phoenixvoice
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Feisty chick
It looks to be between 1 and 2 weeks old. I think that it is facing off against an older chick — one between 4 and 6 weeks old. I have seen older chicks bully younger chicks. I have NEVER seen a chick attack like that — VERY unusual.Dr. D…
Your premise about the nature of the pre-Nazi party is based on the idea that it was functioning along the lines that we are familiar with in our own history…and this is not what was going on at that time and place.Hannah Arendt, Origins of Totalitarianism, p. 259-264 “new edition with added prefaces”
There are no movements without hatred of the state, and this was virtually unknown to the German Pan-Germans in the relative stability of prewar Germany. The movements originated in Austria-Hungary, where hatred of the state was an expression of patriotism for the oppressed nationalities and where the parties–with the exception of the Social Democratic Party (next to the Christian-Social Party the only one sincerely loyal to Austria)–were formed along national, and not along class lines. This was possible because economic and national interests were almost identical here and bcause economic and social status depended largely on nationality; nationalism, therefore, which had been a unifying force in the nation-states, here became at once a principle of internal disruption, which resulted in a decisive difference in the structure of the parties as compared with those of other nation-states. What held together the members of the parties in multinational Austria-Hungary was not a particular interest…or a particular principle for organized action as in the Anglo-Saxon [my aside: that is the type of political party we are most familiar with, being English speakers primarily], but chiefly the sentiment of belonging to the same nationality…. The [European] pan-movements…transform[ed] parties into movements and by discovering that form of organization…could change its policy from day to day without harm to its membership. Long before Nazism proudly pronounced that though it had a program it did not need one, Pan-Germanism discovered how much more important for mass appeal a general mood was than laid-down outlines and platforms. For the only thing that counts in a movement is precisely that it keeps itself in constant movement. The Nazis, therefore, used to refer to the fourteen years of the the Weimar Republic as the “time of the System”…the implication being that this time was sterile, lacked dynamism, did not “move,” and was followed by their “era of the movement.”
…
The pan-movements’ hostility to the party system acquired practical significance when, after the first World War, the party system ceased to be a working device and the class system of European society broke down under the weight of the growing masses entirely declassed by events. What came to the fore then were no longer mere pan-movements, but their totalitarian successors, which in a few years determined the politics of all other parties ot such a degree that they became either anti-Fascist or anti-Bolshevik or both. By this negative approach seemingly forced upon them from the outside, the older parties showed clearly that they too were no longer able to function as representatives of specific class interests but had become mere defenders of the status quo….
…the more class-conscious its [i.e. a country’s] people had been, the more dramatic and dangerous was this breakdown [of the class system].
This was the situation between the two wars when every movment had a greater chance than any party because the movement attacked the instituttion of the state and did not appeal to the classes. Fascism and Nazism always bosasted that their hatred was directed not against individual classes, but the class system as such, which they denounced as an invention of Marxism. Even more significant was the fact that the Communists also, notwithstanding their Marxist ideaology, had to abandon the rigidity of their class appeal when, after 1935, under the pretext of enlarging their mass base, they formed Popular Fronts everywhere and began to appeal to the same growing masses outside all class strata which up to then had been the natural prey to the Fascist movements….
The breakdown of the European party system occurred in a spectacular way with Hitler’s rise to power. It is now often conveniently forgotten that at the moment of the outbreak of the second World War, the majority of European countries had already adopted some form of dictatorship and discarded the party system, and that this revolutionary change in government had been effected in most countries without revolutionary upheaval….
Different in appearance but much more violent in reality was the breakdown of the party system in pre-Hitler Germany. This came into the open during the last presidential elections in 1932….
…(Hitler for the Nazis, and Thalmann for the Communists), it was rather surprising to see that all other parties could suddenly agree upon one candidate.I had to do some elisions for brevity…Arendt’s writing is so full of clauses that it is really easy to get sidetracked and lost. Feel free to look up the original.
On its face: last presidentail election in pre-Hitler Germany was between the Nazis, the Communists, and “all other parties” — and a perusal of the names and platforms of “all other parties” suggests that nearly all of them would have been considered “on the left” based upon the definition of “the left” given by Dr. D. At that point, the divisions between “right” and “left” would have to be determined by something other than merely the official party platforms…and perhaps “right” and “left” just were not very apt explanations of what was going on politically at the time in Germany and Europe generally.Arendt suggests that classism had broken down in Europe generally in this time (because of the vast number of internally displaced people, which was due to centuries of colonialism and the first world war), and of course we are somwhat familiar with the struggles of Weimar Germany, the poverty and crazy inflation, etc.
Apparently, there was a vague high school shooting threat issued for today via snapchat that has affected many US states, including Arizona. My kids report that 85% of the students either didn’t go to school today or their parents picked them up before lunch. There is a police presence at the school and a police helicopter circling overhead…at one point in its circle it is so loud that it is difficult to hear the teacher.
Dr d:
that is the RIGHT’s platform, not the Left. But then they are the National SOCIALIST People’s worker’s party. i.e. the Left. Always the left.Give it up already.
Focusing on right/left is irrelevant sophistry used to justify a political position today.
Nazis murdered the actual socialists/communists/Marxists along with the Jews and Gypsies. Hitler tried to join the German Socialist party in 1919 but was denied membership. And take a look at the political party names of the Weimar Republic — it often isn’t clear which side of the political spectrum a specific party is by its name in most cases: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_historical_political_parties_in_Germany
FWIW, the German Socialist party in 1919 was touted as a “far-right” party — see: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5032159/Hitler-joined-Nazis-rival-far-right-party.html.
