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<p>Glen -</p>
<p>All video-game/bobblehead tangents aside, this was a fascinating
complementary pair of links.</p>
<p>I didn't fully verify your Bulwark link, but my first impulse was
to think it was an <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theonion.com/">Onion</a> or <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report">Borowitz</a>
article. Fascinating that absurd things like this can go right
past us in the torrent of nonsense that this administration has
brought to us. Lost in the cacophany of dog-whistles, as it were?<br>
</p>
<p>Interesting juxtaposition of Trump, Seagal, Depardieu (<i
title="Russian-language romanization" style="color: rgb(32, 33,
34); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;
font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;
font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255,
255); text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color:
initial;" lang="ru-Latn">Zherar Depardyo!) </i><span
style="color: rgb(32, 33, 34); font-family: sans-serif;
font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">and </span>Snowden...
among other things, both Seagal and Depardieu's movies have been
put on <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/02/19/ukraine-bans-movies-starring-zelenskiy-seagal-depardieu-over-national-security-a69342">a
banned list in Ukraine</a>, and I'd guess Trump is not a very
welcome person there either. I don't know what they feel about
Snowden... he's more likely to be a hero than antihero there, in
spite Russia being his bolt-hole location?<a
href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/02/19/ukraine-bans-movies-starring-zelenskiy-seagal-depardieu-over-national-security-a69342">
<br>
</a></p>
<p>These links remind me of several of the other frayed threads
here... you referenced yet another previous thread discussing
"means of production" and whether I acquiesced openly to your
grumbling about that at the time, it did set me on a different
tangent internally. <br>
</p>
<p> It also juxtaposes with the various lines of discussion around
self-organization and hierarchical systems. Many of us think
first of political power structures when we think hierarchy. To
the extent that these systems maintain their own coherence through
a certain amount of top-down control (i.e. exercise of authority)
we tend to associate hierarchies as "top-down" systems, but I
think that is somewhat of an illusion, or an edge case among the
many examples of hierarchy in self-organized systems. <br>
</p>
<p><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterarchy">Heterarchy</a>
and <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holarchy">holarchy</a> come
to mind, as does the generic <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partially_ordered_set">poset</a>.
<br>
</p>
<p>Snowden's rhetoric, which I generally approve/agree-with,
includes an "othering" of gub'mint and corporations that doesn't
seem to overtly take into account that both of these are
self-organized, emergent structures, even if from an
oft-individual point of view they seem antithetical to the good of
the individual.</p>
<p>mumble,</p>
<p> - Steve<br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:78f2eb17-52c0-9dd4-957e-4825defa056a@gmail.com">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">Trump’s New Ad Is Amazing
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://thebulwark.com/trumps-new-ad-is-amazing/">https://thebulwark.com/trumps-new-ad-is-amazing/</a>
We can only dream that Trump will be indicted and tried for treason. It's interesting to speculate whether he'll seek asylum in Russia. Snowden seems to be OK, but not thriving:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-age-of-mass-surveillance-will-not-last-forever/">https://www.wired.com/story/the-age-of-mass-surveillance-will-not-last-forever/</a>
Steven Seagal and Gérard Depardieu are probably doing better. I can't help but wonder how Trump would fare.
</pre>
</blockquote>
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