THE EARTHIAN, Number Forty-One, June 18, 2023, Effective Learning Publications, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/ , 32 East Main Street, Statesboro, Georgia, USA, Richard John Stapleton, Writer, Editor & Publisher, Copyright 2023, All Rights Reserved
ASK MORE WHAT YOUR COUNTRY CAN DO FOR ALL EARTHIANS—TO REDUCE THE PROBABILITY OF EXTINCTIONS—CAUSED BY GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE (GWCC) AND/OR MILITARIZATION AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROLIFERATION (MNWP)
CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE
1 — Observations and Analyses of Current Earthian Human Existential States of Affairs by Earthian Humans Stationed around Spaceship Earth Cathecting all Ego States Feeling, Thinking, and Writing
2 — A Posting by a Hypothetical Exonexus Observer from a Planet Beyond the Earthian Solar System
3 — On the Need to Co-Construct a Sustainable Long Run Earthian Political-Economic-Management System
4 — A Democratic Earthian GAME-Free Case Method Teaching and Learning Process for Producing Democratic Discussions, Learning, and Policy Formulation Around Spaceship Earth
AN EARTHIAN ELDER SPEAKS
“So, I guess what I’m saying is that, as we can establish that the earth is a sphere, and thus finite, then growth in your population and artifacts must have limits. And, your lack of a social-economic system to recognize those limits is leading us all to disaster.” — KOKO
See and read more about KOKO, the gorilla who knew over 1,000 words, at
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=167997996125986&set=a.115689438023509
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESKTOP COMPUTER KEYBOARD
There may be thousands of dead planets in our Universe that were once inhabited by human-like creatures that lived, evolved, and learned on their planets in learning processes resembling the learning processes of Earthian humans, who through eons on their planets learned how to develop lethal weapons like Earthian nuclear bombs and complex industrial processes requiring burning fossil fuel who became extinct because of what they were caused to learn and develop through natural evolutionary cause-effect chains. The same sort of thing could happen to Earthian humans if they do not quickly in cosmic time learn how to satisfy their social, psychological, economic, political, and biological needs in significantly improved social, psychological, economic, political, and military systems that do not require or entail the burning of carbon-based fuel or the decision-making of ordinary and sometimes demented Earthian humans in fascist organizations.
I’m not for “overthrowing” the existing economic and social order with another revolution or civil war. I’m for evolving a better one, peacefully, ASAP. How to bring that about is the question. Violent revolution is not the answer it seems to me. All-out war destroys the existing economic and social order, but it is not a solution. Up to now fascist oligarchies have risen from the ashes of wars to evolve the same sort of top-down dysfunctional tyrannies as those that just got torn down, which are in turn also ultimately destroyed. GWCC and MNWP in the current age may have caused conditions that could preclude the possibility of Earthian economic and social orders rising from ashes if another world war happens, since Earthian humans may have been rendered extinct. — RJS
1 — Observations and Analyses of Current Earthian Human Existential States of Affairs by Earthian Humans Stationed around Spaceship Earth, Cathecting all Ego States Feeling, Thinking, and Writing
June 18, 2023
Say it aint so Joe
“Special federal Trump prosecutor Jack Smith looks stern, anxious, and less than happy as he goes about his duties of indicting the United States’ forty-fifth president, the first actual fascist (see my book This Happened Here on the Trump presidency and world view) to sit in the White House.
“It makes sense. His job comes in a nation where tens of millions of demented and disproportionately armed Amerikaners believe anything their orange-hued Fuhrer says, no matter how preposterous and vile (see this soul-chilling “P”BS segment on two recent focus groups with Iowa Trump voters). Donald “Take Down the Metal Detectors” Trump could very well become president again in 2025, whereupon Smith might be well advised to take up residence in another country, as would many others, including the present writer.
“The Malignant One has called Smith a “maniac,” a “lunatic,” a “Soviet-style thug” and other choice names. It has even called out Smith’s wife by name, putting her life in danger.
“A Gentlemen’s Agreement
“It’s hard to imagine that the milquetoast centrist Merrick Garland relishes his new role as the first US Attorney General to oversee the prosecution of a former US president. He is a member of the US ruling class and there’s long been a ruling class gentleman’s agreement about prosecuting US presidents and former presidents: you don’t do it since the “commander in chief” of the giant and mass murderous US Empire regularly commits grave crimes – and must always feel free to commit such crimes – in the execution of his duties. The agreement has been honored again and again, as when Gerald Ford infamously pardoned Richard Nixon for his deranged Watergate skullduggery (which only scratched the surface of Nixon’s crimes against humanity at home and abroad) and when Barack “Look Forward Not Backwards” Obama (himself a blood-soaked war criminal) deigned to investigate his wife’s good buddy George W. Bush for epic war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the epically fraudulent, truth-negating, mass-homicidal, and illegal invasion of Iraq – still the biggest crime of the century.
“Fascist Dictatorships are One Thing Abroad and a Different Thing at Home
“The problem for Jack Smith and Garland and the state-level prosecutor Fanni Willis (Fulton County, Georgia) is that Herr Donald has left them with no choice but to make novel exceptions to the gentleman’s agreement. Trump tried to criminally overthrow previously normative bourgeois electoral democracy and constitutional rule of law, establishing himself as a de facto fascist strongman and “president for life” within the imperial homeland itself. US -backed Third World Fascist dictatorships abroad are one thing; trying to set up a fascist tyranny in the self-described homeland and headquarters of global freedom and democracy – “the beacon to the world of the way life should” (then Republican US Senator Kay Bay Hutchinson in the fall of 2002[1]) – is quite something else.” — Paul Street
Read the article in full with all links energized below …
“No Choice but to Indict Trump: Why a Gentlemen’s Agreement Had to be Broken, by Paul Street, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/06/16/no-choice-but-to-indict-trump-why-a-gentlemens-agreement-had-to-be-broken/?fbclid=IwAR1uzL6mvNIkGZvJkxzvYsUSyS5IRXZQDR1t_9yiYlJ75xDji0SNpApxY1c.
June 17
Say it aint so Joe
“It should be obvious that the two greatest greenhouse gas producers, China and the United States, will rise or fall (as will the rest of us) on the basis of how well (or desperately poorly) they cooperate in the future when it comes to the overheating of this planet. The question is: Can this country, or for that matter the world, respond in some reasonable fashion to what’s clearly going to be climate terror attack after terror attack potentially leading to dystopian vistas that could stretch into the distant future?” — Tom Engelhardt
“Living on a Smoke Bomb of a Planet,” by Tom Englehardt, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/06/16/living-on-a-smoke-bomb-of-a-planet/?fbclid=IwAR2ED5aut680UP-1NlShxAl_Uyary8vJb9KaqtrzeKnBjtaFOwWuuc0fji0.
June 15
“Framing themselves and Trump as Victims and Rescuers, most Trumpian supporters feel justified in Persecuting adversaries in a Drama Triangle.
“Start a civil war against whom?
“Playing GAMES is one thing. Shooting people is another.” — RJS
“How Many More Episodes of this Trumpian Psychodrama Will There Be?,” by Richard John Stapleton, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/how-many-more-episodes-of-this-trumpian-psychodrama-will-there-be/?fbclid=IwAR1E3GRpe8e3adsXCYa7_oRpg_CC74ox5qX7y92KEeVsp0q8t_URFJNhz2E.
June 14
Makes sense
“Austerity and Illusions: The Debt Ceiling Deal,” by Peter Lavenia, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/06/09/austerity-and-illusions-the-debt-ceiling-deal/?fbclid=IwAR3DCPGsdkkG1KcJn5SJ9QngPeLuhhDzPSuJL2ZNR7oIG8zzgj4hpKz2kiI.
June 15
Say it aint so Joe.
“Annals of the Ukraine War: Year Two,” by Eve Ottenberg, COUNTERPUJNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/06/09/ukraine-war-only-gets-worse/?fbclid=IwAR1YTl5kT4884876RZxmyXSsgfYXxEyF8itl0MpK5BgiCrNujGcQyJq0jDs.
June 15
Why pay attention to this when the Trumpian reality show is much more interesting?
Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire: Isaac Cordal’s Art Calls Viewers to Confront Fascism,” by Henry A. Giroux, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/where-theres-smoke-theres-fire-art-exhibit-calls-viewers-to-confront-fascism/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR1xXNrwVesNDJp98CzQnyODNZ59uIG0wzHRK2Wl68qSFd7ylVUznLi_dgw.
