Category: Uncategorized

 

The Group: To Save Spaceship Earth is a work in progress. While settings, plots, theories, objects, and narratives in this novel may be loosely analogous to the same that have happened in various realities around Spaceship Earth, the names, actions, and attributions of characters cast herein are purely fictional. All episodes of this novel will be published in the Effective Learning Report at various intervals on the Internet, subject to revision at any time, hopefully culminating in a final print edition offered for sale to the public.

Copyright 2020 by Richard John Stapleton, Effective Learning Publications. All rights reserved. No part of this novel may be copied or printed on paper without permission. Share on the Internet as you wish.

If you want to refresh yourself about what happened in earlier episodes, go to the following website addresses:

Part 1, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-group-to-save-spaceship-earth-part-1/.   

Rout–”Good afternoon, folks.  I hope you enjoyed your lunch.  Some of you probably think I should have told you in advance what would happen in the meeting, and I should have passed out a detailed list of do’s and don’ts, or a lengthy detailed printed set of instructions, perhaps passing out something like a syllabus for a college course, explaining in detail all the process procedures, rules, laws, requirements, and so forth in advance.

       “The problem is I don’t know everything that will happen as we progress through this process, yet I know I have to provide some structure.  Any process has to have a few procedures, rules and laws to achieve a satisfactory level of efficiency and effectiveness.  I’m sure I will invent a few more as time goes by, as they occur to me.  Most likely if you stay with the program long enough you’ll conclude the process is efficient and effective.  Everything I said this morning was audio and video recorded and you can access it with your computer in this room before or after a session starts, if you forget something you want to remember. I have an assistant who can help you pull it up on your computer if you need help.

       “Some people would call me a facilitator, but I am more than that.  I do some teaching, but I am more a co-learner than anything else.  Most of the problems we will be discussing do not have provably-true “right” answers.  The best answers are those that have the highest probabilities of producing salutary outcomes.  This process is similar to some university business school case method courses, which entail analyzing and discussing facts, not memorizing theories, dogmas or doctrines, or talking about rumors, lies and conspiracy theories; but instead of discussing researched printed paper cases in a casebook, our case is what is going on now around Spaceship Earth itself.

       “On the other hand, you may talk about your personal feelings and thoughts regarding the facts of Spaceship Earth in these sessions, as a client might in a group therapy session.  We are interested in what you feel, think, know, believe, advocate, and recommend regarding factual problems threatening Spaceship Earth.

       “You have now been furnished at your work station a seating chart showing the name and location of every member in the room, a UniDesk™, and a laptop computer. 

       “The laptop computers will be booted up during all sessions from now on.  You can adjust the UniDesk™ to position your computer to the height and angle that optimizes your comfort and efficiency using the computer as you sit in your chair.  The desk was invented and trademarked by a former professor who used a process similar to ours in his classes.  The particular model used here was custom manufactured to fit our layout and chairs.

       “A UniDesk™, an Apple laptop computer and a seating chart will be in place for your use in all subsequent sessions, as will one of the chairs in this room which will be moved from the hotel and city of the last meeting to the new hotel and city for the next meeting.

       “We will use the laptops to check out facts on the Internet when we have disagreements or a lack of factual knowledge among group members regarding a particular problem or opportunity.  When a legitimate question or dispute exists about facts the entire group will do an Internet search for relevant facts.  The default browser is Google because it is widely used and generally effective, and because I am used to it.  Once someone becomes convinced she or he has found relevant facts he or she will email the website address to the group.  Special email addresses have been arranged for every citizen in the group for use during group sessions.  It is against the law to email anything to persons, groups or organizations other than members of this group using these computers, and such emails have been blocked. You can only send content to the whole group in the meeting room at once. Again there will be no side conversations during group sessions, including computer email conversations.  “The Group” email addresses have been permanently affixed to the address bar on your email page.  All you have to do is hit the “send” button one time to email the whole group.  We use the same rule for email communication as for face-to-face communication:  No gossiping of any sort is allowed during group sessions, by tongue or computer.  Anything said must be said to the group as a whole.  We will not use this Google/email process often, but we will use it when disputes arise about facts in discussions and when I decide you need information from various Internet sites.  I will tell you when to use your computer during sessions.

       “I have also given some thought to using the laptops occasionally to give you an opportunity to publish your own writing to the group.  I’m not sure how this will work but it seems to me it might be helpful to set aside thirty or so minutes now and then for writing, posting and reading, to add variety to the discussion process.  If there are any poets among you this will give you an opportunity to express your feelings and thoughts about what has been going on the group process in writing.  All poems must relate to what has been discussed or experienced in the group process.  This would entail stopping the discussion and giving each of you a few minutes, perhaps up to thirty minutes, time to compose something.  Should you wish to post your writing to the group, you would save your writing in a Word document and email it to the all group members as an attachment, which would be opened on all laptops for reading and comments.  This would give you an opportunity to express feelings and thoughts in writing in language not possible to express orally in the discussion.

       “If you write something at home you want to publish to the whole group or forward something you have found on the Internet at home you will have to transfer it to your group computer using a memory stick, and you will have to get my permission to do so. All you have to do is tell the whole group during a session what you want to transmit and I will decide if it’s appropriate within the context of what we have been discussing.

       “While we are on the subject of laptops, you will notice–why not open up your laptop right now and turn it on?–the power button is a small circle on the upper left corner of your computer–there are only three icons at the lower edge of your screen, an Internet browser icon, an email icon, and a word processing icon, which are all we need for this process.  If you hit the browser icon a Google Internet search slot, as well as other browser options, will appear at the upper right of your screen.  When we do Internet searches to find facts, all you have to do is type your questions regarding the problem in the Google slot and hit the return key to find the addresses of Internet sites with information relative to the problem.  If you find a site with relevant facts, copy the address and paste it into an email–all emails are pre-addressed to all group members, and only group members, which are the only addresses you can use as recipients. After it appears to me you have had sufficient time to find relevant addresses, I will notify you to send the site addresses you consider relevant to the group, which all of you will do simultaneously, which will result in each of you receiving a list of sites sent by all group members.  I will give you a few minutes to visit and peruse some of the sites and digest the information.  We will then discuss the information using our normal discussion process with leaders selected by The Truther.  This should result in a factual discussion of the problem.

       “Regarding the poetry, during these sessions, should I decide to do this, I will give you a few minutes to write and save your poem to a Word document, after which time I will tell you to attach your poem to an email and send it to the group.  Everyone in the group shall then receive a list of all poems written and sent by the members.  We will then discuss one or a few poems using our normal discussion process by twirling The Truther to select the poems to be discussed.  It’s ok for you not to post any of your poems by the way.  It’s ok for none of you to post any, for that matter, should I decide to actually do this, the purpose of the exercise being to give you an opportunity to abstract in a philosophical artful way your experience in the group and get feedback.  All poems posted must relate to experiences shared by the group.  All posted poems will be saved and some of them might be posted in the Spaceship Earth Group book published around Earth based on the discussions and proceedings of the group at the termination of this program.

       “During the morning session I heard some cellphones go off.  This is also against the law.  All cellphones must be turned off during all sessions.  And for sure it is against the law to play on your laptop computer for your own entertainment during a session, searching for irrelevant information on Google, such as information for your personal business.   At no time are you to do anything with your computer unless I tell you to, and I must authorize all questions you are to find facts for with a Google search.  You many suggest questions and fact searches to the group, but I must ok the computer search.  We cannot waste the time of the group with frivolous irrelevant computer searches just for the fun of it. 

       “Don’t get caught with you hands on your computer except during authorized times.  If you do you can be fined or expelled.

       “You may not remove a computer from the discussion room for any reason.  Our support personnel will pack up all computers, UniDesks™, seating charts and chairs after and have them ready for your use at the city and hotel of the next monthly meeting.  Do not write or doodle on the seating charts.  The computers are not personalized, so do not save any sort of personal messages, notes, etc. on them.  The relevant thing is the discussion, the entire content of which is being saved through the audio/visual recording system.

       “On the other hand, the web addresses and facts of all Internet sites used for Internet facts found and accepted by this group as relevant in its discussions shall be saved.

       “Make sure you are sitting between the two members the seating chart says you are sitting between in sessions for a good while, so all group members can learn your name to be linked to your face and what you say. After the group has had time to learn the names of all participants I will from time to time require everyone to move to a different chair, maximizing the distance between themselves and the two people they are now sitting between, to eliminate any psychological collusion and alliances that may develop between group members.

       “You are not to remove a seating chart from the room for any reason. 

       “Although it’s not my job to teach you, I decided during lunch to share more background with you.  I know most of you are wondering why you were selected and where the money is coming from.  You were selected from a large pool using computers and the Internet, based on information available through Internet surveillance systems, much like the USian government uses now to surveil the entire USian population.  The sponsors know a good bit about you.  You represent a cross-sample of the culture, from various socio-economic and educational levels, representing various professions, occupations, vocations, religions, political parties, racial backgrounds, and sexual identities.  About one-fourth of you are registered Republicans and about one-fourth are registered Democrats.  The rest of you are Independents, Greens, Libertarians, Progressives, Tea Partiers, and some other things too insignificant to mention. Almost fifty percent of you are non-voters in USian national elections. All major religions are represented among you, as are non-theists. All of you are at least reasonably bright. 

       “As you know, this process could cost a considerable amount of money if it continues for a long time, especially if it expands into other countries.  Monthly expenses for this group currently are about $260,000, over three million dollars a year.  Where is the money coming from?  It’s coming from anonymous donors who pledged varying amounts, some large, some small.  Why did they do it?  These people are seriously worried about Spaceship Earth, a planet supplied with oxygen and various gases and elements necessary for sustaining plant and animal life by natural physical and ecological processes in a closed system hurtling through infinite airless time and space in concert with gadzillions of other inter-galactic and inter-universal objects.  The sponsors think serious changes must be made to stop and avert extinction processes and events caused by global warming and the possibility of nuclear war, caused by greed and lust for power among humans, causing income inequalities, poverty, racial hatred, class hatred, religious hatred, nationalism, ethnic hatred, cultural hatred, overpopulation, resource depletions, and poorly regulated economic systems such as capitalism, fascism, communism, and socialism. 

       “The donors think homo sapiens on Earth will not change their economic and political systems unless they learn new ways of feeling, thinking, believing, communicating and behaving, and they do not think mainstream media, schools, colleges, universities, churches or governments can produce this kind of learning.  They want to see if this process can cause you to learn what might save Spaceship Earth.  They know you would not pay to receive this sort of education, so they want to see if you will assimilate and accommodate this sort of learning if they pay you to do it.  The whole thing’s an experiment. 

       “The donors do not think human Earthians will voluntarily learn new feelings, thoughts, beliefs, dogmas, doctrines, and behaviors on their own, especially if they have to pay for it.  They want to know if human Earthians can be paid to learn what is necessary to save Spaceship Earth.  You are their first class of guinea pigs.  If it works they intend to roll the program out to other countries, as extensively as possible, depending on how many more donors they can find to fund programs.  If what you feel, think, say, do and learn in this program produces salutary results it could help save Spaceship Earth by creating this sort of learning process in groups around Earth.

       “At present about sixty-five thousand Earthian species become extinct every year, and millions have already become extinct.  Our job is to hopefully come up with something that will help prevent the human  species on Earth from joining all the other extinct Earthian species in a theoretical cosmic happy hunting ground.  An Earthian is a member of any species of fauna or flora now alive on Earth. 

       “The appellation Spaceship Earth, by the way, was invented by Buckminster Fuller back in the 1960s.  For background you might want to read his book Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth.  Fuller also invented the word Earthian. 

       “There were some programs similar to this back in the 1960s and 70s that people paid to attend, but they mostly died out as the culture changed after 1980, after the Ronald Reagan USian presidency turned back the clock in the US, not quite as much as the Taliban turned back their clock in Afghanistan, but a serious antediluvian regression occurred nevertheless, pitting authoritarian nihilists against democratic idealists, and the nihilists basically won.  Fewer and fewer US citizens would pay for bottom-up personal growth, encounter group, brainstorming, and pop psychology programs after 1980, largely caused by anti-intellectual top down messages and requirements produced by the regressive culture.  More and more poorly informed fearful citizens were brainwashed with conservative right wing ideologies and fantasies, increasingly eschewing facts, logical reasoning, social and psychological innovations, and scientific discoveries. 

       “We are paying citizens to participate in our progressive discussion process, which is devoid of doctrines, dogmas and rituals, focusing instead on relevant factual problems and opportunities, hopefully generating workable consensual strategies that will help sustain Earthian life indefinitely.

       “Any questions?”

Bill–”I gotta ask.  Why did you choose these Apple Macintosh laptops?”

Rout–”Because I have been using a Mac since they first came out in 1984, and I still think they are the easiest to use.”

Bill–”I beg to disagree, and I teach computer science.”

Rout–”You’re entitled to your opinion.”

Maria–”During lunch some of us decided it would be better if the lunch hour was only one hour long so we might get out off work earlier so we might catch a plane back home on Saturday, to attend mass, or church, or whatever on Sunday morning, to have more time with our families.  Would this be permissible?”

Rout–”No.”

Hal, the last person selected by the Truther, got up from his chair and did his duty, spinning The Truther one more time, after Rout caught his eye and diverted its gaze to the center of the room.

       The Truther selected Adam and the rooster crowed. 

Adam–”This is the most insane seminar I can imagine, but I guess I might as well try to say something relevant.  The biggest problem is there are so many problems it is almost absurd to waste time talking about any one of them.  Most people do not want to hear or talk about real problems.  They’re zombies numbed and dumbed down by irrelevant crap since childhood.  Somehow most kids learn how to read, write and do simple arithmetic in grade school, but not much else.  I was talking about this with my wife a few days ago, telling her I could not remember learning a darn thing in grade school in any class.  I could remember playing with some blocks as if they were musical instruments in a music class and filling out some sort of work sheets in another, but that is about it.  I can’t remember a single discussion about anything in any class.  Relevance was irrelevant.  Most of the time the teacher just seemed to sit behind her desk and stare at us.  I do remember one teacher teaching us how to eat soup using pencils as simulated spoons and her coming up behind me and showing me how to do it holding my arm and telling me to dip into the soup from the inside out and raise the spoon straight up to make sure it doesn’t spill.

           “But, I swear that is about all I can remember learning in a grade school class.  Somehow I learned how to read, write, and do arithmetic during those years, but I cannot remember learning any of it class.  I remember looking at a few books with colored pictures about Jack and Jane doing things in simple declarative sentences that were supposed to help us learn how to read.  High school was not much better, but there were two courses in which I actually remember learning something, plane geometry and physics.  And I did learn a few lines of one or two of Robert Burns’ poems in a literature course, and a few lines of a poem called Invictus.

           “If you take the average person today, even many college graduates, all they care about is watching movies and television, especially soap operas and sports, and playing video games.  Rarely is there any serious discussion of economic and political problems.  As I said they’re zombies.  And they vote, if they vote, that is, for zombie politicians who tell people platitudes, fantasies and dogma they want people to hear.  God forbid a politician would talk about or seriously analyze facts about real problems.

       “So the biggest problem is ignorant and stupid voters.  I recently saw George Carlin on TV telling his audience, ‘Stupid people vote for stupid politicians; it’s as simple as that!’

