9/22/2021: Are We There Yet?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Sep 22, 2021, 8:58:53 PM9/22/21

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We're done with the "generalized runaround" by now, right, guys?
It seemed questionable when it started in the 90s, even.
Like you very definitely don't want to know much about the person you're pursuing and manipulating the public image of.
Even if they, y'know, die in the process.

Kinda serious here.
Jeff Rubard

Jeff Rubard

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Oct 6, 2021, 10:39:31 PM10/6/21

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Basically, dudes, the "city trip" = "civic collusion" = a fairly easy-to-understand "circular fraud".
Most of us "grok" this the first time around, even.
Can I have *some* of my money back? Etc.

Jeffrey Rubard

Jeff Rubard

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Oct 9, 2021, 1:58:34 PM10/9/21

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Typically, kids, one way this is done is by ignoring the normal "index" or "standard" for a particular service working correctly.
If I am getting written up for Tri-Met fare evasion and I give the clerk a non-standard ID, is this "just how it is"?
It's not USDOT/ODOT standards today (i.e., 10/9/21) for correct ticketing.
Things like that cast a tremendous pall over ticket and safety enforcement on MAX...
Maybe even if you "clap politely" enough or whatever you think "makes enough nice".
Over and over, for a period of a year or more. Like that.

Jeff Rubard

Jeff Rubard

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Oct 9, 2021, 2:01:52 PM10/9/21

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Two further questions present themselves:

"Aww, why don't you have the moo-oo-ooney? Got yourself in tro-oo-oble. Widdle baby. Baby baby baby."
(An answer would be simple, but the interaction "does not really permit".)
Or
"So... like... um... why am I being asked to care? Because I am, like, something you don't want to tangle with, bro."
Well, f'rinstance, how *many* Pulitzer prizes would a person have to win for you to be slightly impressed?
(For most normal Americans the answer is "Nonzero?" but Portland hustles longer as well as softer, guys.)

"Jeff Rubard"

Jeff Rubard

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Oct 11, 2021, 4:52:42 PM10/11/21

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The "simple but complicated" story is that some games people play in Portland -- with the connivance of authorities in various locales -- work against the normal process of legal discovery. An "inconvenient truth" about an inconvenient person is systematically covered up by nonsense "hi there! hi there" hijinks which are very dangerous as well as deceptive. Does this sound good to you? Not much of a thinker, are we?

Jeff Rubard

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Oct 30, 2021, 7:04:12 PM10/30/21

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On Monday, October 11, 2021 at 1:52:42 PM UTC-7, Jeff Rubard wrote:
> The "simple but complicated" story is that some games people play in Portland -- with the connivance of authorities in various locales -- work against the normal process of legal discovery. An "inconvenient truth" about an inconvenient person is systematically covered up by nonsense "hi there! hi there" hijinks which are very dangerous as well as deceptive. Does this sound good to you? Not much of a thinker, are we?

You don't just call something "circular fraud" or "ticket fraud" in person, obvs.

Jeff Rubard

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Nov 4, 2021, 7:54:48 PM11/4/21

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You would instead call it "passing the buck" or "coulda-shoulda-woulda" and get bad results...
because those kinds of "blow-offs" are of course *designed* to work pretty reliably and
they have the clout to *make* them work reliably.
The rest of the world remains what it is, including that you're wise to endlessly say
"Oh, what a goose am I!" as they "goose" you.

Jeff Rubard

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Nov 9, 2021, 9:50:55 PM11/9/21

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"Well, guy, doesn't everything seem normal now?"

Um, yeah, it does. Maybe it's kind of like that? Like that kind of unquantifiable nonsense *just stops*, like a water faucet or something?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Dec 7, 2021, 2:06:05 AM12/7/21

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At any rate, another person's physical well-being isn't really 'your call' on most comprehensible understandings.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Dec 9, 2021, 10:43:34 AM12/9/21

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"Blown out of proportion." I'm not sure that December 9, 2021 would even live in *notoriety* if your average Portlander ended up really not enjoying it.
Still, mostly "what they did say" was not really along the lines of a rebuke strong enough to charge them on: and wouldn't you not quite know that, when one's words do reach that level of vitriol, those types somehow don't care?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Dec 10, 2021, 12:06:41 AM12/10/21

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3 1/2 months? Is that about right?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Dec 11, 2021, 1:11:02 AM12/11/21

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Less or more time since the initial message in this thread?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Jan 27, 2022, 8:57:19 AM1/27/22

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2022 Update: I guess "we are there yet", and an immense amount of time is approximately indicated by this gesture.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Mar 20, 2022, 7:52:04 PM3/20/22

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(Wisdom of Age: Intellectual property theft figures in it more heavily than you would think. No, not yours.)