June 15
Say it aint so Joe
“Dead Fish and Flesh-Eating Bacteria at the Beach Are Warnings From a Warming Ocean,” by Mike Ludwig, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/dead-fish-flesh-eating-bacteria-at-the-beach-are-warnings-from-a-warming-ocean/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR3uqhdbredyJ8vY6fVha3n-wM8yiITnDIqF87SBf0KLX-Wx673KwfUOGiU.
June 15
Somethin’ to think about
“Dennis Kucinich,” by John D. Rachael, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10224869545222139&set=gm.6393138150745981&idorvanity=534997559893432.
June 13
How Many More Episodes of the Trumpian Reality Show Do We Have to Endure?
Earthian humans are again confronted with a probability, albeit a low probabilty, hopefully, of mob violence in a major country, the US, the so-called exceptional shining democratic country on a hill among all the countries of Spaceship Earth, caused by a significant percentage of the country’s population, who apparently do not value the rule of law of the US, or the values of all its citizens. These malcontents frame themselves as Victims and Rescuers, but they are primarily Persecutors, willing to do serious harm, apparently, to those who oppose them, via mob violence and brute force if necessary to win their psychological GAMES. According to the Rescuer/Persecutor lady demagogue below in the article below, 75 million Trump supporters, most of them armed N.R.A. card-carriers, will make sure Trump is not sent to prison if he is convicted for doing what he has been ethically and legally indicted for doing. According to the article below, some of Trump’s supporters are thinking about starting a civil war to Rescue Trump if he is convicted, escalating their psychological GAMES to the tissue-tearing level. Framing themselves and Trump as Victims and Rescuers, they feel justified in Persecuting adversaries in a Drama Triangle inside the US. Start a civil war against whom? Do these potential internal aggressors against the USian government think they could defeat the USian military in another insurrection attempt? Such a war would be suicidal for them, millions of innocents would be killed, and the once-dreamed-about exceptional shining country on a hill would no longer exist. Please, let Earthian humans be freed from this Trumpian reality show psychodrama in the US, before it’s too late. This GAME is fun no more. — RJS
“Trump Supporters’ Violent Rhetoric in His Defense Disturbs Experts,” DNYUZ, https://dnyuz.com/2023/06/10/trump-supporters-violent-rhetoric-in-his-defense-disturbs-experts/?fbclid=IwAR1yHSGBCAsinAc8rdDXHYVBaNHRLminLaNAWHNeGxhDil9t9tkG69qG6j4.
June 11
Could not agree more
“EDUCATION: THE PATH FROM COCKY IGNORANCE TO MISERABLE UNCERTAINTY,” by Mark Twain, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=652884576867458&set=a.464916115664306.
June 10
LET’S YOU AND THEM FIGHT
“US Announces New $2.1 Billion Weapons Package For Ukraine,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-announces-new-21-billion-weapons-package-ukraine?fbclid=IwAR2mGmwDQhDAZAEZo-cDvY25dhYvev7u0w3rzVrlDfOAmGECCFNIlQdEPKY.
June 9
“Having watched the news and consistently seen former President Donald Trump featuring, I woke up this morning in a reflective frame of mind. I asked myself – who in my lifetime was the most problem stricken and/or incompetent and/or simply dumb President the US has had. I decided that a gold medal – a silver medal – and a bronze medal could be assigned to the ‘successful’ candidate.” —Courtenay Barnett
“Is Trump His Own Worst Enemy,” by Courtenay Barnett, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/is-trump-his-own-worst-enemy/?fbclid=IwAR2T0kv6JGUWqHEYjm4yT3Qj2iamlkMEZGmbSGE8qXGEPMZrm6OAscaOsKA.
June 8
Interesting insightful article on the Ukrainian situation, that more and more is looking like an enigma wrapped in an enigma, created by mainstream media to serve the interests of the USian deep state, NATO, and a pretty fascist-like Ukraine
“First There Were Neo-Nazis, Then There Were No Nazis, Then There Were,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/political/first-there-were-neo-nazis-then-there-were-no-nazis-then-there-were?fbclid=IwAR0HsbKqQSl2M7zIBhNxlk7Tt0jlqeeNGeXb4IwKI7umxjv2imbInnFbg-c.
June 7
Down memory lane
“That’s Me, Number 37, Second Row from Bottom, Fourth from Left, According to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal Probably the Youngest and Smallest Class A High School Starting Quarterback in the US in 1954, 13 years old, 110 pounds, and 5’3” Tall,” Richard John Stapleton, https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=6379906632030929&set=a.717465464941769.
June 7
Interesting perspective
“Letter from London: Is London Now a High-Value Target (HVT)?,” by Peter Bach, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/06/07/letter-from-london-is-london-now-a-high-value-target-hvt/?fbclid=IwAR0imBWeJe4tVgG5VlFQD-fA_SpFw3cICBE053FERfEMplqZv9pxWrAIGGg.
June 7
Another excellent article by a great economist, Richard Wolff
“The World Economy Is Changing—the People Know, But Their Leaders Don’t, by Richard D. Wolff, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/06/07/the-world-economy-is-changing-the-people-know-but-their-leaders-dont/?fbclid=IwAR1Wbs3T98TV1BB8ArlJfh6QpYiMhhSG4Qi0iMJEqA-OKKDYf_AojsxLVC0.
June 7
For how much longer can this go on? Here’s a good article about USian economic, political, and military policies in the Caribbean, that are similar to USian policies implemented in numerous underdeveloped countries. – RJS
“From 1957 until 1971 the U.S. government worked through Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his private military force, the Tonton Makouts. Duvalier’s security force murdered over 60,000 Haitian leftists in the 14 years that “Papa Doc” was in power. These merciless killers, who were officially called the Volunteers for National Security, persecuted, disappeared, exiled, tortured and massacred a generation of Haiti’s most courageous and brightest daughters and sons.” —Danny Shaw
Read more…
“As US Considers Reoccupying Haiti, History Shows Occupation Is the Root Problem”, by Danny Shaw, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/as-us-considers-reoccupying-haiti-history-shows-occupation-is-the-root-problem/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR0LIk1JfhqqYZQKAF7sgK2bOQyvrOeP_KvCoOCdLu-j9H72F5_e62vqZ8w.
June 7
Oh no, Putin, the evil one, did it himself, don’t you know
“Kiev’s Long-Run ‘Last Resort’ Plan To Blow-Up The Kakhova Dam Exposed,” by Tyler Durden, https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/kievs-long-term-last-resort-plan-blow-kakhova-dam-exposed?fbclid=IwAR0eaGTp8_RxgTl0HaGlcFrLrabfj5wDKx1yNp-QsNvMFK-Xstykux-1wCo.
June 6
Cornel West enters the fray. He has some good ideas, but he also has this to contend with:
“West’s decision to run drew positive reviews from some progressives, such as former Ohio state senator and longtime Sanders ally Nina Turner, who tweeted, “Elevate this thing Dr. West.”
“But it also inspired blowback from others, such as longtime Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe, who asked, ‘WTF?! Does Cornel West really want to help the GOP nominee win—the way Ralph Nader helped G.W. Bush defeat Al Gore in 2000?’
“’Ego trips can come at a heavy price, Cornel,’ added Tribe. ‘Please stop this foolishness, before you really hurt the things you care to help’.”
Read more…
“Cornel West’s Presidential Run Is Already Shaking Up the 2024 Race,” by John Nichols, THE NATION, https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/cornel-west-2024-presidential-campaign/?fbclid=IwAR15NkBxsaueylub9_t2guNZvdqKGiItoUlvkDa9Hz0icNYkunK4JMGjFpI.
June 5
This is a story about two kinds of lies: Trump lying about his not possessing classified US government documents in his Mar a Largo “fort” and Trump lying in a recorded statement that was aired on CNN about the existence of a classified document in his possession that might have been fake. It’s a story about a liar’s pants on fire.
Read more…
“Trump Invents a New Way of Lying,” by Richard John Stapleton, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/trump-invents-a-new-way-of-lying/?fbclid=IwAR1reJ9xJWfz30hQkw0DquE2rf1ycAY2S_9CXoe4MAGH8ORFqD6KFjJT0Ao.
June 5
Say it aint so Joe
“Gangster Capitalism and the Politics of Fascist Education,” by Henry Giroux, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/06/05/gangster-capitalism-and-the-politics-of-fascist-education/?fbclid=IwAR2adPKWrZoCP7iFukyO8QrNkzQamwTmHjHIOTT9V4bNNurOWQhRgpWeGOk.
June 5
A sad state of affairs. Nader tells it like it is
“Reverse the Accelerating Warfare State Before It’s Too Late,” by Ralph Nader, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/06/05/gangster-capitalism-and-the-politics-of-fascist-education/?fbclid=IwAR2adPKWrZoCP7iFukyO8QrNkzQamwTmHjHIOTT9V4bNNurOWQhRgpWeGOk.
