phoenixvoice
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Dr. D
As Socialists, they require the government to be all-powerful and all-controlling.
Sounds to me more like “totalitarianism” than “socialism.”
Lots of governments and political parties use the word “socialism, -ist,” in their naming conventions. Sometimes it is used because of a real commitment to historical principles that go back about 200 years. Sometimes it is used because the word is positively associated for many around the globe and the government or party is hoping that positive view will rub off onto the government or party.“Socialism” is generally recognized as policies that promote general social well-being, such as subsidized preschool, various flavors of public medicine, public pensions, etc. Totalitarianism, on the other hand, involves consolidating control over a society into a small-ish coterie, often arranged in a jumbled system of competing layers that vie for recognition from the top individual (or small group.). Totalitarianism uses fear and propaganda to get the masses to fall into line and cede power. As power is consolidated into the top in totalitarianism, it will intensify its terror on its own people.
The word “socialism” does not adequately convey what is going on — it has too many meanings for different people, and has been used broadly for a couple of centuries. “Totalitarianism” has existed, by contrast, as a word only for about a century and has a much more specific definition and universal understanding. “Socialism” has been turned into “a hiss and a byword” because it potentially threatens the economic and political power of certain wealthy segments of the population. “Totalitarianism” has to do with governance, not with the underlying economic structure, and is not related to a class-based understanding of society.
August on Verge of Being Tropical-Storm-Free for only Third Time in 60 Years
Ah—so THAT is where Arizona has been getting its wettest monsoon season in more than 2 decades. 😀
My watermelons are growing fat. I love it.(*sigh* system thinks this is a duplicate, but original disappeared into the nether)
EU winter of great suffering
Of course, we are all familiar with the fairy tale of sleeping beauty. It isn’t usually seen as a moralist story, but a couple decades back I realized that it contained a moralist element. The princess is “cursed.” (Analogous to a severe allergy or illness where something common needs to be avoided.). The adults all know this, and so the people of the kingdom/village/castle all agree to forego spindles. Spindles are used to spin thread, which is then woven into cloth — which means they all don’t get new cloth…for about 16 years until the princess encounters one anyhow, falling asleep till wakened by the prince.
The fairy tale explains a situation whereby a group of people all generously decide to voluntarily forego a resource for the benefit of one (or a few.). Many tellings of this story talk about how this was done “out of love for the princess” — not by governmental decree, or emphasize that although the king decreed it, the people agreed and voluntarily complied.
The WEFfers have missed parts of the moral of this story — the voluntary compliance part, the part where those complying each had a personal relationship with the person on whose behalf they were sacrificing, and that what was being sacrificed (new cloth) was more of a luxury than an absolute necessity: they could mend their clothes instead of replacing with new. When compliance is not voluntary, when the person doing the sacrifice lacks a personal relationship with who is being “saved,” when the sacrifice ends up threatening the life of the person doing the sacrifice…it can’t work for long.Willem, yesterday:
But why should any private provider price its goods/services at a price lower than the government has indicated it is willing to pay?
There is one industry I can think of that does something like: auto glass replacement places. They compete by finding ways to cut their margins and offer spiffs to customers, like gift cards and cash. I also see dental offices that advertise “no copay” dental exams and cleanings.Dr D:
But unlike other nations, the U.S. is supposed to be this way. Where the Feds only run the Navy and the Post Office. All laws, jails, enforcement, taxes, are run by the states.
And in this, Dr D, you and I are complete agreement. Even in the areas where the feds are sourcing programs that tackle real-life problems that need addressing: I.e. Medicaid, SNAP, etc., in most cases the programs are already being administered by the states, and if the tax money were going to the states rather than the feds the programs could also be funded by the states. And the states would also likely restructure the programs, which is also okay. The feds should be there as a resource to turn to when a state violates the Constitution and Bill of Rights. (Which will happen.)I’m reading Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals right now. My spouse has a copy from college and gave it to me to read years ago; more recently Dr D here slammed the book and author…which served to pique my curiosity, lol. I’m in chapter 4, Education of a Radical under the “an organized personality” heading. Alinsky is going on about how the people in a given locale are all going to have their pet issues that are the biggest deal for their own lives, and how the individuals need to realize that if they support each other in these disparate issues, then they stand a chance to get what they each want. I was reminded of a few years ago when spouse and I attended a couple of meetings of the nascent Arizona People’s Party. We realized that the formers were essentially Bernie Sander’s supporters disillusioned by Bernie losing the nomination – twice. There was at that time no formal platform. The originators of the AZ PP wanted to adopt Bernie’s presidential platform once they realized that the national PP was at that time in disarray and had no adoptable platform. Spouse and I were disgusted. We pointed out that if this is the “People’s Party” why not create a task force to interface one on one with people, find out what was motivating individuals to join the meeting, create a proposed list of platform contents, and then put it up for a vote? Originators thought this type of project “too difficult” and preferred to put pressure on the Biden administration to accomplish facets of his campaign platform in the first 100 days. They were amenable to an online poll of possible platform items — but that meant that the items would be limited by the imaginations of the person putting together the survey. Both of these efforts appeared absolutely pointless to spouse and myself — at that point we lost faith in the AZ PP and didn’t bother with further meetings.
I suppose that I could call them “lip-service liberals” — espousing a slim variety of liberal-ish ideas, but unwilling to do the legwork required to actually have democratic input. I understand the challenge of demanding consensus…but if groups cannot even be bothered to have conversations and learn from those conversations, let alone risk voting when others might not vote for their pet issues…then we are not worthy of democracy, direct or the Republican form.
“Profit” on an item can be justified when it is just compensation for the time, effort, and cost of procuring said item.
Case in point:
I run a small IT company. A few times a year I run into a client in need of a computer. I can search for an appropriate one, but I happen to see it as a boring chore. My spouse absolutely loves shopping online for computer systems. He gets excited by doing the research to find the most suitable processor at the best price and then scours eBay, Amazon, Newegg, etc., for the best price, taking into consideration parameters such as how quickly the client needs the computer. This can take him anywhere from one to 3 hours, or more. Sometimes, his first offering is rejected and he must restart the process. So…he does the research, I send the quote, increasing my purchase price by $100 “profit.” If the client doesn’t purchase, he is not compensated. If the client purchases the system, I pay my spouse the $100, and I install and set up the computer, charging for my labor. This has been working well for five years now. I don’t believe anyone is being “exploited.” Everyone is happy with the results. My clients never would have found comparable systems on their own at that price. Labor deserves to be compensated.This is a rant.
It is driving me nuts seeing all of the people throwing around the name “Karl Marx” and “Marxism” all the while having nary a clue of how this terminology muddies the waters. Never realizing how using this name and term in this way serves the globalist agenda deliciously.
Five years ago, a college student posed a question to Nancy Pelosi. (https://nyulocal.com/nancy-pelosi-to-leftist-nyu-student-were-capitalists-deal-with-it-abf1e8e04e46)
Here is a synopsis:
NYU Sophomore Trevor Hill provoked a telling insight into the Democratic Party’s future from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) CNN Town Hall hosted by Jake Tapper last night. …Hill presented Pelosi with a Harvard University poll showing millennials’ distaste for capitalism. Hill, who supported Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary and voted for Jill Stein in November, then asked the former Speaker of the House whether she saw an opportunity for the Democratic Party to move left. …“I have to say, we’re capitalists, that’s just the way it is,” Pelosi responded with a chuckle.
