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Category: Europe

Florence and thereabouts

Posted on October 22, 2013October 22, 2013 by Gus

Courtyard in old Florence

Magical paths, Monte Firoelle, Italy

Duomo detail 2

Florence from the European University Institute (EUI) where I was a guest

Duomo detail, Florence

Duomo detail

Duomo detail 3, Florence

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Gus DiZerega

3 months ago

Some asshole has apparently hacked me. At this stage of my life I DO NOT send out friend requests. Please ignore or report.Thanks!Gus ... See MoreSee Less

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Gus DiZerega

4 months ago

Many years ago, when I was teaching at the University of Puget Sound, the Exxon Valdez went aground in Alaska, causing a particularly horrible oil spill. Exxon's first public words were that everything was OK and any spill would be small. When the truth came out, I wondered why they had lied when the lie would soon be exposed.As I started exploring that and related issues I came to the conclusion: "Big organizations always lie. Whenever they tell the truth, it is never because it is the truth." True for bureaucracies, corporations, the Red Cross, churches, the Boy Scouts, and on and on. My study as to why this is the case I link to in the comments.But perhaps the worst of all such organizations are police departments. Not only do they lie, they attract bullies who abuse their powers and are then protected by the organization and by police unions. Many people die and murders go unpunished as a consequence. Not all cops are this way, but it is risky for a decent cop to report a villain on the force because, as Frank Serpico of the NYPD found out, that can lead to your premature death. (The second link below), He was so honest a movie was made about him.I wish more Americans would learn of the very high price they pay for paying out damages over cop misbehavior while the real criminals go unpunished, too often to act criminally again. ... See MoreSee Less

The Hidden Billion-Dollar Cost of Repeated Police Misconduct

getpocket.com

More than $1.5 billion has been spent to settle claims of police misconduct on behalf of thousands of officers repeatedly accused of wrongdoing. Taxpayers are often in the dark.

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Gus DiZerega

4 months ago

www.dizerega.com/2024/09/12/donald-trump-the-antchrist-and-power/ ... See MoreSee Less

Donald Trump, the Antchrist, and Power

www.dizerega.com

I obviously do not believe Biblical prophecies have a divine source in any sense. At the same time, I am fascinated by the power coherent images and attitudes have to influence people’s perceptions....

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Gus DiZerega

4 months ago

I have been working on a side project while writing my book: the interesting connections between Trump, Evangelicals, and the Antichrist. It is finally complete and deep enough that I published it on my website, where comments can be made as well as comments here. It was sparked by an interesting piece on the subject Thom Hartmann did, but I think goes much deeper than his post. ... See MoreSee Less

Donald Trump, the Antchrist, and Power

www.dizerega.com

I obviously do not believe Biblical prophecies have a divine source in any sense. At the same time, I am fascinated by the power coherent images and attitudes have to influence people’s perceptions....

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Gus DiZerega

4 months ago

This is a very interesting piece on why the mainstream political press is essentially serving the Republican Party. What I like most about it is its analysis on how the growth of media such as TikToc, Youtube, and other online sources has been eating away at the presses' formerly dominant role in communicating political information to the public.The book ms. I am working on developing the ideas in my essay "The Great Forgetting" as to how most Westerners lost the ability to experience the world and all within it as alive emphasizes the role of different means of communicating in doing this. Each is in Walter Ong's terms, a technology, and every technology changes the user. It is not simply a tool.Language shapes our experience- for example, speaking broadly, the German word for a hot pepper is 'scharf' which means sharp. I have German friends fluent in English who tell me it was difficult for them to imagine why we used 'hot. to describe a jalapeno pepper's taste. I have similar problems understanding 'scharf' in that context.Literacy inaugurated perhaps even greater changes in perception. Print did the same, including triggering the Reformation. Many of us know Marshall McLuhan's work on "The Medium is the Message" and Ong's work penetrates much more deeply.Now we are in the midst of another enormous change in the technology of communication. Mainstream media is suffering and the future is still unclear. But I want to add a reason why this change is happening none too soon.The authoritarian right, after the 60s in particular, made a concerted effort to control the media through buying it. The music of the 60s virtually disappeared on the radio, for example. The Dixie Chicks' banning was a more recent example of this. Corporate news shifted from employing real journalists like Cronkite and Huntley Brinkley to talking heads whose job was to entertain, and do so within a context friendly to corporate and right wing interests. We see this shit all over the major print and visual media today.Now they are headed to a minor status- and being replaced by a technology far more difficult for any ideological group to capture. While this article linked to does not put these events inthe context I just gave, it does a good description of how even the NYT is increasingly irrelevant. ... See MoreSee Less

Axios, CNN (Dana Bash), Cillezza, MSM political media make it clear: they work for the GOP

www.dailykos.com

I was once a journalist, am friends with journalists, respect (real journalists) and so mourn what has happened to our political media (and even those around it). The actions of the political media in...

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