June 4
Sounds about right to me
“The Mainstream Media’s Unwillingness to Challenge U.S. Militarization,” By Melvin Goodman, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/06/02/the-mainstream-medias-unwillingness-to-challenge-u-s-militarization/?fbclid=IwAR0wN-rtelBxBpyxp5Fg-WOd0RMQXa4N8q_utr9WPiYcw9-PnmAQdDd8d0E.
June 4
Please, let this new kind of recycling plant in France work
“Solar panels—an eco-disaster waiting to happen?,” by Daniel Gordon, BBC NEWS, https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-65602519?fbclid=IwAR1SZ4ZSHnhsalnquqGm3uKCo_5Bae6Q3JiOSIr1SGLitgoLd4LfUVv2HdQ.
June 3
Trump Invents a New Way of Lying
This is a story about two kinds of lies: Trump lying about his not possessing classified US government documents in his Mar a Largo “fort” and Trump lying in a recorded statement that was aired on CNN about the existence of a classified document in his possession that might have been fake. It’s a story about a liar’s pants on fire.
The lying episode started during Trump’s last week in office as USian president caused by the possibility of a war being started against Iran so Trump could stay in office. Pentagon chief of staff General Milley was apparently worried at the time that Trump might try to do this, and Trump said in the statement aired by CNN after leaving office that Milley was thinking about invading Iran as proved by a document he waved or flapped in his hand, so listeners could hear the sound the paper made as it was flapped, proving a paper document existed. Trump said he could not show the document to them because it was classified, thereby proving he knew he possessed after leaving office a sensitive classified US government document that could not be shared because it would pose a national security risk.
The Jack Smith investigation subpoenaed the CNN-aired document, prompting Trump’s lawyers to reply that they could not furnish the document to the investigators because they could not “find” the document, raising questions such as whether the paper Trump held and flapped about in the recorded statement contained classified information, or was it a fake classified document containing no relevant information, just a new way of lying invented by Trump to cover his ass about thinking about invading Iran to give him an excuse to declare martial law during his last week in office as a last resort to remain USian president indefinitely?
Or was it a real classified document that Trump or his lawyers burned or shredded after it was aired by CNN, having figured out by then that the existence of the document put Trump in a light as bad or worse than he was in had the document not existed?
If so, Trump’s lawyers are now not technically lying about not being able to “find” the document that Trump flapped around in the recording so listeners could hear the sound caused by the flapping, thereby proving he at least had some sort of paper in his hands. The basic facts of this case were discussed on MSNBC June 2, 2023.
The most sickening piece of this sordid insane story is the implication that Trump and General Milley likely did consider the possibility of Trump trying to start a war against Iran to keep himself in office his last week in office, which would have been treason against the US and a crime against humanity.
The story may boil down to he said—he said, but it seems to me any communication between Trump and Milley about the US invading Iran to keep Trump in office happening during Trump’s last week in office, leaked to the public, would have been a security risk for the US and Spaceship Earth.
How any Earthian human could now consider voting into office again as USian president in 2024 the sociopathic Earthian human Trump, after having been exposed to his lies, misdemeanors, probable crimes, and threats, almost every day, for over six years, as a sitting and former USian president, wasting millions, if not billions, maybe trillions, of dollars, is unfathomable! – RJS
“New evidence in Trump case bolsters two sets of charges,” by Rebecca Beitsch, THE HILL, https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/4032637-new-evidence-in-trump-case-bolsters-two-sets-of-charges/?fbclid=IwAR1K94itnSSchQKHyww_5Qco9qnuxWhgTA9IOE_6exRQQ2R3Vb-uk0otG6I.
June 3
Read my article on how congressmice play the psychological Game DEBT CEILING to rake off more revenue for themselves, in “How Governments Waste Their Time”, at https://blog.effectivelearning.net/how-governments-waste…/ for more background on this story – RJS
“Stockman Slams Speaker McCarthy’s ‘Rotten Deal’,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/political/stockman-slams-speaker-mccarthys-rotten-deal?fbclid=IwAR1CF-_Rb9PeqiPAsdiHLafFzGArRXk8XYnyQfRHeHboLySQWzHj-zljkKg.
May 31
Sounds like a good idea to me
“Peace Dollars: Putting Our Economic House in Order,” by John Rachel, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/05/31/284513/?fbclid=IwAR1reJ9xJWfz30hQkw0DquE2rf1ycAY2S_9CXoe4MAGH8ORFqD6KFjJT0Ao.
May 31
Shows how screwed up things are all right
“11 Signs That Global Conflict Could Soon Spiral Completely Out of Control,” by Michael Snyder, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/11-signs-global-conflict-could-soon-spiral-completely-out-control?fbclid=IwAR1CF-_Rb9PeqiPAsdiHLafFzGArRXk8XYnyQfRHeHboLySQWzHj-zljkKg.
May 31
Earthians are in a hell of a mess
“5 Things I Truly Don’t Understand About The ‘Inevitable Energy Transition’,” by Jude Clemente, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/5-things-i-truly-dont-understand-about-inevitable-energy-transition?fbclid=IwAR1PETGExK1c6Od4TYcbCfSIC31pvhRFnQrQ5IK27zY9Vq3O1WgKkkmJd5g.
May 28
Say it aint so Joe
“US Builds New Base in Northern Syria, Signaling Indefinite Occupation,” ANTIWAR.COM., ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-builds-new-base-northern-syria-signaling-indefinite-occupation?fbclid=IwAR2zj7wGBWdU9yZtSjKSMHxZe4Ir1zM8xbFoJ1dkUqvmOXm6HgBj5v-xpgE.
May 27
Irrelevant to Repug cultists
“Democrats are Better for Your Wallet,” Albert Bodt, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10223426865674909&set=a.10201279127075286.
May 27
Here’s two smart women telling it like it is
“Irish politician Calls Out Western Countries For Funding War in Africa,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-IjhP0cPws.
May 27
Say it aint so Joe
“Why Are US Military Personnel Heading to Peru?,” by Nick Corbishley, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/why-are-us-military-personnel-heading-peru?fbclid=IwAR27R2FV2naAXYWbwRd1Pu50S0B63tbos2IjFtTYdBhQw7eby9G-RnbThpA.
May 26
And yet the Repugs have the audacity to call themselves conservatives
“Who caused the federal deficit-increasing process?,” by Larry Bee, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10221751154118657&set=a.1740881972432.
May 26
“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.” — Matthew 24:6
English Standard Version of the Christian Bible
This statement is probably more relevant today than it was when it was created. Assuming it’s true, there is no hope of eliminating wars and violence in general among Earthian humans and no hope of Earthian humans not being rendered extinct by GWCC, global warming and climate change, and MNWP, militarization and nuclear weapons proliferation.
Hopefully, it’s not true.
Maybe Earthian humans will accidentally be caused to develop ways and means of existing indefinitely.
Regardless, here are my thoughts of today about the causes of wars and violence.
Seems to me the basic cause of wars and violence is Earthian humans in groups and organizations who became a relatively uneducated, impoverished, and discounted underclass who think their only path to fame and fortune is to slaughter a relatively educated overclass, who enslave themselves to more educated imaginative sociopathic fascist leaders who lead the underclass slaughtering an overclass, as in extreme cases such as these listed by Robert Higgs at this website: https://www.goodreads.com/…/691409-anarchists-did-not… —RJS
“Anarchists did not try to carry out genocide against the Armenians in Turkey; they did not deliberately starve to death millions of Ukrainians; they did not create a system of death camps to kill millions of Jews, gypsies, and Slavs in Europe; they did not fire-bomb scores of large German and Japanese cities and drop nuclear bombs on two of them; they did not carry out a ‘Great Leap Forward’ that killed scores of millions of Chinese people; they did not kill more than 500,000 members of the Indonesian Communist party, alleged party sympathizers, and others; they did not attempt to kill everybody with any appreciable education in Cambodia, murdering one fourth of the country’s population; they did not kill as many as 200,000 Mayan peasants and others in Guatemala; they did not kill more than 500,000 Tutsis and pro-peace Hutus in Rwanda; they did not implement US and Allied trade sanctions that killed perhaps 500,000 Iraqi children; they did not launch one aggressive US war after another. In debates between anarchists and statists, the burden of proof clearly should rest on those who place their trust in the state. Anarchy’s mayhem is wholly conjectural; the state’s mayhem is undeniably, factually horrendous.” – Robert Higgs
“How not to stamp out terrorism,” by Arundhati Roy, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10222276873611462&set=a.3620616074756.