BREAKING NEWS.
The globalists that we all love-to-hate are self-avowed CAPITALISTS. They are not communists (big or little c.) They are not socialists (big or little s.) They are not Marxists (big or little m.)Karl Marx was a philosopher who thought about economics – NOT GOVERNANCE. If “Marxism” is a thing, it is an economic philosophy, not a political philosophy. Socialism & communism can be seen as both political and economic philosophies, as they have been specifically applied in both worlds – and there are political parties utilizing the words “socialist” and “communist.”
Despite the word “socialism” in the full Nazi party name, it was not a “socialist” regime – just consider, for a few moments, how many other political parties across the globe that incorporate the word “socialism” in their titles that have never been “totalitarian.” When Hannah Arendt wrote about totalitarianism she examined Nazi Germany and Communist USSR. She probably didn’t have enough data on Chinese Communism yet to analyze it – but it also would qualify as totalitarian. She didn’t really touch on Mussolini, but I’ve always understood it to be totalitarian as well. Arendt wrote her book prior to the Cambodian totalitarian mess. There are probably a few other smaller instances that are not occurring to me right now.
Major totalitarian states and what happened:
Nazi Germany (Mussolini Italy) – made war on neighbors, rest of the world violently put them down.
USSR – didn’t make war on neighbors (although didn’t fully release territory that it gained control over in WWII), did get involved in Cold War proxy wars. Fell apart from internal strife. Survived about 75 years.
Communist China – didn’t make war on neighbors, (did get involved in some local proxy wars,) used state-control strategies to lure western businesses and super-charge its economic development. Has not fallen apart (so far) due to internal conflicts. Loosened many of initial totalitarian policies and strategies, but seemingly has the capability to ramp them back up at a moment’s notice. Is currently saber-rattling, although it is veritably being pressured by the West. Has been around nearly 75 years.
Cambodia – mostly just made war on its own people, especially the educated. Was conquered from without (including by expats), but was also faltering internally.Marx was a 19th century philosopher who focused on economics, specifically, the problems of capitalism. The current globalists are self-proclaimed capitalists. Why the insistence of calling them Marxists, when they barely know who Karl Marx is or what he wrote? (Especially the globalists educated in the USA – the European ones may have actually studied a little bit of Marx’s writings.) Lumping Karl Marx and “Marxism” in with the globalists serves the interest of the globalists – because Marx critiqued the capitalism that has given the globalists their power. As long as the masses fear and hate the writings of Karl Marx they won’t read what he wrote and they have no access to capitalism’s most cogent critic. (I suspect that the fear and hate of the masses towards Karl Marx is actually a projection from the globalists onto the masses.)
The globalists are capitalist on the economic front and totalitarian on the political front. (Just like the Nazis.)
And, yes, yes, yes, I understand that I am plumbing the depths of a philosophical fissure here: what I’m really exploring is “what is the definition of capitalism?” Too often, I find that capitalism is overly broadly defined as “free markets.” However, how can “free markets” be a singular, defining aspect of capitalism when so many, many economic systems employ markets, free or in some way controlled by government? Mercantilism had free or partly controlled markets. Slavery had free or partly controlled markets. Feudalism had free or partly controlled markets. Even tribal economies that met up now and again and bartered among themselves had free or partly controlled markets! Just so with capitalism. We lift the rallying cry of “free markets!” – yet, whenever we have truly free markets, then folks shake their heads at what gets vomited up: slave markets in the Libyan failed state, “caveat emptor” with no recourse, Dickensian poverty paired with astronomical wealth. (Remember, Dickensian poverty within the capitalist system was what prompted Marx to turn his philosophical training towards capitalism in the first place.) If we recognize that “free markets” (of some degree or another) are important, but are not a defining feature of capitalism, setting it apart from other economic systems, then what are capitalism’s defining features? What makes capitalism different from mercantilism, from feudalism, from slavery, etc.? Until we can agree on what capitalism IS, and what it IS NOT, it will be very difficult to chart any economic course at all.
I’m not championing Marx, and suggesting that we bow down to his writings and follow them slavishly. Marx never fully developed what an improved “socialist” economic system would look like. Mostly he just examined capitalism’s problems. I think that most of us, today, can recognize that “really existing capitalism” (not the utopic, idealized capitalism of our dreams) has some big problems. Really existing capitalism has spat us up the powerful globalists, the WEFfers. Really existing capitalism created a hyped pandemic and a toxic cure. Really existing capitalism off-shored US production to China. (That was foolish.) Really existing capitalism creates near-slavery conditions in third world countries, busy making things for first world countries. Really existing capitalism is exploiting the world’s resources and dumping wastes throughout the globe on a scale that reminds me of when my 3 kids, 18 months apart in age, as preschoolers found the box full of packing peanuts that I foolishly left on the floor of the living room for a few minutes longer than I should have. (The living room looked like a snowstorm had hit it.)
If we are going to improve on our current messed up economic system, then we need to understand our current messed up economic system. That means defining it and being critical of it. That means that we shoot ourselves in the foot when we ignore the 19th century’s largest critic of capitalism. Obviously, there have been some changes in capitalism over the past couple hundred years. Some of Marx’s criticisms may have become obsolete or no longer fully applicable. We have communication technology now that probably dwarfs anything Marx ever thought of – and this technology can be used to promote and/or demote the globalist agenda. There are likely new criticisms of capitalism that we can come up with because we have so much more time and experience with capitalism – and with how governments (whether republican democratic structures, totalitarianism, or any others) intersect with the economic system – much more experience than Marx ever had.
Call a spade a spade. If it is totalitarian, name it as totalitarian. Political systems are not “Marxist” – that is absurd, Marx is about economics. Yes, I understand that Lenin was trying to use government to establish socialism (the economic system) a la Karl Marx. Lenin utterly, spectacularly failed at his attempt. Stalin took Lenin’s failure, called it a “communist success story” and proceeded with totalitarian governance that saw the economy as subordinate to his totalitarian schemes.
I’m not interested in establishing socialist economic system a la Karl Marx. I would like to have a “really existing economic system” that respects the earth’s systems, trying to integrate with them. I would like to have a “really existing economic system” that puts individuals and localities in the driver’s seat of the economy, so that choices “for the greater good” are arrived at by sovereign individuals who act in concert by their own free will. (And not with choices made by a small coterie “for the greater good” who are actually serving only their own good and the good of the large economic players who put them in that position.) To move towards a better system we need to understand the problems with our current system. Marx is one piece of that puzzle, and a good jumping off point that helps us understand the historical foundations of our current problematic economic system. Feeling cognitive dissonance, hate, and fear whenever we hear or see the name/word “marx” does not move us towards the goal of reaching a really existing economic system that serves humanity better than the current economic mess we’re mired in.
End rant.
