, a tormentor with doubles and easy life sentences...
Undisputed king of Casteller.
Ruth Lemma
Povero Sonny ...
Povero giovane orsetto dal grande testone...era poco più di un cucciolo, si affacciava alla vita solitaria, nei suoi primi tempi da individuo indipendente, senza la mamma .
Inesperto e fiducioso, muoveva i suoi passi nel bosco e nelle valli.
Lui non dormiva al sicuro in qualche tana, ma girovagava in cerca di cibo.
Il bel sonno del letargo non ha protetto Sonny.
Peccato si sarebbe salvato.
Le invernate miti, infatti, hanno ormai confuso e influenzato il ciclo naturale degli orsi.
Il loro ritmo sonno/veglia, legato alle stagioni, si è alterato.
L'incontro da lontano con due persone gli è costato la vita... per aver solo incrociato lo sguardo del bipede tiranno .
Non ha mai fatto male a nessuno Sonny. Condannato, braccato e freddato a fucilate per non aver fatto niente.
Tutto in modalità rapida come conviene ai vili che agiscono a tradimento.
Un esecuzione contestuale all'emissione del decreto di uccisione, senza lasciare spazio alla società civile di impostare un' azione volta a salvarlo, ricorrendo al Tar.
Ucciso perché confidente, perché si serviva dei cassonetti sempre disponibili e mai modificati, ucciso perché anche i sentieri in Trentino non sono mai stati ben disciplinati e tutti possono spingersi ovunque, per poi creare allarmismi collettivi.
Mentre gli orsi non hanno più una zona sicura e devono solo scomparire.
Presi i denari del progetto di reintroduzione Life Ursus, ora i plantigradi sono di troppo in quelle valli e forse di intralcio per qualche altro disegno che porta soldi .
Il suo giudice e carnefice è il Presidente della tristissima Provincia autonoma di Trento, Fugatti, determinato a farli fuori tutti.
Questo soggetto ostile e sprezzante della vita dei selvatici, ricorderà bene questi giorni. Segneranno la sua esistenza perché tutto il Paese ha conosciuto bene il suo cinismo, la sua ossessione fuori controllo per queste creature e verrà ricordato come l'odiatore degli orsi, aguzzino dalle doppiette e dagli ergastoli facili ...
Re indiscusso del Casteller.
Ruth Lemma
Poor Sonny...
Poor young bear with the big head... he was little more than a puppy, he was facing a solitary life, in his early days as an independent individual, without his mother.
Inexperienced and confident, he took his steps in the woods and valleys.
He did not sleep safely in some den, but wandered around looking for food.
The beautiful sleep of hibernation did not protect Sonny.
Too bad he would have been saved.
The mild winters, in fact, have now confused and influenced the natural cycle of bears.
Their sleep/wake rhythm, linked to the seasons, has altered.
The encounter with two people from afar cost him his life... for just having met the gaze of the bipedal tyrant.
He never hurt anyone Sonny. Condemned, hunted down and shot dead for doing nothing.
All in rapid mode as befits cowards who act treacherously.
An execution at the same time as the issuing of the killing decree, leaving no room for civil society to take action aimed at saving him, resorting to the TAR.
Killed because he was confident, because he used the bins that were always available and never modified, killed because even the paths in Trentino have never been well regulated and anyone can go anywhere, and then create collective alarmism.
While bears no longer have a safe area and just have to disappear.
Having taken the money from the Life Ursus reintroduction project, now the plantigrades are too many in those valleys and perhaps an obstacle to some other project that brings money.
His judge and executioner is the President of the very sad autonomous province of Trento, Fugatti, determined to kill them all.
This hostile and contemptuous subject of the life of wild animals will remember these days well. They will mark his existence because the whole country knew well his cynicism, his out of control obsession with these creatures and he will be remembered as the hater of bears, a tormentor with doubles and easy life sentences...
Undisputed king of Casteller.
Ruth Lemma
United States Space Force
Formed in December of 2019, the USSF is a branch of the US AIr Force. Although its mission is public knowledge, much of its activity and infrastructure is unknown except to the highest levels of the military and government. With gravity plating being engineered in the 1950's, the only constraint was the quantity of rare earth elements. There had only been several square feet of plating, no more than a standard bath-mat, but enough to prove the technology. Thus the missions to the Moon. Once acquired, designs for a secret fleet of manned ships in permanent orbit would be feasible.