           “How you would ever educate enough voters to cause them to vote for intelligent, wise politicians who would vote to raise the taxes of large corporations and the elite rich, create infrastructure jobs to create jobs for the middle class, and scale down the US military-industrial complex?

           “But that’s what needs to be done, among many other things, such as doing things to reduce the threats of global warming and nuclear war.  It’s depressing as hell.  What are the chances any of this will happen any time soon?  Probably about zero.  So here we sit waiting for some catastrophe to happen, as most people just blithely tend to the details of their daily lives as if there were no threats at all, some looking as if they are actually happy.  Ignorance is bliss I guess.”

Dick–”Come on now.  You know that’s not right.  I’m a politician and I know I talk about relevant matters with my constituents. You are lucky enough to live in this great land of ours and yet you complain.  America is the greatest place on Earth, blessed by God with the greatest values on the face of the earth.  If we stick to our beliefs and values the Lord will guide and protect us.  If we continue to love Him in His tender mercy he will see us through and welcome us into his heavenly home.  Have you accepted Jesus into your heart?  If not, as a true American I say unto you it is time you got right with God, before it’s too late.”

Adam–”I can’t believe right off the bat in this lunatic seminar I get confronted by a moral moron.  All I did was speak the truth as I see it and I immediately get preached to. If god protects everyone how did we get in the mess we are in now. Must be a very incompetent god. You people are living in a dream world. You don’t want to be confused by facts or logic.  All that count are your so-called values.  If God is going to take care of everything when is he going to start?  Why did he allow things to get as messed up as they are in the first place if he takes care of things?  I have never seen one shred of evidence with my two eyes that any sort of god has ever done anything on Earth, regardless of what people believe or do, or say, or pray.”

Dick–”Well, I can see you need some praying for my friend; but don’t you ever call me a moral moron again.  I won’t put up with it.  You have insulted me and my religion, which is against the laws of this group.  What about it Rout?  Tell this liberal creep he can’t insult me or anyone else in this group because of their religious beliefs.”

Rout–”Well, I’m not sure Adam was seriously insulting you using the term moral moron.  I think he was making the point that people in general who ignore facts because of their ideologies are morons, which sounds ok with me, a bit pejorative perhaps, but not necessarily a direct insult for purposes of this program. I’m not sure that would rise to the level of a law-breaking insult in this program. On the other hand you just called him a liberal creep, which some people would consider insulting. “

Dick–”Anyone who criticizes my religion, my beliefs and my values insults me.  I will not tolerate this.”

Rout–”You don’t have to.  Anyone can drop out of this group at any time. There’s the door.  But if you’re making a threat, that is against the rules. By the way, I suppose I should reemphasize to the group that we have security people available if we need them to enforce rules or protect the group from violence.”

Dick was angry and confused, shocked by Rout’s response.  He decided Adam must be a damned atheist.  He considered getting up and walking out right now but he remembered the five thousand dollar monthly fee, which he needed.  He wondered how many people in the group were like this asshole, Adam.  Adam’s reactions were similar to Dick’s in some respects.  Did he want to put up with this?  Yes, at least for now, because the money was too good to turn down.  Adam was pleasantly surprised by Rout’s reaction to Dick’s comments; but he wondered where were the security people? Were they somehow observing and listening to the group?  Most of the group members had similar feelings, reservations, and questions stimulated by this new alert about the security system, which made most of them feel less secure.  They felt trapped by what had looked like some easy money.

Looking out the window of the plane on the way home, Sam, like most members, wondered what he had gotten himself in for.  He thought the project sounded interesting and was impressed in some ways by what he had seen and heard.  He was impressed by the UniDesks™, the laptop computers, and the seating charts, which made it easy to link names and faces, and the overall efficiency of the process. And the chairs were comfortable.  In some ways, he liked the way Rout had laid down the law.  Although he thought Rout had been a bit harsh and impolite with a few of the group members, he thought he had generally been fair and impartial.  He thought using a Truther to randomly select leaders was a novel idea and was surprised by the dynamics it caused in the group, especially the rooster crowing.  It did seem to cause them to talk in a more adult way in more depth and detail than normally happens in conversations.  And The Truther did seem to engender equality. It appeared those with domineering and manipulative personalities would not be able to take over psychologically or otherwise.

       Sam had never seen a group composed of people from backgrounds as different as those in the group.  It was clear some of the people in the group were wealthy and others were poor; some were highly educated and some were not.  There were several shades of skin color, ranging from almost black to almost white.  It would be interesting to see what would happen in the group, making different people talk with one another like equals, but he had little confidence anything significant would happen.  What could they produce or learn bullshitting like this that most people did not already know?  He could not believe charitable donors would spend this kind of money on this sort of thing.

       On the other hand, if only the country as a whole could operate like this, he thought, there would at least be a chance people could work out some of their problems face-to-face.  One of the problems with the way things work now is that people are congregated into their particular groups and cliques, such as churches and football teams based on their wealth, skills, and beliefs, doing the same things day after day week after week, talking with the same people about the same things over and over.  A group like this might cause people to at least think about new things.

       Sam had been worried about the state of the world for some time.  He had been depressed about the possibilities of global warming.  People were now talking more and more about human extinction.  Can you believe that?  The human species becoming extinct within decades.  Yet most people just keep on going as if nothing is wrong, feeling, thinking and doing pretty much like they always had.  Just a normal temporary change in the weather they think and then things will get just hunky dory again.  How this group could solve this problem is something else, but at least they might talk about it, and this might at least cause them to vote for politicians who might vote for things that might help stave off extinction.  Or is it already too late?

       On the other hand, Sam was already in his seventies, and he knew he would not be around much longer.  He knew he would soon be extinct regardless of what happens to all species.  And sometimes he wondered if he cared what happened to him personally.  He had by now learned enough about old age to know it’s not fun, prostate cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, skin cancer, arthritis, allergies, having to worry about falling and breaking a hip, no, not fun at all.  But there were still a few satisfactions.  He still loved his wife and beautiful scenery, birds, trees, streams, sunset views.  He enjoyed good food and a bottle of red wine.  He took satisfaction from making money in the stock market, however punishing it is to think about his real estate holdings some of which are now probably unsellable, without taking a beating selling them. And it wasn’t pleasant knowing another economic recession similar to 2007-08 might wipe out half the market value of his investments.

       He knew he would do what he could to live as long as he could, however much of a drain he became to the healthcare system, finally wasting away in a nursing home if he lived that long.  On the other hand, he thought one good strong heart attack any time would be the best way to go.  He had written his will as fairly as he could and he was ready to go when his lights went out, so why not hang out once a month with this lunatic discussion process, just for a lark?   

End of Episode 2. To be continued.

The Group: To Save Spaceship Earth is a work in progress. While settings, plots, theories, objects, and narratives in this novel may be loosely analogous to the same that have happened in various realities around Spaceship Earth, the names, actions, and attributions of characters cast herein are purely fictional. All parts of this novel will be published in the Effective Learning Report at various intervals on the internet, subject to revision at any time, hopefully culminating in a final print edition offered for sale to the public.

Copyright 2020 by Richard John Stapleton, Effective Learning Publications. All rights reserved. No part of this novel may be copied or printed on paper without permission. Share on the internet as you wish.

Hank thought it was junk mail.  Why would anyone want to pay him five thousand dollars a month to participate in some sort of discussion group?

       He deleted the message thinking it was a scam–but the messages kept coming.  

       He emailed the sender and told him to take him off the list and threatened to notify the police, but the sender assured him by return email the offer was real, and to prove it a bank account had been set up in his name with an initial deposit of one hundred dollars, which he could verify and access with a username and password, which turned out to be true. Hank withdrew fifty dollars from the account using an ATM machine. 

       He thought he must be insane to even dream about getting involved with a screwball idea like this.  There was no telling what kind of outfit was behind it, and there had to be a catch somewhere; most likely it was a scam. Why would anyone pay him to show up at a hotel and talk with people?  How had they found him?  What did they know about him?    

       He wound up emailing the anonymous sender telling him or her there was an account in his name and he had withdrawn fifty dollars.  He asked the sender to send him the name and address of the organization responsible for this.  He said he wanted proof the offer was legal.

       He received an email informing him the group financing the project was ethical and legal, registered as a non-profit organization in the name of Spaceship Earth, Anonymous, and ethics was  one of their major concerns. The ultimate objectives of the project included fostering free, fair, ethical, legal and progressive human behavior around Spaceship Earth that would contribute to the survival of as many plant and animal species as possible, including homo sapiens, and there was no question about the legality of the project.  The email said Henry should attend the first meeting of the group and discuss these issues with people at the meeting, the first meeting having been scheduled in Louisville, Kentucky on the first Saturday of the coming November. 

       The e-mailer said his name was Dr. Rout Logger.  All meetings would be held in hotels in different cities the first Saturday of each month until such time as the sponsors decided to terminate the program.  The sponsors were all citizens of Spaceship Earth concerned about preserving life for all Earthians, which included all species of fauna and flora aboard Spaceship Earth.  All participants would be paid five thousand dollars per Saturday meeting, deposited monthly in their bank accounts established by the program administrators.  Participants would be responsible for arranging their own transportation to the meetings and food and lodging, to be paid from their monthly fee.  They could stay and eat wherever they chose in the various cities.

       Logger wrote in the email that group members would meet in formal sessions in designated, secure meeting rooms, which would be protected by a private security service.  Group sessions would be conducted from nine a.m. to noon and from two p.m. to five p.m. on the first Saturday of each month.  If Henry replied to this email agreeing to attend the November meeting, five thousand dollars would be deposited in his bank account.  On Mondays following Saturday meetings attended another five thousand would be deposited in his account for the next meeting.  It was permissible to miss a monthly meeting for compelling reasons, but after missing a monthly meeting no additional deposits would be made until after attendance at the next meeting.  The city and hotel selected for the next month would be announced in emails sent the Monday following the last meeting. 

       Participants could discuss whatever they wanted to discuss. Logger said each session would be started by randomly selecting the group leader, who would answer three questions: 

What is the Problem? 

What are the Alternatives?

What do you Recommend?

       The meetings were to be conducted in rooms large enough to accommodate forty participants, who would use their first names in the group, aliases being permissible. There would be no breaks during the three-hour sessions but participants would be excused for legitimate calls of nature.  No eating or drinking would occur during the sessions.  There would be no physical touching or sexual innuendoes or flirtations during group meetings.

       The group members had been selected according to various criteria and considerations attempting to form an inclusive group reflecting beliefs, ideas, and behaviors held and enacted by various groups in society as a whole.

       All sessions would be audio and video-recorded. Some of the information collected would eventually be published in reports making recommendations for sustaining all Earthians, made available to all humans around Spaceship Earth.

       It bothered Hank that this guy would not snail mail him any printed documentation for the meetings and program, but he decided to go to one meeting and see what was going on.  What were the chances you might get shot, tortured, kidnapped or something?  Pretty slim he thought.  If you got paid five thousand dollars for doing nothing but talk it was worth taking a chance.  But where did this Earthian crap come from?

SESSION ONE

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY

September 2019

The conference room was a large square room furnished with comfortable leather armchairs arranged in a circle that left enough space between the circle and the walls for someone to walk around the outside perimeter of the circle of chairs. Each chair was furnished with a movable desk and a laptop computer. The desk could be adjusted to suit the preferences of each participant.

       A black, red, and yellow copper rooster about three feet tall was perched atop a two-foot cubic mahogany box in the center of the room. An iron rod about three feet long with a pointed triangular arrow head on one end and copper feathers on the other end was attached to the rooster. A system of ball-bearings beneath the rooster’s feet attached to the box made it easy for someone to spin or twirl the rooster and the pointed arrow. The rooster was battery-powered and programmed to throw its head back and crow each time it stopped spinning, after someone had twirled it by hand.

       About twenty people were already there.  Henry sat in the nearest empty chair, making eye contact with two or three people nearby.  It was ten minutes before nine o’clock.

       The armchairs had almost filled up by nine o’clock, at which time Rout Logger briskly walked into the room, carrying a large leather briefcase, seating himself in one of the empty armchairs, all of which were identical. 

       “Good morning folks.  I’m Rout Logger.  It’s good to see you.  I’m glad you could make it.  Hopefully we’ll be seeing more of one another in these meetings for a good while.  Thanks for being here.  I see a few members are not here yet, but we’ll get started anyway.  Please make sure you are on time from now on.  It’s rude, disrespectful, and disruptive for anyone to come in late. 

       “I think most of you generally understand the purpose of the meetings, the times for the meetings and so forth.  You were all sent the same emails introducing the process.  Here’s the procedure we’ll be using in the sessions.  We want the discussions to be honest, full and frank.  We’ll start every discussion by spinning that rooster out there in the center of the room, called The Truther.  I’ll spin it the first time myself to kick off the process; from then on whoever got pointed out last spins it next.  The purpose of spinning The Truther is to randomly select the leader of the discussion, insuring each member has an equal chance to be the leader of every session, excluding the person making the spin.  If The Truther stops on me I’ll be the leader myself, just as any of you would if it landed on you.  We want to foster equality among members and response-able, efficient, effective, intelligent, critical and creative feeling, thinking and behaving in the group.  Although I am the formal leader of the group I have as much right as anyone else to be the designated leader of the moment if The Truther selects me under the fully democratic laws of this process.

       “I originated the idea for this project and secured the funding.  Most of the donors are wealthy individuals but some are middle class. The donors will remain anonymous, but I can tell you they have donated funds for this project based on their hope the process might contribute to improving the quality of life, and chances of survival, of all species of fauna and flora around Spaceship Earth, especially homo sapiens. 

       “The donors are convinced if Earthian homo sapiens do not make significant changes in their feeling, thinking, believing and behaving dire consequences will result, possibly resulting in their extinction as a species during this century.  If it can be demonstrated that this process worked in this group hopefully similar groups will be established around Spaceship Earth.  Each of you is being paid the same for your attendance and participation, five thousand dollars for each monthly session in which you participate.  Do the math.  Since there are forty of you in the group this amounts to almost two and one half million dollars per year for group member compensation, about three million per year for total expenses, counting my salary, logistics, room reservations, administration and security, and what have you.      

       “I have degrees in economics, organizational behavior, and management science, plus post-doctoral training in social and psychological disciplines, including a certification in transactional analysis.  I have forty years’ experience in entrepreneurship, university teaching and research, and management consulting, dealing with organizational analysis and policy formulation, manpower motivation and productivity, and organizational development, for a variety of organizations and groups.

       “My job here is not to impart information per se but to facilitate the creation of new comprehension of the Earthian plight to generate recommendations for changes.  Everything you say in these group discussions will be recorded and videotaped and any information generated may be used in a summary report for improving Earthian states of affairs.  You will be able to access anything I have said or anything any one of you has said in these meetings using your computer in the meeting room, but you may not copy, save, forward, or share the information.  None of you will be personally identified in the report.  Anything you say, however, may be quoted in the report, attributed to the first name you choose to use in the group.  The report may be published anywhere around Spaceship Earth.  This process won’t work if two or more of you use the same first name.  As we go around the room, if someone has already announced your desired first name, use a first name no one has already announced; aliases are fine.

       “OK, let’s go around the room, proceeding clockwise, with this gentleman to my immediate left.  Just give the name you want to be known by in the group and say something about what you do.”