Peptide cancer cure
With all the cancer from vaxxed folks with compromised immune systems, there might actually be enough impetus to get this doctor’s cures to go mainstream.Religion vs. lack thereof
I consider myself fortunate for this: I grew up in a home with a great set of parents who were morally upright, we had enough material things (but not much excess), and household members were supportive, loving, etc.
I am the first of four children, the oldest two have left the religion of the family while the remainder remain devout. I recognize that for those who stayed, the religion is central to their lives and their core social outlet, playing a net-positive role for them.
However, one thing that I have realized that they do not see is that the stability of their lives does not proceed from the religion, but rather from their core values and the way that they live their lives, with a nice dollop of good luck on top. The core values may align with many of the teachings and tenets of the religion, but they rather derive from each individual’s parents and related upbringing plus individual effort.
I see it this way because there are so many who are “raised Mormon” whose core values differ quite radically from my own. The organized religion (and the LDS faith is very organized) doesn’t produce a uniform moral code in its congregants.
That is why “losing my religion” did not shatter my value system — it came from my parents plus my own experience, not from the religion.
(Of course…there is a great deal of variety out there. And some kids who come from less than ideal homes may find an organized religion — or people associated with an organized religion — and incorporate the morals of the religion because they intuitively realize that what they are getting from their parents is problematic.)
Religion has a role to play. Sometimes that role is beneficent, sometimes it is deficient.
I do sometimes wish that my devout family members would attribute their stability to their own behavior or to god directly rather than to the religion.A *grin* 😀 to afewknowthetruth. (A challenge to write those words without the spaces!)
When in high school I took honors classes. I found that I enjoyed these classes — primarily because of formal and informal discussions that dealt with “meaty” issues — issues of philosophy and morality and politics and religion and ethics — that would pop-up with frequency among the students. (Not teacher-led.)
A hat-tip to RIM — so much appreciation for a space for such discussion to occur, and the headlines & article excerpts are food for minds that are seeking knowledge and truth and understanding. It is invigorating to have intellectual discussion and respectful disagreement.
In my book, you are all “honors students.”
Also…I did not turn my back on the morality of my upbringing, I rejected the organized religion that was supposedly at its core…subsequently realizing the religion was actually a window-dressing. What many don’t see is that the moral code didn’t come from the religion, it came from the parents and/or other strong, quasi-parental influences. Organized religion claims to be a moral bastion, but so often it is parasitical. At the same time, organized religion can be place for strong community bonds to flourish despite increasing human atomization amidst large concentrations of human population.
The moral code develops from a child’s interactions with the world, ESPECIALLY interactions with parents. So, so many times I’ve observed my children checking their developing moral codes with me, expressing an opinion aloud, and then looking to me or asking, “That’s right, mom?” (One son, in particular, age 16, says this frequently. His twin is more vehement, doing things or saying things and half-daring me to challenge him. If/When I disagree I levelly tell him so.). They are always checking to see how I view something. They have done this since they were old enough to speak (they did it earlier through behavior.)
My ex was also raised in a devout Mormon home, but his moral code degenerated to something I don’t recognize as morality. He selected his current employment based on ease of hiding his income for the purpose of avoiding child support. (He told me this shortly after he got the job.) He chafes at all moral impositions that originate from outside himself. He expressed desires to become a CIA agent, licensed to kill. His general mode of operating is to tell others “what they want to hear” so that they behave in the way he prefers. (Which worked in 2014 with his psychiatrist, but backfired in 2019 to the psychologist performing the custody evaluation.)
Yes, moral codes are very important. Organized religions play a part — but in our current world there is a lot more than religion filling that role in society. We have: youtube, Disney, TikTok, video games, social media, movies, professional sports, schools, etc. We can’t easily escape all of these influencing our children, so it is my view that home and family and parental behavior is the best place to teach and model morality.
I sometimes worry about my children’s moral codes *because* they have lived with their father and his histrionic, Halloween-loving (forever a) fiancée half of the time for 5 years now. One Christmas my daughter was given a can of “unicorn meat” from that household — inside were plush unicorn pieces with red to show the “guts” where they had been cut apart. After the kids started spending significant time in that household I noticed that they became more prone to torture insects (this has fortunately died down.). One son’s use of profanity dramatically increased, and he became increasingly resistant to my directions — it took a couple of years for me to get a handle on the shifts in his behavior. Over there the children were given full, unsupervised access to rated R films starting at age 11 for the boys, and violent video games. (In my home movies are watched together, there are few rated r films, and when there are I am usually there to provide moral context.).
Two of the children have largely discarded the violence-worship from their father’s home. The third has not. Last week, one son made a morbid comment aloud in history class about ripping the head off of a zebra which offended classmates and earned him a visit to the school’s social worker. That son has a poor grasp of social rules in general (he has several psych diagnoses)…and does not understand that what is viewed as “funny” in his father’s home is not welcome in other social circles.
I counter the influence of their father with a weekly “family time” that involves me, the kids, my spouse, and my parents. Nearly every week I read a story from US history — this builds in them an understanding of “where they come from” and builds the mythos of this country. (The US was founded on lofty goals…the empire of the last century or so is a moral quagmire, so it helps to remember what the country can be, could be.). Currently, I am also reading creation myths from cultures around the world, and after that I’ll continue with acquainting them with biblical stories — they need familiarity so that they understand cultural references that they encounter.
While I value much of the Judeochristan moral code, I also understand that organized religions have a nasty habit of perpetuating themselves whether or not their perpetuation truly benefits their adherents. Nietzse was not incorrect to say that religion is the opiate of the masses — although I’d counter that religion plays many roles, not just that one, and that in our current society that there are a multitude of institutions that serve as “opiates of the masses” and I’m not so sure that religion is even the largest or most predominant.
Regarding moral codes:
I was raised Mormon. At about age 31 I realized that Joseph Smith, the founder of the LDS faith, was basically just a charismatic guy that created a religion so that he could sleep around with other men’s wives and young women. I came from a devout LDS family and had been devout all my life. Needless to say, this shook me profoundly.Morally, something interesting happened. I had, up until that point, lived according to a moral code that many would find a bit extreme — no alcohol, no tobacco, no caffeine, no shopping on Sundays (except in true emergencies,) attend church service EVERY Sunday (unless sick or traveling,) 10% gross earnings donated to the Church, wear fancy, long-ish underwear under my clothes, no sleeveless, low-cut blouses, nor “short-shorts,” no two-piece bathing suits, no sex out of marriage. I immediately found myself dropping this moral code. (I love wearing tank tops! Yeah!) And then I found out something curious.
All of those years that I had grown up Mormon, interacting with the people and culture of the rest of the world, I had developed a deeper, more fundamental moral code than the one imposed by the religion. When I was a practicing Mormon, I had a double-standard — the moral code that I applied to myself and other “active” Mormons, and the moral code by which I judged the rest of the world, that had developed jointly from my upbringing and my life experience. When I ceased to believe in the LDS faith that second moral code —applied to “non-Mormons” — I discovered WAS my intrinsic moral code. I have used it ever since. Within six months I was, essentially, an atheist — I do not believe in any sort of humanoid, parental, god-creature. But that moral code has remained and is my compass.