I’m no expert in German politics in the 19-teens, 20’s, and 30’s, but your assertion that Nazis were on the political left flies in the face of documented history and is nothing more than insubstantial rhetoric. If you want to assert that Communism, as in the USSR, came from the Left, I will agree with you whole-heartedly. I believe that it is important to understand that the political monster we know as totalitarianism can burst into the scene from EITHER end of the political spectrum. Believing otherwise is blindness that allows the seeds of totalitarianism to fester and grow.The traditional ways we think about the political spectrum are becoming hopelessly blurred. In the US, the Democratic Party is no longer behaving like a liberal political party. The Republican Party of today is slightly better, slightly more true to its principles — for example, it is less hawkish, at the moment. (Back around 2002, when I became thoroughly disgusted with the Republican Party, it was beating war drums from every quarter that I was aware of.). Both parties are thoroughly corrupt. I suspect the only reason why the Republican Party currently appears a little better than the Dems is because its ranks are appealing to the voters in hope to turn the tables in the next election, at which point most of the Repub politicos will ignore their constituents and resume full-scale cozying with their donors. As far as constituents, “people are people,” mostly concerned with making a living and connecting with family and friends. Based on what I see, yes, there are more traditional liberals who are still conned by the pernicious Woke philosophies — but they are showing discomfort with the applications of Woke philosophy. (A conversation with two elderly women last week — both are fearful of disease, discussing their plans to obtain more Covid and flu injections; later agreeing with me regarding the way transgender ideas are infiltrating society, that adults need to give children founding beliefs — a floor under their feet — rather than leaving children to muddle through it on their own.)
Totalitarianism isn’t about the political “right” or “left.” Totalitarianism is about a pernicious belief or philosophy that guides the actions of a small-ish group that uses human psychology to “convert” others to their cause, spreading throughout the human community like a virus. The converts then put social pressure (eventually, this pressure unmasks itself to be actual coercion, including threat of pain and death,) on the rest of the population, to get everyone to conform with their warped beliefs. Totalitarianism displays the worst humanity has to offer, justifying its actions by the guideposts of the founding pernicious philosophy. In the past, totalitarianism has always included a personality cult around a specific individual. That hasn’t clearly occurred, which is anomalous — we seem to be dealing with a variant of 20th century totalitarianism, something achingly similar but not identical.
If we are going to stop this new variant of totalitarianism before it destroys countless more lives than it has already shattered, we who see it and understand it for what it is need to stand together and temporarily set aside petty squabbles over traditional left/right politics. There will again come a season to debate the merits of the left and right — and we can have glorious arguments at that time — but as stated in Ecclesiastes: there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heavens.
Just had a knock at my door — it is a pest control/bug sprayer rep, wanting my business. I looked at him incredulously, and gestured to my front yard, filled with sweet peas, corn stalks 4’ high, celery is nearly 3 feet, lemon grass and other herbs, 6 varieties of fruit bearing trees, etc., and asked, “Does it look like I want a bunch of chemicals killing the bugs in my yard? It would affect the ladybugs, the lacewings, and the praying mantises.” (I should have mentioned the BEES!). He replied that those bugs are beneficial, and that all of his chemicals are “plant-based.” (Hm…pyrethrum? It will still kill beneficial insects.). He continued various tactics…but I wouldn’t budge…frugality means that don’t parcel out tasks that I can do to others for fees, and I bid him farewell. No, no chemical concoctions here, thank you very much. My sister’s honeybees died days after her neighbor’s bug sprayer treated the bugs in her neighbor’s yard.
I was driving home after singing at an open mic last night and stopped at a red light with an LED billboard across the intersection. The light was long, and I saw several ads. What a completely ridiculous use of technology! Originally, billboards were painted boards, perhaps lit with electric lights. Just a board. Passive. It is put up, it is painted, no further resources required for it to function. Now…an LED screen, with plastics and metal and circuitry, rare earth metals, of course the electricity to keep it all going, and all of the possible ways that it can break, necessitating an endless stream of replacements and e-waste. Is this progress? It seems simply stupidity. All so that my mind can be filled with advertisements that I don’t want to see while waiting at a red light. Now, the traffic light system itself is utilitarian — it brings order to a busy intersection, avoiding car crashes. A great deal of technology is utilitarian, serving an important purpose. But technology is saturating our communities, not being applied primarily to utilitarian, nor even entertainment purposes, but wherever the money leads it. So, very often, it is going into purposes that serve small slices of the population (those deriving revenue or business from the advertising) — like advertising — which much of the population doesn’t want to be go barded with.
Hunter Biden daughter in Arkansas
I suspect that the reason for Hunter & family denying the existence of this little girl is because for decades they have broken social rules and gotten away with it, all the while increasing their wealth and social status. They have reached a point where, to them, no lie is too extreme. They believe their own lies, in a sense, they believe that they have the power to form the world the way that they say it is, with little regard of actuality.
The little girl is caught in the crossfire. I hope that her mother raises her well. The money will help. It takes a tremendous amount of care and attention to raise a child well, and it is very difficult for a single parent to provide *double* the care and attention AND the money needed for all of the physical things (shelter, food, clothing, etc.). If the money is in place to put a floor under them both, then the mother can shower the girl with the needed parental care and attention, and can give “making a living” second-place priority. For me, an inheritance from my grandmother, and when that was gone, assistance from my parents, as well as SNAP, put that “floor” under our feet until I was able to stabilize my income and had my extreme frugality habits in place.
Thank you, oroboros for the dogs-in-bags photos. I needed a laugh. I found out yesterday that a friend of my daughter from elementary school (they’d had limited contact since 2000) committed suicide last week. We don’t know the impetus. Good family; intact family. Highly intelligent girl. Mother was over-protective…based on comments from my daughter talking about interactions from a couple of years ago, it sounded like her friend was chafing a bit…but we were too far removed from the situation to have any idea of what was going on for this girl in the past year — she and my daughter were minimally in touch through electronic means. I knew this girl. I grieve for her and her family.
There is an idea that the public is to blame for the products being sold, because the public is purchasing the products — if the public didn’t desire them, the corporations wouldn’t produce them.
The pharmaceutical giant awarded grants to public health organizations, civil rights groups, as well as consumer, medical, and doctors’ groups. Most of these groups did not disclose the funding from Pfizer. The lack of transparency regarding the grants allowed Pfizer to secretly fund efforts to force the public into using their products.