       “Hello everyone, I’m John.  I’m a systems engineer and programmer.”

       “My name is Wendel.  I’m a farmer.”

       “I’m Ellie, a teacher.”

       “I’m Helen. I’m a nurse.”

       “Hi, I go by Hal.  I’m an attorney.”

       “My friends call me Joan.  I’m a supervisor with an insurance company.”

       “Bud.  I’m a mechanical engineer.”

       “My name is Maria, a social worker.”

       “Bob.  I’m a physician.”

       “Sam. Writer and social activist.”

       “Napoleon.  Retired military.”

       “Margaret.  I work for the government.”

       “Luke.  Evangelical minister.”

       “George. Politician, state senator.”

       “Julia.  I run a cleaning service.”

       “Hank.  I own my own business.  Construction.”

       “Bubba.  I’m a farmer.”

       “Bill. Educator.”

       “Tony. A bartender.”

       “Mikhail. An accountant.”

       “Judy.  Housewife and mother.”

       “Matilda. Librarian.”

       “Joe, the plumber.”

       “Harrison.  Corporate CEO.”

       “Stuart. college student.”

       “Dick.  US representative.”

       “Nancy. I own my own beauty shop.”

       “Rupert.  I’m a banker.”

       “Clarence.  Lawyer.”

       “Albert.  University professor.  Physics.”

       “Barbara.  I’m a housewife.”

       “Ron.  Truck driver.”

       “Marshall.  Weatherman.”

       “Jimmy.  Labor union organizer.”

       “Steve.  I work in our family manufacturing business.”

       “Marian. Elementary teacher.”

       “Horatio.  I own some small businesses.”

       “Martin.  University professor, religious studies.”

       “Trudy.  I’m a psychotherapist.”

       “Dan.  I’m an insurance agent.”

       “Adam.  Economics professor.”

       “Socrates.  University professor, philosophy.”

       “Ellen.  I just graduated from college. Accounting major.  Looking for a job.  Can’t believe I was given five thousand dollars to attend this six-hour seminar.”

       “Andy.  I’m a cop.”

       “Noam.  I’m a social activist.”

Rout Logger got up, walked to the center of the room, and gave The Truther its first twirl.

As The Truther arrow spun round and round, winding down, Logger said, “If it stops on you, just tell us what you think is the problem, what are the alternatives, and what you recommend.”

       Bubba jerked upright in his chair as if he had been shot through the heart as The Truther stopped spinning, pointing right at him, as the rooster raucously crowed, letting everyone know it was time to wake up and get to work.  Glaring at Rout with incredulity, fear, and consternation, Bubba said, “You mean you want me to tell these people about some problem?  What do you mean, a problem?  What problem?”

Rout–”Whatever you think the most relevant problem is right now.”

Bubba–”You mean what I think the most relevant problem in the whole damn world is?”

R–”Basically, yes.”

B–”How would I know?”

R–”If you did know, what would it be?  What is the first thing that comes to mind?”

B–”Well, I guess, jobs.”

R–”Why is that a problem?”

B–”Why, hell, any fool knows it’s a problem when you have people goin’ hungry, folks can’t find jobs.”

R–”Good, that’s a start.  What are the alternatives?”

B–”I don’t have the foggiest idea.”

R–”Yes, you do.”

B–”Well, I guess we could make sure people can find work or somethin’.”

R–”How would you do that?”

B–”Beats the hell out of me.”

R–”No recommendations at all?”

B–”Nope.”

       Rout thanked Bubba for starting the process and told the group once a discussion had been opened and the Truther-selected leader stopped talking the group would then discuss what had been said on a free-flow basis until the problems and issues brought up by the randomly-selected leader had been exhausted of relevant points, relevant points being relevant in the opinion of group members.  He said one of the major tasks in these discussions was to identify relevant points from the mass of possible points, most of which were irrelevant.  Once the relevant points were separated from the irrelevant the task became to see how the relevant points related to one another so as to comprehend the problem well enough to make recommendations having a decent probability of producing beneficial outcomes if implemented.

       He told them when the randomly-selected leader finished his or her opening remarks others should then jump in the fray on a first-come first-serve basis, meaning the first person to speak up then had the floor until s/he said what was on her or his mind about the problem, the alternatives, and the recommendations.  He said quite naturally disagreements will result, and arguing about various points is a vital and necessary part of the process, necessary to separate irrelevant focal point entities from the relevant.  He said it was the responsibility of every group member to attempt to correct and educate all group members about points or focal point entities they advocated or those considered wrong said by others, trying to set dissenters and antagonists and the group straight in the process.  He said unlearning what was wrong was as important as learning what was right.  He said this was the only way to separate the irrelevant from the relevant.

       On the other hand, Logger told them in most cases economic, political, social, and psychological problems did not have “right” answers that could be proved right, and therefore the best that could be hoped for in most cases would be for humans to develop consensual answers that would produce sustainability and satisfaction for all species around Spaceship Earth.  

       He said the process was roughly analogous to the naturally-occurring process aboard Spaceship Earth causing the evolution of ideas and practices over time, causing beliefs, policies and practices to happen that were somehow acceptable in past short runs to various groups and organizations but which might now be obsolete and irrelevant.   In this process in this room, however, everyone had an equal opportunity to correct obsolete or irrelevant beliefs, policies and practices anyone in the group might be carrying around in his or her head, caused by the spinning of The Truther, and the fully democratic laws of the process, however improbable it was anyone could change someone else’s mind with one rebuttal.

       Logger said they weren’t searching for absolute truth here, which could not be found, or which could not be proved true to ordinary people if found; but rather they should be able to generate workable propositions having decent probabilities of being considered true in the minds of most humans that would cause salutary outcomes.  The best they could hope for was to find the truest of the relatively true, irrespective of absolute truth.

       Rout said there was one law for this process that must not be violated except in the case of emergencies:  No one could talk when someone else was talking to the whole group, and talking to the whole group is the only kind of talking allowed. 

Rout–”There can be no gossiping, commenting, or communicating of any sort–verbally or non-verbally–with members sitting to your right or left in the circle when someone is talking to the whole group.  There can be no rolling of eyes, smirking, frowning, gritting of teeth, or any other non-verbal psychological communication gesture when someone is talking to the whole group.  There can be no actions, social or psychological, intended to alter or influence what speakers are saying as they say it, or cause them to stop saying what they are saying, as they say it.  On the other hand, you may confront them socially with counter-arguments by saying whatever you wish in an Adult manner as soon as they finish saying their piece, assuming no other member beats you to the punch by commencing to talk before you can, in an attempt to change their minds or behavior. 

       “After the current Truther-selected leader stops saying what s/he is saying, the first person to dive into the conversation then owns the floor until she or he decides to stop talking, her/his speech also being protected as was the speaking of the previous speaker; and so it goes for the duration of the process. Anyone can become the leader of the moment by simply diving into the process first after the previous speaker shuts up.  

       “If I decide to spin The Truther to select another leader, there can be no communicating of any sort, socially or psychologically, before, while, or after The Truther is spinning, except by the member randomly selected as leader by The Truther. 

       “The overriding law here is there can be no communicating of any sort when the process is in session except when talking to the whole group or to a specific person in response to something the person had said to the whole group, which must be said in such a way the entire group can hear everything being said.  But as soon as the person owning the floor finishes talking it’s first-come first-serve, with the first person to start talking now owning the floor until s/he finishes communicating. 

       “In other words, there can be no covert, ulterior psychological communication, side deals, subversive power alliances, psychological threats, bullying or quid pro quo cronyism throughout the process at any time, however long the process shall be conducted, perhaps months, perhaps years, depending on what happens. Everything must be overt and above board with all cards played face up on the table, which can be checked using your laptop computer. We’ll have more to say about how to do that later. 

       “There can be no holding up of hands to get permission to talk.  You must compete will all members as an equal on a first-come first-serve basis by diving in first as soon as the person speaking stops. 

       “Some of you will naturally acquire larger market shares than others as the process unfolds in the free market of the communication process.  Peer ratings will be used from time to time to give everyone feedback regarding his/her market share.  Different market shares will naturally happen due to some of you having training and knowledge especially relevant to various focal point entities that will emerge, some of you are just naturally better communicators than others, some of you have more functional personalities than others, some of you are just naturally more intelligent and creative than others, some of you are better than others making analogous comparisons, seeing interrelations among focal point entities, and being able to comprehend whole systems.

       “Buckminster Fuller asserted in his book Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth that humans should comprehend whole systems, not just the parts, and the way to do this is by separating irrelevant observations from relevant focal point entities, and then comprehend how the relevant focal point entities relate to one another, where the more relevant entities there are in a system the greater the comprehension required and  produced. Buckminster Fuller, by the way, invented the appellations Spaceship Earth and Earthian, and this program would not have happened had he not written and published his book Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth in 1969.

       “Fuller defined Comprehension as a mathematical function of the number of relevant focal point entities identified in a system, where Comprehension = N²-N/2, where N equals the number of relevant focal point entities in the system under consideration. 

       “You will improve your Comprehension abilities through practice over time in this process.  On the other hand, not all market shares will be equal.  Each of you will have an equal opportunity to earn and accrue strokes for identifying relevant focal point entities and explaining how they interrelate, but as in any fully democratic free enterprise system qualities such as ambition, courage, hard work, determination, risk-taking, and ability to endure failure are relevant determinants in many cases.  Some of you shall accumulate higher stroke incomes and develop larger stroke bank accounts than others.  On the other hand, all of you will be paid the same in money terms, five thousand dollars per monthly session.  Since all of you inherited your abilities, knowledge, and skills by accident you are not to be blamed, praised, or monetarily rewarded for merely possessing relatively different abilities, knowledge bases, and skills. 

       “If you have a low market share don’t worry about it; as with all eventualities it just accidentally or inevitably happened, given that free will probably does not exist and all events have causes, including events such as feelings, thoughts, wishes, decisions, desires, goals and wants happening in human brains, resulting from infinitely regressive unbroken cause-effect chains going back to the beginning of time, assuming there was a beginning of time.

       “Although a major objective of the process is to cause the creation of beliefs, propositions, policies, and practices that will make Earthian life fairer, more satisfying, and more sustainable, there is no way to make the prior acquisition of knowledge, skills, and ability in the group equal and fair among members.  We all have our own genes, scripts, formal educations, karmas and dharmas that we inherited.  There is very little you or I or anyone can do right now about the particular cause-effect sequences that caused our brains to be programmed from birth as they are.  If I were to try to make the process fair by attempting to manipulate equal market shares and stroke incomes for each of you, by requiring you to hold up hands to get my permission to speak, or by going around the room in sequence to make sure everyone has the same airtime, the creative potential of the process would be significantly diminished.

  “On the other hand, a major purpose of this process is to cause over time the natural inevitable and accidental cause-effect chain causing you to be who and what you are right now to be changed in such a way as to cause you to accept consensual answers caused to be developed in this process that will cause all species aboard Spaceship Earth to experience satisfying and sustainable lives. 

       “That’s a tall order I know; but basically that’s what we are up to, however probable or improbable it is it will be achieved.       

       “One develops market share by selling ideas to the group about the problem or opportunity under consideration, that become relevant focal point entities.  Selling an idea means others think you are right.  Trying to sell irrelevant ideas will not produce sales and market shares or cause you to receive a large number of high quality positive strokes.  On the other hand, you will receive and aggregate more strokes by trying to sell relevant observations than by not trying.  The only way you can know whether your observations are relevant is by trying to sell them. 

       “W.C. Fields, the comedian, was incorrect, at least for purposes of this process, when he said, ‘Tis far better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt.’ 

       “It’s possible The Truther will never select you as a leader in this process, thereby never guaranteeing you strokes, either positive or negative.  If this happens to you you have to volunteer observations, ideas, and the like to get some strokes, competing with all group members after members owning the floor finish saying whatever they want to say.

       “A stroke is a unit of recognition.  Most homo sapiens have a strong need to be recognized for their achievements, and receiving positive strokes for achieving relevant goals are among their greatest satisfactions.  Satisfaction is the most common human goal. Unfortunately some forms of satisfaction may result in deleterious outcomes and should be suppressed or outlawed, such as those craved by pedophiles, narcissists, sadists, fascists, and the like; although, for whatever it’s worth, they too are not to be blamed or praised for accidentally inheriting their particular cause-effect chain that caused them to be what they are and gain satisfaction from what turns them on, socially-unacceptable it may be.  

       “On the other hand, if you are selected by The Truther and you refuse to answer the three reality questions you will be fined the first time it happens; and if it happens several times after being selected by The Truther, you will be banished from the group.  This law is necessary to make democracy happen in any group or organization. 

       “The bottom line is that it’s OK to be wrong by saying something; but it’s not OK to say nothing, if The Truther selects you.  Everyone knows something, however irrelevant it might be. It’s OK to be honestly wrong in this group. It’s Not OK, however, to be dishonestly wrong.

       “After experiencing the process for a session or two, persons violating process laws will be fined and perhaps required to leave the room for one hour at the instant of infraction, and if this does not result in causing the individual not to violate group laws s/he will be permanently banished. 

       “It takes some time for some people to get used to these laws, having never had an opportunity to function as an equal response-able member of a truly free and fair democratic process. Most group processes are contaminated by stroke-hungry greedy power-hoggers who control most of the airtime and strokes for themselves, forcing most members into stroke-deprived positions by psychologically forcing to remain silent while adapting to and obeying irrelevant time-wasting rituals and pastimes; but after experiencing fully democratic processes most people can overcome their prior undemocratic programming and will appreciate being caused to lead when selected by The Truther; and they will find it satisfying when they succeed in inserting themselves in the process after the person owning the floor stops, thereby earning strokes, with no holding up of hands to get psychological permission and protection, thereby learning not to play psychological Games, i.e., not being forced to act out Persecutor, Rescuer, and Victim roles. We will hear more about Game-playing, Persecutors, Rescuers, and Victims later.

“In transactional analysis terms, this democratic Game-free process encourages the cathecting of Nurturing Parent, Adult, and Free Child ego states rather than Critical Parent, Adult, and Adapted Child ego states. If you are not familiar with transactional analysis terms I suggest you do some homework and learn them. You can find several excelllent TA books on transactional analysis on the internet by simply punching transactional analysis into Google. An excellent TA book for purposes of this program is titled Born to Learn: A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning.

       “Another reason it’s against the law in this group to hold up your hand to force someone to rescue you or to force others to give you the floor because it’s a deleterious use of power, not only reinforcing your weaknesses but debilitating the group by causing the group to lose relevance, effectiveness and efficiency.  In this group you are all empowered adults, and you must assert your opinions whenever you get a legal chance, whether to selfishly garner strokes for yourself or to help others learn based on feelings of social responsibility.  This process has no gatekeepers tasked to Rescue, Persecute, or Victimize others, and no one can make a fool of anyone.  While the express purpose of this group is to help save Earthians aboard Spaceship Earth the process is not a psychological Game, since all relevant transactions are over social transactions. Psychological Games entail two sets of transactions, one overt, the other ulterior and covert.

       “In this group all members are equally OK existentially by virtue of having been caused to be as they are by the above-mentioned cause-effect chains.

