phoenixvoice
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Regarding my comment yesterday
I’m aware that mrsa came about through overuse of antibiotics.
I only referred to “pharma” and didn’t throw “medical” in there because what I was responding to only encompassed “pharma” and I didn’t want to generalize.
I’m aware that brief uses of pharmaceuticals is very different from long-term use.
(There is a reason why I refused to medicate my son, accurately diagnosed with ADHD, ODD, DMDD, and Anxiety. I know that my decision was seen as odd by multiple medical and behavioral health and school professionals.)
I wish my father didn’t use statins, but he trusts his doctor over all of his adult female family members.
However…
I also acknowledge that there are many individuals with chronic conditions that are alive only because of maintenance medicines or whose lives are greatly improved through use of maintenance medicines.
There are no simple answers.Or, for me, there are *some* simple answers:
The profit motive. The profit motive is generally incompatible with the Hippocratic Oath.
The desire for “power over” others. “Power over” implies controlling access to information and resources, and is incompatible with the Hippocratic Oath.We live in a world where “profit is king,” and that corrupts our medicine. We live in a world where “democracy” has been subverted to mean “behavioral control” of the masses by an elite group, which corrupts our medical science. Sure, those are both over-simplifications, but as generalizations they are largely accurate.
Covid passports in UK
It’s the frog in the boiling water.
Vaccine passports for ALL pubs and restaurants is making the water too hot, too quickly, hunh?
Okay! No problem!
We’ll just roll them out for larger venues.
(That way we can work out the kinks, make it more convenient, get the masses to accept this as “normal.” Oh, and don’t worry — we won’t let the passports expire in two years. Or, we only will if there is enormous public pressure. But that public pressure is unlikely to materialize. And it doesn’t matter…because by then we’ll know how to implement these passports EVERYWHERE. When the next crisis hits, we’ll expand the program.)(Kind of like how we got everyone to accept the TSA stuff in the US as “normal.” )
I remember meeting my father as he got off the plane for his once a year business trip when I was a child. I remember when I flew home for a break from college and one of my parents meeting me at the gate. I remember bidding someone farewell as they boarded a plane. I remember….
But that has been taken from us. After nearly 20 years, will it ever be returned to us? Is anyone even bothering to clamor for it?In 20 years when Google and the government know our every move, every location, will we see that as “normal,” shrug it off, and think nothing of it? Like the serfs of old, many of whom never thought to question their place in life?
“…why we trust pharma at all…”
Because *often* pharma saves us. It is difficult to know when to trust, when not to trust. I once had a fire ant bite my knee — not a big deal, working in my garden this happens hundreds of times a year. But *this* bite became horribly infected with MRSA and I ended up in the emergency room when the pain was so bad I could hardly walk. It had to be surgically cleaned out, and I was put on IV antibiotics for a couple of days. Now, I’m fine with a nasty scar and a numb patch of skin on my knee. Appendicitis used to be often deadly. My daughter’s appendix ruptured before the appendectomy…five days of IV antibiotics, and she went home with quite a tale to tell her classmates. In both cases, I was confident that the hospital would be able to clean up a medical mess that without such intervention might have been fatal.
Sometimes the reason we shouldn’t trust is because of the profit motive. And experimental treatments should always be met with a degree of skepticism. But having complete lack of trust in pharma/medical establishment is also foolhardy.
@ Absolute Galore
Re: yesterday’s request for opinions regarding your situation & Covid vaccines.
I’d like to answer in regards to custody issue.I have 3 teens. I have legitimate reason to believe that their father will press the vaccine issue once they are sixteen. (Two are nearly 15 now.). They have no health issues that would exacerbate a Covid infection. My preference is that they not be vaccinated — there is no need. We have no data on long-term effects from the vaccines.
My sister shared the following with me a few days ago:
https://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/covid-19-restoring-public-trust-during-global-health-crisis“ …the Moderna/NIH clinical trial does not end until October 27, 2022, and the Pfizer/BioNTech clinical trial does not end until January 31, 2023, the experimental COVID biologics (vaccines) are considered to be under investigation for safety and efficacy until the trials conclude.”
You would need to consult with a family law attorney, but I think that it would be considered reasonable for a parent of a child who is at no measurable risk from Covid to decline the vaccine for the child based on the fact that the original clinical trials to accomplish FDA approval have not, in fact, been completed.
The longer the vaccine can be delayed for people who are at no risk from Covid, the more time is available for any long-term effects to be well-known.
I’m going to save myself the time typing and figure you all can see how the study doesn’t support the conclusion. I am reminded of the old ads showing a doctor expressing his preference for a particular brand of cigarettes.
@ Madamski
“ “Human creativity flourishes best with limits, not when there are no limits.”
It isn’t something I was taught, but rather an observation. I am a creative type, and I’ve noticed that when I place no limits on myself that creating can meander somewhat aimlessly. When there are limits, then creativity has to find ways to express itself in spite of the limits. It is when there are obstacles to deal with that break throughs tend to come. Obstacles kickstart the creative process.
I am not advocating for “authorities” to place limits — although they often do. Life itself limits us in myriads of ways. Lack of funds often limits me, but I find a way to live my life in spite of lack of funds. Daylight limits humanity — so we tamed fire, then incandescent lights, now we are moving towards LEDs. If there was no night, would humanity have ever invented artificial light? Instead, we might have simply used windows and skylights and light tubes.
@ Dr D:
Theists often fail to realize that one can be spiritual and moral without belief in a deity.