I find discussions about the idealistic versions of capitalism, feudalism, (some versions of) socialism, familial economic models, mercantilism, models of nature, etc., useful to help us get an idea of what is possible in human economic activity. At the same time, we must realize that our current, “really existing” economy doesn’t fit ANY of our idealistic models. So, no, consumers are not directly responsible for the multitude of problems in our markets. What if, instead of advertising that appealed to our base desires (sex, gluttonous foods, violence), flattered us, and stoked our fears, we had uplifting ideas from the world’s religions, myths, and philosophers? How would the populace respond? How quickly would the economic environment change? As it is, apparently Amazon and other retailers are sitting on warehouses stuffed full of things that people are not buying as before because of the effect of inflation and other related economic indicators. So, the masses *can* restrain their impulses to buy, buy, buy. All it takes is for something to garner their attention, to adjust their priorities. It is no great surprise then that the powers that be are desperately trying to control the information flows around the world. The easiest way to control the masses is for them to quiescently stay within the space outlined for them by authority, outlined by their own beliefs.
Some equity arguments make good sense. Sure, auto-opening doors so that disabled people don’t have to wait around for a door to be opened, for example. Often, if we think about equity we can make minor adjustments in how buildings are designed so that they do a better job of accommodating everyone. There is logic in this. (We could say that elevators exist so that people who are not athletes can make it to any floor of a skyscraper.)
However…sometimes the logic is flawed. Post-2008 all of Phoenix’s city pools were outfitted with chairlifts to lower disabled people safely into the pools. At the same time, when in operation, the pools are staffed with many young, strong, athletic, trained lifeguards. In the years since I think that I have seen the chairlift used once. Was the cost of the chairlift worth the benefit? Without the chairlift, a couple of life guards would assist the occasional disabled guest with entry and egress from the pool. This interaction would tend to be a positive social engagement for all involved and would promote building the affected community.
Health problems for the vaxxed…
My dear client and friend, age 89 is now in constant pain, but doesn’t want pain killer to dull her mind. Her husband, who lost his mind before the pandemic, is now deteriorating physically. A good friend in her sixties found her healthy husband fallen a few days ago; he is mysteriously experiencing severe vertigo. The death and health destruction of the genetic therapy just rolls on and on. These are all “things that happen” – but ever since the injections, they occur much more frequently. I suspect that the frequency is headed towards further increase, rather than decrease back to baseline.Dr d
. Capitalism is very sensitive. It’s the buying that INFORMS you want people want. What YOU want. Then — I – make if for youNot quite.
That describes an idealized, fictional version of Capitalism that doesn’t exist in the here-and-now. The really existing system, the one we actually live in, is very different.
A lot of capital (money/resources) invested into psychological studies to understand human behavior, especially the behavior of consumers. Advertising is especially crafted to exploit the innate psychological weaknesses of humans. We know this. We all like to believe that we are immune — let’s not fool ourselves — we are not.
As if my purchasing were not limited by my location, nor by my funds — of course it is.
As if I had any appreciable influence on which retailers occupy which commercial spaces around me, after I purchased this home nearly 20 years ago. (“I could move.” Right. My credit score has been trashed because I had to defend myself in a spurious family court case. My income is low…primarily because I have prioritized parenting over money-making and my co-parent is perfidious and lied his way into avoiding his material responsibilities. If I left the area I would be abandoning my children. “I could move”…not.)Most of what I purchase is FOOD. Half of my non-food purchases are from thrift stores or other 2nd hand means. And I supposedly have appreciable influence over corporations? The money I spend on food was provided to my by the federal government!
Corporations decide what to produce after a period of R&D … and then a marketing department creates a strategy for selling the product, endeavoring to foment desire for the product in the public.. (Yeah, sure, occasionally the marketers get confused by Woke ideology and ignore their actual consumers and the strategy backfires — like the recent Mulvaney/Bud Light fiasco — but most likely the Bud drinkers are going to switch to the next cheapest, mass-produced option. With wallets stretched, most can’t migrate to local, craft beers. And human psychology suggests that they won’t stop drinking beer altogether.). The iPhone phenomenon of the past 15 years is a great example of this. And most of the people I interact with — be they young, old, or middle-aged — have no idea that THEY are the product — that their precious smartphone is gathering data about them constantly and sending that data who-knows-where — to the phone OS developer, to the app developer, to the intelligence community, to the Chinese government, et al. The people don’t even know what they are really buying. Caveat emptor — it’s all a huge deception.
Consumers have been deceived. The idea that they are in the driver’s seat in the really existing system is a massive lie that gets used to “blame the victim” so that the victim will feel bad about him-/herself and accept the status quo.
I am not suggesting that we pity the consumer-victim. I am not suggesting that anyone come and rescue the consumer-victim. There is no “actual violence” here — only “structural violence.” The means of change is that victim-consumers must realize that they have been deceived and change their behavior as a result. (Which means that I agree with Dr D in the solution.). As individuals come to this realization and then meet in community with others who have reached similar conclusions, their individual actions can synergistically work towards real change. We could argue endlessly over how this should work, based on our own experiences and philosophical outlooks. (I disagree with Dr D on the source of the problem and who is at fault, who acted “wrongly,” who it is that acted with “evil intent.” I no longer adhere to any codified religion, but I see the aptness of evil called “the father of lies.” Intentional deception for the purpose of personal gain lies at the root of the problem.)
That is one clueless cat. I have one big, fluffy cat that would do the same. I have a second, more petite, gray, very affectionate-with-humans cat that in the time of that short video would have had that young rat in it’s mouth and in less than five minutes there would be nothing left of the rat, as it would be devoured.
It’s interesting….
When not supplied with food by humans, cats become efficient hunters — if they do not hunt efficiently, they die.
Some cats, like my gray one, become capable hunters even when fed by humans, even though he was not raised by a mama cat, not trained to hunt. (He was with the mama cat for no more than 10 weeks, if that.)It is similar, with us humans. Many, if we don’t need to develop skills, will fail to develop them. (My teens don’t know their own cellphone numbers. Before smartphones, most people had many phone numbers memorized.) There are some who will develop the skills any way, for various reasons.
Has it been noticed that both the left and the right are pointing to each other and accusing “censorship!”?