       “There are other laws of the process, such as no libeling, slandering, or cursing.  Any slanderous allegation about any person, including public figures such as politicians, celebrities, and prominent citizens, must be backed up by facts and evidence if challenged.  Unfounded malicious libelous defamatory allegations spread by word of mouth in scurrilous ways are outlawed in this process.  All forms of communication designed to foster bigotry, hatred, and irrationality, or prejudicial discrimination are outlawed.”

Logger’s long monologue bored, rattled, confused, and irritated some of the group members, making them wonder whether they could put up with Rout’s arrogant peremptory attitudes and demeanor for one meeting, much less any number of them.  Everyone in the group had by now realized they had never experienced a group like this. 

       Most of the members sat looking at the floor in front of them, with several thinking Logger was a hypocrite, preaching democracy while telling them what to do and think like a fascist dictator, talking down to them.   

       Logger matched and paced the demeanors, facial expressions and postures of the group members, also saying nothing, attempting to out-passive them, to force someone to respond to the issues Bubba had led the group to think about and discuss, or what he had just said.

Maria– exasperated, finally blurted out,  “This is unbelievable.  You come in here and start laying down rules and laws like we are a bunch of criminals or school children. You have not furnished us any written documentation for anything, no agenda, no syllabus, no handouts, no background reading of any sort, no worksheets, and then start talking to us like we have no rights.  No one can learn like this.” 

Rout–”I’m sorry you feel that way Maria.  You are free to leave at any time if you seriously disagree, but the laws of the course are what they are.  They are necessary to insure our discussions will be full, free, fair, frank, democratic, and effective, and democratic.  They insure respect, dignity, and equality for all group members.  You are being well paid for your time and work.  As of now each group member has received a five thousand dollar payment for today’s work.  You may resign from the process at any time and you may retain whatever payments you have received up to that point as the process unfolds.  The laws of the process, however, are not subject to democratic argument, and they won’t change.  This group will not operate like the US Congress.  One of the paradoxes of democracy is that you have to have dictatorial fair rules and laws laid down by ethical lawgivers in order for democracy to function efficiently and effectively.  There are of course many forms of democracy, but here we will use the form of democracy deemed most efficient and effective by me and the process donors, who are paying you for your time, attention and participation.”

       This comment escalated the shock and dismay in the group.   

       Several more minutes elapsed with no one saying anything.  Most members sat stone-faced glaring straight ahead and not making eye contact with anyone.   

       Finally someone said something. 

Harrison–”Now see here, Rout, this is no way to run a meeting.  You’ve got to take charge and follow an agenda.  You’ve got to call on the most qualified people to talk about things.  You can’t just point out people to say things by a damn spinner or let just anybody say whatever he wants to, which by the way is a damn insult to my intelligence.  What do you think we are, a bunch of kids playing Spin the Bottle?  You’ve got to assign the problem to your best staff people so they can make a power point presentation to fill everybody in.  This is ridiculous!  Especially sitting in a circle like this.  You need to have your people set up in chairs in neat rows and columns.  You’re supposed to be the leader, out front, taking charge.  You can’t avoid your leadership responsibility by spinning an arrow to make people talk, not calling on people, not even allowing people to hold up their hands, while you sit around twiddling your thumbs just like everybody else.  You’re trying to make people say something whether they want to or not, no matter how unprepared or unqualified they might be.”

Rout–”Harrison, you have got a lot to learn here.  For starters, you are not the boss here.  In a pure democracy anyone can speak up and say what they think, and has a responsibility to do so.  I’ll grant you using The Truther to select people to start discussions does not occur in most democratic processes but the founders of this particular democracy decided after weighing the advantages and disadvantages it is best to randomly select leaders to start discussions, to insure every member has an equal chance to be the leader of the discussion, otherwise certain members will cow others into submission and control the agenda so as to achieve their selfish nefarious ends at the expense of others. 

       “For whatever it’s worth, randomly selecting people in a democracy is not a new idea.  The ancient Greeks used it to select leaders as early as the Sixth Century BCE. The process is called sortition.

       “Most people who rise through the ranks in large fascist corporations do so by adapting and flexing to and doing the bidding of authoritarian bosses to survive.  Otherwise, they can be fired at the drop of a hat by a supervisor for any reason.  They have no concept of what it is to function in a democracy with real rights of membership under a rule of law.  They are psychologically enslaved to a boss.  Large corporations are fascist dictatorships, pure and simple.  The main thing that counts in a corporation is pretending to agree with and pleasing your boss, living up to his expectations, commonly called ass-kissing and brown-nosing, not thinking for yourself. 

       “This group for sure is not like a contemporary large corporation, an authoritarian fascist dictatorship antithetical to democracy, where all are enslaved to a boss right above their level, who has the right and power to fire subordinates for any reason, and nobody has a right to freely speak her or his mind about anything, even if they hold up their hands.  I know many of you in this group are opposed to the idea of democratic Game-free discussion processes using Adult–Adult transactions, but if you stick with this program long enough you may learn to respect true democracy.

       “I am talking about transactional analysis psychological Games here.  A Game-free discussion process is one in which there are no Persecutors, Rescuers, and Victims.  We’ll be hearing more about this as we progress in our meetings.  Adult–Adult transactions happen when members of the group have their Adult ego states cathected, as opposed to their Parent and Child ego states. The Truther cathects, or turns on, Adult ego states.  Most transactions in large corporations are Parent–Child transactions at every level of the chain of command, the boss cathects a Parent ego state and subordinates are forced to cathect Adapted Child ego states and essentially say yes sir, and do as they are told. We will learn more about this as we go along. In most businesses, especially large corporations, bosses use their Parent ego states and employees are supposed to use their Child ego states.”

Harrison–”You mean you think you can teach me to respect your idea of democracy.”

Rout–”Yes, if you stick with the program long enough.”

Harrison–”Well, I’ll assure you, that’s a mighty big if.  I run a business and for sure I do not need your five thousand a month.  I can walk out of here at any time.  I make over twenty times that much per month already.  I came to this meeting out of curiosity more than anything else, and I think I have about learned enough.  This is a lunatic fantasy of some sort.  And furthermore, my friend, you are badly out of line.  I will not tolerate your insulting attitude.” 

Rout–”I’m sorry you feel that way about it, Harrison.  Thank you for your candor.  There’s the door, if you want to leave now.  It’s my way or the highway here, as far as these democratic process rules and laws go.  There’s one thing I agree with you corporate bosses about, my way or the highway, at least regarding democratic process rules and laws needing to be obeyed to preserve real democracy, and I assure you my way is the highway here.”

It got very quiet in the room, and after about another ten minutes elapsed with nobody saying anything, Rout decided to move on.  He told the group most discussions normally lasted about one hour after The Truther was spun, since after about one hour discussants generally got bored with the point or problem under discussion.  He said they had barely scratched the surface of a good discussion of the issue Bubba raised, namely whether the economy was the biggest problem in the world, and if so, what to do about it.  He told them since they were a neophyte group he would ask Bubba to spin The Truther to select a new leader so they could move on.  He repeated the rule for spinning The Truther: The last person selected will spin The Truther next.

       Bubba demonstrated his disgust and contempt for the whole proceeding by slowly swaggering toward The Truther in the center of the room, where he twirled The Truther in a dramatic fashion, creating psychological signals that caused several group members to reverberate signals that caused some members to make scurrilous comments to nearby members, as the cock crowed again when the arrow came to rest. 

       Rout then reached down and pulled a cowbell from his briefcase, which he vigorously shook, creating a loud clanging sound that quickly jerked the group members to attention.

Rout–”Several of you are violating the no gossiping law.  Do not do this again, or punishments provided under the law will be administered.”      

Hal–”I thought you said the no-gossiping law only applied when someone else was talking.”

Rout–”No, it applies during the entire three hours of a session, including time members are spinning The Truther.”

The Truther selected Trudy as the new leader.  She wanted to know if she was supposed to comment about what Bubba had said or bring up a new topic.  Rout said he didn’t care, that she should do whatever she thought most appropriate, since she was now the group leader.  She then said she agreed the economy was a serious problem but it was so general that she did not have much to say about it.  She said she thought civil rights were equally important, and women were entitled to equal pay for equal work and should be free to choose abortions.  This produced about thirty minutes of discussion with several members saying what they thought.  When the discussion ran out of steam Trudy twirled the arrow and selected a new leader.  The next leader, Margaret, mechanically defined a problem, listed two alternatives, and perfunctorily gave a recommendation.  This produced a new silent spell.  Rout thought more should be said about the issue Margaret brought up so he refrained from ordering a new Truther twirl.  About two hours of the first morning session had by then elapsed. 

       Nobody said anything for forty-five minutes, up to about noon, so Rout told them they were on their own until two o’clock. He told them to enjoy their lunch and report back promptly at two o’clock for the afternoon three-hour session.  He told them coming into any session late without a valid excuse was also against the law, and violators would be prosecuted.  Rout told them violating this law, or any of the process laws, could result in a fine that would reduce their monthly compensation and could cause their permanent banishment from the group.

       Rout said there was one additional law he probably should alert them to at this juncture.  Stonewalling is illegal.  He said if it appeared to him that certain members were deliberately not saying things to psychologically collude with other members to passive-aggressively undermine and sabotage the process they would be fined or banished.  He said he realized some people just naturally talked more than others and some members would naturally speak up more than others, but passive-aggressive stonewalling, lying by omission, deliberately not saying things attempting to cause others not to say anything to undermine the effectiveness of the process, was illegal.  He said lying was also illegal–both lying by commission, by telling deliberate falsehoods, and lying by omission, deliberately withholding relevant thoughts, ideas, and information to play Games.

       Most members by then were shocked, disoriented, upset, or infuriated, but no one said anything as they left the hotel. Outside they scattered like a covey of flushed quail, a loose analogy, assuming you have ever seen a covey of flushed quail take off.  Unfortunately wild quail had been almost rendered extinct in the last fifty years by agricultural herbicides and pesticides developed and sold by large corporations and applied by farmers, so almost nobody would ever again see a covey of wild quail flushed.

Bubba and Henry headed down a sidewalk in the same direction.

Bubba–”Can you believe that shit?”

Henry–”Hell no!  This takes the cake.  Who does that asshole think he is?”

B–”Hey, why don’t we find us a bar somewhere and have a beer.”

H–”Good idea.”

B–”By the way, my name’s Bubba.  What’s yours?”

H–”Hank.” 

B–”Glad to meet you, Hank.”

After taking his first swig of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, Bubba popped a question.

B–”How much longer you gonna stick with this crap?”

H–”I don’t know. I thought it was crazy from the git-go.  We still don’t know who’s payin’ for this or what they’re up to.  This has got to a scam of some sort.” 

B–”Or a bunch of liberals, nuts, communists or something.  One thing’s for sure, though, they’ve got more money than sense.”

H–”Yeah, the money’s real.  At least so far.  That’s what got me.  I couldn’t believe it when $50 popped out of that ATM machine.  Did they deposit $100 in a bank account for you like they did me to sucker you into this thing?”

B–”Yeah, that’s what got me too.  And then after I told them I would come to one meeting they put a fucking five thousand dollars in the account.  I don’t know what they woulda done if I hadn’t showed up, which I thought about.  But then I got to thinkin’ if them damn fools put five thousand G’s in my account once they might do it again, for one day’s work, or whatever you want to call what this crap.”

H–”That’s pretty much my story.  Reckon how long they’ll keep it up?”

B–”Don’t know, but, irregardless of now obnoxious that Logger asshole is, I’ll probably stick with it a while longer, so long as they keep a’handin’ out the money.”

H–”Me too more than likely.  I’ve got too many bills piled up to turn it down.  Wonder what that rich sombitch who said he makes twenty times more a month than they are paying him is gonna do?  Reckon he’ll drop out?”

B–”I’ll bet he don’t.  But he shore did get pissed off didn’t he.”

Over sandwiches and another beer their conversation continued.

Bubba–”I don’t know what’s worse, having to sit for three hours without a break, or puttin’ up with that smartass’s attitude, or that damn spinner. Calls it a truther, for god’s sake.  Can you believe that shit?  Spinnin’ that damn thing to make people talk?  Hell, it’s a damn insult.  That is a nice lookin’ rooster though I must admit.  Makes a nice crowin’ sound. Sounds like my rooster back home.”

H–”You’ve got that right, but the asshole just sittin’ there sayin’ nothin’ is even worse.  Can you imagine him just sittin’ there for damn near an hour with nobody sayin’ nothin’?  With everybody just setten’ there not knowing whether to shit or go blind–and there’s some smart people in there, one guy’s a doctor–and nobody sayin’ nothin’.  God amighty.”

B–”I know.  It’s like the asshole is paying us to waste our time to put up with him, or maybe he just wants to make fools out of us or somethin’.  It’s damn weird, I’ll tell you that.”

H–”I wonder what he’ll come up with next–bring out a bullwhip or chains or something.  He’s already got a cowbell.  I tell you what, Bubba.  I think I’m gonna go back to my hotel room and call my wife and maybe take a nap.  We’ve got over an hour before we have to show back up.”

B–”Good idea.  Enjoyed talking with you.”

H–”Yeah, me too.  Well, see you back at the torture chamber.”

Most of the group members went their separate ways as soon as they got out of the hotel, having no desire to talk with anyone, feeling drained, confused and angry.  Most found a deli, pub or restaurant a few blocks from the hotel and ate by themselves.  On the other hand, two other small groups congregated here and there.  Most of them had about the same sentiments as Bubba and Henry regarding Dr. Rout Logger.  No one had anything good to say about him, considering him arrogant, unfeeling and dictatorial.  Maria said he was dehumanizing.  She said he said he believed in democracy but acted like a fascist, making up rules right off the top of his head whenever he felt like it, like an absolute dictator. 

       Almost all participants thought about dropping out, but concluded they would be paid rather well for six hours of misery, bullshitting, discussing or whatever you wanted to call this.  A few knew they could not attend all the monthly meetings even if they wanted to because of previous commitments; but they were curious to learn what would come of this.  Some thought they could eventually turn Rout Logger around and teach him how to act like a decent human being.

       About half the members wondered what to do with the two hours, which was more than enough time for lunch.  Most of them staying in nearby hotels went back to their rooms to collect their thoughts and refresh themselves, some taking naps; others read, checked their emails and made telephone calls.  Some sat in the lobby of the hotel where the meeting was held and read until two o’clock.  A few went shopping.  Some took walks. 

       Several members thought about asking Rout to cut the time for the lunch break to one hour so they could get off work an hour earlier.  This would give them more time to catch earlier flights home after the meeting, as some had decided to do, not staying in a hotel Friday or Saturday night, having arranged early and late flights before and after the Saturday meeting, to save a little money and have more time with their families at home, while others wanted to stay in a hotel to give them more time away from their families.  A few brought their spouses along with them; two members brought spouses and children along for the trip, since they had never been to Louisville, Kentucky. 

End of Part One. To be continued.

By RICHARD JOHN STAPLETON, PhD, CTA

This essay is based on two well researched, documented, and reasoned articles–one authored by Effective Learning Report correspondent Courtenay Barnett, published in 2005 in the Global Research internet journal, entitled “Oil, Conflict and the Future of Global Energy Supplies,” that hit the nail right on the head with respect to what the US was/is up to with its forever wars started in 2003 by Bush II. Read this article at https://www.globalresearch.ca/oil-conflict-and-the-future-of-global-energy-supplies/1781.

