I Wanna Break Lockdown With You

Alison, do you have internet of things enabled underwear yet? It’s the best way to stay safe and secure. It’s the latest thing. Like a modern chastity belt, but much smarter. You get to keep your privacy, and I get to share that.

“The “world’s first smart condom,” the i.Con Smart Condom…”
https://iapp.org/news/a/smart-condom-available-for-preorder/

That’s possibly the best poem I’ve read in, well, a long time.

Have you considered becoming a rappist?

Before this nightmare started, I was following the events that were going on in Chile in October 2019. This is what Wikipedia says about Chile’s economy: “Chile is one of South America’s most stable and prosperous nations, leading Latin American nations in human development, competitiveness, globalization, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption”, which we may summarize saying that Chile was over 30 years the field for Chicago Boys’, that is, Milton Friedman’s wildest neo-liberalism, as close as one can get to the real thing. You know what the theory is: the “wealth of the nation” get wealthier and wealthier and in good time this will spill over to the general population. At least, that’s what the book says; only in Chile, after 30 years of a faithful application of this system, instead of that, over a million two hundred thousand people got in the street to what?… protest against subway ticket rise, as the media want us to believe? No way! One million two hundred thousand people don’t get in the streets for that! it was, true, the drop that spilled the glass, but only the drop; the protests were against the whole system that produced that rise.

I had a Chilean neighbor once, and he said that in his country there are citizens of first class, second class, third class, and so on. Health care plans go on in a continuum from covering almost nothing to covering everything; so if you had an accident in the streets and get injured, the first thing people do is to look over your papers to see if you have subscribed to some health plan, and if not, no ambulance will show up, and your life may entirely depend on the goodwill of the bystanders because there is no such a thing as public health, in “one of South America’s most stable and prosperous nations”. Also, you have all sorts of real estate plans, and you can easily get a loan to buy your home, providing you put up a collateral of course, but you, your children, your grandchildren, will be paying for it your whole life; in other words, most of what your family earns today and whatever it shall earn in the future goes to the banks.

Can we safely dismiss a theory that didn’t produce the expected results after 30 years? Anyway, the media said it was because of a subway rise, nothing to be steamed up about, and went on to list the losses the protests were producing in the economy. This reminds me of what Robert Fisk (RIP) said in one of his talks about how the media deceive us through its deliberate selection of words aimed at distorting our perception of reality; and therefore our interpretation of the facts: if you saw on television a Palestinian throwing a stone, and you are told that it’s about “disputed territories”, something your can settle over a cup of tea, then the stone throwing will appear to you as unnecessarily violent and reprehensible; but if it is about “occupied territories”, about an entire population driven by force out of their ancestral homes into camps, it is another kettle of fish.

The point is that in the last years and specially in 2019, there were several grassroot movements in all continents; not led by any organisation, opposition, unions, ONG, left, right, etc; and hence an “out of hand” kind of movements; just people organising through social media and getting together. The talk was about deep and radical issues like, the Constitution, the government, universal suffrage, representation, monetary system, and so on, and the most spectacular were Chile’s protests. Don’t take my word for it, look up a video titled “Insane: Over 1 Million People Protest In The Streets Of Chile Against Government Corruption!” and decide for yourself if it’s grassroot or organized from higher up; and while you watch that video think of what the stakes are; what is at play there, and why TPTB, fearing a likely domino effect, had to act.

Last night, I discovered a curious coincidence: “Chile despertó”, the name under which the protests are known, and meaning “Chile woke up” started on October 18th, 2019; that same day in New York, according to the Center for Health Security, Event 201 was hosted.

That clears things up, as far as I’m concerned.

Surreptitious fornication laced with BDSM as an act of resistance ? I am not impressed.

continuing evidence that satire is dead:

Here are some ways to lower the chances of being exposed to COVID-19 during sex with others:

Ask your partner(s) if they’re feeling unwell or have any symptoms of COVID-19.

Consider keeping contact information for your partner(s) so that you can reach them if one of you develops symptoms.

Before and after sex:

Wash your body with soap and water.

Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

Wash sex toys thoroughly per the manufacturer’s instructions. Most, but not all, can be cleaned with mild unscented soap and water. Do not share them with multiple partners.

Wear a face covering or mask. Heavy breathing during sex can create more droplets that may transmit COVID-19.

Avoid or limit kissing and saliva exchange.

Choose sexual positions that limit face-to-face contact.

Use barriers, like walls (e.g., glory holes), that allow for sexual contact but prevent close face-to-face contact.

http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19/prevention-risks/covid-19-and-sex

Poetry has always been (for eons) one of the most effective ways of getting a message across; so good on you for writing this.

As an experiment try doing it in 14 lines (ie, a sonnet). Sonnet No.18 is probably Shakespeare’s most famous one…

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Shakespeare was a brilliant playwright, but I don’t actually rate his poetry too highly (just about everything he wrote, both poetry and plays, was in pentametre).

If you have the inclination we can debate this another time.

The bridge pictured in the video is Charles Bridge, one of the oldest in Europe (construction began around 1350). Duringists pre-CV-1984, the bridged was packed with tourists, so much so that it was just about impossible to cross. Dawn to dusk, that is. Sometimes, I’d go across on my way from a gig after midnight, and the place would be as busy as ever.

No more. The tourist industry has been hit the hardest. Prague is a ghost town. All tourist establishments are going belly up, including the boats, obviously.

It’s nice to see that businesses are now getting involved and actively protesting. The pigs did break up the party though … Too few boats this time, I guess …

the measures are going from the law!, to guidance, to ignored, to forgotten. And they know it, hence the ramping up of fear. The next worry is the vaccine apps, they need to be stopped or we are all fucked.