And religion has very often been used as a tool to put “the fear of God” into folks so that they are easier to control.
For this reason I don’t find the divisions of theist/atheist and religious/irreligious to be so helpful.
In order to build a better world we do need hope and vision and community and quality communication. We need critical thinking and patience and slowness to jump to conclusions. We need faith in ourselves, in other humans, in the potential of attaining a better world — we can describe this better world in the language of Christianity or Buddha or of the Deist Founding Fathers of the USA, with the myths of many cultures, or in the words of Thoreau, etc., or through the media of poetry, visual art, music, dance, and theatre.
If I’m remembering my theology correctly, the Universalists were seeking to create “heaven on earth” rather than waiting until the afterlife or “millennium with Christ” (as described in Revelations). I have always liked this tenet. Let’s work together to create “heaven” today, here, now.
Regarding pipeline activists…
When one’s homestead is rendered unlivable due to pipeline leaks…
Oil is a finite resource, if all we do is pump ever larger quantities from the ground, eventually we run against a brick wall. (I.e. run out.) Living organisms that last must achieve a “steady state” with their environment — must achieve homeostasis. Living organisms die when they can no longer achieve homeostasis. (Don’t I know. I lost my plucky little six year old black frizzle bantam hen 4 days ago — she succumbed to entropy and died.). If we want a better life for all the humans on this planet, then we need to figure out how to achieve homeostasis with the planet and each other as well.Human creativity flourishes best with limits, not when there are no limits.
“ global stupidity reaching a paroxysmic peak” — bingo!
A friend posted to Facebook yesterday that she had “made antibodies” due to her vaccination. One commenter on her post said that she was thinking of getting an “antibody test” after her vaccine series. Ignorance. Stupidity. Pseudoscience. I couldn’t resist commenting that the “Covid antibody test” detects corona virus antibodies generally, and can’t detect Covid spike protein antibodies created from inoculation with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
Is it that my left leaning friends were always this credulous? Is it just because so many are stuck in these digital media bubble silos that surround our minds in cottony propaganda? Because we are not interacting face to face and it this is preventing many from obtaining accurate bearings on what is going on in the world?
@ Dr D (and anyone else who has a hard time believing an allegation of sexual harassment when it was kept quiet for a long time)
Have you ever been bullied? After you were bullied, was your natural instinct to then publish that fact far and wide?
To be a victim of bullying is to be framed as a victim…victims are seen by society as weak. The last thing one wants after being bullied is to be seen as weak by one’s peers.My family law attorney made sexual advances towards me nearly two years ago. I told no one for nearly 24 hours. It was psychologically traumatizing — I trusted this man, and he tried to twist my trust into an obligation to accept sexual advances in a time when I was terrified that I might lose custody of my children — this man was supposed to be my means to maintain custody. Due to this happening, I fired the attorney and tried to postpone the child support hearing the next week. I did not include in my motion to postpone the trial the reason for dumping the attorney — I was advised that to do so could be used by my ex’s attorney to besmirch my reputation and make it more difficult to maintain custody of my children. I went to the hearing with no attorney. It is difficult to clearly say that the end result (my ex attributed an income that was 1/3 of what I had hard evidence of, my own income attributed to be 33% higher than it was in actuality) was because I had no attorney, but one has to wonder. I should have appealed that ruling, but because I had no attorney and few funds and another court date that I had to prepare for (alone) in a few weeks, I did not appeal.
I also did not report that attorney to the AZ bar. It was scary to contemplate doing that. In normal times, I could have overcome the reticence, but I needed to focus on the court case winding its way along that was attempting to wrest custody of my children from me. In the time since, life is very busy, and I still have not reported it. He is retired now, so he is less likely to have that access now, I tell myself. Instead, I wrote a song about what happened, and shared the song with friends. The music went a long ways towards helping heal from the traumatic incident. My new attorney (I eventually got one) sent me a notice from the AZ Bar that a woman last year made a similar accusation to the Bar. Knowing that someone else got up the courage to make the accusation makes it easier for me to do the same. Reading words of skeptics who doubt a woman just because she did not report it immediately after the fact again urges me to make the call to report it. But not today. I am on vacation with my kids today. Maybe next week.
And so it goes.
It is very difficult to announce private trauma publicly — it tends to compound the trauma.
I do, however, believe that UBI is unlikely to work in the long run without other structural adjustments to the current system. (Btw — such structural adjustments do not need to be imposed “top down.”). In the current system, giving UBI would likely over time result in higher “rent” payments across the board for basic resources, because of the power of the financial elites, wiping out the benefit of UBI.
Stockton experiment
What is the use of decrying government leaders twisting “science” to maintain power over citizens when we ignore the scientific method when we encounter ideas that happen to clash with our own cherished beliefs?
There is a widely held belief that people are impoverished because they are lazy, indolent, stupid, inept, etc. This is a myth. I should know. I have been raising 3 kids on an income well under the federal poverty limit for nine years. My income is low because (1) I place motherhood as being more important than a “normal” income, (2) the children’s father obtained a job about 7 years ago that made it easy for him to hide the bulk of his income resulting in him paying minimal child support (currently $40/month), (3) the actions of the kids’ father (alcoholism, attempted suicide, etc.,) resulted in trauma to myself and the children…the kids have required more attention and I have had to cope with the aftermath. It has been very difficult raising children on such a low income. Oh, how much easier it is when money is plentiful! The last year has shown me what that is like as well — between pandemic stimulus checks and a flood in my home resulting in a payout from the homeowner’s insurance, my income has remained flat, but I’ve had more money to spend.
