Arttua
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Geppetto, “3 months a year of essentially zero sales. We spend frugally and try to hedge against an ambiguous at best future. Failure is always a possible outcome”
Sounds very familar, I owned a bicycle shop, and in retrospect, I am suprised I made it through that first winter. After that I closed for a month every winter and went riding somewhere, many times to the Nepalese Himalaya. My shop was doing well with BMX, and then Mt biking started happening, and the bottom fell out of BMX. So I’ve always been paranoid that the bottom might fall out.
I read “Decline of the West” by O. Spengler back in the 80’s then onto others like The Crisis of our Age, Collapse of Complex Societies, and others. So all that is happening I’ve been anticipating, I know things might get really tough, but not for me yet, for me.
“Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Strange days indeed — most peculiar, mama” -J LennonGeppetto,
“Sometimes I wonder if all the armchair anarchists I encounter on the internet have ever added value to anything? Built , created art, made music, built a surfboard, a bicycle, a car, an airplane, a house? I wonder if they have ever had to kill another sentient being to get some protein?”
As an armchair anarchist, I should say, yes, I play jazz every morning before TAE, and have built guitars. I haven’t built a house, but have replaced almost every window, floor and ceiling. I own a small farm so yes those sentient beings. I’ve built hundreds of bicycles.
I think what most people don’t understand is that anarchy is basically the lack of hierarchy. Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, et al, had a lack of anarchy and an over abundance of hierarchy. 1968 had some anarchy, and it looked like things might get better. It is hierarchies that wage war, not anarchists. “What ever happened to that peace, love, hippie shit?” -Pete Townsend
It is the hierarchy that has failed in the US, and elsewhere, and the anarchists know it. 90% of human history has been anarchic, only the last 10k years hasn’t been. I think Vico got it wrong when he said civilization goes from Theocracy, to Aristocracy, Democracy, Chaos. That last stage, and the beginning of a new one is Anarchy, a far cry from chaos.Dr D. “they have pretended that there has been this huge tragically large number of human lives being lost when more people die from car crashes.” Please Dr D. Somewhere between 40 to 50K people die in the US from vehicular crashes, not 132,000! You lose credibility with these numbers, and we are only half way through this year.
Dr D, is the lack of deaths in Florida due to their use of HCQ+? I have read there is widespread use in Florida, but I’m not sure.
Tom Cruise, we could do a lot worse, at least he’s not a grade b actor or a reality star. Without seeing his platform, I’d probably vote for him before trump or biden.
“A century later, naturalists suspected that the landscape they crossed had been formed by fire. John Muir commented on the parklike quality of the sierra woodlands. ….it is clear that the singular spacing of the trees is a result of the annual firing of the country.”
“The indians were skillful fire managers. Not only did they consider wind, temperature, and time of year, but they were also good at turning the fire in the direction they wanted, by piling brush along the desired path.
Early visitors to the Indian territories often noted the smoke and the burning.
Indian burn every year just the same, so keep all ground clean, no bark, no dead leaf.”
“For more than a half century, the Mono, the Chukchansi, and all the other surviving tribes have not been allowed to burn. …. The land began to change. In the Indian view, it began to die.”This is from “Sprout Lands, Tending the endless gift of trees.” -William Bryant Logan
Bosco, My double grammy winning teacher, Harry Leahey grew up with Bill Evans, He studied with Dennis Sandole, who also taught Coltrane. Here’s me playing So What by Miles Davis.
Academic freedom, David Graber, Debt the first 5000 years, was fired from Yale for his involvement in Occupy Wall Street.
V. Arnold, you posted a year or two ago your birthday. I turned 64 on the 12th, so I remembered that I am almost exactly ten years your junior.
“We know from experience, for example, communism does not work.” Wes, have you looked at what Cuba and Vietnam’s success story with covid is? Compare that to the “great” democracies of th US and UK.
We went to see Cristo’s Gates, and seayed with my wife’s cousin, Dennis Oppenheim, here is one of my favorites of his:
In my mail box today, (Vt, USA) an 8 page newspaper, The Epoch Times. Every article is an attack piece on China. Title articale “How the Chinese Communist Party Endangered the World” ,
The drum beats of war.“Randy George had never laid anyone off in his 20 years running his bakery and café in Middlesex, Vermont…He’s had to put 28 of the staff of Red Hen Baking Co. on furlough.”