The left decries the right for not permitting children access to books that reference kids thinking about and/or engaging in sex or who are dealing with transgender type issues. Personally, I don’t think that the books should be banned, but they should not be in the children’s section of the library! They should be set somewhere so that the parents who want to share such ideas with their children can find them and check them out.
The right decries the left for altering classics so that they fit more readily into the Woke worldview. I agree wholeheartedly with the right on this issue. There have been myriads of human ideologies. One of the things I like best about “old books” is that they are a window into the mind of a human that didn’t live in today’s culture. It helps to broaden my mind and my perspective. The Woke see all other ideologies than their own as “backwards” and “wrongthink” and are trying to purge other ideologies from humanity.
Disney’s movie losses
I worked at Disneyland for three summers just out of high school. The culture of Disney is very important — all employees received 2 full weeks of paid, 40-hr/week, orientation/training — even if their eventual job was part time. Walt Disney was very into family entertainment that was wholesome, where parents were comfortable bringing their children. I suspect that the idea of slipping sexualized messages into kids’ films would be abhorrent to him.We can be tolerant of lifestyles that deviate from the norm without glamorizing them. Right now, the wokesters are insisting that the only way to provide “justice” for those with deviant lifestyles is to trumpet their lifestyles from every media channel. This is bizarre. These lifestyles are fringe because they are bell curve outliers. Pretending that they are in the middle of the bell curve is nonsensical and false. When children’s media constantly brings up fringe lifestyles, we confuse our children into believing that these fringes are commonplace — which they are not. I believe that children should be strongly acquainted with “the norm” and that they should see adults in their lives tolerating the fringe, and see that adults are evaluating their relationships with everyone (norm & fringe) based upon healthy interpersonal relations — not based upon some external code, such as forcing “diversity.” (I.e.: I need one gay friend, one trans friend, one black friend, one — ah, the Latin/Asian mixed ancestry friend checks off *two* boxes! etc.)
Pesticide in Ukraine grain exports
What I want to know:
What *is* the pesticide found therein?
One little word…and no outlet writes the pesticide name?
Do none of them know what the pesticide is — they just on rehashing the same tidbits of information into articles?
Do they all know what it is, but don’t want the public to know?
Is it glyphosate?Japanese multiplication
Amazing.
It would be good to learn the long way first, so that multiplication is understood.
No calculator required.
The human mind is capable of so much!
Technology is marvelous — we can expand the capacity of the human mind and body.
But so often, instead of expanding the human mind we choose to supplant it — no longer bothering to learn phone numbers, or do simple math. We use technology instead, allowing our minds to atrophy, to lack development. One of my son’s teachers told me recently that he didn’t care if my son “cheated” during a math exam by using the computer, because nowadays everyone always has access to calculators and the internet and so it doesn’t really matter if things are learned, because they can always be looked up. I believe that there is great folly in this attitude.Spouse and I finished watching The Power of the Dog last night. I liked watching a film where I was guessing at the ending and the point the story was coming to up until the last few minutes. It was unsettling in some ways, and oddly compelling. I looked up information about the source of the title afterwards, and found one article that framed the film in “woke” context, saying that it was about “toxic masculinity.” There is a huge need these days in public discourse to frame concepts in gendered ways. The behavior of the film’s antagonist reminded me of some of the behaviors of my ex — especially the belittling that he did if others. I am sure that if my mother watched the film, it would remind her of the mother that raised her, who was also verbally abusive. As I watched, I didn’t see the film as being primarily about gender stereotypes, but rather an exploration of abusive relationships. Someone who spends a great deal of time pondering gender stereotypes would likely (as did the author of that article) see it as about gender stereotypes. We view everything in context of our own experience and biases.
For me, the Western setting was largely irrelevant to the story — it could have been set in many places and eras — as abuse is a problem that is universal to human societies. For someone else, keyed into the traditional Western genre, the setting might be integral to the story.
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“Marx,” a man long dead who analyzed capitalism and dreamed of a healthier society (just as we do) isn’t taking away anything from anyone. (No more than Christ killed in the Crusades, tortured during The Inquisition, or burned witches during the Salem trials.). There are real, live people living today that are influencing the economic system in such a way that people’s retirement will likely be washed away. It is much more realistic to focus on them, rather on a dead guy.
“Socialism,” as a word and as a concept preceded Marx.
To Marx and his contemporaries, “socialism” was an economic system, not a political system. Yes, Marx suggested that a change to a socialist economic system would include government involvement….because governments are always involved in the economic system du jour, just as they are in capitalism, in slavery, in feudalism, etc.
The “Democrat” who championed socialism the most in the US was the long-time independent, Bernie Sanders. We can all see how much power his embrace of “Democratic socialism” gained him in the Democratic Party. (Oh, wait…by giving up on his bid for the presidential nomination he got some little tidbits…pretty minuscule ones.). Gosh, darn, those capitalism-loving Democrats are so obsessed with socialism that the Party leadership expects us to just *know* that they unabashedly support something that they never publicly embrace.
What is happening is that the term “socialism” and the name “Marx” is being set up as a “straw man” or “scapegoat,” are loaded up with definitions of things that are hated, and then burned in effigy. After all of this, those who did the burning scratch their heads trying to figure out how it is that the tyranny still exists, how did “socialism” and “Marx” survive, yet again? Yeah….because the problem is tyranny expressed as totalitarianism…tyranny is endemic to humanity (which is tragic, but compassion is also endemic.). “Socialism” has meant so many things to so many people that it has come to compass both human compassion and human tyranny — but it was birthed from human compassion. Therefore, the term is muddy and unclear.
As a term, “totalitarian” is clear and tends to mean approximately the same thing from person to person.
Dr D
We could have cars, or not, if there is warming.
Yup.