May 25
Repugs have been merrily and gleefully lying about their plundering nihilistic ways since Ronald Reagan’s time in 1980. Reagan taught them it’s ok to lie and extract all the federal funding they can for themselves, by simultaneously cutting taxes for the elite rich and increasing military spending, because the USian government is the problem, he said. The Reagan government tripled the USian federal debt in eight years, increasing its debt from $1 trillion to $3 trillion, from 1980-1988, while writing the immoral, unethical script used by USian Repug politicians ever since. Yes, they’ve been trying to destroy the egalitarian fabric of USian culture, not caring about conserving or enhancing anything except the wealth and power of the elite rich who finance their campaigns. As more or less ordinary USians posing as big shots in Washington they are also out to increase their own meager wealth, power, and fame, not caring one whit about the welfare of all USians, the real owners of the country. Their current behavior dealing with the latest DEBT CEILING psychological Game in Washington shows the depth of their avarice and depravity. Read more about the USian DEBT CEILING Game in links on posts on this page. —RJS
“No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen,” by Linda Bailey, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10222375237118997&set=a.10203288256796418.
May 22
Say it aint so Joe
“Former Top Official: Huge Portions of Pentagon Budget Goes to Defense Contractor Price Gouging,” by Shaon Zhang, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/former-top-pentagon-official-reveals-brazen-defense-contractor-price-gouging/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR1ZzmFmgB-OIHJ5_REsOfoHr8kjT5zG_vQ3Xa0QL_kPnfiFPHqEIQNciBA.
May 22
Say it aint so Joe
“The GOP Would Rather Hold Hungry Families Hostage Than Tax the Wealthy,” by Sasha Abramsky, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/the-gop-would-rather-hold-hungry-families-hostage-than-tax-the-wealthy/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR2zj7wGBWdU9yZtSjKSMHxZe4Ir1zM8xbFoJ1dkUqvmOXm6HgBj5v-xpgE.
May 21
After they say hello after they get elected new Earthian governments mostly structure their time busying themselves conducting pastimes, rituals, procedures, and ceremonies, and playing GAMES, wasting most of their time and energy in entropic time structuring instead of doing real work; a minuscule fraction of their time is structured conducting work activities that might solve systemic and existential problems.
Most likely former USian Repug president Trump’s surprise switc…
See more
“How Governments Waste Their Time,” by Richard John Stapleton, MEDIUM.COM, https://medium.com/@richardjohnstapleton/how-governments-waste-their-time-6627c7888745.
May 21
People play psychological Games in general to get structure, stimulus, and recognition. If you grew up in a family with NIGYSOB-playing parents in order to get along in the family system you had to learn to tolerate NIGYSOB playing, and it’s likely you too became a NIGYSOB player, having learned how to do it from your parents.
All normal Earthian humans like to be liked, recognized, and paid-attention-to, and negative strokes are better than no strokes at all.
Getting atten…
See more
“How Governments Waste Their Time,” by Richard John Stapleton, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/how-governments-waste-their-time/?fbclid=IwAR18Jk-a6JHckT_rk2TY-lEGECb9OizC0dK7Tlgs02Olea0imsxYKcNIeyE.
May 17
And yet the Repugs say they are the conservative ones. If so what are they conserving? Certainly not the long run economic viability of the US. This picture does not include Repug president Ronald Reagan, the grandfather of Repug slash and burn fascist tactics, who tripled the USian federal debt during 1980-1988, originating the insane Repug practice of simultaneously cutting taxes for the elite rich and increasing military spending, aka trickle-down economics, that never wor…
See more
“U.S. Federal Deficit by President,” by Kona Lowell with Diana Grazia, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10227009367037950&set=a.1155701130533.
May 17
Causation, Correlation, or Coincidence?
“Happily sitting on the front porch smoking a pipe,” by Philo Thoughts, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=798102305018123&set=a.643405673821121.
May 17
Raising-the-debt ceiling-time in the USian congress is when congressmice come out to play when the cat president is weakest, trying to siphon money from the USian federal govt real and funny money revenue stream for their selfish hides, threatening to plunge the USian economy into chaos for everyone, playing DEBT CEILING.
It’s quite a Game these chaps play.
DEBT CEILING is an all-encompassing variant of the transactional analysis psychological Game called COPS AND ROBBERS t…
See more
“Debt Ceiling,” by Richard John Stapleton, MEDIUM.COM, https://medium.com/@richardjohnstapleton/debt-ceiling-7b803d3569b5.
May 17
Guns don’t kill people according to some people. According to some people people kill people by pulling the triggers of guns. What does this picture tell you about USian people?
“Last Year, Handguns Killed,” by Cameron D. Denson, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10158549547952621&set=a.434580107620.
May 17
Say it aint so Joe
“The US Still Spends More on Its Military Than 144 Nations Combined,” by Ashik Siddique, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/05/17/the-us-still-spends-more-on-its-military-than-144-nations-combined/?fbclid=IwAR1o5VEX0b_f1tFAUAsDaZSbM4ID5pZZBnZzLisBfSwO35dKFEcuPede3zg.
May 17
Say it aint so Joe
“A New Report Finds That the ‘War on Terror’ Led to More Than 4.5 Million Deaths,” by Connor Echols, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/a-new-report-finds-that-the-war-on-terror-led-to-more-than-4-5-million-deaths/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR3tImc-mp7bFZK9FakTEj4jwqATDd1cf5eUr75KFxVyGV2Zcx_hzAs1Xro.
May 16
DEBT CEILING is an all-encompassing variant of the transactional analysis psychological Game called COPS AND ROBBERS that entails supposed good-guy Rescuers incessantly trying to catch and punish supposed bad-guy Persecutors while seeing themselves as Victims.
Playing DEBT CEILING causes the USian Federal debt to increase more in the year following the year in which it is played than in other years because the Victim cat, the president, cannot veto unnecessary pork barrel de…
See more
“Debt Ceiling,” by Richard John Stapleton, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/debt-ceiling/?fbclid=IwAR16pCXCwZdxb1A7QJlKzLsfZSYG-pP7iOMlo6aDzMSbT7Bb3-0JUJGPHBc.
May 15
Say it aint so Joe
“Travels Through ‘the Trumpocene’: Jeff Sharlet’s Dark Take on Our Fascist ‘Condition’,” by Paul Street, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/05/12/travels-through-the-trumpocene-jeff-sharlets-dark-take-on-our-fascist-condition/?fbclid=IwAR3YBRbhA3uvty1_yt4Vxxx5Chd1HRabxCcqNoQIIdoNAktTa7YxZ6dH814.
May 14
Marianne Williamson is running for US president. I could not agree more with what she says here
“Marianne Williamson rips Biden’s refusal to debate: ‘Voters should decide-4ever News,” https://4ever.news/marianne-williamson-rips-bidens-refusal-to-debate-voters-should-decide/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter.
May 13
Afraid Ottenberg’s right
“Beltway Mediocrities Bumble Toward Armageddon,” by Eve Ottenberg, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/05/12/beltway-mediocrities-bumble-toward-armageddon/?fbclid=IwAR3YBRbhA3uvty1_yt4Vxxx5Chd1HRabxCcqNoQIIdoNAktTa7YxZ6dH814.
MAY 8
Sounds about right to me
“The Fascists’ Playbook,” by James C. Nelson, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/05/08/the-fascists-playbook/?fbclid=IwAR2Byqlgz8rVW1PVWT5ap-5NfdIP-XnrF96QA_YiG1Q01MRF4sqZVfYiapk.
May 8
Say it aint so Joe
“RFK, Jr.: CIA ‘Definitely Involved in The Murder’ of JFK,” by Steve Watson, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rfk-jr-cia-definitely-involved-murder-jfk?fbclid=IwAR0fsrDXJXl06kXiPmjSk59EogvTDwmoH2S5LwKcxBklsc5iHGNaXh8yerg.
May 6
Very dumb. Everyone should have an equal opportunity to contribute, and be entitled to the necessities of life, but not to recognize different levels of achievement would be disastrous for all of society in the long run, or so it seems to me. The problem of course is that rewards in society are often not a function of achievement. The wealthy are often rewarded year after year merely because of being wealthy.
A teacher can cause three times more learning to occur among class members per class session by rearranging those chairs below into a circle classroom layout around the perimeter of the room, sitting in one of those chairs just like any other class “member”, and discussing democratically what was supposed to be learned, assuming class members can read before the discussion starts whatever it was the teacher would orally say standing behind his/her lectern to “students” passively sitting in their chairs in their places in the militaristic row and column classroom layout, trying to stay awake and remember what the teacher said to pass true-false and multiple choice tests. Numerous former class members of mine told me throughout my 35-year teaching career that they had forgotten ninety percent of what they had memorized for tests two weeks after the course was over.