@ dr d
Matthias Desmet very specifically does not call the Covid madness “mass formation psychosis” — the studied scholar calls the phenomenon “mass formation” and applies the term to negatively, neutrally, and positively charged events.I believe it was Dr. Robert Malone who appended “psychosis” to the term. I hold Dr. Malone in very high regard, however, psychology is not his area of expertise. The term “mass formation psychosis” — while an apt description of the Covid lunacy — is a type of “pop psychology” shorthand. It sticks because, by itself, the term “mass formation” is not descriptive enough for lay people to grasp what is being described. We understand a “psychosis” to be a mental break with reality.
However, in my post yesterday, it was appropriate to use the term “mass formation” as a description of one way that an idea can quickly permeate a human society, changing minds and behaviors without coercion, without infringing on personal liberty. It could even be said that the current Western paradigm of considering the earth something that humankind should exploit and tame is actually a psychosis — humanity’s delusion of grandeur — because, in actuality, we are beings still dependent upon earth’s biosphere for oxygen, gravity, water, etc., and cannot healthily sustain ourselves for long periods of time without these provisions from our planet. If the idea that we are dependent upon the earth — or, at the very least, existing interdependently with the earth — were to permeate the minds of humanity, this could be seen as a lifting of the current psychosis, the belief that we are independent from the natural world.
Climate crisis
I decided several years back that it was useless to argue over whether or not there is a climate emergency when the climate concerns are merely part of a larger problem. Namely, current human practices on the planet are at odds with the natural systems and cycles of the planet. We are pouring CO2 into the atmosphere, acidifying the oceans, and we do not know exactly what long-term effect that may have. We have unleashed a toxic plastic tsunami on the planet. We poison pure aquifers and deplete other aquifers without consideration of the short- and long-term consequences. We raze forests, pollute waterways causing algae blooms and oceanic zones nearly devoid of oxygen. We play with nuclear forces, sometimes having accidents with them, and lack the tools and technology to properly clean up our nuclear messes. We fiddle around with viral DNA and then either release or leak our Frankenstein creations. We are behaving like toddlers on this planet.I believe that humanity needs to “grow up” a bit, in order to avoid destroying ourselves. However, this is not going to be effectively accomplished by totalitarian means, not for the benefit of a small, wealthy coterie while the rest of humanity is enslaved. The change needs to come about through an “awakening” or “enlightenment” that is driven by new myths (or by rediscovery of appropriate old myths.). Mythologies can create organic movements that sweep through societies, changing minds and hearts without coercion, without threat of force, simply because “it is the right thing to do.”
Examples (taken from my life, of course, because that is how I roll, lol.):
More than 15 years ago I never would have imagined having a flock of chickens. It would have seen bizarre. Now, many people have chickens. Roosters are banned by the city in my neighborhood, yet there are 2 on neighboring streets that
I hear. My neighbor to the north has talked about getting hens for years, I’ve had hens more than 8 years, and my neighbor to the south had a couple chickens for a few months. Nobody told us to get chickens. No one threatened us. And yet…the stories that people tell about themselves have shifted so that chickens in cities has, once again, become a normal “thing.”About 15 years ago I began taking reusable bags when shopping. When I asked checkers not to use store provided bags I was given funny looks, and when they forget and put my groceries in plastic anyways and I reminded them not to, the request was met with near hostility. Now…although Phoenix has no laws in place about disposable bags, it has become a part of the normal fabric of society that a sizable subset of the population uses reusable bags.
Yesterday I called a client’s software vendor because they needed access to some log files in the client’s server. I had to wait with a reception type person until a tech was ready. I happened to mention something about vegetable gardening. The receptionist expressed how she wanted to garden, but had “a black thumb.” I pointed out that plants tend to grow more easily in
Maryland than Phoenix. She agreed, but moaned about deer and insects eating holes in her vegetable plants when she tried. I suggested a fence to keep away the deer and inter-planting garlic and marigolds with the vegetables in her next attempt, as many insects dislike both garlic and marigolds, and it may help with the insect problem. I have been fascinated with gardening since I was a small child…however, it seems that more and more people that I encounter are beginning to desire to garden as well.Matthias Desmet pointed out that “mass formations” are not always detrimental to a society. They can also be pro-social and beneficial. The Covid madness, vaccine insanity, WEFfer war on food, censorship, etc., are attempts by the elite to harness the natural process of “mass formation” for nefarious purposes. The Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Reformation were mass formations. We need something similar that will restructure humanity’s relationship to be in more in harmony with the planet’s systems and that returns us to many of the ideals of the Enlightenment, when humanity enshrined rights and freedoms.
Interest free loans for food…
Now THAT’s an old playbook. Pharaoh of ancient Egypt and his seer, Joseph, Son of Jacob…food gathered in the “years of plenty,” sold back to the people during the “years of famine”…leading to the people being enslaved…”own nothing and be happy.”High energy bills…
Sobering. Leading to more indebtedness of the people.
Although…
Energy bills that high make homeowner solar panels economically viable.the former president wasn’t planning to divulge that he had possession of some of his own documents and that he did not intend to return them
Um…one “returns” a book to the library, because the book is borrowed, and belongs to the library. But documents that belong to Trump are HIS, and could be “turned over” or “turned in”…but using the word “return” is inaccurate.Electric car prices raised by the amount of tax credits…
(Obviously, it serves as a “giveaway” to the electric auto industry. They probably lobbied for it. Or wrote that part of the bill.)
It just goes to show that these cars are only designed for the segment of the population that actually BENEFITS from such tax credits. More than a decade ago, when the annual “family income” of myself and my ex was around $70k/year, 3 dependents, I realized that we paid very little in income tax — it was all washed away with exemptions, child tax credit, etc. Due to this, tax credits to purchase a home solar system were useless — since we didn’t pay that much in income taxes, we couldn’t take the credit. (Oh, sure, you can roll it forward for several years, but the kids were toddlers, so that would be banking on large income increases in the next few years — which didn’t happen.
These electric car tax credits are designed for individuals making more than $70k/year, or families with children making more than $125k /year. More giveaways to those who already have much. (That was always a flaw that I saw in the parable of the talents. It’s all well and good if it is a metaphor for talents as skills and abilities…but the guy who buried his gold coin didn’t waste it in riotous living — why take it from him? And the guy who received only 2 and doubled them — why was he seen as deficient to the guy given 5 who doubled his? Why be prejudiced against the guy given only two — why not give him the one taken from the guy who buried it? It starts reminding me of Cain and Abel — why did Cain the farmer have to buy an animal from Abel, who did animal husbandry, in order to make a pleasing offering to God? What was wrong with Cain making an offering of the fruits of the field? Sounds like the Hebrew God was a bad parent, arbitrarily preferring one child over the other, rather than letting his children develop along their own predilections. Cain murdering Abel was unconscionable, and he was an adult responsible for his own choices, however, it all starts sounding a bit like a daytime soap opera family drama!)A Few Know… (yesterday)
How one transfers that knowledge to a preset-day teenager addicted to packaged food and addicted to a smart phone is the challenge.It probably cannot be done.
Yes. Very difficult. I have tried with a few “roughing it” camping trips over the years.