That’s our favorite bread about 10 miles from here, and there is not as much of it available as pre-pandemic.I should have mentioned in my last post. A freind had a family member in the Boston area was in bad shape, was given chloroquine and had a framatic recovery.
My 18 yo nefew in Brooklyn got it, had waves of different symptoms then both his parents got it, dad had very light symptoms.On democracy Now, Juan Gonzales’s 92 year old mother had the virus in NJ. The dr told Juan that they routinely use hyroxyclooquine, Juam told the dr not to use it, she did recover.
From my wife’s blog: A Pandemic Journal
“I chose this life because I have never had much confidence in a precarious, bloated economy of global supply chains, credit default swaps, technological dependency, two-thousand-cow dairies, and over-specialization. Instead, it is the rhythms of a rural life –collecting sap in buckets, cutting wood for the stove, caring for animals – that are more reliable. When everything else is failing, these do not fail us, cannot fail us.”
“If this is why the US gets hits so hard, watch out for Mexico” We spent January and February in Mexico, and I would say we probably saw a half dozen obese people. Some overweight but almost none of the obesity seen in the US.
Vindicated. As I posted weeks ago, I have never gotten a flu shot, and don’t think I have ever gotten the flu.
“Lost sense of smell may be peculiar clue to coronavirus infection”
“A mother who was infected with the coronavirus couldn’t smell her baby’s full diaper. Cooks who can usually name every spice in a restaurant dish can’t smell curry or garlic, and food tastes bland. Others say they can’t pick up the sweet scent of shampoo or the foul odor of kitty litter.Anosmia, the loss of sense of smell, and ageusia, an accompanying diminished sense of taste, have emerged as peculiar telltale signs of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and possible markers of infection.”
https://www.boston.com/news/health/2020/03/23/coronavirus-sense-of-smell“Northern plains of Italy, is a region stuck between two mountain chains, the Appennini and the Alps, blocking winds coming from the North. The result is that air stagnates and pollution accumulates, creating what’s probably the most polluted area in Western Europe. Considering that also Wuhan, the other center of the coronavirus epidemic, is located in a highly polluted area, central China, it makes sense to think that the infection does more damage to the already weakened lungs of people affected by pollution. Indeed, I had already noted how epidemics tend to strike mostly populations already weakened by other factors, typically famines and wars — pollution is just another factor that has the same effect. According to the data, it may also be that the virus is carried by flying microparticles and that makes the infection spread faster.”
https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2020/03/italy-virus-hits-polluted-areas-is.htmlTo respond to a couple of people, I am currently in Mexico, and they do not eat beans! As a mostly vegetarian, it is difficult to find meals here without meat, we mostly cook for ourselves. When we get back to Vermont we will eat 100% grass fed lamb that we raise, and slaughter on our farm (USDA is really nasty to the animals).
I have never gotten a flu shot, and don’t recall ever getting it, but then again we will be flying home.Immune system.
A British study of cyclists aged 70 through 80s found their immune system to be close to a 20 something. At the age of 63, as a cyclist I have had certainly less than 63 colds, nothing like Wes from yesterday with 100 to 200.“From bondage to spiritual faith” I can not forget Vico’s Notion, Theocracy, Aristocracy, Democracy, Chaos. Although I think it should read anarchy not chaos, as anarchy, as in no hierarchy has been 90% human history.
“She argues that the human tendency to bear many children, engage in food sharing, division of labor, and cooperative childcare duties, sets us apart from our closest evolutionary counterparts, the apes.”
Really? I’m no biologist, but leaf cutter ants cooperatively farm and raise many young. According to E O Wilson the biomass of ants are about the same as humans. Bees also would also be included in her description, as would most of the animal world.
Of Bonobos and Men, – D E Bechard
“Less well known is the fact that these great apes don’t kill their own kind, and that they share nearly 99 percent of our DNA. Their approach to building peaceful coalitions and sharing resources has much to teach us, particularly at a time when our violent ways have pushed them to the brink of extinction.”“If a car that runs on an internal combustion engine generates a third of the waste produced in its ‘lifetime’ before it hits the store, I bet you the ratio is worse for electric cars,” I read the other day that the EV figure is 43%
No civilization has ever moved to a less dense energy source, but that is exactly what we have been doing with ff. To move to renewable will only make matters worse. 99% of civilizations have collapsed, due to diminishing returns on complexity. -Joseph Tainter
“I can’t seem to figure out on what specific grounds though.”