Poverty is a systemic problem of individuals not having enough access to resources needed to sustain what is considered a basic lifestyle, which results in various types of deprivation. Thus, the Stockton Experiment shows what has played out in my own life in the past year — give impoverished folks more money, and they often then have the resources needed to better their situation. (What makes the Stockton experiment unique from typical “charity” or “anti-poverty” measures is that the money is given with no strings attached. It presumes that the recipients are capable to manage their own lives — most charitable and anti-poverty measures assume that those in poverty are incapable of managing their own resources, assuming that their poverty stems from this mismanagement.)
@ Madamski
Thank you for the musical idea this morning.
Perhaps I should always read in the morning to beautiful classical piano music…it might provide some perspective and balance when I read about the insanity going on in the human sphere.Mondays I meet with a an older friend to make music. This past Monday I asked whether we truly needed masks indoors? My friend is now “fully vaccinated” with the Pfizer jab (his wife also), my partner and I recovered from Covid, my kids were away. Yes, we must still wear masks indoors, y’see, because his wife (not present) insists that he must because the CDC says that vaccinated folks must still wear masks.
We respected his wishes — don’t want him “in trouble with the missus.”
I always struggle to understand why so many fail to THINK. The CDC guidance appeared mostly based on the fact that, as far as we know, the fully vaccinated can still transmit Covid to others. So if a fully vaccinated person is around others who are not at risk from Covid or unconcerned about Covid, there is no purpose to the mask. This perspective was largely confirmed yesterday when the CDC changed their stance, and now says the fully vaccinated may unmask around those for whom Covid poses little to no risk.
There is a purpose for the CDC, and in some situations I pay close attention to their guidelines. We live in a litigious society and when there is a fair chance that an interaction could proceed to legal issues, following CDC regulations is good for CYA.
I’ve heard (but didn’t bother confirming) that the CDC states that natural immunity wanes after a month. Fat chance that will be fact-checked anywhere…but don’t be surprised if any narrative suggesting otherwise silently sinks to the bottom of the web.
RIM states:
“Fear is a healthy and useful natural reaction to events. It can save your life. But it’s not healthy for an individual to live in fear for a prolonged period of time.”I agree.
I know what happens when humans are fearful for a long time with no apparent means of escape.
I was in a marriage rife with verbal and emotional abuse for 11.5 years. The last 2 years my ex became a full blown alcoholic, was sick and in and out of hospitals for over a year with a mysterious illness (it turned out to be from a lapband eroding into his stomach.) He was taking so many pills as well (most of them psychiatric in nature) that on top of his generally unsavory traits his behavior was even more erratic. I remember so many times when he was in a drunken stupor and I wondered whether I should call an ambulance…fearful what would happen if he died there in front of me, fearful of what would happen if he didn’t require hospitalization and my ex had sobered up, and was angry because I’d called the ambulance. He attempted suicide in front of me, with the chidlren in the house.Constant fear causes Post Traumatic Stress Disorder — which is, basically, a central nervous system that has become super-sensitized to specific stimuli, and when exposed to even the smallest portion of that particular stimuli, will mount a very strong, very immediate freeze/fight/flight/fawn response. Up until 6 months ago I was in individual therapy for most of the time for 8 years. It took 6 years for me to realize that the reason why I was making no real progress was because therapy wasn’t helping me address the trauma. The last two years I engaged in trauma therapy, and finally had guidance in dealing with what I’d been through and the psychological aftermath of the experiences. I can now recognize the emotional flashbacks and triggers easily and quickly, I understand what is happening to my mind and body, and can generally manage the PTSD.
No. As a society, we don’t want to have large populations with PTSD. Unmanaged PTSD tends to lead to anti-social results.
Peel Health Guidance:
The information about adults in the graphic reveals the focus: it is designed to enable parents to continue to go to work.
======On Saturday was on a Zoom call with some nearby folks who used to attend my church…back when church meant “going” somewhere. Most are a generation older than I and spent their time chatting about how they had received their vaccine shots and were now deciding that it was “safe enough” to see family in person that they hadn’t seen for a year. It was interesting to observe them listening to what they want to believe, ignoring what they don’t want to believe — believing the “experts” about staying home, not meeting with others, taking a vaccine, but ignoring those same experts when told that their efforts to avoid the virus should not change due to their vaccination status.
I mentioned that I was facing pressure to get vaccinated against Covid in order to perform music. They know that
I already had Covid. The first response, “Why not just get it?” Ah, gee whiz, now I have to explain that although they are fearing a (near-harmless) virus, they are not concerned about the injection of a foreign substance to their bodies that has not been adequately tested for long term effects. And why should I be pressured to inject myself with a foreign substance when my body has already developed an immune response to the vaccine’s target? It was suggested to me that perhaps the retirement community is just following state guidelines…I pointed out that only the “nursing home” portion of that community is under strict state guidelines, the larger independent living section is not so regulated, and the state is not issuing any directives specifically about live music performances.We all do our parts to undo the effects of propaganda, one situation at a time, injecting critical thinking into spheres where it is absent.
The danger of the administrative state
I think it is important to understand that “not all regulations are created equal.”