It’s an interesting thought experiment. My daughter would transition the best — her passions are drawing and reading, passions that would transition to 1700s technology. She prefers simple foods (we recently realized that she is allergic to sodium benzoate.). One son would be devastated — he would feel deeply betrayed and cheated. The other would adapt, but it would take time…he loves building in Minecraft and has already begun the transition to building/creating IRL (in the real world) but that transition is far from complete. He does, however, enjoy cooking full meals with me, and he would miss soda, but would be just fine.
And how is Doc Ono going to calculate the “carbon footprint” of my many thrift shop purchases…all made with cash and store credit from clothing returns? (My number 1 shopping source is grocery stores, #2 is thrift stores, Amazon is #3 – for when something highly specific is needed, and Home Depot #4 — 70+ year old house. The thrift store changing rooms are still all closed, hence the clothing returns.). I suppose pulling something useful out of a quarterly bulk trash pile on a late-night walk can’t be calculated either, nor can picking up free items listed with FB marketplace, Nextdoor.com, OfferUp, free cycle, and Craigslist. Good. I derive simple pleasure from thwarting WEFfer plans.
DBS: How ironic, absurd and fitting at the same time, that the “elite” call OTHER people useless, when it is the elite who are factually the most useless critters who ever slithered the Earth.
I emphatically agree!
(Although…I understand that is a value judgment based upon my own experience and study…and do not wish them pysical harm…although I do wish them to lose their power and privilege. It is way past time for the pendulum to be swinging back the other way.)Yesterday, I went with one of my 16-year-old sons to see the WNBA Phoenix team (The Mercury) play downtown — he had completed the library’s summer reading program and free tickets to the game were one of his prizes. Tickets to “The Footprint Center” include a free ride on the light rail to and from the game, which we took advantage of, rather than trying to find free parking downtown. Here are some observations.
We arrived at thet rain platform and found two older African heritage women and a preschooler trying to purchase tickets from the machine. The machine was not operating. There was another machine across the tracks. I offered to try the machine on the other side of the tracks, and purchased the tickets.
Across from my son and I on the train were a couple olf older gentlemen, one with a walker and a bag of stuff. The man with a walker struck up a conversation with me, and reminded me about Brittany Griner, sentenced to 9 years of prison for “forgetting” about the cannibis vape oil in her luggage. I agreed that it was a sad thing — but, considering the bad blood between the US and Russia right now, it was very foolish to bring into Russia something that was illegal there — it is difficult for the US State Department to extricate her from the situation. The other gentleman started spouting off about “Russian Communists,” the USSR, and the KGB. I disagreed, pointing out that the Communist Party is not in control in Russia and has not been for a long time. The man was adamant and argued…but his stop was next and he exited the train.
The man with the walker and I chatted some more. He is homeless, staying at the CASS shelter in downtown Phoenix. He appreciated the conversation. He said that he was recently homeless, but he had foolishly allowed homeless people to shower in his apartment, subsequently his windows were broken, and his landlord kicked him out. He is working with case workers to hopefully get back into housing soon — he is on full disability and so has the means to pay for an inexpensive apartment. He said that the case workers talk a great deal, and try, but that they don’t seem to accomplish much.
We were about 30 minutes late to the game — the tickets came by text message, and we’d had no email confirmation, so I hadn’t been sure that we’d actually receive the tickets — which led to us leaving the house late, etc. At the gate, the tickets wouldn’t load properly on my phone — fortunately, I realized that the problem was the default browser on my phone, I was able to copy/paste the URL to Chrome, the tickets loaded, etc. I wondered what would happen to someone less tech savvy? Stuck outside? (Paperless is better — how?)
The “Footprint Center” has carried many names over the 19 years that I’ve lived here. I like the current name. It is named right now by the Native American tribe that owns and operates a large casino on the outskirts of the metropolis — I don’t know whether they own it or lease it or sponsor it.
My son used his money to purchase very expensive cotton candy. I had to hand him my debit card because none of the vendors inside accept cash anymore, and I pocketed the cash. $7.60 for cotton candy. That left him $2.40 which was not enough to purchase a drink. Good thing I grabbed a couple of small bottles of club soda as we left the house — one of the odd things we received from the food bank this month. The only drinks that can be brought in the Footprint Center are sealed water bottles. The Center advertises that they are moving towards being “plastic free.” Yeah right, I think, surveying the seats made out of molded plastic, and the fact that water may only be brought in with factory sealed water bottles. (Although, I saw some people ahead of us that came in with unsealed, partially drunk from water bottles, so they are not completely strict about it.)
We arrived at our seats. One had a purple washcloth on the back, emblazoned with the message “BG 42.” A lady in the row behind us rummaged and handed us the other washcloth — she said that she had been holding it for us. Interesting…but nice to see that she had some integrity. “BG42” — a reference to Brittany Griner. Are they garnering support for Brittany or just using any angle they can for marketing purposes?
The Mercury was 14 points behind the Chicago Sky when we arrived, and they lost with a similar margin. The esprit de corps was high, and my son thoroughly enjoyed the event. I let myself be carried away with it from time to time. I looked up the details about the situation with Brittany Griner: forced to sign documents in Russian without translation in the airport — which is in violation of Russian law, sentenced 9 years for a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 5 years, that fact that she was “moonlighting” for a Russian team because WNBA athletes are, quite simply, paid a pittance when compared to NBA athletes, etc. Yes, it sucks. I think about Julian Assange — and how the US is guilty of similar injustices.
On the train ride back, about halfway to the park and ride lot, the electric train broke down. It appears to have been a problem with a door that wouldn’t lock properly? We were halted on a bridge that is over a park, next to the central library, and the freeway passes under the park in a mile-long tunnel. They didn’t want to let us out because there was no “safe” passage from the train due to the auto traffic on the bridge. I pulled up my son’s school assignment, due Monday, on my phone, and he completed it. The AC cut out. (It was overcast, but still around 100 degrees outside.) I could sense the restlessness around me. I thought about it, and opened my mouth and began to sing “Kum Ba Ya,” slowly. There was an immediate hush, and much of the restlessness subsided. I sang three verses. I hoped someone would join in…but, of course, no one did. I then sang a verse of Dylan’s “Blowin in the Wind” — but was cut off by the man across the aisle, who asked me to stop singing, stating that it was “grating.” I thought that was an interesting comment — I’ve had many compliments over the years for my singing…most people enjoy it. I can get a little strident in my high notes if I don’t include enough “darkness” to the sound, but in my middle range — hardly! But I noticed how his toe was tapping incessently, steel-toed shoes with the leather worn away at the tip of the tapping shoes, revealing the steel beneath, and realized that he was very agitated. I sighed and stayed silent, and pulled out the book from my bag.
The driver ventured to a door near to us, opened it, closed it, opened it, and one jumpy character hurried out and away. The driver returned to his booth at the other end of the car, not closing the door. Another agitated man hurried down the aisle after the driver, muttering his frustrations under his breath, and confronted the driver with heated tones. It was too far away to see exactly what transpired, but within a few minutes, that one, too, had managed to depart the train. The driver did manage to get the air conditioning restarted. At one point, the man who asked me to stop singing shared that he had been working at the game, and claimed that the Mercury had “thrown the game,” losing on purpose because if they’d won they’d have had to go play in Chicago and they didn’t want to do that. Interesting to share that in a car full of people who had just come from the game. Some while later, an African heritage man two seats behind me told me that I sang very well, and that he enjoyed the singing.