To maximize learning a Classroom De-Gamer™ should be used to randomly select a class member to start the discussion. The teacher should keep his/her mouth shut for the entire session if it is obvious the relevant points of the discussion material have been discussed and most of the class members comprehended it, if class members have no questions about something they could not understand on their own.
Read my book Born to Learn: A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning for more detail explaining why the above is generally true. The book can be read free on any device at amazon.com. –RJS
“’Equity’ And The Race to The Bottom,” Jack Miller, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/equity-and-race-bottom?fbclid=IwAR1PcrAWdhfnFWZvFre5t3u8eznZOGZVCPOc7nH0o-cJNgM3BoCImWPFNAE.
May 5
Here’s some significant truth-telling by Bruce E. Levine about the mental health industry.
“While researchers have not linked any psychiatric condition to neurobiological variables, there are many links between these conditions and socioeconomic variables. Results from a 2013 national survey, issued by the U.S. government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), provide extensive evidence that unemployment, poverty, and involvement in the criminal justice system are highly associated with depression and suicidality.
“Moreover, in the late 1990s, the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study revealed a powerful relationship between childhood trauma (including physical and emotional abuse) with later adult emotional difficulties and behavioral disturbances. An alienating and dehumanizing society such as ours that creates extensive anxiety, powerlessness, resentment, and rage is a society that creates adults who, in their interactions with children, have little frustration tolerance; and this lack of frustration tolerance makes abuse and trauma of children more likely—resulting in the adverse childhood experiences that create later adult emotional difficulties and behavioral disturbances.
“The ruling class could not care less whether psychiatric treatment consists of bloodletting, lobotomy, electroshock, SSRI antidepressants, or psychedelic microdosing. As long as the “ruling idea” of society is that our emotional difficulties and behavioral disturbances are caused by our medical defects, this keeps us diverted from just how much shit we have to eat in order to survive and how extraordinary our good luck need be for us to find joy.
“As Marx stated, “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas,” and you would have to be an especially stupid member of the ruling class not to see the value of the “ruling idea” that emotional suffering and behavioral disturbances are the result of medical individual defects—and not the result of a society that is a good deal for the ruling class but is alienating and traumatizing for many of the rest of us.”
Bruce E. Levine, a practicing clinical psychologist, writes and speaks about how society, culture, politics, and psychology intersect. His most recent book is A Profession Without Reason: The Crisis of Contemporary Psychiatry—Untangled and Solved by Spinoza, Freethinking, and Radical Enlightenment (2022). His Web site is brucelevine.net
“Once Radical Critiques of Psychiatry are Now Mainstream, So What Remains Taboo?,” by Bruce E. Levine, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/05/05/once-radical-critiques-of-psychiatry-are-now-mainstream-so-what-remains-taboo/?fbclid=IwAR2ChQtuIcWGFxG4Mo12_txACvM8rt7Qt9jeTCB_jSCcYCqYSovlofE3ICk.
May 5
Sounds almost as bad as the Roman emperor Nero who allegedly drank wine and fiddled as Rome burned around him. Trump plays golf and dines at Mar-a-Largo instead as his Rome burns. His only forbidden pleasure, crime, or sin up to now is apparently drinking alcoholic beverages. Or is it Trump is more like the sadistic misogynistic Roman emperor Caligula? — RJS
“’You Can Do Anything’: Trump, Rape, Fascism, and the Ruling Class,” by Paul Street, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/05/05/you-can-do-anything-trump-rape-fascism-and-the-ruling-class/?fbclid=IwAR3G2-dtuFU7Q3UM3-Q9eNDP_ZoiKbRGrqR6JHlZucad4JPiMmqL0kwCXGE.
May 5
Want to know what’s wrong and what to do about the economy? Read more…
“Monopolies Cause Inflation, While Fed Chairman Powell Blames Workers,” by Eve Ottenberg, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/05/05/monopolies-cause-inflation-while-fed-chairman-powell-blames-workers/?fbclid=IwAR3JqS1rN_Lw6LOEZaQCcJP2CfMh1PT_htderwkdpFFHZkfNCQOPlVkDNU8.
May 4
When the cat’s away the mice will play
Raising-the-debt ceiling-time in the USian congress is when congressmice come out to play when the cat president is weakest, trying to siphon money from the USian federal govt real and funny money revenue stream for their selfish hides, threatening to plunge the USian economy into chaos for everyone, playing DEBT CEILING.
It’s quite a Game these chaps play.
Basically, it’s an all-encompassing variant of the transactional analysis psychological Game called COPS AND ROBBERS that entails supposed good guy Rescuers incessantly trying to catch and punish supposed bad guy Persecutors while seeing themselves as Victims.
Playing DEBT CEILING causes the USian Federal debt to increase more in the year following the year in which it is played than in other years because the cat, the president, cannot veto unnecessary pork barrel demands for more spending by congressmice and their supporters without causing the USian government to default on its debt.
There is no such thing as a USian debt ceiling. It’s just a temporary number concocted to exist for a while that will have to be raised again with a new round of DEBT CEILING Game-playing when the actual USian federal debt expands up to that toothless number, disingenuously called a debt ceiling, because doing otherwise would be disastrous.
The USian federal debt would expand less over time as matters now stand if USian congressmice would stop playing their disingenuous debt ceiling Game. They are socially saying they are imposing their debt ceiling process to make it harder for congressmice to increase the USian budget deficit and debt, when they are psychologically doing it to make it easier for them to increase the deficit and debt, to enrich themselves in the short run, regardless of the consequences for USian citizens in the long run.
As matters now stand, the USian government has no choice but to keep on kicking its budget and debt can of worms down the road every time the new so-called debt ceiling number is reached—until all hell breaks loose—if significant changes are not made in its economic-political-military modus operandi.
— RJS
“Progressives Slam McCarthy’s ‘Pro-Starvation’ Plan to Use Debt Ceiling to Cut Food Stamps,” by Sharon Zhang, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/mccarthy-slammed-for-pro-starvation-agenda-to-force-cuts-to-food-stamps/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR30RiFcS6bY831_kXYwDwLwR9aAi1s874F0Zshn2ej09eHraO2vFRzEXVs.
May 4
Here’s some pros and cons of RFK, Jr for president
“Breakfast with Chad: The RFK Enigma – Fair Observer,” by Peter Isackson, FAIR OBSERVER, https://www.fairobserver.com/business/breakfast-with-chad-the-rfk-enigma/?fbclid=IwAR05K5th9dVtHLw9XcTpVEcKmFhap2tvMZqRJQbvuWEUMxTjbt-PjLqSKkE.
May 4
Not good for sure
“’The fiscal recklessness of the last decade has been like watching a horror movie unfold,’ Druckenmiller, who once was George Soros’ chief strategist and now runs his own Duquesne Family Office, said in a speech Monday at the USC Marshall School of Business.
“In a follow-up email to Bloomberg, he said he hopes the US government doesn’t go into default, ‘but honestly, all this focus on the debt ceiling instead of the future fiscal issue is like sitting on the beach at Santa Monica worrying about whether a 30-foot wave will damage the pier when you know there’s a 200-foot tsunami just 10 miles out.’
“According to Bloomberg, Druckenmiller’s comments are similar to the ones the billionaire investor gave a decade ago during a tour of 14 university campuses, when he encouraged students to pay attention to ballooning federal deficits that he believed – correctly – would bankrupt future generations.” —Tyler Durden
“Druckenmiller On America’s Debt Crisis: ‘It’s Like Watching A Horror Movie Unfold’,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/druckenmiller-americas-debt-crisis-its-watching-horror-movie-unfold?fbclid=IwAR3_v26eDmyXkSc0_GnfJ7fIHBZqXc0gGCkLqwJ0JT-4XwDfkiVW6GRzkso.
2 — A Posting by a Hypothetical Exonexus Observer from a Planet Beyond the Earthian Solar System
Earthian humans are enthralled, manipulated, and in various degrees controlled by their leaders in some two hundred countries aboard Spaceship Earth. Leaders became leaders because of being caused to be leaders by concatenations of unbroken cause-effect chains resulting after our universe started evolving some thirteen billion years ago in the infinity of time and space.
(You might think this post is the same as it was in The Earthian —40, but it’s not. It contains some polishing and new paragraphs)
Leaders are generally products of the same sorts of differentiated configurations of cause-effect chains as differentiated followers and members in differentiated countries. All Earthian humans are doing what they were caused to do in their daily lives starting at birth.