The second article was written by Michael Hudson, recently published in the Counterpunch internet journal, entitled “America Escalates its ‘Democratic’ Oil War in the Near East.” Read this article at https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/06/america-escalates-its-democratic-oil-war-in-the-near-east/?fbclid=IwAR3SgZQOuEu1b4OObFxTQwqLRidNZPMy2NpEgwcLz53eYaJ7fkbG9Sm1Q1Y.

One supposedly Adult reason for starting the forever wars – to protect the US oil supply – may have been relevant to some extent in 2003; but, in light of new information about global warming, this reason was/is irrelevant, since peak oil arguments about scarce oil supplies have been rendered obsolete by global warming, since all the oil already discovered still in the ground cannot be pumped out and burned if human Earthians expect to survive global warming, assuming the opinions of hundreds of scientists and millions of others are correct regarding the seriousness of global warming. There is a consensus that humans don’t have much time (probably less than twenty years) to convert to green energy to stave off an ecological catastrophe.

US governments started and persisted with the forever wars for oil, and they should be stopped; but as both articles referenced here also point out, there were/are deeper realities involved in the whole Game. As Barnett pointed out in 2005 there is an even more ominous and relevant reason why the US fights its forever wars: to preserve the reserve status of the American dollar in global trade. Michael Hudson has written extensively about the importance of preserving the American dollar with US foreign policy in recent years.

If oil is not traded in US dollars globally, causing balance of payments dollar surpluses for countries that export more than they import to and from the US, especially exporters such as China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia, the US system used globally for financing and supplying its 800 military bases outside the US (that cause huge yearly balance of payments deficits for the US, since food, energy, and other local purchases for those American bases are counted as US imports) could collapse.

If those surplus trade dollars are not recycled back into the US treasury to buy treasury bonds the market for US treasury bonds will shrink, which will probably force the US treasury to significantly raise interest rates to sell more bonds to private investors to finance the US budget deficit (largely caused by the 800 military bases overseas), which would dramatically increase the interest payments on the entire US government debt, now some twenty-two trillion dollars. These higher interest rates would probably cause a massive stock, bond, and housing bubble burst, and an economic collapse.

The forever wars are more for controlling oil and gas pipelines and making sure other countries use the American dollar trading oil internationally than they are for spreading and protecting freedom, democracy, and the like globally. In reality the US has no serious Earthian military threats at this time, other than the remote chance of a lone nut pushing a nuclear button somewhere. Barnett shows where the pipelines are in Central Asia and how they cause US military activity in the region and both he and Hudson explain why the US government and its military do not want to get out of the region now.

While there was/is Adult logic buttressing US military policy in the Middle East to protect the US oil supply in 2003, one can now build a case that protecting the oil supply alone does not justify keeping US military forces in the region, since there is little chance the US cannot buy and import enough oil at world market prices to make up for any shortfalls in US domestic oil production required to power existing production and consumption systems in the US until new green systems can be produced and implemented.

Protecting the reserve status of the American dollar, on the other hand, is another matter. The amoral cold-blooded neocon and neolib decision makers in the US White House, Pentagon, CIA, and State Department can build their usual case that the US military should stay in Central Asia forever, so as to be able to quickly destroy governments who would replace the American dollar as the international trade reserve currency with their own currencies around Spaceship Earth.

A solution would be to shut down all the 800 US bases scattered around Spaceship Earth and bring all US military and civilian employees now living in them (in the equivalent of an outsourced US socialistic pseudo-state) back to the US, which would eliminate the need to protect the reserve status of the American dollar and just about eliminate the US domestic budget deficit, assuming the well-disciplined well-trained US socialistic military and civilian employees now housed and working outside the US were reemployed back home in the free enterprise dog-eat-dog capitalistic domestic US economy.

If you ever thought all US government employees (military and civilian) living in those 800 US bases scattered around Spaceship Earth were plain ole patriotic simple-minded good guys out to keep Americans in the US safe and free and to help unfortunate undeveloped impoverished people in countries outside the US forget it. They are primarily there to create good deals and make money for the US deep state, as our current USian Repuglican dear leader truthfully bloviates in tweets and public outbursts.

Richard John Stapleton is a Certified Transactional Analyst, Educator, and the Writer, Editor & Publisher of the Effective Learning Report, January 23, 2020, https://www.effectivelearning.net/rjs-academic-vita.html

 

THE EARTHIAN FORUM, Number Fourteen, Effective Learning Publications, 32 East Main Street, Statesboro, Georgia, USA, January 10, 2020

THE EARTHIAN FORUM is a digest of articles containing facts, perspectives, theories, models, analyses, and recommendations concerned about existential states of affairs affecting all species of fauna and flora around Spaceship Earth. Recent articles written and published by writers in Internet posts on ecological, economic, social, psychological, political, religious, and military states of affairs around Spaceship Earth are linked below as sources.

“ASK LESS WHAT YOUR NATION CAN DO FOR YOU–ASK MORE WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR SPACESHIP EARTH”

OR SO IT SEEMS TO ME RIGHT NOW

By RICHARD JOHN STAPLETON, PhD, CTA, Editor & Publisher

“More light and light it grows, more dark and dark our woes.”

The amoral and impulsive dear leader of the US Don Trump, having the power vested in him by virtue of having been elected president of the US by about twenty-five percent of US eligible voters in the presidential election in 2016, in the last few days assassinated the most revered general in Iran, thereby creating the possibility of causing another major war and the destruction of another nation in the Middle East, that could, if such a war happens, set off a larger war, possibly World War III, this time pitting the US and whatever nations there might be that would side with it against Iran, Russia, Syria, China and whatever nations there might be that would side with them.

William Shakespeare wrote the opening line for this essay quoted above in 1594 in his play Romeo and Juliet about two young “star-crossd” lovers who couldn’t marry because of having been unfortunate enough to have been born in two families that did not get along, so they drank hemlock hoping to consummate their love in a better world after death. The line in the play occurred after a cock crowed thrice in the early hours of their last day aboard Spaceship Earth.

How does this resemble the plight of Earthian humans today? Well, for one thing, we’re again faced with the immediate threat of another disastrous war that will result in widespread death and destruction similar to, but probably worse, than what happened in Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya.

Will the Clint Eastwood-like US military add another notch to the notches already carved on the weapons it used to shoot bad guys in the Middle East and North Africa in the last few years?

Our plight in the US and Iran is vaguely similar to the plight of Romeo and Juliet since our national families–the US and Iran–are now supposed to hate each other so much that we cannot live with one other in peace and tranquillity. And ending frustrated and hopeless lives with war is about as sad as drinking hemlock.

I taught an Iranian graduate student in a US business school in the days shortly after Islamists in Iran deposed the US puppet Shah of Iran in 1979. She came by my office just before she was to go back to Iran after graduating.

We talked about an hour, covering economic and political issues in Iran and the US, centering on her going back to Iran, discussing what her opportunities might be after graduating.

One of the points she made in the conversation I remember concerned her feelings in regard to Jews in Israel. She said they presented themselves in advertising in the region as innocent and peaceful white doves while depicting Arabs as ugly black crows. She said most Jews in Israel weren’t real semites, many being blue-eyed blondes whose ancestors had intermarried with Europeans.

She wasn’t keen on going back to Iran to live under sharia law and the strictures of the mullahs, having to cover her beautiful body from head to toe in public, but she said she was duty bound to do it, having been born a Persian princess.

As she was leaving she gave me one of the best strokes I ever received. She said she wanted me to know that I was the best teacher she had ever had–ever.

Could I have a hug I responded? “Oh, sure” she said.

And it was a great hug, one of the best I ever had.

I lived in Adana, Turkiye three months in 1982, in southeast Turkiye, not far from the Syrian border, teaching systems management in a master’s degree program for US air force personnel at Incirlik Air Base. I lived in downtown Adana on the seventh floor of an apartment building surrounded by Turks. I got to know quite a few Turks there and at the base, which was ten or so miles outside Adana. All the Turks I knew were respectful, friendly people, seemingly relatively happy and satisfied with their lives. Religion was never a problem.

Many people have had someone say to them at some point in their lives that all people are basically good people if you really get to know them as people. I believe that. Unfortunately we can’t really get to know people in many cases because of what we have been taught to believe. Despite everyone having been caused to be what they are, not being responsible for what they are, most people are considered to be Not OK in some ways by others, which is unfair and unfortunate.

True, we are all born OK, but soon after opening our eyes in the light of day we get contaminated with messages of various sorts about who we are and what we should feel, think, and do with respect to ourselves and others.

Unfortunately most people are psychologically scripted after birth to be Not OK with respect to themselves and others in some psychological, social, religious, cultural, and political ways by parents, teachers, politicians, police people, military people, preachers, priests, rabbis, mullahs, and other people who have jobs and roles that entail using primarily adapted child and critical parent ego state energy to control and shape people. 

Our dear leader in the US Don Trump using primarily his impulsive irrational witch parent in his child ego state would now have us believe that all Iranians are Not OK, so Not OK that the US is justified in destroying their infrastructure and their cultural monuments and treasures, and their lives, if they seriously retaliate against him for assassinating their revered General Soleimani.

And that’s where we stand now, waiting to see what happens. I have read the Iranians have shot some rockets into a US base in retaliation, with no reported casualties, and an airliner bound for Canada from Iran has been shot down in Iran with casualties.

At first I thought Trump had finally really lost it, assassinating Soleimani, losing what was left of his small and capricious mind, going off the deep end; but, alas, it’s worse than that.

According to Michael Hudson, maybe the best economist now aboard Spaceship Earth, Trump did have an adult ego state rationale for doing what he did, as Hudson explains in detail in the first Source article linked below in this issue of The Earthian Forum.

According to Hudson, the US Pentagon, using its adult ego state and the same cold-blooded logic devoid of nurturing parent energy they have been using in the Middle East and North Africa since 2003, gave Trump the idea to assassinate Soleimani as an option, to “draw a line in the sand” to send a clear psychological message to the adult ego states of leaders of Iran, Russia, Syria, and other nations that the US military will indeed destroy Iran as it did other nations in recent years who threatened US policies if Iranian leaders seriously threaten and undermine US economic and political policies necessary to maintain the dominant role of the US dollar in international oil trading and the time-tested system of cash flows now in place in international trade required to fund the US budget deficit, that includes supplying and funding 800 US military bases outside the US scattered around Spaceship Earth.

Yes, as Shakespeare wrote in 1594:  “More light and light it grows, more dark and dark our woes.”

An assumption of transactional analysis is that humans can learn to “see what is really going on” with themselves and others as they transact with one another socially and psychologically living their daily lives so as to increase their chances of living satisfying lives, regardless of how not-OK their economic, social, psychological, and political worlds might be.

According to transactional analysis theory there are three naturally occurring generic life outcomes caused for humans:  winner, loser, and non-winner– caused by inherited physical characteristics and “messages” one is exposed to throughout life–and by the early decisions offspring irrationally and rationally make about the messages that become determinants of emotional, intellectual, and behavioral responses throughout life.

Whether one inherits a winner, loser, or non-winner script is determined by naturally-occurring inevitable cause-effect chains one is accidentally exposed to. Some transactional analysts assume proportions of winner, loser, and non-winner scripts in the human population remain relatively constant from one generation to another.

A purpose of TA is to help individuals and groups insert new causes into natural cause-effect chains so as to increase the probabilities and proportions of winner outcomes in the populace.

Using adult ego states to consciously construct winner scripts requires hard work but it can happen if people somehow acquire new script messages powerful enough to control frustrating, debilitating, or harmartic script messages recorded in their sub-conscious minds. TA can provide people basic concepts and tools for attempting such a thing, perhaps requiring learning to use different ego states and transactional patterns and learning how to communicate in more effective ways psychologically and socially.

Most people seem to think if only Earthian humans could solve their economic, political, and religious troubles then everything would be wonderful for everyone. Not so, some people would not be satisfied and successful living in paradise because of non-winner and harmartic script messages indelibly recorded in their sub-conscious minds before they were eight years old. In order for everyone to live satisfying and successful lives humans would have to solve not only economic, political, religious, and social problems, but also psychological problems.

Changing a loser script may entail changing the way one structures time, learning how to spend time in different ways, spending more or less time withdrawing in their heads, pastiming (shooting the bull) with others, performing rituals, working, or playing psychological Games.

The Prayer of Serenity goes something like this:  Lord give me the intelligence and strength to change what needs changing, and the wisdom to know what I can and cannot change, knowing full well that some suffering, losing, and grieving is inevitable.

Using TA in some cases can help people become more serene, by enabling them to see more clearly what is going on to make salutary changes, or by learning to accept one’s script and focus on finding a niche in which it fits. On the other hand, a basic problem or question is whether serenity is possible in today’s world, beset by global warming and climate change and by escalating tensions and agitations among organizations and groups around Earth.

TA never promised anyone any rose gardens, or eternal bliss in heaven, but it does advertise that it can help individuals, groups, and organizations become more ok, ok not only in terms of achieving goals but more ok transacting with others so as to live with more dignity, satisfaction, peace, and tranquility, based on Adult mutually agreed to contracts.

No one could blame you if you believe in tuning out TA and blogs such as this one. Maybe the best strategy is to tune out the world as much as you can, burrowing up in your burrow as much as possible, reading no newspapers and not watching television, with no Internet. The problem however if you do that is boredom. Most humans have an innate need for stimulation, achievement, and recognition.

Regardless of what sort of cognitive structures humans might use, TA or whatever, sooner or later they have to take action, and this entails defining problems, delineating alternatives, making recommendations, choosing things, trying new things, trial and error, over and over, till something works. 

1–What is the problem?

2–What are the alternatives?

3–What do you recommend?

We live in precarious times that probably encourage people to play AIN’T IT AWFUL more now than  in the past, a psychological Game in which Game players collect strokes for complaining about the evils and troubles of world, positioning themselves as Victims of obsolete economic, religious, and political systems and policies manipulated and exploited by greedy self-interested power-mad sociopathic oligarchs and leaders and their corrupt bought and paid for lackeys, especially lobbyists and politicians, however true that might be in reality.

By the same token, it will do no good for humans to passively pretend everything is just hunky-dory and swell, with everything coming up roses for everyone, living in small imaginary Candide-like best of all possible worlds, playing a psychological Game called GREENHOUSE by transactional analysts, in which players are rewarded with plastic strokes for making nonsensical positive cheerful upbeat comments about the environment and political, economic, social, and psychological states of affairs, regardless of how bleak they are in reality.

It seems to me the most dangerous psychological Game played politically right now is IF IT WEREN’T FOR YOU, involving polarized individuals, groups, and organizations who experience increasing insecurity and hopelessness causing them to blame others and find scapegoats for their plights, escalating their anger as they transmit threats from their angry Parent and Child ego states to the Parent and Child ego states of others, sometimes attacking others verbally and physically for their perceived misdeeds and beliefs. Some of the threats include the threat of international and civil war. Trump is doing a good job of playing IF IT WEREN’T FOR YOU with Iran right now, and one can build a case about all he does is play psychological Games.