Some regulations have come about because selfish and powerful players have abused many people, many banded together to have their voices heard, and a regulation is the result. I’m not going to pretend that the regulations that have resulted have not also had unintended adverse consequences, but it must be understood that simply clearing such regulations aside leaves us with the problem that created the regulation in the first place. (Think: Glass-Steagal.”)However, increasingly in a political arena that is dominated by whoever receives the most money in campaign donations and support from super PACs, regulations are made to benefit powerful individuals or groups who made campaign contributions. The federal government is the government body farthest from the people, and the least able to be actively responsive to the needs of the people, and yet we have tasked it with the bulk of the tax revenues, regulation-making, and provider of funds to the poor, disabled, and retired. Increasingly, public school revenue also comes from the federal government. Funding always comes with strings attached, and when the funder is far removed from the recipients, the “strings” tend to be mis-matched to the recipients’ actual situation — recipients will start to pattern their lives to match with the program requirements, rather than make decisions that best fit their life situation or individual capabilities.
These problems are real. But they don’t come about simply because “regulations=bad.” These are systemic issues. The systemic issues will simply manifest in alternative ways if the regulations are wiped away. The regulations were put in place to “fix” a broken system or to “rig” the system. Those who engineered the rigging will still have enormous power should their regulatory rigging be swept away, and will simply find innovative ways to attain the same purpose — to maintain and increase their wealth and power.
I am frustrated by all who think that if we just “end the Fed,” or “vote out Trump, vote in Biden,” or vote in Trump, or get *my* party in control of Congress and the office of the president, or move to all electric cars, or stop eating meat, or can own/open carry any weapons we wish, or ridded ourselves of most regulations…THEN we could return to some idyllic situation…. Never realizing that the system is the problem, and tinkering here or there won’t fix it.
Small business owners in a small community will often (but not always) steer their businesses in ways that promote the general well-being of the community, even when it causes them to have smaller profits. This is because they are invested in the community, they see their neighbors as peers, their clients as peers — some even see their employees as peers. As humans, we are generally hard wired (to some degree or another) to behave cooperatively with those we see as a part of our communities, those who are not “other.” If we want to improve our human societies, we need to have systems that build upon the pro-social elements of our psyches. If we have systems that emphasize the value of cooperation, and see competition as a fun exercise among friends (let’s see who can run the fastest, who can solve this problem the best way, etc.) rather than a life or death struggle for survival, we may find that most regulations can be relegated to the dust bin, because we have something better to replace them.
Hence my interest in worker self-directed enterprises — because groups of people learning how to work cooperatively together for their own well-being, without needing top-down control or direction has potential to birth us a system that actually gives us liberty. Of course, there will be stumbles along the way, but I suspect that cooperating with others is a collection of skills that can be learned.
==========
<<Where does the truth lie?
” ….left her feeling that he “wanted to sleep with me.” Bennett”Men’s desires can be manipulated by a woman.
Woman decides
Woman can destroy
Women know the truth.>>There is no material difference in a woman making this accusation as anyone making an accusation of wrongdoing towards another when there happens to be no material way to corroborate that the situation actually took place.
The problem is not endemic towards women.
Look, I’ve been accused of child neglect and abuse by my ex and been investigated by my states “CPS” twice, and then had to defend myself from losing custody of my kids, resulting in an impending bankruptcy. Oh, BTW, I won because my ex’s “evidence”was based on the rumors he and his girlfriend spread about me. But he still gets the kids half the time, and we have joint legal decision making because even when I showed written evidence of his malfeasance it was basically ignored. I get $40/month in child support because the documentation I put together for his income was ignored by the court…it seems that the commissioner just couldn’t be bothered to look at the exhibits submitted. In the midst of all of this I had to fire my second family law attorney about a week before a hearing on child support who pined to me that his wife wouldn’t have sex with him any more, and suggested that I “owed” him because he wasn’t charging me for all of his time, and suggested that he would appreciate repayment via sexual favors. I tried to then have the hearing postponed, avoiding telling the reason why I fired my attorney, knowing that my ex’s attorney would use that information to smear my reputation in court. The commissioner refused to reschedule the hearing, and I tried to arrange for my first attorney to accompany me to the hearing, as she had some familiarity with the case — but she declined as there was not enough time for her to come up to speed.
(Oh, and my ex was verbally/emotionally abusive towards me for years, but…really hard to prove that, ya know? Glad I never got hit, but at least bruises are able to be seen by others.)
With enough life experience, men and women know when another adult is communicating the desire for sex. We have decided that this is generally unacceptable in the workplace, especially when it is among folks where structurally one has power over the other. The woman in question didn’t just have “a feeling” — she understood what was being communicated, and she didn’t like being manipulated. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the foresight to record the conversation. (But really — who does? I didn’t think to predict that my attorney would solicit sexual favors and set my phone to record that day.)
Let’s get real here — we already know from multiple sources that Andrew Cuomo has a nasty habit of using his position to verbally threaten people with “career destruction” for opposing him. It takes the same type of personality to suppose that it is acceptable to pressure subordinate women into sexual favors. Why would this woman’s accusations be seen in a different light from the men who have come forward and shared about how Cuomo has verbally threatened them with career destruction?
I used to perform music with some regularity at a local retirement community. That practice was, of course, suspended with the pandemic, and that retirement community has had no outside musicians perform in the last 11 months. Recently, the retirement community has had its entire staff and residents become vaccinated — the second course of vaccinations is nearly complete. I met with a friend and fellow musician from that community on Monday, and found out from him that the community is proposing to soon allow outside musicians again, as long as those musicians have been vaccinated.