I did a 2 month study abroad in downtown London in 1995. The Tube system was marvelous. I took the stairs up and down…it was good exercise, but not for all. (If I’d had young children, I’d have taken the elevator.). With friends, I took the night bus to Edinburgh and back. (Could have been pleasant — if the “no smoking” signs had been observed — the second-hand smoke had me feeling nauseous.). To visit a former roommate, I took the train to Reading. And the train took me to/from Heathrow Airport. Where I live, in Phoenix, there is a grocery store about a quarter mile away. When I had three toddlers I often found it easier to load them up into the stroller and walk to the grocery store rather than getting them all in/out/in/out of three car seats. In the cooler months, I often bike to the grocery store, ATM, and even to a few close-by client locations. (But not when it is 110 degrees outside.)People make decisions that make sense to them. When our cities are designed with cars in mind, traversing them without a car does not make sense. (I own a car.) There is logic in “15 minute cities” — but not when we are coerced into them and not permitted to roam at will. I spend most of my days within a 6 mile radius of my home, (much of my employment permits this,) entirely by choice. One son is contemplating an internship program this summer. The program states that they will not attempt to place the young workers in sites close to where they live. I’m sure that this is convenient for those running the program — they don’t have to be bothered by it — but, logistically, for those doing the work, it is a potential problem, and belies social values that are dependent upon a car-driven attitude that distance is irrelevant — when, in actuality, distance is clearly relevant.
I echo Kultsommer: “ Earth is not yet, but on a way to become one large toxic garbage can.”
When I learned about the ice cores and the increasing CO2, I realized two things for certain: (1) we humans are burning fossil fuels at a tremendous rate, one large enough to affect the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere today, and we do not fully understand the ramifications of this. (2) Fossil fuels are finite, yet we are burning them as if they will never run out: this is foolish.
Creating copious amounts of plastic waste that does not decompose in our lifetimes is foolish. The same goes for all of the toxic byproducts to our manufacturing processes. We do not know the consequences. Monkeying around with viruses and gene therapy — unleashing them upon world populations — is rank stupidity.
I am not pleased with capitalism. I do not believe that economics can be summed up with a binary relationship between capitalism and socialism. Capitalism needs to “grow up,” and take on more responsibility. Perhaps we would call this new economic system by another name. (It wouldn’t be “socialism.”) People act economically based upon what makes sense to them — Adam Smith understood this. Advertising subtly influences people to behave like children in a candy store, rather than in a calm, reasoned way. The WEFfers seem to believe that the answer to this conundrum is to use propaganda — weaponizing psychology against the masses — fear, and coercion to force the world’s population onto a more sane course of action. I disagree. The people of the earth do need education…but not the kind where students memorize facts or are wowed by technology or are cowed into submission with fear and cruelty. We need the type of education that fosters critical thinking, deep thinking, that inspires the spark of creativity, and that builds strength and agility in the body. People who do not know how to use their minds well make poorer decisions overall, and they are easier to control.
This type of education isn’t done much now in the US because creative critical thinkers are more difficult to control.
It only costs $20-$30 to recycle a solar panel? We already have the solution, it has been present for years with other devices, such as car batteries. When they are sold, a “core charge” or recycling fee needs to be added. Turning in an old one refunds the charge.
*sigh*
Jb-hb — I suppose that you also side with the French nobles and leaders of the military who brutally suppressed the fledgling Paris Commune? The common folk were experimenting with “socialism,” after all. And, who knows, if it had been allowed to flourish, perhaps they’d have ended up with another Robespierre and after that a Napoleon bent in conquest?. We’ll never know.
The struggle is between tyranny and freedom.
“Socialism” has been turned into a “bad word” used to label “bad things” because the elites don’t want us to get near ANYTHING that could upset their power over us. The Paris Commune was an interesting experiment in democracy and self-government. But it was in peril of survival from both within and (especially) without from the get go. The roots of socialism are the stories of oppressed people yearning for freedom. And in the 20th century those yearnings were turned time and time again into totalitarian tyranny. And here, in the USA, in the 21st century we are getting our own taste of tyranny, technocratic style, rooted in problems that have ever been with us, that we were struggling with a hundred years ago.
It is helpful not to conflate socialism and fascism (which is one of the faces of totalitarianism.). The two start from very different places. Socialism starts from the rosy idea of “From each according to ability; To each according to need.” (Which is attributed to Karl Marx, but has Biblical roots.). Fascism, on the other hand, was rooted in hard-edged, nationalist ideology — the nation’s “might” is “right,” and all must subject their will to the well-being of the nation.
(https://theconversation.com/from-each-according-to-ability-to-each-according-to-need-tracing-the-biblical-roots-of-socialisms-enduring-slogan-138365)(Capitalism also integrates an optimistic idea at its core: Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” that guides self-interest into the betterment of all. Granted, this is a little more practical than socialism’s founding motto, but then, Adam Smith was describing something that already had nascent existence, while Karl Marx and his contemporaries were describing an idea.)
Hannah Arendt, like many of the European intellectuals of her time, leaned towards socialism generally. When she analyzed totalitarianism (specifically German Nazism and USSR’s Communism) she found no parallels between those totalitarian regimes and socialism generally. (Of course, it could be argued that Democratic Socialism had barely begun to be practiced by governments of Europe when she was writing.)
It is very difficult to implement a large system based upon “From each according to ability; To each according to need.” There are always free-riders. Some free-riders are criminals, and/or have “cluster B” personality tendencies. Others, (like my son with a load of psychiatric diagnoses,) aren’t fully aware that their way of existence is taking more than it gives, or that this is a concept that needs to be understood. (He is 16; I continue to work with him on this…he is gradually coming around, and beginning to voluntarily assume more responsibilities.)
I think that those tending towards socialism need to realize that no matter how well-intentioned their efforts are, that humanity is more varied than their programs may ever encompass — and that is okay. We have to let individuals choose their outcomes, and as long as those outcomes are not infringing on others’, it is best to let them be.
And to those who have a more harsh outlook on life and society — “it’s a dog-eat-dog world,” and “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” — whether or not you have boots or straps — they need to understand that, just as is described in writings of ancient times (the Bible, history,) there needs to be simple means for humans to subsist. In Ancient Israel there was Jubilee and field corners and edges were left for gleaners. In medieval Europe, the forest was replete with resources that could sustain life.