With a crew of five to ten, the latest and most advanced ships are capable of multiple missions. Armed with nuclear and kinetic weapons for terrestrial targets, and phalanx and ship to ship missiles, these ships are both offensive and defensive platforms.
General George J. Stennard was a Union general during the US Civil War. He was in command of the Vermont Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg. The Vermont Brigade was known for stopping Pickett's Charge, July 3rd, 1863, winning the battle and stopping the invasion of Washington, DC. In spite of the cynicism surrounding the US Space Force, the mission, beginning 1982 as the US Space Command, has been crucial to the US and allied security. Thus, like her namesake, the Stannard and her crew may be the most important ship and soldiers you've never heard of.
SHIPtember 2020!
110 Suds. Minifig scale. Point defense weapons, missile silos in the bow section. Dorsal and ventral docking ports, port and starboard airlocks. The bow also serves as a battering ram with various applications.
United States Space Force
Formed in December of 2019, the USSF is a branch of the US AIr Force. Although its mission is public knowledge, much of its activity and infrastructure is unknown except to the highest levels of the military and government. With gravity plating being engineered in the 1950's, the only constraint was the quantity of rare earth elements. There had only been several square feet of plating, no more than a standard bath-mat, but enough to prove the technology. Thus the missions to the Moon. Once acquired, designs for a secret fleet of manned ships in permanent orbit would be feasible.
With a crew of five to ten, the latest and most advanced ships are capable of multiple missions. Armed with nuclear and kinetic weapons for terrestrial targets, and phalanx and ship to ship missiles, these ships are both offensive and defensive platforms.
General George J. Stennard was a Union general during the US Civil War. He was in command of the Vermont Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg. The Vermont Brigade was known for stopping Pickett's Charge, July 3rd, 1863, winning the battle and stopping the invasion of Washington, DC. In spite of the cynicism surrounding the US Space Force, the mission, beginning 1982 as the US Space Command, has been crucial to the US and allied security. Thus, like her namesake, the Stannard and her crew may be the most important ship and soldiers you've never heard of.
SHIPtember 2020!
110 Suds. Minifig scale. Point defense weapons, missile silos in the bow section. Dorsal and ventral docking ports, port and starboard airlocks. The bow also serves as a battering ram with various applications.
A collage from the installation „State of Mind II" by Miso Susanowa at LEA6
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I used textures by Lenabem-Anna J.:
www.flickr.com/photos/lenabem-anna/5513239560/in/set-7215...
www.flickr.com/photos/lenabem-anna/5513239560/in/set-7215...
Thank you!
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In Miso's words:
"Four years ago, in April 2010 "State of Mind" made its first appearance... pre-Chelsea Manning, pre-Thomas Drake, pre-Edward Snowden, pre-Julian Assange... what looked like overblown paranoia and cynicism then has only confirmed our deepest fears about the shadow world and its effect on our lives. This is the struggle of our time; come and experience the installation; read the new material about tools and techniques to take back your internet."
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The "Somewhere in sl" picture series (or "The Adventures of WuWai in Second Life") is my guide and bookmark folder to wonderful, artful, curious or in other way remarkably sims of second life with travel guide WuWai Chun.
(More pictures of WuWai's adventures: Follow this link)
My notebook to rediscover places where I want to take pictures (my private destination guide). in my second life profile
my.secondlife.com/wuwai.chun/
or in greater resolution following link:
my.secondlife.com/wuwai.chun/snapshots/
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More money making beach fillers for the summer holidays. Please excuse my cynicism but I find the latest additions to our beaches overwhelming.......... what ever happened to family footy, leapfrog or rounder's on the beach. Slightly surprised at the large ‘Dog Friendly’ flag to the right of the picture.
Nantes, France’s largest slave port. Between the 15th and 19th centuries, numerous European ports such as Liverpool, London, Bristol, Nantes, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Amsterdam and Lisbon were involved in the slave trade. During the 18th century, Nantes became France’s largest slave port. Shipowners, bankers, industrialists, traders, shopkeepers, shipbuilders and sailors all benefited to varying degrees from the trade.
Forgotten for a long time. In 1848, after a drawn-out battle and thanks in no small part to the campaign led by Victor Schœlcher, the abolition of slavery was voted. Nantes moved on, but between cynicism and a guilty conscience, a cloak of silence fell over the subject and it was forgotten.