Earth as a planet was formed about 4.5 billion years ago and has undergone innumerable transformations in the meantime. Humanoid creatures have been aboard Spaceship Earth for some two million years, and they too have undergone numerous evolutionary changes, as have other Earthian species.
Unfortunately, Earthian humans have now reached a precarious and dangerous stage in their evolution as biological creatures. After slowly evolving more and more accurate, complex, and powerful understandings, technologies, and ways of life for two million years on Earth, during the last two hundred years Earthian humans evolved new technological devices at exponential rates that enabled them to increase the overly-fecund Earthian human population of Earth so much that they now threaten not only to destroy their own existence as a species aboard Spaceship Earth but also the existence of most other species alive on Earth.
Keeping eight billion or so Earthian humans alive on Earth has required so many goods and services to be produced to satisfy human biological and psychological needs and wants and so much carbon-based fuel to be burned to produce the goods that the climate of Spaceship Earth has been altered by carbon dioxide gas released into the Earthian atmosphere in large-enough quantities to cause extra heat to be trapped on Earth causing the mean Earthian temperature to increase at a yearly rate that threatens to destroy Earthian human life as it now exists, within centuries, if not decades.
Unfortunately, Earthian humans cannot determine exactly how long this catastrophic scenario will take to unfold, even after an Internet search, since Internet information sources show average Earthian temperatures in both Celsius and Fahrenheit and use different base years, different assumptions about causes of rates of change, and changing rates of change in calculating average Earthian temperature.
However, one can build a case based on available Internet data that it will take over 35 years for the mean Earthian temperature to rise enough to cause the Earthian polar ice caps to melt causing enough sea level rise to displace billions of Earthian humans living on sea coasts and to cause enough decrease in food production to cause billions of Earthian humans to starve—if Earthian humans do not significantly change in the meantime their life scripts, technological processes, and political and economic systems.
On the other hand, one can build a case that GWCC has already caused serious degradations in the quality of Earthian life. The recent forest fires covering much of Canada causing New York City and much of the Northeast to be engulfed in a thick orange haze causing serious breathing problems is a recent dramatic case in point.
Earthian humans have developed technological knowledge that has enabled them to produce over 10,000 nuclear weapons that could destroy human life aboard Spaceship Earth if dropped and detonated on defined enemies around Spaceship Earth, as they have the capability to do.
Dangerous escalations in the Ukraine-Russia War, fomented and aggravated by the United States and NATO, could cause the outbreak of World War III that could cause nuclear weapons to be used.
Earthian countries dependent on fossil fuel energy in the short run are pitted in a zero-sum struggle for control of oil and gas supplies around Earth, with the two largest military nations on Earth possessing over ninety percent of the nuclear weapons now threatening one another in a war they started in a minor country, a pawn in their Earthian game of chess, a tissue-tearing psychological GAME in this case called KING OF THE MOUNTAIN by Earthian humans, caused by egoistic leaders and top members of the two countries who are primarily concerned about maintaining and enhancing their personal power, wealth, prestige, lifestyles, and legacies.
Top leaders of Russia fighting in Ukraine with non-nuclear weapons so far have publicly declared they will fire and detonate nuclear weapons if necessary to prevent their being defeated and humiliated in the war/GAME started in the minor pawn country of Ukraine by the US, NATO, and Russia. Hopefully this is just a bluff in another reincarnation of the Earthian human psychological GAME called CHICKEN.
As dangerous as this psychological high-stakes GAME-playing is, most Earthian humans find it stimulating, interesting, patriotic, heroic, and so forth in their nightly news, a release from the normal grind of their boring and banal daily routines and rituals, and their pastimes, jobs, activities, and intimacies.
The new war GAME in the minor country is a helluva way to generate strokes, aka units of recognition, to get attention, to get recognized, stimulated, and affirmed, now that some Earthian human strokes, nuclear strokes, have become so powerful they can cause the elimination of all Earthian human strokes forever.
The probability of a MNWP catastrophe at any time has significantly increased in recent years because of GAME-playing.
3 — On Co-Constructing a Sustainable Long Run Earthian Political-Economic-Management System
Establishing democracy chapters around Spaceship Earth as recommended in the Effective Learning Publications novel As the Rooster Crows Earthian OKness Increases might develop consensual answers regarding existential matters from the bottom up that might help save Spaceship Earth. These ideas would filter up to randomly-selected humans who would count the consensual answers to make necessary changes. Consensual tactics, strategies, and policies would then be developed around Earth for dealing with the computerized Spaceship Earth management system, operated and controlled using artificial intelligence programming and supercomputers.
Randomly-selected groups of Earthian humans of high intelligence with impeccable moral and ethical character and credentials would control codes for changing the Earthian Magnum Computer System programming to implement bottom-up recommendations of millions of members in discussions in democracy chapters around Spaceship Earth. Each member of the group in charge of the codes for the magnum computer system would serve limited terms. These members would not vote or decide what to do. They would see to it that the computer system implemented the consensual answers of millions of Earthian humans from all walks of life, as determined by honest, free, fair, and frank democratic GAME-free discussions in democracy chapters all around Spaceship Earth, as explained and shown in As the Rooster Crows Earthian OKness Increases.
The overall objective would be to manage the system in such a way as to maximize the lifetime satisfactions of all Earthian humans, as well as all other species of life aboard Spaceship Earth, while insuring the indefinite functioning of all Spaceship Earth ecosystems.
Necessary moral and ethical requirements and constraints would be programmed into the Magnum Management System that Earthian humans at the top would be obliged to obey. If changes should be made in the moral and ethical codes in the overall program they would be made in the Earthian democracy chapters. Alternative solutions would be tabulated and analyzed using statistical techniques such as factor analysis to discern consensual solutions among thousands of members in democracy chapters around Spaceship Earth.
This Magnum Computerized Management System would require a strict system of security controls like the current codes of nations possessing nuclear weapons, hopefully providing security several magnitudes more secure than current nuclear codes, to make sure a madman could not get in control of any aspect of the Magnum Spaceship Earth Management System.
A management system such as this would by many factors improve previous systems used around Spaceship Earth that have historically allowed egotistical, greedy, power mad, grandiose, poorly educated, not-very-bright individual Earthian fascist leaders to make existential decisions, such as deciding to start a war, that affected the OKness of thousands, millions, and billions of humans around Earth, an incredibly dumb thing to do, that has been done over and over again for millennia, resulting in incredible losses and suffering at various moments of history.
A tough lesson for Earthian humans to accept propositioned in Effective Learning Publications books is that everything that happens in human states of affairs is either predetermined or accidental and therefore individuals are not to blame or praise for what happens in human states of affairs. This is easier to swallow after accepting that believing and acting otherwise will support and perpetuate the I’m OK—You’re Not OK life position that has bedeviled, sabotaged, and undermined Earthian humans since time immemorial, making losers out of most of them.
About the only way significant numbers of Earthian humans can be caused to be significantly changed psychologically and socially by others is through democratic face to face discussions in honest serious and rigorous dialectical, dialogical, analogical arguing about facts using reasoning of all kinds, in many encounters over relatively long periods of time. Thinking Earthain humans can be changed in significant ways through ordinary conversation is a pipe dream. The current so-called democratic political system used in the US is a case in point. Yes, USians can vote for the candidate of their choice, a so-called citizen who in almost all cases will not use free will deciding how to vote, who will vote as told by party bosses who determine the position of a political party. Almost all significant political decisions in the US are predetermined by cause-effect chains causing party leaders to decide whatever they decide about issues.
What is considered natural, unnatural; normal, abnormal; right, wrong; ethical, unethical; righteous, sinful; worthy, unworthy; or sane or insane by a particular Earthian human is caused by information lodged in her/his brain caused to be lodged there by the concatenation of infinite cause-effect chains causing her/him to exist and slowly inch through the Earthian worm hole of existence inexorably tunneled out for her or him by her/his specific unbroken infinitely-regressing cause-effect chains inexorably-progressing throughout his/her infinitesimally short cosmic life, regardless of how Bad, OK, or Good that luck or fate might be as judged by any Earthian human; and all Earthian humans must keep on inching forward in their worm holes as best they can dealing with inevitable problems and opportunities caused to exist at that stage in their unique tunnels, as they are knocked around like balls in a pin-ball machine, as events inevitably and/or accidentally happen in their so-called real worlds, and in their subconscious and conscious minds, however Bad, OK, or Good their inherited Luck might have absolutely been, which cannot be proved, however easy it might be to relatively estimate.
Free will on their part has little or nothing to do with what they feel, think, decide, or do at a particular moment in time.