I currently have no intention of becoming vaccinated. I began to explain this to my friend who assured me, no problem, the retirement community could arrange for me to be vaccinated (since I am not slated for early vaccination due to my profession or age.) I continued my explanation that I currently have no intention of becoming vaccinated because I already had Covid, and therefore have natural immunity. (I’d be happy to provide a copy of my positive PCR test, and subsequent negative PCR test 11 days later — I do understand the concern of the administration of the retirement community.). Since we as yet have no real data on how long vaccine conferred immunity lasts, and insufficient data on how long natural immunity lasts, and cannot accurately compare the two, how can my natural immunity be viewed as any less valid than vaccine conferred immunity?
I have been spared much of the lockdown insanity present in New England by living in Arizona, erstwhile home of the “Wild West.” Sure, some localities have public masking laws in place for indoor places (stores and such), and retirement communities have had to meet state guidelines, but most of the rest has been left up to local school districts and local businesses and churches to make their own decisions on how to operate in the midst of this pandemic thing.
And yet, still, I am presented with a pernicious conundrum: do I submit to a foreign substance being unnecessarily being injected into my body so that I can return to my “normal” routine of performing music at this venue? How many other venues are going to place this requirement upon musicians? Is evidence of natural immunity to Covid even going to be allowed as an alternative to vaccination?
Repentance (Kunstler)
I attend a very liberal church. It could be described as “woke.” Of course, it is very different when one voluntarily attends a place striving to overcome social biases vs. being a wage-slave and having it presented as a condition of employment. I understand that at my church, overcoming biases is an extension of traditional views of “Christian love.” However, what the folks at my well-intentioned church often fail to understand is that a their zeal to overcome certain biases needs to be coupled with broad strokes that bring disparate groups together. The church’s principles embody this idea, but people are imperfect and while they are busy accepting, understanding, and embracing specific sets of “traditionally marginalized” others (people of color, LGBTQI, etc.) they struggle to understand the “conservative uncle at Thanksgiving dinner” and don’t realize that this is where they most need to bring their “anti-bias” skills to bear. This frustrates me…for I see the economic pain shared in so many eyes, no matter their ethnicity nor sexual orientation, and see efforts such as “The Poor People’s Campaign” as an opportunity to bring disparate groups under one banner. It doesn’t matter our political stripes and gripes, whether we willingly mask or push against masking…most of us are adversely affected by the corruption and corrupting influences (“profit is king”) of the “really existing” economic system.And yet, at my church so full of well-intentioned people, working towards justice…they are mostly blinded to the ideas of “economic justice.” They are myopic to it, and while they organize food and clothing drives, and donate to charities benefitting the poor…they lack understanding that clothes and food — while needed — only address immediate needs, and do nothing to address the system that created the need. Charities — while helping many — do not (usually) address systemic problems either and can inadvertently (and perversely) perpetuate systemic problems as they strive to maintain (or grow) their own presence.
Regarding the electrical grid failures in Texas, I see no point in placing all of the blame in either the electrical generation companies nor the governing body that regulates them. Both “the Left” and “the Right” are able to see the collusion that occurs between the regulators and the companies that they regulate. Sure, the terms used differ ( “regulatory capture” vs. “crony capitalism,”) but the process and effect are identical. On the left I hear calls to double-down on regulation. On the right I hear calls to remove regulation and to allow the invisible hand of the market to fix the problem. Look, both more regulation and less regulation have already been tried out and failed. Our current “really existing” politico-economic system incentivizes major corporations to have practices that are not in the best interest of the mass of the people, and incentivizes government officials to collude with these corporations. Both the major corporations and the government are working to control the flow of information to the mass of people, and to disseminate corporate and political propaganda.
Currently, individuals, households, employees, small businesses, towns, cities, and counties have very little power as compared to the major corporations and federal government(s). We need a change that involves disempowering the current highly concentrated power centers and that makes power in our communities and nations and states more diffuse. What “-isms” we use to call such a change are not so important as that it happen. Personally, I prefer non-violent methods…not just because I like pacifism, because the results of a movement are also a product of the currents inside of a movement — a violent movement will codify violence into any change it brings about.
The framers of the US Constitution used what they called “checks and balances” to attempt to craft a functional government that would not trample the rights of the people. We have over 200 years of experience with this system. Sometimes it has served us well, and in some ways it has been undermined. The idea of “checks and balances” is valid — since power is going to be vested into a body, make sure there are counter-powers to ensure that the powers of that body do not become outsized. Perhaps the idea of “checks and balances” may be applied to areas in our societies/economies/polities to bring down concentrated power and craft systems where power is held more diffusely.
An obstacle to such a technology is that it has less room for major corporations to extract profit all along the way. This method of electrical generation would require no mining, no long pipelines (perhaps some short pipelines,) no byproduct that can be made into cheap plastic, no lithium batteries requiring replacement every 10 years, no nuclear waste requiring a permanent babysitter service. It might even be adaptable to inland areas with large salt deposits — near inland “salt lakes” or dry ancient seas.
A municipal electric utility might opt for including this method of electrical generation, as there is no profit motive.
I understand that wood burning may be prohibited in some areas — but that IS my point. As a people, resiliency is not one of our values. Our economic system does not value resiliency, nor does it value the principles of conservation. When a system denies the possibility of resiliency to the people, it forces the people to be in a dependent position. When people are dependent, it is easy to extract “rent” from them. And we find ourselves in a neofeudal distopia.