IF IT WEREN’T FOR YOU entails aggrieved humans psychologically believing that opposing warring or competing parties maliciously and arbitrarily decided using free will to commit the harmful or heinous actions and deeds they are accused of committing, instead of realizing the others were caused by circumstances and script messages to do what they did just like the aggrieved aggressive people were. Getting rid of the other will not solve problems caused by poor scripting caused by inadequate families, inadequate educational systems, inadequate religions, inadequate economic systems, and inadequate political systems.

For more information regarding the use of Transactional Analysis check out the website for the International Transactional Analysis Association at https://www.itaaworld.org/ . To learn about ego states, Games, strokes, and life scrips and to learn a guaranteed system for creating Game-free discussions and political processes read my book Born to Learn:  A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning.  https://www.amazon.com/Born-Learn-Transactional-Analysis-Learning/dp/0692584331 

For more information on how to co-construct better organizations and economic systems using TA read my book   Business Voyages:  Mental Maps, Scripts, Schemata, and Tools for Co-Constructing Your Own Business Worlds   https://www.amazon.com/Business-Voyages-Schemata-Discovering-Co-Constructing/dp/1413480810

See my article “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc,”  https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-evolution-of-spaceship-earth-inc/   for some management science ideas on how human Earthians might eventually co-construct an economic system that is viable and satisfying for everyone aboard Spaceship Earth.  This entails human Earthians 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.

This can be done using linear programming based on the general algorithmic matrix algebra form

Max CjXj, s.t. AijXj ≤, =, or ≥ Bi

as explained in “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc.”   https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-evolution-of-spaceship-earth-inc/  

Flying aboard an airliner about to land at night moving at four hundred miles an hour at thirty thousand feet with cloudy and rainy weather below, which would you rather have landing the plane, the plane’s computer system or the pilot and co-pilot looking out their windows with their hands clutching their steering wheels?

For details regarding my transactional analysis and management science qualifications see my RJS Academic Vita at https://www.effectivelearning.net/rjs-academic-vita.html.   

TO RESPOND:

As usual this month’s THE EARTHIAN FORUM  links and cites as SOURCES recent articles written and published by clear deep-thinking hard-hitting independent writers in various Internet publications on ecological, economic, social, political, religious, and military affairs around Spaceship Earth.  I generally agree with these writers about what is most relevant about Spaceship Earth states of affairs, but each of them brought up facts, analyses, conclusions, ideas, or perspectives that were new to me when I read them during the last thirty days or so, thereby teaching me something, which is why I included them in this issue of THE EARTHIAN FORUM.  

Some Game playing goes on in the articles, i.e., a writer is psychologically persecuting, rescuing, or victimizing someone, but it seems to me the writers are generally trying to paint accurate pictures of what is really going on economically, socially, psychologically, and politically. Unfortunately it seems to me one can build a case that politicians spend most of their time playing psychological Games.

It’s not easy, impossible some say, to separate relevant from irrelevant focal points in order to comprehend global cases, systems, and processes, while being inundated with fake news and true facts of states of affairs generated daily around Spaceship Earth, made public on the Internet, and elsewhere, to see what’s really going on, using primarily inductive and analogical reasoning, based on probability, not deductive logic. Almost never can anyone prove with deductive logic that a general proposition about economic, social, psychological, or political states affairs is absolutely true. About the best humans can hope for is to develop consensual answers that are generally acceptable and true based on probability.

It’s better to be honestly wrong than dishonestly wrong, that is, telling someone something is true because you really do not know what is true than to tell someone something is true when you know for a fact it is not true.

It seems to me most lying is lying by omission, people not telling people things they know are true. Whether lying by omission is more or less harmful than lying by commission, telling people things you know are falsehoods and dispensing fake news, is debatable, as is proving whether it’s getting easier or harder for most people to know what’s true and what’s not.

If you have ideas on how to democratically discuss in Game-free ways economic and political problems and opportunities in something like the Ogeechee Economic Forum at  https://www.effectivelearning.net/ogeechee-economic-forum.html go to our RESPONSES page and let us know about them at  https://www.effectivelearning.net/responses.html .

Feel free to respond with comments about any of the SOURCES listed below using the RESPONSES post on this blog masthead at the top of this page; but please refrain from making ad hominem attacks. Criticize any of the facts, data, evidence, reasoning, theories, and conclusions in any of the articles; but refrain from slandering the characteristics of the authors to illogically try to prove their arguments and conclusions are wrong and yours are right.

I have no desire to sell subscriptions or advertising or solicit donations for THE EARTHIAN FORUM, but I would like to sell more books. If you feel you’ve gained value from THE EARTHIAN FORUM and would like to reciprocate go to our Effective Learning Publications page and purchase one or more copies of my books at   https://www.effectivelearning.net/effective-learning-publications.html  .

Best wishes, RJS

SOURCES:

January 10, 2020

Here is an excerpt from Michael Hudson’s article linked below explaining in my opinion the major reason why Trump assassinated Soleimani. It’s a sad and grisly tale with no good guys and no happy ending in sight.

“Finally, what can U.S. anti-war opponents do to resist the neocon attempt to destroy any part of the world that resists U.S. neoliberal autocracy? This has been the most disappointing response over the weekend. They are flailing. It has not been helpful for Warren, Buttigieg and others to accuse Trump of acting rashly without thinking through the consequences of his actions. That approach shies away from recognizing that his action did indeed have a rationale–do draw a line in the sand, to say that yes, America WILL go to war, will fight Iran, will do anything at all to defend its control of Near Eastern oil and to dictate OPEC central bank policy, to defend its ISIS legions as if any opposition to this policy is an attack on the United States itself.

“I can understand the emotional response or yet new calls for impeachment of Donald Trump. But that is an obvious non-starter, partly because it has been so obviously a partisan move by the Democratic Party. More important is the false and self-serving accusation that President Trump has overstepped his constitutional limit by committing an act of war against Iran by assassinating Soleimani.

“Congress endorsed Trump’s assassination and is fully as guilty as he is for having approved the Pentagon’s budget with the Senate’s removal of the amendment to the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act that Bernie Sanders, Tom Udall and Ro Khanna inserted an amendment in the House of Representatives version, explicitly not authorizing the Pentagon to wage war against Iran or assassinate its officials. When this budget was sent to the Senate, the White House and Pentagon (a.k.a. the military-industrial complex and neoconservatives) removed that constraint. That was a red flag announcing that the Pentagon and White House did indeed intend to wage war against Iran and/or assassinate its officials. Congress lacked the courage to argue this point at the forefront of public discussion.

“Behind all this is the Saudi-inspired 9/11 act taking away Congress’s sole power to wage war – its 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force, pulled out of the drawer ostensibly against Al Qaeda but actually the first step in America’s long support of the very group that was responsible for 9/11, the Saudi airplane hijackers.

“The question is, how to get the world’s politicians – U.S., European and Asians – to see how America’s all-or-nothing policy is threatening new waves of war, refugees, disruption of the oil trade in the Strait of Hormuz, and ultimately global warming and neoliberal dollarization imposed on all countries. It is a sign of how little power exists in the United Nations that no countries are calling for a new Nurenberg-style war crimes trial, no threat to withdraw from NATO or even to avoid holding reserves in the form of money lent to the U.S. Treasury to fund America’s military budget.”

Read this article for the full context and explanation.

“America Escalates Its ‘Democratic’ Oil War in the Near East,” by Michael Hudson, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/06/america-escalates-its-democratic-oil-war-in-the-near-east/?fbclid=IwAR1yRxgvyECTcDldUdp3OVp2Mlv93bjt7VuyjkxKtJ4bmiMFtTpfKOjW2W8.

January 10  

Where is the evidence?

“Trump: Iranians Sought “To Blow UP Our Embassy” So We Took Out Soleimani,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-we-took-out-soleimani-because-iranians-looking-blow-our-embassy?fbclid=IwAR1rrJwQCNkKPhgDCkqJzLdlCI_7-RChxTlD2Z-07lwKSgjeg3bR1oH_GNw.

January 9

Slurred speech and sniffing or not, drug addled or not, Trump’s so-called speech was simple-minded, disingenuous, and inflammatory. Listen to some of it here for yourself. For one thing the US under Obama did not give Iran 150 billion dollars. What it did was release 150 billion dollars of Iran’s money the US had seized and frozen as a so-called “sanction”. The US has crippled Iran’s economy with all manner of such sanctions, telling other countries not to buy Iranian oil and such, and threatening to retaliate against them with sanctions if they did, and what have you. It’s impossible for the average US citizen including me to know exactly what the US has done in Iran and elsewhere with sanctions, or know with certainty what the effects of the sanctions have been, but it’s a safe bet that US sanctions have caused serious economic harm in Iran and elsewhere, destabilizing economies and causing hardships (such as hunger and disease) for innocent men, women, and children, trying to force governments to toe the line with USian policies, trying to bully and cow them into submission. One thing’s for sure, you can’t believe what this pathetic human being says about almost anything.

“Nation Demands to Know What Trump Is Takng after Slurred Speech,” by Jason Miciak, PolitiZoom, DAILY SOUND AND FURY, https://dailysoundandfury.com/nation-demands-to-know-what-trump-is-taking-after-slurred-speech/?fbclid=IwAR0QZ5j9q5VEBN1WDWk47mI8reQZG6uqWkkQL56gTr8H_oc9hYG558idj2w.

January 7

Here is how the US govt works at the highest levels. After you leave government service you get paid for the favors you did for large corporations you were supposed to regulate when you were in office, via quid pro quo board of director payments, consultancy fees, speaking fees, etc. Here is a typical case, involving a not so bright but successful politician, the former Trumpian energy secretary, and former Texas governor, repuglican Rick Perry, a male equivalent of Sarah Palin and the Trumpian education secretary, Betsy DeVos.

“Former Energy Secretary Rick Perry Rejoins Board of Dakota Access Owner,” by Sharon Kelly, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/former-energy-secretary-rick-perry-rejoins-board-of-dakota-access-owner/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR2orPeOuUb2zog5WNC9bWz3Sh3a0J671OlP7orT_W8wLM9_4GOBecywmHc.

January 7

Well, most of them don’t

“Naturally The Common People Don’t Want War,” by Brian McCully, Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/richard.stapleton.397.

January 7

Here is a short explanation of the Spanish Civil War. Some of the same impulses that caused it are reemerging today. Nazis, republicans, nationalists, monarchists, anarchists, communists, dictators, and democrats, they are all still here. Some say the Spanish Civil War was a microcosm that morphed into WWII. Will the horrors of all out nuclear war prevent current international conflicts from morphing into WWIII?

“Spanish Civil War,” Resource Library, National Geographic Society, https://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/jul18/spanish-civil-war/?fbclid=IwAR2PeIYtHZnpYuAN85iHNwqTxsLO0goT7ZKxEopQa5S3ZOxJ5CsaNseihnU#.XhS21WMkoFw.facebook.

January 7

Will harvesting the assets of Aramco in Saudi Arabia cause the end of the world? This writer thinks it will. In a nutshell he thinks Aramco, the Saudi Oil Company that recently went public selling one trillion dollars in stock making it the most valuable corporation by market value not only in the world now but in history, owning about one third of all oil still in the ground around Spaceship Earth, will destroy Earthian life if all the oil they now own still in the ground is pumped out, sold, and burned.

“Why the End of the World is the Most Valuable Thing in the World, According to Capitalism. Wait, What?” by Umair Haque, EUDIAMONIA, https://eand.co/why-the-end-of-the-world-is-the-most-valuable-thing-in-the-world-according-to-capitalism-b7d47ebccbc9.

January 6

Scary

“Fifth Pentagon official announces resignation within a week,” by Karen Graham, DIGITAL JOURNAL, http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/politics/fifth-pentagon-official-announces-resignation-within-a-week/article/563823?fbclid=IwAR0Jl4qOJJXxC4TEkzcYoIG2kANcTlptMo00YWDH-ucDX2AQRtNGUPtiMWg#.XhP-OuoO4ZF.facebook.

January 6

One of my favorites

“WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US,” by Bill Brissette, FACEBOOK, https://www.facebook.com/richard.stapleton.397.

January 6

It does seem the balance of Earthian military power has shifted, even though one can build a case it’s merely a busy work Game, since several countries have the power to destroy Earthian human life already with nukes, making no holds barred war obsolete, barring a madman pushing a nuke button somewhere.

“Some Thoughts On The Current State Of The U.S. Military,” by Paul Gilbert, TMIN, http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/some-thoughts-on-the-current-state-of-the-u-s-military?fbclid=IwAR0sbo6p8yn19a8zqbQ-84b2wjq4-gQ1d-8KmBMkPHb8NYJJv2Rm2inqMcM.

January 6

Just read the first two paragraphs of this. Unbelievable. To think a real world power government such as the US govt could say we are getting out of a country after seventeen years and then an hour or so later say “‘whoop’s, no, we’re not, we just made a ‘mistake’.”

What else will this incompetent fool US administration come up with? This is off the chart managerial incompetence.

“‘Honest mistake’ sets off alarm about US troops in Iraq,” by Lolita C. Baldor and Robert Burns, ASSOCIATED PRESS, https://apnews.com/e384b6e3d230b63d3f69092ef53b5bd9?fbclid=IwAR0yrDUWjhChZgG0oWuYllX-PPBDalt5KMOp76MYBoxa2y-fo-1P4Oxx_9c.

January 5

Mainstream media do not publish fake news, lying by commission (if they can help it), thereby protecting themselves from lawsuits; but they lie by omission with alacrity.

“Two huge suppressed news reports in a 3-day period reveal corrupt U.S. & allied mainstream press,” by Eric Zuesse, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28878.

January 6

Interesting take on things from Bangladesh

“Toxic Asia,” by Iftekhar Sayeed, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28931.

January 6

A well researched, well written, and well reasoned article about serious problems with no simple answers

“The True Cause of the Opioid Epidemic,” by Olga Khazan, THE ATLANTIC, https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/01/what-caused-opioid-epidemic/604330/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share&fbclid=IwAR3-EPQVj2noCdHdRvajOGiq9kqhXuUr1TapxOQwL_fgdp0Qg6lo-jOrF6w.

January 5

Not only GDP numbers but unemployment percentages fail to paint an accurate picture of what is going on economically. They paint a seriously rosy picture.

“Kill GDP to Help Save the Planet,” by Robert Hunziker, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/02/kill-gdp-to-help-save-the-planet/?fbclid=IwAR3JScPSvariVQY7Vf_nmJXpuzep4C3vpY4WFd8Pm8VCPOZdrpvEjFIlDeU.

January 5

News to me

“Our Nazis: the Gehlen Org,” by Gaither Stewart, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/02/our-nazis-the-gehlen-org/?fbclid=IwAR2zhnBPzC2_BJDP5SRfDwiuSOpT0aq8CaI3mK8Fn8ppzH1bIEHPz07fo-Q.

January 5

Interesting

“Bad Planet,” by John Davis, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/02/bad-planet/?fbclid=IwAR373mdR9U6BsH-NrGKV0V7Q_ZgnGWeXBAxA5cuoLn8nInU0F8x8d7WTUhQ.

January 5

Hope he’s not right

“A Grim New Definition of Generation X,” COUNTERPUNCH, by Ted Rail, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/03/a-grim-new-definition-of-generation-x/?fbclid=IwAR06j6JXvwS2XVZPUPEVugny25OxLwnGKwCw7xDt5nYC2a5U5qhxcdygmLE.