Jeffrey Rubard

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Mar 23, 2022, 2:55:58 PM3/23/22

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So that initial post was... seven months ago?
"No, six months ago."
Yeah, I guess that's right.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Mar 24, 2022, 3:19:43 PM3/24/22

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Isn't it? Would there be "quibbling" to do in this case?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Mar 27, 2022, 5:20:44 PM3/27/22

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Similarly, today is Sunday, March 27, 2022.
Or isn't it? Did I "get the date wrong"?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Mar 28, 2022, 1:50:26 PM3/28/22

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Do you suppose some factual claims are "untrue"?
Perhaps the point of this slightly chiding statement by Wittgenstein:
"Thought can be of what is not the case."

Jeffrey Rubard

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Mar 29, 2022, 4:19:08 PM3/29/22

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Or the more familiar "Popperian" idea that if nothing could count as a
statement's being *wrong*, it's not the product of scientific inquiry.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Mar 30, 2022, 2:02:40 PM3/30/22

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Furthermore, the so-to-speak "stickler veto" isn't so much, either.
Did you know Mark Lanegan from the legendary NW band Screaming Trees
died? "Hmmm, I'm not sure..." No, there were reliable reports of it in
the press, y'know...

Jeffrey Rubard

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Jun 27, 2022, 6:22:59 PM6/27/22

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So how's everybody doing?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Jun 29, 2022, 8:34:46 PM6/29/22

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...for some value of "everybody" that would be discomfited by public circumstance in the Portland metro area recently.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Aug 4, 2022, 6:42:27 PM8/4/22

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Update: I guess, with the "Light in August" phenomenon, we are done. (Like, that is as *late* as possible as such "patent deceptions" can end.)

Jeffrey Rubard

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Aug 8, 2022, 5:23:04 PM8/8/22

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How was everybody's July?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Aug 8, 2022, 7:22:04 PM8/8/22

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Some kind of way, right?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Aug 13, 2022, 7:24:51 PM8/13/22

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Other facts are a little more "dialed-in", but we're getting there!

Jeffrey Rubard

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Aug 15, 2022, 4:43:12 PM8/15/22

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A beautiful Monday afternoon in the state of Oregon, not any other state at all.
You've got it! (Some of your other ideas may be insane and dangerous, though.)

Jeffrey Rubard

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Aug 23, 2022, 3:23:39 PM8/23/22

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"I don't think so."
You have at least heard of "self-deception", right?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Aug 27, 2022, 6:45:58 PM8/27/22

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Update: So how's the end of summer 2022 treating everyone?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Aug 28, 2022, 7:34:42 PM8/28/22

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Update: Yeah, we're there yet. "In the Fall"... well, who could say?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Sep 4, 2022, 6:27:16 PM9/4/22

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"Um, Jeffrey Lent?"
Let's not go there.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Sep 6, 2022, 5:24:45 PM9/6/22

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"Why not?"
You wouldn't want to talk about those books! Besides, it isn't fall yet. Right?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Sep 7, 2022, 3:38:21 PM9/7/22

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It is almost one year later, though? Right?
"Right."
So we can agree about some things!

Jeffrey Rubard

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Sep 14, 2022, 11:28:45 AM9/14/22

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"Oh, yeah, it's definitely September 2022, heh heh, right."
Sure. That's not a very finely discriminating sense of empirical fact though, now, is it?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Sep 15, 2022, 4:48:26 PM9/15/22

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What do people think of the FX bus service's opening, for example?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Sep 16, 2022, 6:11:34 PM9/16/22

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(This sort of line isn't called something funny like a "crazy train", is it?)

Jeffrey Rubard

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Sep 19, 2022, 8:31:29 PM9/19/22

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I rode on it. It was okay.
"Nobody cares."
That's normal. "Making shit up" about someone in personal trouble is... kinda not.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Sep 24, 2022, 6:01:41 PM9/24/22

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One year later...