It was not until the 1990s that the people of Nantes, along with the town council, actively sought to face up to their history. In 1992, with more than 400,000 visitors, the exhibition « Les Anneaux de la Mémoire » facilitated an understanding and analysis of these historical events.
Nantes comes to terms with its memories and begins new struggles for today and the future.Since, Nantes has continued to move along the path of these new-found memories. Over twenty years, this path has been punctuated with local and international projects: cooperation and twinning with African and South-American towns, support for associations, organisation of the World Forum on Human Rights, opening of rooms dedicated to the slave trade at the Nantes History Museum, opening of the Institute for Advanced Studies with its original approach to North-South relations, etc. Finally, in 2012, the building of a Memorial in homage to all those who fought in the past, fight today and will fight in the future against slavery marks the end of one cycle and the beginning of another: that of the present and future.
Mémorial de l'Abolition de l'esclavage
Lors du 150e anniversaire de l’abolition de l’esclavage en 1998, le Conseil municipal de Nantes adopte le principe d’édifier un monument commémoratif sur le quai de la Fosse. Par un acte politique fort, la Ville entend assumer son passé et donner une forme à la mémoire, inscrite dans l’espace public.
Conçu par l’artiste Krzysztof Wodiczko et l’architecte Julian Bonder, il marque symboliquement une période de plus de vingt-cinq ans d’action publique pour développer la connaissance et la reconnaissance du passé négrier nantais. Au-delà de la mémoire des victimes de la traite atlantique, il s’agit de rendre hommage aux luttes contre les traites et les esclavages dans le monde.
Aujourd’hui, l’Organisation des Nations Unies et l’Organisation Internationale du Travail estiment que l’esclavage contemporain et le travail forcé concernent au moins 200 à 250 millions de personnes, dont une grande part d’enfants.
Implanté sur et sous le quai de la Fosse, le Mémorial de l’abolition de l’esclavage n’a pas pour vocation d’expliquer et d’exposer l’histoire, mais de se souvenir, d’alerter et de transmettre un message universel.
Un parcours urbain composé de 11 panneaux d’information relie symboliquement le Mémorial, monument commémoratif, au musée d’histoire de Nantes, situé au Château des ducs de Bretagne. Le Mémorial est implanté à proximité immédiate de sites et de monuments en relation avec le passé négrier nantais. Ces panneaux permettent aux lecteurs de décrypter les traces de ce qui fut une activité majeure de Nantes aux 18e et 19e siècles. Sont ainsi mis en valeur et analysés les hôtels d’armateurs négriers, le quai d’où partaient les navires négriers vers l’Afrique et les Antilles, des lieux symboliques comme la passerelle Schoelcher ou économiques comme la Bourse…
Seems like a contradiction. But when I watch a sunset like this one, it gives me a sense of hope that the next day will be better than the last. Too bad my cynicism gets in the way at times.
Happy Friday!
Sigma 10-20mm
Singh Ray Blue and Gold Polarizer
Stairs Of Cynicism's.
Generalissimos avvelenati offeso suggerimenti commiserations arsenico verso il basso,
prédécesseurs accusations anciennes exculpation vehement actes d'accusation examens précoce,
Petulant erfasste Fakten antiquierende Werte mißverstandenen Kompositionen zugeschriebene Poesie anerkannt,
транспортирующие абсурдные немодные ложь сложные метры ложные дидактизма жалкие враги жалующиеся,
συμπληρωματική δεισιδαιμονίες συγκέντρωση μαγικές τελετές ενθάρρυνση αναθεμάτισε επιλογές,
litteris deformata annos regiminis discordes dura videbuntur amoral tales relationes successoribus militiae,
alternatieve seculiere passies negatieve ideeën te informeren synthese schandalige eeuw aberraties ontwikkelingen,
cybydd-dod moroedd monstrous enfawr oddiwedded awydd ymryson yn dymuno balchder drwg rhwystrau cyfunol uchel,
Surplice ardiendo torturas de carbón infernal voces que sufren líderes tormentos demonios lições pavorosas,
征服された悪魔たちは、酒を飲む君主たちの酒を飲みます。.
Steve.D.Hammond.
There used to be much cynicism among LT staff that the greater the spend on garage rebuilds in the 1970`s and 1980`s, the greater the chances of closure following within a few years. This is Seven Kings Garage on 26 January 1979 - it closed in 1993. The rebuilding of Sidcup Garage for such a short life span in its new form was another example and Streatham likewise. Mortlake had much of the roof replaced three years before closure.