“The Court held that government cannot punish inflammatory speech unless that speech is “directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.””Keeping up with Venezuela, https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14451
It seems random guy is not achieving much.“What ever happened to that peace, love, hippie shit anyway?” -Pete Townsend
I have no apologies as a baby boomer. I retired over 25 years ago, bought the farm/homestead, and have been commuting by bicycle for over 35 years year round. I can set an example, but these kids don’t want to contemplate it.
The young don’t have any idea that it is not climate change that will screw them, although it will give them a big dope slap. Fiat currencies will screw them, someday there will be a realization that the growth that keeps those currencies afloat is massive debt, their debt.
I have no children, I could not imagine bringing one into a world that is hell bent, never near as good as I had as a child, or a young adult.
For so long I’ve wondered why the young do not revolt, but they don’t want that peace, love hippie shit, they want all the shit, and sorry they are not going to get it. A young guy said to me, (because of my outlook) life must suck for you.
I bit my tongue, thinking that no it hasn’t sucked for me, but it will for you.
My nephew just got a perfect score on his SAT’s, every fourth word out of his mouth is technology. And what is the essence of technology? Finite energy.I stopped at a small store (Northern Vermont) hearing a conversation in Spanish, I asked if she was from Venezuela.
Yes, so Guiado or Maduro? She said oh, Guiado. She said that it is the Maduro government that has caused the crisis. I said well isn’t it the American sanctions that are the cause? She said no, Maduro is stealing all the money, so the US is just preventing Maduro government from stealing it.
I said, well won’t the US steal all the oil? She said, it doesn’t matter, Maduro steals it now, but if his government is gone it will be better for Venezuela and US.
I wanted to ask her if this is the white minority wanting power back from the brown majority? But I knew I was going to get nowhere. (thanks Greg Palast)“A retired general and chief of staff has warned that the US’ missile defense systems are “simply incapable” of stopping the latest generation of Russian hypersonic missiles”
Why not declare piece?
“Squandering trillions on “defense” (from whom?) and stealing most of that money without anyone going to jail is an amazing bit of sleight of hand, but in the end you end up with a load of useless military hardware while upstarts like Russia and China run circles around it and humiliate you at their leisure.” -D. OrlovThe American revolution was not. It was a coup. The proletariat did not overthrow the elites, the elites overthrew the elites. George Washington was the richest man in America, by way of land speculation.
The Proclamation of 1763 demanded an end to western expansion.
In 1706 England ruled that any black that made it to England would be a free man.
In 1772 England freed all slaves.
It never was about taxation and representation, it was about power and wealth.
The constitution gave the vote to only white male landowners, 14% of the population.“Our evolutionary ancestors were pack animals, and the ability to rise in social standing in one’s pack determined crucial matters like whether one got first or last dibs on food or got to reproduce.”
I like CJ, but this is wrong, 90% of human history has been the gift economy, and is possibly the only economy that could be described as humane.“United States starts unjust wars constantly and spends soldiers’ lives like pennies”
I didn’t go to my nephew’s wedding yesterday because he is in the army. He got married in uniform, I knew if I was there I would just be seething that all in uniforms are war criminals, as everything the US military is involved in is criminal.
Perhaps Trump is the best for the world, no diplomacy, just a kick in the teeth. The whole world is trying to figure out how to marginalize the US.I don’t buy it that Trump had anything to do with the good that is happening in Korea. Moon and Un were on this trajectory long before Trump. The US is checkmated by North Korea. Any move by the US military against the North would end in disaster.
When Kissinger and Obama get the Nobel, is it even relevant anymore?“Emails Reveal US State Department Influenced Sony’s “The Interview” so as to Encourage Assassination and Regime Change in North Korea
The emails also reveal that a RAND corporation senior defense analyst who consulted on the film went beyond “blessing” and outright influenced the end of the film, encouraging the CEO of Sony Entertainment to leave the assassination scene as it was (in spite of misgivings at Sony) for the sake of encouraging North Koreans to actually assassinate Kim Jong-Un and depose his regime when the movie eventually leaks into that country.”
This quote is from https://ricefarmer.blogspot.com/ which is referencing https://antiwar.com/blog/2014/12/18/state-dept-the-interview/, this site is unavailble right now other wise I would give more details.