@Kultsommer
It is often helpful to get below the surface of emotionally charged terms, such as “socialism,” and examine the details of how a proposed system would work before vetoing it out of hand.As a thought experiment, get rid of all preconceived ideas of “capitalism” or “socialism,” look at they types of power generation, storage, etc. that are available — or could be available (even a few of Tesla’s powerwalls) — and come up with a system that can reliably deliver power to the people of Texas, even when the weather gives them a deep freeze. Then, take a historical survey of all systems used throughout the world to supply power — Texas’ current system, small municipal power systems, whatever is used in in Russia, in China, in Europe, in other US states, anywhere throughout the world, and so forth, and from the historical record determine which system(s) (or combination of systems) can deliver the power that Texas needs reliably and at a cost to those who need it that they can bear to pay.
The word “socialism” and the name “Karl Marx” have been deliberately equated with tyranny and failed systems AND at the same time used to describe functional systems that don’t bring economic elites the control and profit that they wish to extract. This way, someone like you will see the appellation “socialism” and automatically fail to drill down and examine the actual workings of the system being described, fail to evaluate whether the system is functional and meets up to your standards. Is a small municipal power system “socialism (= tyranny)”? Or is a small municipal power system an expression of “republican democracy” where residents of the city vote for city councilors who vote together to determine the guidance of the city’s power system, and hire its managers and employees?
Personally, I am opposed to “tyranny” in all its flavors. When corporate executives make all of the decisions about the electrical grid in a state and the people have little to no influence through their elected representatives over something that they need in order to survive a weather event that everyone knew would eventually befall them…that is tyranny. Just like when the East India Company was granted the power in the 1770s to be the only seller of tea (through a tax system) in the American Colonies, and since tea was a basic commodity many in Boston rebelled. And electricity during freezing weather is a lot more important to people’s well-being than tea.
Yup. Lithium batteries in large quantities are bad news. “When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?”
I liked the salt water battery idea for homes. Non-toxic. But it appears the company has gone out of business, although the batteries can be obtained second hand.
When are we going to learn that our technologies must not pollute the planet? When are we going to learn to work with biological systems rather than at odds with them, rather than trying to be their “master?” When are we going to learn that coming up with one dominant (planet wide) solution to a problem — say, battery powered powered cars for locomoting individuals and small groups — does not build resiliency? Resilient systems are built with multiple ways to solve problems, with reserves, with fallback methods and options, with an understanding that a solution for one clime may not be the solution for another clime. Live near a forest? A wood frame house with wood siding and shingles may be a good option. Live in a desert? Consider adobe and cement (aircrete is interesting) and bricks.
Trying this week to convince my ex and the father of my three kids to allow our 13 year old “gifted” daughter to go back to in-person school when the schools reopen for 4th quarter. Last year she was a “straight A” student. She hates online school. She has an F, two Ds, and a C in her core classes…and this despite the fact that the school district, in an effort not to penalize students with problems accessing technology, created a weird grading system for homework/classwork where 50% credit is given for assignments that are not turned in — in a system designed so no one can fail, she is still managing to fail one class.
My gratitude all around to Raul, John Day, etc., which has helped me to have a clear head regarding Covid-19…and to understand that the risk to a healthy child is minimal.
@Dr D…I find the energy crises in TX to be mostly a problem of resiliency. It isn’t profitable to build resilient systems, and so it isn’t done until and unless enough lives are devastated for people to pressure that resiliency to be put into place. If pipelines are susceptible to freezing, then natural gas fired plants should have capacity for enough on site storage to supply sufficient electricity for a few days. If turbines are susceptible to freezing as well as lack of wind, then compensatory systems must be put in place for when that happens. Personally, I detest noisy, smelly gasoline generators, but am intrigued by the progress made in non-toxic salt water batteries as a means of storing energy for home use. And, I don’t find it unreasonable for a home to have a fireplace or wood stove as a back up to typical home heating systems…for most folks being without electricity is an inconvenience, but with adequate heat during winter they’ll be alright.
Resiliency ideally occurs at all levels — not just on the level of the electrical grid. I “lean left” and I do believe that problems should be tackled on community levels, and individuals not left completely to fend for themselves…but individuals and households also share responsibility for their own resiliency, and should have enough forethought to be able to get through a day in the dead of winter without power (or, in Phoenix, through the heat of an afternoon at 115 degrees.). If an individual cannot do this alone, then that person should have a plan of where to go to wait it out and how to get there, or be cooperatively involved with a group that does such planning.
I am agnostic as to whether or not mask wearing can turn droplets into aerosols. However, when mask wearing became the norm in Maricopa County in AZ (most populous county, home of Phoenix,) due to local city and county regulations, infection levels dropped two weeks afterwards.
It troubles me greatly when statements are made that generalize cherry picked facts to support an opinion. I find this happening in the political sphere frequently. (Trump’s second impeachment is full of this sort of thing).
Now, did mask wearing cause this change in number of daily Covid infections? Without more data it is impossible to know clearly, perhaps folks just took social distancing in general more seriously? However, *this* data suggests that masks help curb the spread. Other data may be contradictory or neutral. By examining all of the data systematically we begin to approach “what is real.”
Yes.
And let’s manufacture in a big way again with workers cooperatives so that economic power is distributed throughout our economy, rather than closely held by a relatively small number of players at the top of business and government.