January 5

Brave and good kids

“Work of Necessity, Work of Choice,” by Carolyn Coe, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/03/work-of-necessity-work-of-choice/?fbclid=IwAR37WQAAKu3d1Nz-ouuMvKoI6LxW9s3hJVgWwYhB2eG13ksoswW4b9iONYk.

January 5

Afraid Hornberger is right

“A Limited-Government Republic versus a National Security State,” by Jacob G. Hornberger, THE FUTURE OF FREEDOM FOUNDATION, https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/a-limited-government-republic-versus-a-national-security-state/?fbclid=IwAR3btI3Tffchus2cbyezZqItRVGtzwxbJvko57B4a9_Gw7o7QPJsTNAFAWg.

January 5

Goes without saying

“Sanders introduces measure to block funding for Iran strikes,” by Andrew Blake, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jan/4/progressives-seek-to-block-funding-military-action/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork&fbclid=IwAR2oe0lVb2Obntb927cmJa0ZHQP3w1IEFMkuh990MGjRVCd1_Go87WoDdOA.

January 5

Hard to comprehend

“24 people dead 500 million animals dead 8,000 kaolas dead Over 5.5 million hectares burned (the size of Belgium),” PAKKE AUSTRALIA WALE, https://www.pakkeoz.com/2020/01/24-people-dead-500-million-animals-dead.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR0wC9WDz9GV5JxHWviory6O95qUps38obyaZFrlpAoP6zdSVGek49t4ic0.

January 5

Who knows? He might get away with it without setting off WWWIII, if his body guards are good enough protecting him. I would not recommend Trump taking any announced trips to specific locations near Iran anytime soon.

“Iran ‘offers $80 million bounty for Donald Trump’s head’ after death of general,” by Milo Boyd, MSN NEWS, https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/other/iran-offers-2480million-bounty-for-donald-trumps-head-after-death-of-general/ar-BBYDj63?fbclid=IwAR04J1rnKduVB8gXsJgOEXCf6Dz4VoJU8uPsjPT6O0Xa6Znmam3YopQl2g8.

January 5

More than a little truth here

“Corbyn’s defeat shows that Western democracy is built on lies and contradictions,” by Danny Haiphong, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28884.

January 5

Proves you can change your mind

“Impeachment derangement or how I learned to stop hating and love Trump,” by Douglas Valentine, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28884.

January 5

Smart lady wrote this. Hope she’s right.

“The key to the environmental crisis is beneath our feet,” by Ellen Brown, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28903.

January 5

Pathetic

“An Eyewitness to the Horrors of the US ‘Forever Wars’ Speaks Out,” by Kathy Kelly, National Catholic Reporter, TROUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/an-eyewitness-to-the-horrors-of-the-us-forever-wars-speaks-out/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR27NHq3QXmjLUMLAGT8LGLR4l7hCW1qfl_1UzG4guYZwMEETChsR6onrkw.

January 4

Bullshit article by a bullshit writer. Thinks low birth rates are an existential threat. Low birth rates are a good thing. Let them roll. Low birth rates will eventually make it easy to produce enough necessities of life for all living Earthian humans without destroying all Earthian species burning fossil fuels to create energy. On the other hand, human caused climate change, a massive global economic collapse, or nuclear bombs could bring Earthian human affairs to a screeching halt. These are real existential threats.

“Our Real Existential Crisis – Extinction,” by Patrick J. Buchanan, PATRICK J. BUCHANAN OFFICIAL WEBSITE, https://buchanan.org/blog/our-real-existential-crisis-extinction-137964?fbclid=IwAR0mUL9TMu4U0VxAcP1xL65xAnu9N0NBDCWgnM9nn9Jav0MmsESdjELeVAQ.

January 4

All made possible by computers and computer software. Analogous to what happened in Russia when they gave up communism. Bureaucrats and cronies got control of the spoils and they just got richer and richer, becoming oligarchs. Controlling software in companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Oracle, and what have you around Spaceship Earth is like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie controlling oil fields and steel mills. What is needed is de-privatization, that is to say, nationalization, or internationalization, to spread the wealth among all humans.

“Privatization is resurrecting feudalism,” by Paul Craig Roberts, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28914.

January 4

More than you wanted to know about the environment

“World Gone Wrong: an Environmental Diary of 2019,” by Jeffrey St. Clair, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/03/world-gone-wrong-an-environmental-diary-of-2019/?fbclid=IwAR2neOOCrdD_3c3qazMpcxjUrYYxHwhCKralihutqUCl-6GH5PpjuIaT3kA.

January 4

Surely they are just playing dumb trying to match and pace their presumably dumber voters. If not heaven help us.

“The Democratic Party’s Campaign to Re-Elect Trump,” by Paul Street, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/03/the-democratic-partys-campaign-to-re-elect-president-trump/?fbclid=IwAR1ROn28NeiYQN-h390G4EhfJe7ZmhG-GnAmGbE8NfLiXSviNFSwz52qjMQ.

January 4

Got a long way to go

“‘Shit-Life Syndrome,’ Trump Voters, and Clueless Dems,” by Bruce E. Levine, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/03/shit-life-syndrome-trump-voters-and-clueless-dems/?fbclid=IwAR049JZd-_6UuQSkH3gk5iMDiGFk6u1WXQdzHoKndAy410euvU5DEdyhh78.

January 3

Here is the litmus test for proving if you are really for peace. Are you for the greater good for the greater number?

“‘Right Now is the Moment to Decide If You Are Pro-Peace or Not’: Ocasio-Cortez Joins Progressive Chorus Against War,” by Eoin Higgins, staff writer, COMMON DREAMS, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/03/right-now-moment-decide-if-you-are-pro-peace-or-not-ocasio-cortez-joins-progressive?fbclid=IwAR1XK1e6dPr7egvo0orlq-6bpZNaPdYBB554PgOtJjAZSe7JflxeNwwzcz4.

January 3

BE sure and click on this to see more pictures and quotes.

“War is a Racket,” by Smedley Butler, US Marine Corps Major General, FACEBOOK, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/03/right-now-moment-decide-if-you-are-pro-peace-or-not-ocasio-cortez-joins-progressive?fbclid=IwAR1XK1e6dPr7egvo0orlq-6bpZNaPdYBB554PgOtJjAZSe7JflxeNwwzcz4.

December 28

After several afterthoughts and updates the last article I wrote, edited, and published in the Effective Learning Report and posted on Facebook yesterday now shows in this version more clearly why Earthian humans need to repent and discontinue their organizational sins to save themselves from global warming and climate change.

“A Strategy for Actually Draining the Political Swamp of Spaceship Earth,” by Richard John Stapleton, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/a-strategy-for-actually-draining-the-political-swamp-of-spaceship-earth/?fbclid=IwAR3Y46rtVKw-EvoKOZ5kaY8OFwk_4vFAG5_bQm-_KNLExqZ0D88QWLRo4yM.

December 28

Try it. You might like it.

“Stop Believing in Free Will to Cause Peace Aboard Spaceship Earth,” by Richard John Stapleton, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/stop-believing-in-free-will-to-cause-peace-aboard-spaceship-earth/?fbclid=IwAR2Yo1nzTIvSbMmfG-eyy8NUVz7QrzxSGhV5_H-vudmlQa-Omn7e3DPf7iY.

December 27

Will it make any difference? Surely the US will have enough time to shoot off enough nukes to destroy Russia before this new system can hit the US, assuring MAD (mutually assured destruction) as usual if Russia pulls the trigger first, leaving all-out no holds barred serious war as obsolete as it is now barring human extinction. Unfortunately this would leave in place the small busy work type wars with no end we have now to keep the deep state employment going. On the other hand the US will probably try to copy the new Russian technology to restore the same balance of terror MAD system that existed before the Russians came up with this new faster missile system.

“New Russian weapon can travel 27 times the speed of sound,” by Vladimir ISAchenkov, ASSOCIATED PRESS, https://apnews.com/597e7f2b20b21af959e4c6983b255c37?fbclid=IwAR23WtWaqwcAGLvSfr2nCvvMC9FHDw5PSQPtxjTkmsM4Z_bULi4fHmbl4Yk.

December 26

Here is a story I co-wrote, edited, and published

“A True End of Year Holiday Story That Just Happened on the Internet,” between Courtenay Barnett and Richard John Stapleton, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/a-true-end-of-year-holiday-story-that-happened-on-the-internet/?fbclid=IwAR1glKqgD0WOBIrsPV7aemEXVRktJ30xmZRfxWJ8zX3Y3butBK2Os-9kMwo.

December 26

This psychological Game reminds me of the cartoon I saw somewhere showing a sheep dog and a wolf amiably chatting with one another punching a time clock to start another workday as usual pretending to threaten and protect the sheep blissfully grazing in the valley below. This psychological Game, sometimes referred to as the “Forever War”, is a busy work charade designed to maintain employment and profits for deep state personnel and corporations around Spaceship Earth and to maintain the international banking and balance of payments system and the strength of the US dollar that makes it possible for the US to manage its budget deficits and international trade deficits year after year.  

An important point is that not only are the leaders of the US playing this Game, so too are the leaders of Russia, China, Syria, Iran, and numerous others, maybe all national leaders, who enjoy being the TOP DOG in their countries with all the spoils they can muster appertaining thereto. Unfortunately these Games keep the mass of Earthian humans living in poverty and misery while a minuscule minority at the top get richer year by year at an exponential rate. 

If you haven’t already read it, be sure and read Michael Hudson’s illluminating article listed at the top/beginning of this list of Sources for this issue of The Earthian Forum to really understand what is going on here.

“Impeachment is a Distraction: Heavily Scripted Vote Demonstrates That Democracy Really is Dead,” by Philip Giraldi, STRATEGIC-CULTURE, https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/12/26/impeachment-is-a-distraction-heavily-scripted-vote-demonstrates-that-democracy-really-is-dead/?fbclid=IwAR2FqosGwwZNrAFIAYncmL6ychHxmGYQeeGGMKR_vK-z_9khFRZuQVtDofY.

December 25

Say it aint so joe

“CO2 and Climate Change, Old and New,” by Manual Garcia, Jr., COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/12/23/co2-and-climate-change-old-and-new/?fbclid=IwAR2d0MtA3CA7WVIE6wwypZu3wAtmlWz00h2j2KNIhUOyJEmeZF18kVkm0eg.

December 25

Most horrifying is the way this tipping point has been inexorably developing for decades. The burning of the Amazon has been in the news for a long tine and nothing has done anything about it.

“The Amazon at a Tipping Point,” by Robert Hunziker, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/12/24/the-amazon-at-a-tipping-point/?fbclid=IwAR0ZQ-y1T_qrvQy2dZ9GIOU8n3pATWjmNrhOo2yrqp5Hp8eiUlMze7PDZYM.

December 25

The best article on the subject i have read

Is this the relevant point? “Yet, a European-style proportional representational voting system would have put a rainbow coalition led by Labour into power, giving the Tories just 288 seats.”

Pathetic haw things have gotten twisted around to protect and promote the boorish as leaders in the US and in the UK

“The Dream is Over: How Boris Johnson Won the UK Election,” by T.J. Coles, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/12/24/the-dream-is-over-how-boris-johnson-won-the-uk-election/?fbclid=IwAR1-0xtgm4Uu9v9fcgCamHdHCZCyuagsCQhZxLeyOcNdB9luPT-DWgjpHOY.

December 23

Afraid he’s right

“More Fascist Nonsense from a Disgraced President,” by Paul Street, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/12/20/more-fascist-nonsense-from-a-disgraced-president/?fbclid=IwAR3_ivvE4oeEvhwGHGP8nV5dp9ZrgAkQGjMB_I70ruJqREkUd61iHXMMoMk.

December 23

A short article with a powerful opinion. Been ‘sayin the same myself for about twenty years.

“Nobel prize-winning economist debunks right-wing economics,” by Kian Maalekanian, NORTH, https://north99.org/2019/10/30/nobel-prize-winning-economist-debunks-rightwing-economics/?utm_content=buffer166ce&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_north99&utm_campaign=buffer&fbclid=IwAR0e-wPy9DjCTNVbDpU-NAgNs1zmJ7cyW3QoLQMhCC4izJK6Zh04Qg1pWHE.

December 22

They are good to eat you know. If there are now too many wild hogs up North, then Yankees need more hunters. A friend of mine had a brother-in-law here in Georgia who liked to hunt wild hogs, who cooked up one of them I ate some of. Tasted pretty good. Pretty much like regular hog meat.

“Feral Pigs Roam the South. Now Even Northern States Aren’t Safe,” by Jim Robbins, THE NEW YORK TIMES, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/science/feral-pigs-canada-texas.html?fbclid=IwAR2xN0qBHWSyH2mv8-ZqPwW3–__DuAN2_tEwWKFjPcRD8MsAfA_JJWa1UY.

December 22

Not broken up, nationalized. Needs to be run like the US Postal Service.

“One of Amazon’s first employees says the company should be broken up,” by Jason Del Ray, VOX, https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/12/20/21031694/amazon-employee-break-up-paul-barton-davis-marketplace-sellers?fbclid=IwAR1RXe4JND0CrYavdzj1YasVH2BRmXAb9Wky5tzdHiwgwOYypT3jmlq6IvY.

December 20

Yes, he’s guilty as sin, but has he committed high crimes seriously threatening the nation?

“Is Trump Guilty? An International Lawyer’s Perspective,” by Courtenay Barnett, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/is-trump-guilty-an-international-lawyers-perspective/?fbclid=IwAR02_SZsLImn7dKrmb1rzOKHK1PeIO5XOt_-muYX0BKBjdWRBiz4CG0J-jY.

December 20

First time I have heard an economist mention aggregate demand in some time. I used to write about it myself. The Nobel economist cited above has an idea designed to increase aggregate demand. Raise the taxes of the rich and large corporations. Hard to believe he won a Nobel Prize for it. It’s pretty much common sense: the best way to increase aggregate demand is to put more money in the pockets of consumers who will spend the money on consumer goods, and the best way to do this is to raise the tax rates of the rich and the large corporations back to where they were before 1980, before Reagan unleashed voodoo economics and Repuglicans became Keynesians by lowering the taxes of the rich and large corporations and increasing budget deficits, which they said don’t matter, leading the US down the primrose path to perdition it is on now, and then spend the increased tax revenue on infrastructure jobs, hiring the dispossessed at middle class wages. Voila.

“Neoliberal economics destroyed the economy and the middle class,” by Paul Craig Roberts, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28870.

December 19

Now here’s some news for you. Apparently they have decided sin matters after all.

“Evangelical magazine Christianity Today: Trump must go,” by Elana Schor, Associated Press, https://news.yahoo.com/evangelical-magazine-christianity-today-trump-011557667.html?soc_src=hl-viewer&soc_trk=fb.

December 19

So it seems

“The News Churn Memory Hole: How the MSM Lies Even When Telling the Truth,” by Caitlin Johnstone, MEDIUM, https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-news-churn-memory-hole-how-the-msm-lies-even-when-telling-the-truth-3662de102ff2.

December 18

Telling. Anyone should know the stock market is pumped up by Federal Reserve funny money. How long can the Fed keep it up? If the US is being Japanized seems to me this sort of thing can continue for several more years.