The delay on the train lasted about an hour. Eventaually, the train jerkily returned to the closest platform, we exited, and waited 15 minutes or so for another train to pick us up. (If we’d been allowed out, we could have walked to the park and rde in less than an hour.) Next to me was a family with 4 young children. There was quite a rivalry among two of them — the boy was hitting the girl, first with one of the purple washcloths from the game, then slapping her with his hand. The girl was smaller and plucky, and stood up to much of it. The parents ignored the interchange completely…I was apalled.
My son had befriended a girl near his age on the train who was there with her mother, a teacher. As we left, the mother told me that she, too, enjoyed the singing, but didn’t want to say anything earlier because of the stressed out man that had asked me to stop. I thanked her, hurrying to my car because my son hadn’t managed to get off the train in time, and I needed to drive to the next stop…fortunately he did get off at the next stop and I had him in the car a few minutes later.
An interesting afternoon. Homelessness, international intrigue, modern technology, over-the-top commercialized sports, agitated people, breaking-down infrastructure, music, common folks: food for thought.
““Either we will have a One World Dictatorship imposed on us by the Western elites, or else we will have Freedom and Peace, Justice and Prosperity.”
Look, I am exceedingly skeptical. The slogan of the French Revolution was “Liberte, egalite, fraternite.” It is considered the turning point when the West was officially using the economic system called “capitalism.” The French Revolution devolved into guillotine overuse, Robespierre, followed by Napoleon, a return of the nobility, many Republics…. In the mid-1800s Marx saw that capitalism had not fulfilled the slogan of the French Revolution, and turned his philosophical training on trying to get to the bottom of why capitalism had not “delivered the goods” of liberty, equality, and brotherhood. Marx did not suggest a new political system, he critiqued an economic system. He pointed out that you cannot get “liberty, equality, and brotherhood,” from an economic system that encourages power and wealth to collect in ever fewer hands, building vast corporate dynasties and monopolies. He suggested that the answer was for the workers to “own the means of production.”Yes, I am quite aware that Marx’s economic ideas were perverted by later men to state that the representative of the workers was the government or “the Communist Party” and that this idea was paired with the totalitarianism that burst forth in the 20th century. However, I have been self-employed in part or whole since 1999. There are fundamental differences to self-employment vs. employment, and self-employment is much more empowering to the individual. (There are advantages to many people coming together as a company of workers…which is what makers worker cooperatives, ESOPs, worker-managed enterprises, and Holacracy quite interesting — could this be a way to both empower individuals and have the advantage of economies of scale?).
It is obvious to me that the idea of a communist or socialist political party representing the workers (or a union representing workers) is an outgrowth of the “Republican” form of government — where a small group is tasked with representing the interests of a larger group. We end up back with an age old, tripartite question: rule of many by one (or a small group,) rule of many by their representatives, or self-rule. Each has advantages; each has disadvantages. Regardless, the higher the concentration of the population in a given space, the more that structure is needed (whether imposed or self-arising) to ameliorate conflict.
@all
I enjoyed reading the discussion about violence. It is something I have mulled over many times.DBS: Those who “oppress” us only do so when they are secure in the knowledge we will LET them oppress us. But they also knowing at the same time (or at least they should know) that we will continue to let them encroach upon our personally sovereign turf only up to the point where we say “No” , and not one bit further. “No” means no, and every living creature has a line-in-the-sand or tipping-point at which they just say “No” to further encroachment . . . . . for whatever reason that makes sense to them . . . and then proceeds (if still necessary) to physically/forcefully/“violently” demonstrate that they really did meant it when they said it.
So long as we can be persuaded to NOT say “No!”, then the cowardly weasels who “oppress” us can just go on doing what they do best : lying cheating and stealing (with the occasional homicide thrown in for kicks).
There is much truth in this. I put up with a great deal from my ex for many years (but not overt violence — he never physically hurt my body, and didn’t threaten me in that way.). However, it was the moment I watched him plunge a knife into his wrist that “something broke inside my brain.” I knew that the answer was “No” — that I would never put up with his shenanigans again. When he wanted to come home a few days later, I said, “No.”. He had no other place to go, so I amended my “No,” to: “If you drink alcohol I will obtain an order of protection.” 3 days later he was drunk, on the 4th he was served with an order or protection, when he showed up on the fifth day I called the police and he spent the night in jail. Problem solved. I didn’t use force myself…but I required force to keep him away and used legal means to obtain said force. All previous non-violent attempts to resolve the situation had spectacularly failed.
@ oldandtired – in response to yesterday’s comment
I believe that you are referring to the quarterly form 941 forms that the corporation is required to file on w-2 wages. All of those and other employment related returns were filed on time (by the end of January for 4th quarter) and that employment data WAS included on my personal income taxes when I eFiled on Feb 15. However, S corporate INCOME is not taxed at the corporate level. The corporation’s income and losses “flow through” to the shareholder’s (me) personal income tax return, and are reported to the IRS (and the shareholder) on form K-1, which (along with the corporate tax return) is due March 15, but can always be delayed 6 months, by request of the corporation, to September 15. (Hence, it is not at all unusual for an individual to file personal income taxes before this document is received and then amend them later after it is received.) The data not included on my the Feb 15 eFile was the data from the K-1, which had not yet been generated. I was familiar enough with the figures that I knew the corporate profit/loss would not be large enough to affect my personal tax liability. I filed on Feb 15 because I needed the refund money.
IRS agents
It doesn’t require an IRS audit to financially disassemble a low-income household. All it takes is a “processing delay.” Households receiving the Earned Income Tax Credit are more likely than many others to be flagged for “random” “data verification.” The IRS does not have enough employees to perform these verifications – which require human eyes – in a timely fashion. The IRS does not have enough employees to handle its call volume. The IRS does not have enough employees to expeditiously process amended returns. The IRS does not have enough case workers in its independent Taxpayer Advocacy Service to handle the caseload. This past spring the IRS stated that the processing time for an amended return was 20 weeks. I spoke with a Taxpayer Advocate Service case worker yesterday and found out that the current processing time for an amended return is 26 weeks, plus add another business day for intervening federal holidays. (Basically: 27 weeks.). And 2-4 weeks to cut and receive a check in the mail.
Here’s how that works out for me:
eFiled personal 2021 taxes: Feb 15 2022 (without data from my corporate taxes — I knew the data would not affect the amount of my refund, and I had done this 4 or 5 times in the past with no problem, amending the return later once the data was available.)
Filed corporate tax extension: March 15 2022
IRS sent notice regarding “data verification” of personal income taxes: around March 27. Informed to wait 60 days before contacting IRS.
Filed corporate 2021 taxes: around April 1 (before I received notice from IRS about verification, but after it was sent via mail.)
eFiled amendment to personal income taxes, incorporating data from corporate return that does not affect refund amount: April 15
Received form letter from IRS notifying me of 20 weeks to process amended return: mid-May
Mailed in form 911 requesting Taxpayer Advocacy Service due to verification delay causing economic hardship: approx. May 20. I never received any indication from TAS that form 911 was received and processed.