Mr House –
So true! You have me grinning.One of the challenges the non-elites face is how to respond in concert to this situation where so few control the wealth and power of the world and return some power to themselves. To do this, the non-elites need to be able to communicate with one another, need to be able to agree on who and what is the problem exactly. “Wealthy billionaires and their funded lackeys in government” is a viable start. “Bill Gates wants to chip you,” “Count Dracula,” and “the boogeyman” are too ephemeral for the focus required. However…remembering a conversation with a friend last week who thought of Bill Gates as “that nice guy with the foundation” — I suppose “Bill Gates wants to chip you” will help dislodge the “nice guy” viewpoint from at least a subset of the population, which helps us get to the problem of wealthy billionaires and their lackeys.
The Microsoft company has made some beneficial contributions to mankind…but that doesn’t mean that Bill Gates (one man) should have more wealth and power and influence than the government representing the 112 million people of South Africa.
The last time I looked at the annual deaths in the US was back in November. It was trending significantly higher than 2019, however, the the 2019 annual death was apparently a bit lower than average. Hence, it was difficult to draw definitive conclusions one way or the other.
I have friends and clients living in a local retirement community. Those who passed in the prior week are listed in the community’s weekly newsletter. It was brought to my attention last week that while this community of several thousand usually has 1-3 deaths per week. Now, they have 7 or more deaths per week. Last week, there were 10 deaths. These numbers are *not* manipulated, not reported to a news agency, and only displayed in aggregate on the state’s Covid dashboard.
This past week, residents were given access to the first dose of the Moderna vaccine, and all those I interact with were vaccinated. It will be interesting to see what happens to the death rate there in the next few months.
“ Okay, the election’s stolen and it was. The lower levels from the county chair to the Chief of the Supreme court know for a fact that it was the safest, most legit election ever because everyone refused to look, to recount, or to move any evidence into a courtroom. Any courtroom.”
Exactly.
Well said, Dr D
CNN spot
Okay, so you’re saying that you will combat extremism by preventing extremist voices. Chicken and egg.CNN is supposing that echo chambers *cause* extremism…sure, echo chambers can fan discontent into extremism, but the root causes are disenchantment with the status quo: economic disparity, lack of meaningful work, dissolution of family, cultural, and community bonds, the emphasis in capitalism of always needing products to find fulfillment, poverty, a dearth of opportunity, difficulty in obtaining basic healthcare, unhealthy foods, lack of connection with the natural world, etc., etc.
Propaganda cannot fix social ills. Prozac can’t either.
Regarding food insecurity in the US, I’m always wondering how these terms are being explicitly defined. My household probably falls into the statistic of “food insecure” because we have been on food stamps and utilizing food banks for 8 years. (My ex lost his job due to alcoholism back then…with the ensuing chaos and trauma for myself and the children, I have chosen to prioritize my children’s well-being and my own psychological healing over pursuit of a “normal” income…as a result, my income is very low, our lives are stable, and I have learned to manage PTSD.) *Because* of food stamps and food banks we have plenty of food, and I am even able to accommodate for picky eaters (not uncommon when kids have been through a lot of emotional trauma.)
To suggest that my household ever goes hungry is a lie, but it is true that without the support of food stamps and food pantries the risk is there.
@Dr D
After seeing Covid sweep through my own household and that of my sister and parents, yes, I agree that most folks can shrug Covid off. Out of 14 people, only one had a case that was bad enough to not be shrugged off, and my partner’s case wasn’t bad enough to go to a hospital — it was just odd for him to have intermittent fevers and exhaustion for 9 days straight.For me, the greatest unknown is not whether or not the CDC’s model about community immunity is accurate or not, but rather how the immunity for Covid plays out over the ensuing months and years. If I get it once, am I likely to get it again? If I get it again, will it be about the same as the first time, not as bad, or worse? Is my immunity over time benefitted by encountering it often in the community — continually boosting my immunity whilst I am unaware? (Maybe I should wear ill-fitting masks at the grocery store on purpose to keep up my immunity!) If I get it again and it is very mild will I be contagious? I still have vulnerable people in my circle who have not had it, and while I may be able to handle Covid easily, I am willing to undergo minor inconvenience to prevent transmission to those who are vulnerable. Of course…it is my understanding that we lack the data to answer any of these questions definitively. I am now 3 months post-Covid and I ponder these questions regularly, trying to decide how best to conduct myself in light of Covid.
I know 4 people who have been vaccinated against Covid. 2 are middle-aged, two are in their 80s. I know the woman in her 80s best, and asked her about it. She had minor pain in the arm that received the injection the next day. I am curious how this will play out.
The Pissarro piece reminds me of looking out a rain-spattered window…all the lines are in distinct, but I know what I’m looking at.
I prefer a pool of free expression with all of the chaos and cacophony it generates over a clearly stated, top-down corporate/government controlled “official narrative” every day of the week. 😉
And how many people answer the AUDIT questions truthfully? My ex, in the midst of raging alcoholism, would have lied through his teeth. He believes in telling people what they want to hear or ought to hear. (He even explains this to our kids — explaining why he just told lies to medical personnel on their behalf. Who are now teens, are perplexed by this logic, and then tell me about it later because it makes no sense to them.)
“He was 15” That explains the devotion of the portrait. I see it in my teen children. He loved his mother and thought the world of her.
@ John Day — I hadn’t seen anything indicating Covid in US prior to Dec 2019. Sounds like something worth looking at — do you have links?