It follows that changing the life scripts of Earthian humans for the better requires changing the course of the unique tunnels of existence in which individual humans accidentally and inevitably live, a tall order indeed. Some biological constructivists would consider this notion a pipedream, while considering the whole process a meaningless drift in the infinity of time and space. A life script is a program determining what an individual Earthian human will do in a particular worm hole of reality, such as a legislature; and the script itself is caused in the overall infinite cause-effect process as outlined above.
According to biological constructivists, cited in Business Voyages, Earthian humans are closed systems that will not or cannot change unless forced to change by force majeure events. They will conserve as long as they can their original sources of biological, psychological, social, religious, cultural, economic, and political satisfactions. As psychiatrists and clinical psychologists know, their patients or clients cannot change their fundamental psychological and social programming in the short run even if they want to.
The democratic decision process invented and shown in As the Rooster Crows covered the learning of forty group members in six monthly six-hour sessions. No pretense was made in the novel that anyone’s mind was changed about any issue discussed in any session of the process. Democracy group members in As the Rooster Crows were randomly selected among all walks of life among the population, and every member of the group had an equal chance to start the discussion of any session by answering Three Reality Questions: What is the problem? What are the Alternatives? What do you recommend?
All sessions of the group meetings were videotaped and recorded. After a session ended all aspects of the discussion, including all comments of all members, were digitized, computerized, and analyzed. Supercomputers using algorithmic programming and statistical techniques such as factor analysis would then discern consensual answers among the group members, which would be included with those of thousands of members in recommended democracy chapters around Spaceship Earth. Per the overall plan recommended in the novel, composite recommendations would then be implemented by a computerized Magnum Earthian Management System. There was no voting at any level of the democratic system.
For more information on the use of Transactional Analysis https://www.itaaworld.org/ to create better discussion groups and democratic processes read Born to Learn: A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=born+to+learn++richard+john+stapleton#imgrc=6JdwDPzcAQ1kSM%253A
For more information on how to co-construct better organizations and economic systems using transactional analysis read Business Voyages: Mental Maps, Scripts, Schemata, and Tools for Discovering and Co-Constructing Your Own Business Worlds
Read free “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc,” https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-evolution-of-spaceship-earth-inc/ for some management science ideas on how Earthian humans might eventually co-construct an economic system that is viable and satisfying for everyone aboard Spaceship Earth, making it possible for all Earthian humans to develop an I’m OK—You’re OK life position.
Read As the Rooster Crows Earthian OKness Increases. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=as+the+rooster+crows+earthian+okness+increases#imgrc=ZY7nv3jiN9jMCM%253A
This recently-published novel shows how to conduct a new kind of seminar invented and coordinated by Rout Logger, the protagonist of the novel, that might reduce the probability of Earthian human extinction that requires participants in a seminar to speak out and up when randomly selected by a Truther rooster positioned in the center of a randomly-selected group of forty humans sitting in a circle.
The Truther rooster resembles a spinning weather vane. The rooster is programmed to bob its head up and down and raucously crow after being twirled by a randomly-selected seminar participant, as it spins round and round winding down, letting group members know it’s time to wake up and get to work, before it’s too late.
When the Truther rooster stops spinning whoever is at the end of a line of imaginary fire extending from the rooster’s beak to her or him sitting in the circle is automatically selected as the Leader of the Moment for the group, proving pure democracy can happen.
The Leader of the Moment must then lead the group into a democratic discussion of what s/he considers the most serious existential problem around Spaceship Earth.
Forty participants from all walks of life were paid $5000 monthly for participating in weekend seminars conducted in central city hotels in various cities randomly selected around the US. If randomly selected as the Leader of the Moment the participant had to define what s/he thought was the most important problem facing Spaceship Earth, present alternatives, and make a recommendation for change.
What s/he said would then be discussed by members of the group on a free-flow first come-first serve basis. It was against the law of the seminar to interrupt speakers or raise hands to get permission to speak. Discussions lasted until they ran out of steam with most issues covered. The results of the discussions would be published to the wealthy donors financing the process and the Earthian public.
Rout Logger was convinced most Earthian humans would not volunteer to participate in this sort of seminar to merely help save Spaceship Earth from GWCC and/or MNWP using their Nurturing Parent, Adult, and Free Child Ego States, given the reality that their life time and energy was already programmed and consumed with various forms of withdrawal, rituals, pastimes, psychological GAMES, activities, and intimacy in their unique tunnels of reality, as they acted out their inherited life scripts; so they were paid $5000 per month to participate in a GAME-free, Adult-Adult democratic seminar that would require them to honestly discuss existential problems with forty other participants from disparate walks of life, if they were randomly selected by the spinning Truther Rooster as the Leader of the Moment.
Some Details of the Magnum Management System
According to Effective Learning Publications books, achieving Earthian human sustainability entails such things as Earthian humans peacefully reducing through natural attrition (natural deaths exceeding births) the human population aboard Spaceship Earth, never doing work that machines can do better, and delegating the day-to-day management of systems for scheduling, producing, and distributing the necessities of life to artificial intelligence programs and supercomputers, assuming sufficient quantities of non-human clean energy can be discovered and developed using mind grants.
The general algorithmic matrix algebra form below can help bring this state of affairs about,
Max CjXj, s.t. AijXj ≤, =, or ≥ Bi,
explained in “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc.” at https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-evolution-of-spaceship-earth-inc/ .
This mathematical formulation might one happy day develop for Earthian humans power in economics loosely analogous to the power of E=mc2 in physics. This formulation, Max or Min CjXj, subject to, AijXj ≤, =, or ≥ Bi, is a general form of the linear programming model, which has been around for many years in management science, operations research, and linear algebra courses.
Max CjXj, s.t. AijXj ≤, =, or ≥ Bi symbolizes knowledge that gives the Earthian human species about as much potential power to perpetuate itself as Albert Einstein’s formula E=mc2 symbolizes knowledge that gives the Earthian human species the power to exterminate itself.
The main reason why delegating the scheduling, production, and distribution of the necessities of life to AI programs and magnum computers would be a good idea is that magnum computers and algorithmic AI programs do not get greedy and power hungry or play psychological GAMES. Thus far in Earthian human history most leaders and rulers atop large organizations such as nations have become corrupt one way or another playing psychological GAMES, acting out selfish greedy ego trips, hogging all the power, money, strokes, stimulation, and recognition they could get their hands on for themselves and their cronies, leaving the hindmost to their underlings. Whatever their limitations and possible threats, algorithmic computer programs and super computers are not egotistical, greedy, and power-hungry.
Riding aboard an airliner about to land at night traveling at four hundred miles an hour at thirty-five thousand feet with clouds, rain, wind, and lightning below, what would you rather have figuring out the path, speed, and angle of descent of the aircraft for touch-down, the plane’s auto-pilot, radar, and computer system or the human pilot and co-pilot, seeing nothing out their windows below but clouds and lightning?
Thanks to Buckminster Fuller for providing the above airplane-landing metaphor in his book Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, first published in 1969, and for planting seeds for other ideas in the essay “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc.,” published in the Effective Learning Report, such as computers being the best hope for mankind and humans not doing work machines can do better, being paid to think instead with what Fuller called mind grants. Fuller said unemployment all around Spaceship Earth could be eliminated overnight with mind grants. Buckminster Fuller was the inventor of the appellations Earthian and Spaceship Earth.
Most Earthian humans like to win BALANCE SHEET psychological GAMES, to feel superior and lord it over others, regardless if Spaceship Earth is going to hell in a handbasket around them because of global warming and climate change (GWCC) and militarization and nuclear weapons proliferation (MNWP), regardless of how much they have failed in other areas of their lives, and regardless of how heinous were crimes and misdemeanors they may have gotten away with in the process of amassing their riches, since they were saved, as it were, by taking in and controlling more almighty monetary units than other lesser mortals, saved, hallelujah, as if by Jesus, who forgave them their sins.
If you want to learn more about transactional analysis, such as Ego States, Scripts, and psychological GAMES, read Born to Learn: A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning.
Most Earthian humans know what it is to be egotistical, but they have little understanding of how specific human egotistical manifestations, such as Parent, Adult, and Child ego states, can be used to control and manipulate human behavior for nefarious ends.
One of the biggest egotists of Earthian human history, a narcissist, playing BALANCE SHEET psychological GAMES, is Donald Trump of the US. He is also a world-class liar and loser playing BALANCE SHEET, and he might go to jail for it.