Successfully contacted TAS via telephone (couldn’t get through to regular IRS after repeated attempts), accepted into program: July 7. Told to wait up to 4 weeks to hear from my TAS case worker; and to call back in if no contact was received.
4 weeks passed with no contact from TAS.
Aug 11: After repeated attempts at getting through to TAS, finally made it into the phone queue. Obtained case worker name and number. Called and left a message for case worker. Amazingly, case worker called me back the same day, reviewed my amended tax return, verified that he could see no errors. He had received my case 2 weeks prior, and not yet reached out to me, thanked me for making contact. He explained the 26 week processing period for amended returns. He explained that, generally, his advocacy could be expected to take about 2 months (i.e. would be a wash.). He explained that since many coming to TAS were experiencing the same issue as me, that he was required to transfer me to a “special” area of TAS that handles “systemic issues” with the IRS, and would no longer be serving as my advocate. No guarantees were made regarding whether this special unit would speed up the process.So, I filed Feb 15, and may get access to my refund around mid-November, if everything goes well.
Just for some perspective…this refund is about 75% of the size of my total income for 2021. Essentially, since April 2022 I’ve been navigating an inflation fueled economy with about 60% of my expected monetary in-flows. I am fortunate — I have a private mortgage with my parents. In October I will be able to pay the property tax rather than the mortgage, and my parents will wait patiently until I get the tax refund and I can catch back up on the mortgage payments. I am not at risk of losing my home over this; I won’t face late fees. (Although I don’t like putting off the mortgage payment to my parents — it is a portion of their own monthly budget, and they will have to penny pinch a bit without it. They used a portion of their retirement savings to extend the mortgage to me, and they need the monthly income from it.)
I agree that it is ridiculous that new IRS agents be armed with guns.
It is equally ridiculous to suppose that no additional IRS employees are needed or desired. Or to suppose that all (or a majority) of new IRS employees will be expanding the current level of audits. For anyone familiar with the current situation, the idea is laughable. It is an idea created by political pundits, described at length by people who have no familiarity with the system, being used for political gain by one side or the other.
The current level of IRS employees is hurting low income people who get caught up in the IRS system. There are not enough current IRS employees to handle the current level of “return processing,” nor “data verifications,” — there probably aren’t enough for the current level of audits, either, although I confess that I do not know, as I haven’t interfaced with that area of the IRS.So sure: destroy the IRS! Create a new system! But —PLEASE — get me my 2021 tax refund first?
Father’s recorded call to pharmacist
…Last year a woman contacted me off of a private group that I was in on Facebook. She was looking for advice, because her husband wanted to vaccinate their young children against Covid and she was opposed. I told her that she would have a better chance at preventing that from happening legally separated or divorced rather than married — because when married, either parent can take the child to be vaccinated and there is nothing the other parent can really do. The assumption by the state is that the married parents are united and functioning. With joint-legal decision-making either parent can make a decision at the doctor office, but expressly going against the wishes of the other parent can create legal problems. There are formal ways to make decisions when parents disagree. I felt awkward telling the woman this — I don’t like breaking up marriages, but I’ve learned a great deal going through divorce and then custody stuff, and I knew that Inwas correct. I guess it was a bombshell for her — the next thing she said was that the only reason why she was staying in the marriage was because she thought she had more parental rights married than divorced.More IRS agents isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Right now, thousands upon thousands of citizens tax returns are getting flagged by an automated system for “verification” requiring human eyes to proceed. Some are flagged due to changes or anomalies, for others it is simply random. ( This has happened to my 2021 tax return. I filed mid-February 2022…I have no idea when I’ll receive my refund. It is creating economic hardship.). There are not enough IRS agents to do this “human check” in a timely manner, so this process drags on month after month after month. In addition, by law, the IRS is required to be available to citizens via telephone who want to talk to “a real person” when calling in. Currently, the ONLY way to get to a real person on the IRS phone system is by not answering the automated questions — i.e. DON’T enter your social security number when prompted by the computer voice, and then following a specific set of prompts that do not relate to you so that you get into a queue that results in getting to a real person. It takes about 3 minutes to get that far. But I could only get to the next step — waiting in the phone queue to talk to a live person when I called at 6 am (9 am Eastern.). All other times of the day, I would get the recording that due to high call volume they couldn’t take my call, please try back later. The wait exceeded 2 hours. To get an appointment at the local office, one has to leave name and information on voicemail. They never called me back to make the appointment. Fortunately, I qualify for the IRS Taxpayer Assistance Service…it didn’t take quite as long to get through to them. They said that they’d get back to me in about a month. They did not. Now, today or tomorrow I’ll be calling them back.The IRS is severely understaffed. I read all these words about more IRS agents meaning more people will be audited and I shake my head. The people saying these things are ignorant of reality. The IRS is already so short staffed that it is failing to comply with the law and adequately communicating with taxpayers.
@ Eoin
People begging for food in cars…
Hm. Do you go grocery shopping without a car?
Would it be better if the families came in horse and buggy?
Do you have any idea of the quantity of food available from one trip to a food bank? Around here it is not unusual to be bestowed with more than 70 lbs of food.
I see the homeless who use the same food bank as I…they can’t use much of what they are given…can’t use what must be cooked…they end up leaving it on the discards table. (I look it over and sometimes take it…like bunches of bananas browned by refrigeration, which I freeze and use in fruit smoothies.)
Over the years I’ve occasionally driven someone I met at the food bank to their home with their stuff, seeing as I have a (2006) minivan, and I saw the despair written clearly on their faces.I suppose that in 2012, when I fell from “the middle class” into poverty that my 2006 minivan also seemed pretty new. I keep hoping that it will continue to operate well, because I have no means to replace it.
I hope that “Kelly Wilcox,” and her family only dip their toes into poverty, rather than being stuck in that mire year after year as I have been. Of course, if poverty becomes a way of life for the many, rather than a dalliance during a brief economic downturn, societal mores will change and there will be less waste. I’m not sure what I think of that. I was raised to detest waste and I embraced thrift a long time ago. But, if the society around me did the same, it may become incredibly more difficult for me to live as I have done the past 10 years, because other folks’ discards will be in higher demand and less plentiful.
I suppose that I will learn to adapt.
Regarding the wooden statue…
I am amazed and impressed by the detail — I had no idea that there were artisans 4500 years ago capable of this skill — accurate portrayal in physical media.
As a child and teen I was inducted into the “cult of progress” by both public education and religious training. I believed that humans were gaining in abilities and philosophy over time. The older I get the more I learn that “there is no new thing under the sun” — humans are humans, now, a few generations back, and millennia ago. All that has changed are details of technology.Dr D:
“Corporations” shouldn’t really exist. Back in 1789, to incorporate you needed an act of congress who would ask “Why should we do this? What are you going to provide for and serve the people of Maryland in return?” Because they lived under the East India and Hudson Bay companies who had standing armies like today’s companies do.I agree. I have long pondered the problems of our economic system, and noticed that many fundamental problems find their source in corporate bodies. I have argued this with my spouse, who has argued in knee-jerk fashion that the right to own/run a business includes the right to incorporate. (He and I usually see eye to eye…but we took our own paths to get there, so there is variation in the details.) And I emphatically disagreed with him — because corporations are created by permission of the state. I’ve owned a tiny corporation in part or in whole for nearly 20 years…and every year I must pay a small fee and file an “annual report” with the state or face administrative dissolution.