About Jimmy Dore…
Anyone who watches his program with some regularity can see that Dore is authentic. He gets emotional over issues, and can barely contain his emotion. Carried away with emotion he sometimes overstates or exaggerates and uses expletives…(which is why I don’t watch him as much as I might…can’t confuse my teens about the appropriateness of expletives in the home.)@ Mr house
WaPo article: Yikes! What a terrible bit of propaganda
I was raised Mormon, left that faith, but find that I retain some of what I was taught as a child. There is a quote from the founder of the Mormon faith that is very applicable to this situation: “I teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves.“. (It is a very “American” grown faith, in some ways.)
It isn’t the government’s job to tell us all what do. It *is* the government’s job to collate relevant information, disseminate the information, make recommendations, etc. Fund research? Yes. Tell us the results of the research? Yes. The media tell us the results as well, which helps promote honesty in government officials. Mask mandates? In some situations, yes. Remove your liberty for violating a mask mandate? No. And if the government can’t do eminent domain without due compensation to the current property owners the government also shouldn’t be able to shut down someone’s business during a pandemic without due compensation. (There are many forms this compensation could take, however, any such compensation should do its best to ensure that when the business is allowed to operate normally again that it is in an essentially equal or better position than when it was shut down/restricted.).
It is the public’s job to regulate itself. Government guidance exists for those who want the easy way out — they are too busy to look at the information and use it to inform their daily activities and prefer to simply follow a preset code of rules. This is not a bad thing, it is practical. There is a simplicity in top down models — ask any parent. But the best models are unique to those involved and take time to develop, incorporating the minutiae of the personalities, strengths, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities of the people involved.
In an indoor public space I don’t have the time or care to have a conversation with all present about their medical vulnerabilities and those of the individuals with whom the interact with regularly. Much more practical to just wear a mask.
With those I live with, whether or not I can have those conversations speaks to the quality of the relationships and our communication skills. It is not always easy. I should know. It is how I caught Covid. (!)
@ Mr House
First Twitter video — spot on, and I am heartened to live in a world with this man in it. We need this kind of energy to push back against what is going on. And he is right, this is bigger than Democrats and Republicans.2nd Twitter video — I disagree with this woman and the argument that she makes. Indoor public mask wearing *does not* directly compare with compulsory kidney harvesting. This is where emotion starts carrying people away. Indoor public mask wearing during a pandemic (at least for me) falls under the category of “civil society” — that set of general rules (lateral rules, not top down rules) that people generally follow to show a minimum of respect to others. The biggest detriment to wearing masks that I find is that it is much more difficult to read facial expressions. The biggest advantage to wearing them in cold weather is that they work like a scarf but stay in place much more securely.
It would be helpful for this woman to realize that what she (likely) actually fears is an erosion of her personal liberties. This erosion has been going on for a long time and is accelerating through this pandemic. Her fear of personal liberty erosion is justified — but using indoor public mask wearing during a pandemic is a very poor way to articulate her angst. A lot of people see mask wearing during a pandemic like I do, and wore masks when it was a request, and not a mandate. Mask wearing indoors seems like common sense, like a logical concession for civil society. When we listen to her, she sounds a little crazy. The guy in the first video communicated his concerns much more effectively — clearly stated that he just wants to be able to live his life and continue his livelihood. This desire resonates very broadly.
@ mr roboto
Thx for article. In my county, the first wave of Covid peaked right after the mask mandates went into effect. They have remained, and we have had no lockdowns after the initial few weeks. Numbers are climbing…but hospitals are not overwhelmed. Covid is serious for some — and it is still difficult to predict in advance who will be seriously affected. (How many people actually know that they are low in vitamin D?)It has been very nice for the past two months to rely on my own acquired immunity to Covid and not worry about how well my mask actually fits. The mask is there because I have no desire to explain to all I come in contact with that I’m currently immune, I beat Covid. With family, close friends, and long-time clients I ditch the damn mask.
It is my view that “to mask or not to mask” has simply become a focal point for pent-up social unrest and frustration. We know that we are endlessly surveilled by our government and Big Tech. Both are interested in social control, including steering how we spend our incomes. Standards of living are declining. We lack a coherent movement to express and give definition to the public’s brewing rage. So that rage pops out in odd ways. “Woke” people censor those who think differently, the “woke” seemingly incapable of seeing the irony of their behavior. People fuss about public mask wearing when a few neighbors are struggling with a strange new illness. BLM protests align with *some* of the real problems people are facing, which sparks huge protests, and also property destruction and some violence because the emotional undercurrent is tremendous and some do not find adequate catharsis in non-violent protest. (At the same time, law enforcement is also exacerbating the issue by displaying the same behavior that contributed to the emotion driving the protests.). All the while, the wealthy and elected “steerers” are doing all they can to personally enrich themselves from all that transpires.
The image with the facts about Gaddafi really illustrates the point. Why was Gaddafi assassinated and Libya plunged into lawlessness? Because the “steerers” are desperately terrified of the masses learning that the economic pie could be sliced differently, that the masses could get a larger slice. Today’s “steerers” are as narcissistic and ego-driven as the French social “steerers” were in 1789. The French Revolution was a bloodbath. I hope we can avoid that path while still effecting change.
(BTW, please don’t assume that the masses getting a larger slice of the economic pie must mean an autocratic, top-down government that confiscates property, profits, and/or income and redistributes wealth. I abhor unilateral top-down control. I explore lateral and bottom-up ways to generate and initially distribute wealth that tends toward wealth and resource-control being well-dispersed.)