Trump psychologically told voters and bankers using his Parent ego state he was extorting votes and money from he was a stable genius and billionaire who could pay them back for their votes and loans. How many billions worth of a billionaire he was he never said, at least not to voters, arithmetic not being his strong suit; but it now appears it’s possible he’s no billionaire at all, using generally-accepted accounting principles and real market values, which he has refused to show since walking onto the USian political stage for the 2016 presidential election. It’s possible he’s no kind of naire at all, not even a millionaire, having liabilities that exceed the market value of his assets, being close to bankruptcy.
It now appears as shown in recent public posts that Trump, his loyal Trump Organization lackeys, and his chosen loyal family members lied to bankers about his net worth to get loans, proving once again that “All that glitters is not gold.”
P.T. Barnum is said to have proved there’s a sucker born every minute. If so, Trump has proved there’s a sucker born every second, in high and low places.
If you feel you’ve gained value from THE EARTHIAN, go to the Internet or any walk-in bookstore around Spaceship Earth and purchase or order one or more Effective Learning Publications books. As the Rooster Crows Earthian OKness Increases is the latest and probably most engaging Effective Learning Publications book, including an overview of USian economic history, including the Trumpian affair. Rout Logger is the protagonist of the novel story. It’s available now at Amazon.com for immediate unrestricted digital reading on any device as a Kindle book for $4.99. You can read it free at Amazon in a restricted KDP option.
For short run policies and strategies for dealing with USian economic and political problems read free the platform of my FreeFairProgressParty at https://blog.effectivelearning.net/freefairprogressparty/.
4 — A Democratic Earthian GAME-Free Case Method Teaching and Learning Process for Producing Democratic Discussion, Learning, and Policy Formulation Around Spaceship Earth
Richard John Stapleton, PhD, CTA would spin the spinner of his Classroom De-GAMER™ in his classes to randomly select a student at the beginning of each class session to lead a discussion of the case assigned for the day, a case taken from a planned or operating business prepared by case writers at Georgia Southern, Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Alabama.
This process insured that everyone would be relatively GAME-free transacting in class discussions. They all agreed to a learning contract at the outset of the course that they would read assigned cases and would be graded on the quantity and quality of ideas sold in the class market. Anyone caught obviously unprepared by the spinning De-GAMER would lose a whole letter grade from the course grade. No one could feel or think that s/he was being persecuted or rescued if selected to start the class discussion of the day by the Classroom De-GAMER™. The psychological GAME roles of Persecutor, Rescuer, and Victim were largely banished from the course learning process.
Be it noted that Stapleton sat in the same circle in the same kind of chair as students, and the De-GAMING rules also applied to him. If the Classroom De-GAMER™ landed on him he had to lay out the case just like any other student and discuss what was the problem, what were the alternatives, and what he recommended.
Grades were based eighty percent on class participation in dialectical discussions about what to do about problems and opportunities found in cases; the rest of the final grade was based on two case write-ups. One write-up was about what the student observed, researched, analyzed, and wrote about an existing business in the local environment or a business plan the student created. The other write-up was an analysis of a case researched and written by professors about a business assigned as the final exam. Cases used in his courses contained processes, problems, opportunities, and data occurring in all functional areas of business such as entrepreneurship, finance, marketing, operations management, control, management information systems, and business policy and strategy.
He has published refereed journal articles and books explaining how his democratic GAME-free Adult-Adult I’m OK—You’re OK case method system works, by banishing Persecutors, Rescuers, and Victims playing psychological GAMES from the teaching and learning process, first documented in an article titled “The Classroom De-GAMER” he published in 1978 in the Transactional Analysis Journal. He has published seven books and over one hundred articles in various media containing cases, research data, and essays on teaching and learning and management systems, policies and practices.
Stapleton learned and trained using transactional analysis with Martin Groder, MD; Graham Barnes, PhD; Vann Joines, PhD; and many others at the Southeast Institute at Chapel Hill, North Carolina (1975-1978).
He was a Harvard Case Method teacher who never went to Harvard, having learned how the case method works teaching with Bernard Bienvenu, DBA and Rexford Hauser, DBA (Harvard Business School doctorates) at the University of Louisiana– Lafayette in 1969-70.
He has a BS in economics (1962), an MBA in organizational behavior (1966), and a PhD in management science (1969) from Texas Tech University, and an organizational and educational certification in transactional analysis (CTA) from the International Transactional Analysis Association (1978).
He taught his own case method track at the undergraduate level in the management department in the business school at Georgia Southern University offering four or five different elective case method courses each academic year (1970-2005), in which he led, coordinated, and graded about twenty-five or so students each year who took all or most of those case method courses in their junior and senior years, of about two hundred students who signed up for all his courses each year. He used a democratic circle or amphitheater classroom layout in all his classes. He also taught most semesters two sections of a capstone integrative business policy course he added to the business school curriculum in 1970 that was required for all undergraduate business majors that could be elected by any student in any major. He was the only professor in the business school to use the case method in any course.
His students agreed to a course learning contract that stipulated they would read the facts of the case before class and would lose a whole letter grade from the course final grade if the De-GAMER randomly caught them obviously not having read the case before class, if they had not slipped a note under his office door before class telling him they had not read the case, which they could do twice during the course without penalty.
About ten percent of his students made A’s and about five percent made D’s. Most made C’s, which is about right, since C = Average. There were few F’s in his courses. The main criterion for course grades was the quantity and quality of ideas sold by students in case method discussions. He used peer ratings to give students feedback showing what their fellow students thought about the quantity and quality of their ideas sold in class, having made it clear the final decision about final grades was his. He did not believe in Lake Wobegon grading.
No student was ever forced to take one of his courses to graduate, and the most hardened GAME-players in the school did not sign up for his courses after he issued his Edict of 1972 in which he clearly spelled out in his syllabi the penalty for getting caught unprepared. His Classroom De-GAMER™ was roundly discussed by students in bull sessions across campus every year and was labeled various things, such as The Wheel of Fate and The Death Wheel. Most students near the end of his career simply called it The Spinner.
He appreciated Georgia Southern honoring his academic freedom by allowing him control of his teaching methods, classroom layouts, grading procedures, and course books, cases, and materials, some of which he researched, wrote, and published. He was promoted to full professor at age thirty-six.
He solicited anonymous longitudinal research data using questionnaires in 1992 showing his case method students during 1972-1982 reported higher yearly incomes in 1992 than students electing the same courses in 1972-1982 taught by professors using the authoritarian lecture method and the militaristic row and column classroom layout, who graded students based on memorizing or calculating “right answers” for tests, indicating learners learning in Adult—Adult I’m OK—You’re OK GAME-free democratic learning processes graded subjectively became more successful in the real world of business than learners lectured to and graded using so-called objective multiple-choice tests.
Only former students who had worked in the real world ten or more years after graduating from the Georgia Southern business school were included in the study. The data are shown, analyzed, and discussed in full in “Evidence the Case Method Works” in his book Business Voyages: Mental Maps, Scripts, Schemata, and Tools for Discovering and Co-Constructing Your Own Business Worlds, 2008, pg. 475). The data were also used in several refereed articles.
The ancient Greeks used a similar random-selection democratic process in the Third Century BCE to select leaders of political discussions, learning, and policy formulation in their halls of government. Such a process is called sortition.
For more information on related classroom management ethical issues see Stapleton, R.J. and Murkison, G. (2001), “Optimizing the fairness of student evaluations: A study of correlations between instructor excellence, study production, learning production, and expected grades,” in the Journal of Management Education, 25(3), 269-292.
Stapleton had one of the lowest student grade point averages among professors in the business school and was one of the lowest-ranked professors as an instructor on computerized campus-wide student evaluations that weighted only instructor excellence scores up to 2000; but he was one of the highest-ranked professors in a computerized student evaluation he designed that generated data also showing and weighting study production, learning production, and expected grades scores for each professor, published in “Optimizing the Fairness of Student Evaluations.”
To read the Optimizing Fairness article in full, go to https://studysites.sagepub.com/holt/articles/Stapleton.pdf . After this research was published, Georgia Southern in 2001 added study production, learning production, and expected grades questions to the student evaluation form used campus-wide.
“Optimizing the Fairness of Student Evaluations” has by now (April 7, 2023) been cited as a reference in 85 refereed journal articles concerned about the ethics of student evaluations in several academic disciplines, including ten new citations since April 2021.
As the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein propositioned in his book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, “The case is all there is.”
If so, everything else said about Earthian human states of affairs is a rendition of what was or might be.
His latest book is As the Rooster Crows Earthian OKness Increases.
For more on Stapleton’s cultural, educational, and professional experiences see “RJS Academic Vita,” at https://blog.effectivelearning.net/rjs-academic-vita/.
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