A few days ago spouse and I were driving on the freeway, a course that at times passes through the fringes of Phoenix, where there was undeveloped, desert landscape for a few acres on each side. Here and there I spied tents. How interesting, I thought. A few are choosing to locate themselves out here, a little less than a mile’s walk from the freeway on/off ramp, more than a mile from stores, far enough out that few will bother them or their stuff. An interesting choice. They are subsisting, on their own terms. There must be a way for such subsistence to exist. Do we want humans to have more than subsistence? Certainly! But humans must have that choice — there must be an option to reject society and subsist.
@ Dr D
Then quotes General Economists (who are all Marxist) then again saying they too are wrong about everythingIf general economists are “all marxists,” then how is it that they receive essentially zero training in Marxist economic theory in their many years of formal training?
Economist Richard Wolff truly *is* a Marxist economist. He was a classmate of Janet Yellen, who is a “general economist.” Note that she has the prestigious jobs, and Prof. Wolff has never been more than a college professor. Wolff wanted to study Marx’s economic theory, but in the various economic degrees that he pursued there were no classes in Marxist theory available. Instead, he had to find a private tutor.
The way I see it, the word “Marxism” is conflated by the West (especially in the USA) to = “communism as practiced by the Communist Party, especially as done by Stalin and Mao,” because the movers and shakers in the collective West do not want the masses to read and understand Marx, as they are worried that if the masses ever do, that the masses will become uncontrollable.
Vilifying Marx and his writings is akin, in my view, to vilifying Christ and the New Testament because of The Crusades and The Inquisition. Christ had some wonderful, valuable teachings. Just because they have often been warped into brutal human actions does not mean that Christ caused those deplorable actions, nor that his teachings were false and without value. Just because some very corrupt men rose to the top in revolutions that claimed to be the type of “communist revolution” suggested as imminent by Marx and then proceeded to oppress the masses doesn’t mean that the very defunct Marx caused those actions. No, just as it was for The Crusades and The Inquisition, those actions were caused by corrupt evil men who simply used a du jour and available philosophy as “cover” for their reprehensible deeds.
Now, I don’t see Marx as a god or demigod, etc. He was just a guy who saw injustice in the world and was trying his best to understand the injustice so that the rest of humanity might be benefited from his scholarship. He did not become rich or powerful in his lifetime for his efforts. He viewed economics through the lens of his own life, and his criticisms of capitalism are largely accurate, although he did “miss the boat” on the value of fossil fuels. He was fallible, like the rest of us.
The reason why we — especially those of us in the US — have been carefully groomed to hate Marxism and Karl Marx is not because he or his teachings are inherently evil, rather, it is because Marx’s ideas are believed by The Powers That Be to be capable of turning the masses against The Elites (the WEFfers) and causing the masses to become uncontrollable.
And this is EXACTLY the reason why I believe that it is important to read Marx — not because I want to foment a “communist revolution,” but because we can learn from Marx’s scholarship, add it to what we observe in our lives as well as to the history of the century and a half that have transpired since Marx passed, and it can aid us as we try to figure out how to move forward out of the current political and economic mess that we find ourselves in.
@ germ
I have a music student in her fifties. She missed her lesson last week and will today as well because her mother had a stroke last week and died. A few months ago, her niece “died suddenly.” She has taken lessons for about 6 months, and we haven’t discussed the Covid vaccines — it wasn’t germane to the topic, and hasn’t come up — but my guess, based on her temperament, is that she and her family are vaxxed.
“There is no plausible argument that it would be unreasonable or indiscriminate for the government to surveil Assange, who oversaw WikiLeaks’ publication of large amounts of U.S. national security information,” the CIA and Pompeo additionally contend. “Thus, any alleged surveillance of Assange that incidentally captured his conversations with U.S. citizens such as plaintiffs would not violate the Fourth Amendment [right to privacy] as a matter of law.”
Because, essentially, “might makes right.” And that is their motto, not “rule of law.”
It was around 15 years ago when I first ran across the idea that the moon landings were faked. I remember being shocked and not wanting to believe it. I thought it over and realized that, well, if the US President declared that it would be done, and it turned out that the technology to do so safely did not exist nor could it be practically developed in a reasonable timeline, faking it was not out of the realm of possibility. The most damning circumstantial evidence was that after a flurry of moon landing missions, all from the US, all of the moon missions stopped, and the decades rolled by without returning to the moon — not even by a different country. If humanity actually had safely sent someone to the moon and back, the missions would have continued. Instead…fifty years have passed with nada, zip, zilch. The only reason Incould think of for not continuing such missions would be that they could not — and never had been — performed safely.
And here we have an elderly filmmaker indicating before he passes that, hey guys, those moon landings? Yeah, that was me. NASA was so impressed with 2001: A Space Odyssee that they asked me to direct their own little projects.
It has been interesting observing covid rip through my family once again.
About 30 months ago, my sisters’s family contracted Covid, and all members fell ill and recovered. My parents visited them during this, (they were living with my family at the time,) my mother fell ill, my father “felt tired,” for a couple of days. My spouse and I contracted Covid from my parents; my teen children did not fall sick. None of us received the Covid vax. About 18 months ago, two of my teen children contracted Covid, the third did not. In the past two months, it looks like all members of my sisters family fell ill with Covid again; a month ago my parents contracted Covid again — this time my father really got sick (fever), and this time my sister’s family did not infect my parents, and my parents did not infect my household — each household contracted the illness from the community. Neither my sister’s family nor my parents tested themselves for Covid so, admittedly, calling it Covid is an assumption, however, many had the symptom profile of fever (99.5 to 102 F) and reduced sense of taste and smell for a while afterwards. Just over a week ago my spouse became ill with fever; I followed the next day. I tested positive for Covid. (I am insatiably curious.). Four days later my son who, up until this point had never tested positive for Covid despite living with those sick with Covid on multiple occasions, came down with fever and tested positive for Covid. My daughter felt “unwell” for a few days, and yesterday my second son was feverish. This past Tuesday we went on a vacation with my parents, with the sick teen, but we figured that my parents’ recent illness was likely the same strain of Covid that my son had, so we didn’t worry about it, and , true to form, they did not fall ill, even though they spent 3 nights in their camping trailer with my sick son.