Jeffrey Rubard

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Sep 27, 2022, 7:01:00 PM9/27/22

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(You do suppose that is a one-year time interval, I guess?)

Jeffrey Rubard

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Sep 30, 2022, 5:32:53 PM9/30/22

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Update: So, what do you have planned for October 2022?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Oct 1, 2022, 6:41:41 PM10/1/22

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"Ignoring you."
Awesome!

Jeffrey Rubard

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Oct 2, 2022, 7:59:25 PM10/2/22

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But, sure, it's October 2022.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Oct 6, 2022, 6:50:28 PM10/6/22

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Isn't it?
"Yes."
Ah, there were the objective facts I was looking for!

Jeffrey Rubard

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Oct 17, 2022, 4:58:04 PM10/17/22

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...and President Biden just visited, right?
"Boy, did he ever."
Expert knowledge on particular topics already! Co-ool!

Jeffrey Rubard

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Oct 19, 2022, 7:00:00 PM10/19/22

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Not quite a year and a month since the original post, huh?
"I guess."
The pleasures of agreement!

Jeffrey Rubard

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Oct 22, 2022, 6:23:30 PM10/22/22

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"But what if I said it wasn't?"
You would be "speaking falsely", wouldn't you?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Oct 22, 2022, 6:24:50 PM10/22/22

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"Well, now it's *exactly* a year and a month since that post. Ha!"
This is, honestly, a kind of "logical sophistry" some of us have become used to having
heavily "doled out" upon us. It, personally, doesn't seem to make anything like the
amount of sense its enthusiasts think it makes. (And that's a "tame" example.)

Jeffrey Rubard

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Oct 23, 2022, 7:40:54 PM10/23/22

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My long-time impression of Portland "trolling": they thought a "smoke machine" actually became a "zero-gravity machine",
and committed horrendous trespasses against other people based on this well-nigh-schizoid impression.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Oct 24, 2022, 3:47:40 PM10/24/22

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Yeah, if you keep "moving goalposts", well... then, maybe don't make "rash decisions" on the bad information that generates.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Oct 26, 2022, 3:38:26 PM10/26/22

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("Hair-splitting" can make anything look like a good idea. Maybe not everything is a good idea.)

Jeffrey Rubard

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Oct 29, 2022, 4:54:47 PM10/29/22

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10/29/22: Well, I guess that's all for that.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Nov 6, 2022, 5:58:13 PM11/6/22

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"I'm not all for that."
Did you expect Sunday today "needed your vote", dipshit?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Nov 7, 2022, 5:54:39 PM11/7/22

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"Now, what did you mean? Are you talking about the election?"
"Not really, but more about the supercilious feeling many seem to have today that everything 'needs their approval', even
contingently obtaining 'states of affairs'."

Jeffrey Rubard

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Nov 9, 2022, 5:33:04 PM11/9/22

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"The afternoon after..."
Isn't it?
"Yes."
Well, then.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Nov 29, 2022, 3:46:01 PM11/29/22

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Realism Recovery: The American Marxist historian Staughton Lynd died? (Facts, we got a lot of 'em.)

Jeffrey Rubard

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Nov 30, 2022, 3:52:58 PM11/30/22

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Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac?
"Oh, I like them", etc.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Nov 30, 2022, 4:27:46 PM11/30/22

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Jiang Zemin of China?
"Oh, I don't like them", etc.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Dec 2, 2022, 4:04:40 PM12/2/22

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Robert Crumb's wife Aline Kominsky, etc.
"What's with this?"
She's dead.
"So?"
It's a sort of fact "fact-allergic" people can stand okay, in my past experience.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Dec 3, 2022, 5:37:26 PM12/3/22

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"What did Jiang Zemin and Aline Kominsky have to do with each other?"
Not a hell of a lot, I don't think they saw "eye to eye" much.

Jeffrey Rubard

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Dec 4, 2022, 5:35:37 PM12/4/22

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Update: "Twenty-one shopping days 'till Christmas", is that right?

Jeffrey Rubard

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Dec 5, 2022, 3:20:47 PM12/5/22

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...Or are there only nineteen shopping days left today? "Whatever, not clever."