A corporation is a privilege, not a right. As a privilege, the permissions granted have varied over the decades. The state has the ability to revoke the privilege. Personally, I’m curious about what might happen if corporations had to either dissolve or convert to “workers coop” type entities, including ESOPs, self-management (i.e. Holacracy, etc.). Large sole proprietorships and partnerships would still be viable business forms, but, oh, yeah, they lack the liability shield for owners…..
I don’t like concocting “conspiracy theories” when I have little evidence that they exist. Very often, the triangle fractal from the other day is a better explanation for seemingly coordinated events than some all-encompassing, all-powerful, top-down conspiracy.
However…thought experiments can be useful tools for discovering data and evidence that might be otherwise overlooked.
So…
IF we posit that “cloud seeding” is a known technology, in use for decades, but mostly out of the public’s awareness….
And IF the WEFfers are planning to use Climate Change (TM) to scare the masses into giving control to the WEFfers….
It isn’t a very far leap to suppose that THEN there is a conspiracy to seed clouds to drop the bulk of their rain before it reaches the Colorado and Rhine river basins, causing drought.Now…
This is NOT a certainty. And it would be wise to find out if there is any evidence that this mal-intentioned seeding is occurring, because droughts come and go, and the low water on these river basins could well be entirely due to natural processes and natural cycles — or even unintended consequences of human actions — humans usually don’t fully comprehend the outcomes of their actions, especially when they act in concert.However…
This IS a possibility, in that the technology exists to bring it about.This is from link shared by oroboros:
“ University of Kansas Associate Professor Jennifer Raff argued in a paper, “Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas,” that there are “no neat divisions between physically or genetically ‘male’ or ‘female’ individuals.””In the vast majority of humans there ARE “neat divisions,” both physically and genetically between males and females. There is a tiny minority where these physical and/or genetic traits are mixed. Why are we trying to pay homage to the preferred pronouns of deceased people? Especially long deceased about whom we know nothing – except maybe their physical/genetic traits, including gender and “race”? Isn’t it equivalently disrespectful to avoid gendering after death someone who in life was clearly male or female? Or to avoid information about physical appearance that corresponds to the concept of “race.”
I believe that “psychosis” should generally be appended to “mass formation” because otherwise it is not clear from the words “mass” and “formation” alone what is being discussed. “Mass formation” by itself sounds like a conglomeration of clouds.
“ . Even in Texas, which could be considered the world’s 10th-largest economy by GDP, the independent energy grid is so fragile that power companies are remotely turning down people’s home thermostats to save on energy supply.”
The author must be mistaken…right now the power companies in Texas would be turning thermostats UP, not DOWN to save on energy….
@ Dr D
“ We don’t provide free services UNLESS you are poor. In which case you get all the care you want. It’s only if you’re productive that you can’t get care.”
I take exception with that comment. People who are in poverty are very often very productive — they just don’t receive much monetary compensation for all of their productivity.I remember back when I was Mormon that I always felt a little uneasy about the religion’s emphasis on obedience as a virtue. Thanks to Red for mentioning the Eichmann quote. It goes a long ways towards explaining my unease with the concept of obedience.
I think I’m better of with: “To thine own self be true.” (Thank you Shakespeare.)
US Constitution racist/sexist…
I think that it is a glass half-full or half empty proposition.
To those who see everything through the lens of racism and sexism, the fact that slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person and that women did not vote…sure, the document contains some racism/sexism. For that matter, it would be difficult to find documents and/or practices from the late 18th century that are not “racist” nor “sexist” based on current standards (especially if the new “woke” standards are the yardstick.)
However, the US Constitution was grounded in the principles of the Enlightenment, and it could be easily argued that emancipation and women’s suffrage eventually came about because of the cultural seeds sown by the Enlightenment, and that the US Constitution was a remarkable document because it allowed for the possibility of such changes to be wrought when the country was ready for them. (Most late 18th century folks were not ready.)The answers of the survey have little relation to the US Constitution, but provide insight into the thought patterns of the respondents.
I think that the “normalized materials “ graph needs more background information.
For solar PV, it is including concrete…um…is that concrete for installations that are embedded in concrete? For the plant that made the PV? Rooftop Solar seldom involves concrete.
Hydro…over how many years is the electrical generation being counted?
Natural gas…is it counting only the materials for the nat gas plant, or also counting all of the resources/materials used to extract, store, and transport the nat gas?
And so forth.
There is value in creating something that passively generates electricity/energy year after year with few inputs and/or little maintenance after it is built. This value goes beyond monetary costs or resources used. (Note: electric cars do not passively generate electricity/energy…no, not even with energy recapture from braking.)
When I had solar panels put on my roof, I was better off financially than I have now been for the past decade. When I ran the figures before getting the PV system, I determined that economically, it would be a wash for me — I would not save any significant money on my power bill, neither would it cost more — and I might save a little bit of money. I had been excited about solar PV since my teens, and I moved forward, making a down payment of a few thousand dollars to offset my monthly lease amount.
Right now, I calculate my solar panels as saving me about $5/month in energy costs. However, another $25/month was paid 12 years ago, so that is $30 I don’t have to spend today. Considering the events of the last decade, the money paid down was a wise investment.
There are some places/situations where bringing in fuel is not feasible or not desired. That is where electricity generated from non-fuel sources has great value.
Regarding Arizona,
In the Phoenix Metro Area there used to be a great deal of agriculture – it relied on water from the Colorado River and the Salt & Verde Rivers and a couple of long, large canals. I live close to one of the canals. I bike and walk alongside it and sometimes throw some bread to the ducks — mostly mallards and another breed I’m not sure of the name, plus a few escaped muscovies and some crosses. I live north of the canal. South of the canal the homes mostly still have the option of cheap canal water for yard irrigation. The yards tend to be very green. The irrigation was put in place for farms…but there are few of those left in the metro area. I have a sister in Mesa, AZ who lives in a house with the irrigation option, and uses it.My parents now live in Mesa as well. Their gardens are thriving…my mother perfected “lasagne gardening” years ago, and creates her own compost. Due to stresses in my life, it is only in the past 12 months that I’ve been able to pay much attention to my gardens…all of the new areas I am amending with compost and soil from the hen yard. I plan to start amending the old gardens with the same in the fall…..
Gardening in Phoenix is possible, but there are challenges:
1. Short growing seasons: essentially, 2 short hot seasons and 2 short cold seasons; hot seasons divided by an intensely hot summer and cool seasons divided by a winter that is just cool enough to kill tender warm weather plants.
2. Water! It can be challenging to provide enough water.
3. Intense summer sun and heat. I tried pineapple sage this spring. It was doing wonderfully. For the last 10 days it has been over 110 degrees, and despite watering daily, the plant is literally drying up under the sun. Many edibles that require “full sun” elsewhere require “partial shade” in a Phoenix summer.Water is the biggest challenge. There is very little rainwater collection nor gray water use.