Recently (about a week ago?) I read a thread of someone who seemed to know what he was talking about stating that the Covid virus has just about figured out how to get around innate immunity. Days later, my son who had not contracted Covid despite living with those who had it, came down with Covid.
I am not sure what to make of all of this, but …
1) Covid continues to spread like mad through our communities
2) The Covid virus mutates rapidly enough to evade “natural immunity” eventually and to cause multiple infections (like “the flu.”)
3) People who did not originally become sick when exposed to Covid (my father, my son,) are falling ill to the currently circulating Covid strain, suggesting that the current strain overcomes innate immunity.I realized a couple of months ago that the so-called decongestant phenylephrine does not work (unless inhaled, apparently,) so I purchased behind-the-counter pseudoephedrine.
4) Pseudoephedrine actually works as a decongestant, and it is passing bizarre that the public would continue to shell out dollar after dollar for ingested phenylephrine, which doesn’t work. What does that behavior say about humans? How many other areas exist where humans are hoodwinked by advertising? (Too many to enumerate, I suppose.) What other areas are there where *I* have fallen for this type of deception? (THAT is an uncomfortable thought.)
@ DBS
And…I make it sound like my BIL is wonderful…he had a rough childhood, and bears the emotional scars from it…the marriage has had ups and downs…but, based on my observation, as well as conversations with him and with my sister, he unswervingly believes that it is his god-appointed duty to provide for his kids — and I respect that. (Considering how my ex lied and perjured himself in order to shirk that same responsibility.). Beyond that — for the past 20 years I’ve only seen him at a few family dinners and reunions, so I can’t judge his character any further.It is fascinating to see how memes are created and dispersed.
We are to hate the executives at SVB because they funded their own bonuses and donated to the Democratic Party. And yet, the only SVB employee that I know personally is my BIL, who supports his wife and five kids, is a devout Mormon, and conservative to the core. I’m not sure what his exact position nor his income was, but he has been a banker for around 15 years and they have a semi-modest house in an old and nice neighborhood. He likes designer clothes, fishing, and gardening; my sister gets haircuts that I cannot possibly afford, teaches her own kids to play piano, and she frets about the size of their food budget and doesn’t feel like she can purchase organic, because it is costly.
Reality diverges radically from the meme.
SVB
Yes, bonuses funded just before it collapsed. Perspective is everything. Were greedy corporate executives trying to run away with depositor funds? Or was management fulfilling obligations to hardworking employees? Usually, I always see the side with of the greedy corporate executives. For my brother-in-law, my sister, and their five kids, facing the prospect of no job for the breadwinner in the near future, they are grateful to have the bonus. It becomes a zero sum game — no matter the outcome, the money has evaporated and someone loses.My brother-in-law works for SVB. Or…he did. He hasnt had confirmation, but he fully expects to be officially unemployed by Monday. He has a wife and five kids, ages 17 down to 5. My sister is a stay-at-home mom. Fortunately, they had saved up a nice sum to do an addition on their house but hadn’t yet found a contractor, so they have savings. I suspect that there are going to be a lot of out of work bankers looking for work.
@ oroboros
I don’t typically feel like placing myself into boxes. I usually find that after a while they don’t fit.“If this theory is correct, it again implies our side is so incompetent, weak-willed, cowardly and ineffective that they just took it like a bitch and allowed it to happen.
Because the “sides” — no matter what the masses may believe — are not Republican vs. Democrat. They are a “uniparty.” Sure, there are a few legislators from each major political party who are not fully in step with the uniparty. Trump is not fully in step with the uniparty.
The true sides are The Elites + The Uniparty + The Intelligence Community vs. The People.
Chansley may have been duped by the FBI, but his actions were genuine. If he were duplicitous, (like Ray Epps,) then Chansley would not be in prison.
The Macron thing was 14 years after they met; there is no reason to assume impropriety. However, it is odd that a 29-year-old man would marry a woman 25 years his senior unless she was extremely wealthy.
Just got through my second bout of Covid. 29 months after the first time. I decided not to take any analgesics (unless the headache became unbearable) because I wanted to allow my immune system free reign to burn it out with the fever. The fever ranged from 99.5 F to 101.9 F for about 24 hours. I spent most of yesterday falling asleep. Around 11 pm last night the headache was worsening, but I could feel that the fever had broken, so I went ahead and took acetaminophen. Today, I am mostly back to normal. (Some “head cold” symptoms remain.). Annoyingly, true to form, my sense of taste and smell has been affected — breakfast yesterday tasted a lot better than breakfast today. I am grateful for an immune system that can handle a bioweapon. (I am agnostic, so if there is some sort of beneficent power or entity out there that also deserves my thanks, a hat tip that way as well.)
@ Dr D
Zinn is not typically taught in the public school system.
I never read Zinn until about 5 years ago.It is important not to assume that just because one public school, somewhere in the US is teaching some particularly noxious idea that ALL public schools throughout the country are doing the same.
My twin sons, juniors in high school, are studying US history this year. One of my sons gets anxious from some of his assignments, and I end up sitting with him and participating in the process. In particular, instead of a textbook he has a photocopied packet of over 200 pages for US history. I have read much of this aloud to my son as he answers the questions on the material. There is nothing about Zinn, nor about the “gaps” that he filled in US history. Nothing. The tycoons of the late 1890s are called both “captains of industry” and “robber barons” — an overview of both sides is given.
My children have not been overtly taught by the local public schools about “trans” and topics regarding sexual orientation. They actually received ZERO school instruction about human sexuality, STDs, etc. All such instruction has come from me, their peers, or online videos. My daughter was inducted into the LGBTQI culture by peers in public elementary school. One son had a lesbian teacher in 7th grade…but he never knew that she was. Each of my children in middle school had the same non-binary art teacher. I didn’t know that the teacher was non-binary until my youngest had this individual as a teacher, and when I said “Ms. S—-“ my daughter corrected me that the teacher wanted to be called only by the last name, and to drop the “Ms.” I suspect that had been the case earlier as well, but only my daughter even noticed that the teacher was non-binary!
