Inside Games; news from 02Nov2012

So it comes to this:

Republicans can't handle the truth  of own Congressional Research arm when it intervenes with  a 'dissenting reality'. And that's about false claims of tax cuts creating jobs, the core of the right's economic argument. Quite literally. Could not be a more telling indictment of Congress' inability to act on the eve of this national election and as for the state of this nation.

Unless you consider this.

and that's just the NYT... the bbc is in the game at least briefly about voting suppression 2 min audio

and cnbc reports on finance,

Big banks agree to hold more capital in common and at a higher percentage than before according to cnbc...

Another insider game noticed this week, here by the Washington Post: Big CEO's war over tax raises and spending or just possible spending amidst drastic cutbacks in a strange new gambit with or without sequestration. Congress should get credit for this fiasco. All of Congress.

Dave says

In times of disaster, privateers see opportunity to buy low and build on shifted sands;

or this, where Ohio just lost 30,000 of it's voters 'due to a computer glitch'. Really now?

But people still take care of people. where they can even without the big bucks. Go Occupy Sandy!

descendant of Fletcher Christian goes down with HMS Bounty in wake of Hurricane Sandy

I should also say I've spent a lot of time on twitter this week following the ramp up for Sandy, it's approach, destruction - mostly Manhattan - and rescue efforts and relaying of damages, pics etc, Very interesting.
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Meanwhile, a couple books will begin this other area I need to go into - not side trips, maybe the most important. First, found The Book of the Courtier in one of those college town used bookstores with rows of stacks all over back in 2008. It was my period of study and I knew I would need it. It was a penguin classic so I knew the translation would be at least decent for english. I looked at the date it was supposed to be and shelved it. Also, a month or so ago I began reading this other FOLIO abridgement of Burchard's famous document At the Court of The Borgia which covers the period at Rome and Italy for 1493-1503.

Finally started to look at 'The Courtier' last week. Today I looked it up on the internet.  Found this delightful comment by a guy, Jay Rudin on amazon as a review where he calls it 'Essential to understanding people in 16th century' of Europe:

"Wouldn't it be great if several people had gathered together in one of the 16th century Italian states to hash out exactly what was proper behavior for a gentle person at that time and place? And wouldn't it be better if they were led by a gracious lady who demanded that they stay on track? And wouldn't it be helpful if somebody had written down what was said, so that we could read it? And wouldn't it be wonderful if the book earned praise all over Europe at that time, so we'd know that its teachings were generally accepted? And wouldn't it be convenient if it were currently in print in English translation?

They did. We can. It is."

Great! So there's that to look at. Also, Johann Burchard gives a first person, organizer's eye view of the Borgia papacy at our pivotal time. So careful are his observations you wonder what he might miss at all. It is a strange office as Master of Ceremonies that he held for that position of papal organization. He did it all it seems as upholder of tradition and sanctity, maintaining tradition in the wake of this different kind of family so used to having their way. This was the second time in recent memory that a member of the Borgia family from Spain would hold the papacy. Also there would be a couple de Medici and a couple della Rovere family members.  Then there were a couple Piccolomini too , Pius II and III who both were buried in Rome, here. And that is near the Pantheon in the neighborhood of Sant Eustachio. But since Burchard talks about Rodrigo Borgia and The Courtier includes the della Rovere as compatriots we can turn at last to look at Rome and Naples as first tier contestants over the future of Italy.