There are problems in the public school system that I hear about from multiple sources, that are mostly ubiquitous and I see them in my children’s schools as well. The curriculum is more and more prescribed by the district, the teachers are given very little leeway in what they teach. This is especially the case in core academic classes — but even my son’s theatre class includes district mandated assignments and tests. (The assignments are called “PBAs” — and no one seems to remember what the acronym stands for.) Curriculum is purchased from enormous education corporations — it is turning into just another means for corporations to extract profit. In an elementary school where a friend works, students in 3rd grade have been issued Windows laptops, and the district has a mandated technology curriculum that teachers are to use to teach the kids about the laptops. However, the teachers have no time to teach the technology curriculum, they often barely know how to use the laptops themselves, and the students receive no instruction on how to use the issued laptops. Their standardized testing is now all on the laptops and my friend is discovering that the students don’t actually know how to take the online test, yet the quality of the teacher’s instruction will be evaluated by the students’ test scores!
In my kids’ high school, the district brags that ALL juniors must take the ACT (a standardized college entrance exam.). My son with anxiety, ADHD, and behavioral problems is not planning college right after high school. (He is smart…but he isn’t going to benefit from higher education unless he is internally motivated.). The school is sending out an ACT “question of the day” to juniors via their school email account. In English they take practice ACT quizzes. This son was so stressed about the ACT a few days ago that he nearly broke down and cried. I had to tell him that for him, the ACT served no purpose, he didn’t need to worry about it at all, I didn’t care what score he received, it wouldn’t affect his grades, and he should focus on completing his school work in order to pass his classes. When the ACT comes, he can answer some questions and enjoy the break from his usual classes. It is nice that the district covers the cost of the ACT and that it is during school, rather on a Saturday at some far away school, as was the case for me so long ago. But…MANDATED? Why must it be mandated? It isn’t relevant to all students, but all must jump through this hoop anyhow.
I do not doubt that some teachers, some school districts are incorporating “woke” nonsense into children’s curriculum. However, these issues are trumpeted by the conservative media, both mainstream (I.e. Fox,) and alt-Right, because they are sensational and emotionally charged issues, not because they are ubiquitous problems. Personally, I see more immediate problems stemming from the massive technology purchases (a laptop for every student) undertaken as a result of the pandemic funding. My son with behavioral issues is not the only one watching YouTube in class instead of doing school work, or copying the Spanish questions into Google Translate and then using copy/paste to put the translation into his homework, bypassing the part of his mind that needs to learn to translate. He is not the only one eschewing writing down problem steps in math equations because he enters the answers into an online module…and then we find that he hasn’t retained the skills because he didn’t invest enough effort into acquiring the skills.
“If it bleeds, it leads.”
Dr D: Quote from Zinn…
Just because one doesn’t agree with someone’s ideological viewpoint, doesn’t mean that the other individual is corrupt or evil, etc.
Zinn did serve the principles of The Enlightenment — and so do you.
If we are going to overcome the WEFfer cabal, we need to stop getting up on our ideological high horses and shooting arrows at everyone who doesn’t have an identical horse. That, essentially, is exactly what we criticize the Woke Folks of doing. Zinn pointed out elements of US history that many would like to ignore. (Gee whiz — his book People’s History…. would be considered mis-/dis-/malinformation in the current political climate.). Ignoring history causes people to repeat mistakes. To overcome the “New Normal” we need to come together as disparate folks with disparate ideologies and find common ground against our oppressors. C’mon — you know this. Zinn pointed out oppression — just like you do. Just because Zinn self-identified as a “liberal” and many pushing the WEFfer agenda today self-identify as “liberals” does not mean that Zinn was pushing “The Great Reset” that we are currently embroiled in. Liberal is a “liberal” word and means different things in different contexts. (Quite likely, many of the US Founding Fathers would have been comfortable self-identifying as “liberal.”)
United we stand — divided we fall.“’The Government Is Trying To Kill Us Now’: Low-Income Americans Fume In Mile-Long Food Lines After Pandemic Benefits End
“Blair and his wife hop into their truck twice a month at 4 a.m. to ensure they get a few staples at the Hazel Green Food Project’s giveaway. On a recent Friday, they waited nine hours”When reporters want to jerk at readers’ heart-strings or when non-profits serving the poor want to open purse-strings, they can always find some poor soul that is stressed out by food acquisition. It isn’t difficult to do. The article doesn’t explain how the SNAP system works, so the average person who has never been on SNAP has no idea. For that matter, many people who *have* been on SNAP have no idea. Probably most people on SNAP have not read their state’s policy handbook regarding SNAP certification and eligibility — most don’t know that such a manual exists. One year my business had a small profit, which passed through to my personal taxes so that I could enjoy the privilege of being taxed for it. The ninnies at the Dept of Economic Security told me that it had to be counted as personal income, even though I had not taken a distribution. I appealed. The judge was completely ignorant of the federal tax code regarding my business entity type, and ignorant of his state’s policy manual regarding SNAP, and ignorant of the federal code that governs SNAP eligibility. The judge also was not interested in being educated about these things by the person who initiated the appeal, so I lost the appeal, even though my position was, technically, correct. Fortunately, the sum in question was very small. (I have noticed that since then, DES workers checking SNAP eligibility now follow a rubric that correctly looks at my business, and I haven’t had that problem since.)
As far as the Hazel Green project, it probably supplies food pantry boxes (a federally subsidized program, including only shelf-stable foods with a specific nutritional profile,) and adds to it perishables and extra non-perishable food items donated locally. The perishables are “ugly” produce and items near, at, or past their “best by” dates. My guess is that Hazel Green is likely in a rural area, which means that it serves a large geographic area, which is the reason why “Blair and his wife” drive so far and wait for so long. In large cities, there are places handing out food boxes and perishable foods every day with minimal wait (15 minutes to an hour.). The wait has more to do with the choice of living in rural America.