“FedEx CEO: ‘The Stock Market is Very Bullish, But The Industrial Economy Doesn’t Reflect Any Growth At All Worldwide,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/fedex-ceo-stock-market-very-bullish-industrial-economy-doesnt-reflect-any-growth-all?fbclid=IwAR1MP124h37exn3Zc6-aZnGz-j61OKaZEy1LHMsh0t-6nuCH2PUd-PHBbXQ.

December 18

Are Americans and Brits in the same boat economically and politically?

I just published a new article in the Effective Learning Report by Courtenay Barnett from the Turks and Caicos Islands entitled “The British Election – 2019.”

“The British Election – 2019,” by Courtenay Barnett, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-british-election-2019/?fbclid=IwAR3Xb6p2aUhVnacYaDoiyl5HRTqliX-tHqlR8F-Q5dwEhTQE-V1HYykS7IE.

December 16

More great reporting by Paul Street. What next?

“The Woman-Hater-in-Chief,” by Paul Street, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/12/16/the-woman-hater-in-chief/?fbclid=IwAR0KK3Rr1Z8_NIQq9RW3HVDYVoLMJXb_WxEcDvf5V5C-enM-AEr8bm-vGjs.

December 15

Why not do it?

“The Stubborn Persistence of the Military-Industrial State,” by William D. Hartung, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/the-stubborn-persistence-of-the-military-industrial-state/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR1d8GKYR9wmI03p0IK76wmcAubuGWknT5AwBDCzV81WP-4I36UoIwm1wUM.

December 16

Yes, but can you make it happen? See my attempt at creating real democracy with the Ogeechee Economic Forum described in a post on the masthead of this blog above on this page. Having conducted the forum once a month about a year I have never had more than five participants show up. According to one of the participants most people are afraid to participate in face-to-face political discussions because most of their bosses don’t want them discussing politics at work or in public, even on their own time.

“For Real Democracy, We Need Political Participation at All Levels of Public Life,” by Eve Olney, Roar Magazine, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/for-real-democracy-we-need-political-participation-at-all-levels-of-public-life/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR2X5cQwiLjE8-j89V_BNRcECxNCaeZOFS3VUaOuQtOQ5xCTtQwWVIOdXIs.

December 15

I consider myself a Progressive and I for sure am not trying to coax anyone back into a corporate party. Quite to the contrary, I would like to coax voters back into a truly democratic party independent of the corrupt and rigged DNC and RNC National Committees.

“Intentionally or Not, Progressives Are Coaxing Us Back Into a Corporate Party,” by Chris Morrill, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/intentionally-or-not-progressives-are-coaxing-us-back-into-a-corporate-party/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR0x70maJsIOnw–H1Ha5K3s3BPsHSW3cAm0GMRzWVZyhp5s_vzGWM1RI4c.

Feel free to forward, share, post, print, or otherwise circulate The Earthian Forum any way you see fit.  

FOR A FREE SUBSCRIPTION to the EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT and THE EARTHIAN FORUM: Email [email protected] and punch subscription into the subject line.     

Richard John Stapleton, Certified Transactional Analyst, Educator, Writer, Editor & Publisher

BETWEEN COURTENAY BARNETT AND RICHARD JOHN STAPLETON

CB to RJS and Others December 20, 2019 6:45 PM

AND

Peace to all Men and Women of Good Will (and may the evil ones all go to the burning “Bush” and “Blairly” be lost forever)

To Our Muslim Brothers

SALAAMU ALAIKUM


To Our Hebrew Brothers and sisters

Happy Chanukah


To my African brothers and sisters in and out of Africa

Happy Kwanza and Kwanzaa


To our atheist and agnostic brothers and sisters

Have a good day

( and if you are of a group that I forgot or did not specifically mention – good will to you nevertheless, but send me your details and you will be included next time in the list above – promise)

And to Our Christian brothers and sisters


MERRY CHRISTMAS
CHRIST IS BORN
. . . + . . .
. . # . .
. . ### . . .
. .”#:. .:##”##:. .:#” . .
. . “####”###”####” .
. “#:. .:#”###”#:. .:#” . . .
. “#########”#########” . .
. “#:. “####”###”####” .:#”. .
. . “#######””##”##””#######” .
.”##”#####”#####”##” . .
.”#:. … .:##”###”###”##:. … .:#” .
. “#######”##”#####”##”#######” . .
. . “#####””#######””#####” . .
. ” 000 ” . .
. .. __000___ . . .
/. 000 ./|
/_______/ |
| Barnett| /
|_______|/

This email is sent as a “love gift” for Christmas 2019. It is also a “health gift” – the best gift a human can have – compliments of Dr. Courtenay.

There are six  gifts in this package.The inner health gift.

1. The inner health gift

We unwittingly ingest parasites at times from vegetable and other foods. Normally our system will deal naturally with these, but there is a way in which we can improve our inner health. The papaya fruit is a fruit with dual healing properties. The papaya is a natural meat tenderizer. This also means that it has properties that are beneficial for our digestive system. It will literally melt what we have in our digestive tract, and in its natural state it is absorbed quickly by our body. So, eat a complete papaya once a week, and you are assured that it will do its cleansing best in your system. Next, do not throw away the little black seeds – eat them. The reason for this is that the seeds have anti-parasitic properties. So, about once every two weeks eat a handful of papaya seeds. You can dry and store these and have them in your kitchen cupboard, and make this a part of your regular diet.

2.  The healthy nerves health gift.

There is a fruit that grows in the Caribbean known colloquially as the ‘sour sop’. It is green with a soft spiny exterior, and has white flesh on the inside. It is used to make a drink, which when taken has natural properties that are good for the nerves. Some of the other health properties can be found at this web site: http://hubpages.com/hub/Medicinal-Benefits-of-Soursop

3.   The good night’s sleep and clean skin health gift.

Fever grass – also known as lemon grass – makes a tasty tea, and as a lotion does wonders for the skin. It naturally assists with a good night’s sleep. When rubbed on the skin as a lotion, it has anti-fungal properties and naturally cleanses the skin. Dr. Courtenay recommends “Country House products” out of Jamaica, for this lotion:[email protected]

4. The overall good health tip.

Try consuming the Moringa plant. I have it on island and I make a tea from the leaves which Idrink. It has been scientifically proven to have a wide range of beneficial properties. Rea here, for more information:-

http://www.edlagman.com/moringa/moringa-health-benefits.htm

5. The clean teeth tip. 

Use the peel of the banana on your teeth. Rub the inside on your teeth. You will find that any yellowstains or discolouration is naturally removed, and this method does not in any way damage the enamel. 

6. The healthy body tip

Exercise two to three times a week – nuff said.

Now, these six (6) tips are worth a million dollars in total N.B. US and not Jamaican dollars ( i.e. measured in dollars – each tip brings to you a total of US$250,000). Therefore, for free you are receiving a very valuable present which you should treasure. Dr. Courtenay has packaged these six gifts in this exclusive package, and is sharing this special gift only with you ( well – to be truthful, with all my family and friends, because it really is a lot cheaper than buying conventional presents).

Disclaimer: The natural products are made by God, so if any one does not work, you are free to sue Him. I am available for all retainers ( having sued a Chief Justice – I will ratchet the challenge up to the high heavens).  The exercise tip is left totally to you  and  your use of your body, so if you want to over-stress your heart, then don’t blame me , nor should your estate bother me with any law suit.

Comment: If my day job does not work out, then via Barnett Enterprises Inc. these love gifts will be packaged and marketed globally at the heavily discounted price of $2.50 each. But, for now just appreciate and accept at the true value with all the extra zeros added on, and remember – that we can’t put a true value on good health.

These gifts come in our standard internet package, which requires:-

1.       That you open

2.       That you read

3.       That you apply your mind and not the delete button

These gifts are meant as an instructive and easy to use way towards better health – valued at least at a million dollars in total. Have a happy and healthy Christmas 2019, and even healthier new year.

Love,

Dr. Courtenay 

RJS to CB December 21, 2019 12:24 AM

Hello Courtenay.  Apparently you have had good parenting for all your ego states and you have a winner script. You are one of the lucky ones. I too am one of the lucky ones despite having been poorly parented. My father was a high functioning autistic and my mother was chronically depressed, both having high IQs. I am where I am largely because of being programmed to seek out good professional help. Born with a serious scoliosis and other bone problems I had to lie in bed three months during the summer of my fifteenth year lying on my stomach ninety percent of the time in a body cast after s spinal fusion operation, that prevented me from becoming permanently paralyzed from the waist down, which enabled me to live without back pain. Now seventy-nine years old I am sometimes amazed I made it as far as i have. I read on the internet a few months ago a doctor about fifty saying he did not want to live past seventy-five since life really was not worth living past that age for most people. I think he was about right but life past seventy-five is not that bad for me, not bad enough that I want to euthanize myself yet, but not good enough that I worry about exercise and what I eat and drink to live longer. I basically live from moment to moment doing what I have to do to get some satisfaction, dopamine spurts in the brain, one satisfaction being thinking I have helped someone feel, think, and behave better so as to live with more satisfaction than they otherwise would have. Not thinking it’s possible that any god such as those described by the religions you list could exist, I nevertheless hope that should there actually be some sort of loving spiritual thing eternally existing after I die, if there is any sort of human-like consciousness left after death, which I doubt there will be, that any such thing will at least give me a little credit for the good I have done on Earth, despite my not thinking any god described by mainstream Earthian religions can exist. Best wishes for an enjoyable end of the year holiday, or any other holiday anytime anything might cause you to have one. Cheers, Richard

CB to RJS December 21, 2019 9:24 AM

Dear Richard,

Thanks for sharing with me.

You have indeed had challenges to meet and nevertheless done extremely well in life.

I am off today to Jamaica to spend the holiday with family.

We will communicate further.

Later,

Courtenay 

CB to RJS December 21, 2019 7:12 PM

Here is my reply to your God( un-Godly?) reflections.

I am fully aware of who we are as human beings; the challenge is to deal with us as we are. So here ( I wrote it several years ago) and here share:-

http://www.daniellesgarden.org/dw-myth.htm

Myth – Danielle’s Garden Danielle’s Garden. TOWER HILL EDUCATIONAL FUND A/C 20067 Bank of Nova Scotia 1-3 Knutsford Blvd. kingston 5, Jamaica. E-mail: INFO@ DaniellesGarden.org . MYTH AS WORLD INSPIRATION www.daniellesgarden.org

RJS to CB December 23, 2019 10:12 PM

Hello Courtenay

Wow. You had great parents. It’s a beautiful garden they planted based on and dedicated to humanity with the best of sentiments, thoughts, and ideals, a great legacy. Thanks for sharing.

I enjoyed and appreciated your essay “Myth as Inspiration.” As usual it like your other writing I have read is well referenced and reasoned, artfully written, and rational, interesting, and informative. I agree with the notion that the development of myths such as those in your article were helpful and maybe necessary for human survival.  I have advocated for the renewal of similar processes along the lines of anthropologist Michael Adzema’s thinking cited in my essay “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc.” which is posted on the masthead of the Effective Learning Report.  

Christmases were not merry in the immediate family I was inevitably caused to be born in and those negative feelings get “rubberbanded” in my psyche every year caused by Christmas. I have a green sweatshirt with the words “Bah Humbug” printed on the front of it I wore again the other day. Regardless, my wife and I do Christmas rituals and she gets truly merry about it at times. We buy gifts for friends and family and ourselves, especially for my son and his wife and our three grandchildren in Vermont. Debbye and I had an enjoyable Christmas dinner with friends yesterday at the Country Club. I ordered sweet tea to drink and a friend told me I could get a glass of wine on Sunday. I told her no, that this was Sunday, and Jesus’s birthday was only a few days away.  Another friend at table, an Episcopalian, said “We drink real wine at communion.” And I said, “Yeah, but we Methodists always drank grape juice for communion, and I know Jesus may have served and drunk real wine with his friends, even at ‘The Last Supper’, but I think I will pass this time.” She smirked a bit, others raised their eyebrows and smiled some, and the dinner pleasantly progressed.

While I have no problem with cultural myths and rituals that promote peace and satisfaction I do have a problem with the politics of organized mainstream religions, Buddhism being the least harmful in my opinion. Most large organized religions are aggressive, coercive, manipulative, divisive, and exploitative, just what capitalism needs, and they encourage an I’m OK–You’re NOT OK attitude among members with respect to non-members, which in many cases leads to hatred and war. In my opinion these religions do more harm than good.  In many cases they dumb members down, absolving them of responsibility for rationally talking action to solve existential problems, turning them into passive gullible sheep, since they are taught to believe an all powerful all loving god answers prayers and will forgive and save them no matter how much they fuck things up if they profess to love and glorify him in religious ceremonies and pay his priests, preachers, and such to build churches, temples, mosques and various edifices to awe and intimidate more people into joining (Notre Dame comes to mind), thereby increasing the power of the religion overall, helping it win competing with other religions for prestige and the top dog position in the religion industry of the nation, in some countries almost eradicating competing religions over time. I lived in Turkey three months in 1982 and was astounded sightseeing around southeast Turkey near Adana where I lived that the area contained numerous well-preserved historic Christian churches, one founded by Paul of Tarsus of New Testament fame, at Tarsus today, with interesting frescoes and preserved pews, altars, and such; but there were no Christians in the region, the original Christians having long since been driven away.

As a child I thought Sunday school and church, and the Bible, were fantasies or irrelevant. My mother saw to it I went to Sunday school and church and I conformed but I more or less tuned it out. Those were my true feelings and thoughts on the matter of organized religion as I experienced it in the environment into which I was accidentally caused to be born without my consent. My grandfather on my mother’s side was a Methodist minister, and he wanted me to become a minister. He was about as heretical as I was about Christian dogma and doctrine, not believing in the virgin birth, and telling me “There is not an old man with a long white beard sitting up there in the sky on white puffy clouds with a walking stick in his hand looking down on us.” 

I have always had a problem “willingly suspending disbelief” having read few novels, considering it a waste of time to read something as if real that someone just made up out of thin air. Regardless, I have been writing a “novel” off and on for about six years, an allegory, which is more factual than fictional. My problem with the novel now is figuring out how to end it. How much should I lie? If I want to maximize my chances of selling a few copies I probably should make up a happy ending. To make the book sell via word of mouth I probably should tell readers that what they have just read will cause them to spend eternity in a heavenly paradise. On the other hand, at the rate I’m going most likely the book will never get finished and published, so the ethical question of how to end it is moot.

It seems the closer I get to death’s door at age seventy-nine the more intellectually honest I get about what I really feel and think, proving the less I have to lose the more intellectually honest I get. I would never have said to my students in class what I have written here. It’s always been risky to speak honestly in public about what you really feel and think about religion, as my Methodist minister grandfather told me, even, I might add, if you are retired with a good defined benefits pension, as you slowly but surely walk up the sidewalk closer and closer to death’s door. 

Regardless, time may also be running out for dysfunctional technologies, economic systems, political systems, political parties, religions, and cultural myths. Unfortunately the possibility exists today that there will be serious hell to pay if serious feeling, thinking, and behaving corrections are not made fairly soon in all Earthian human populations.  Human caused global warming and climate change, a massive global economic collapse, and nuclear bombs can bring Earthian human affairs to a screeching halt.

Best wishes,

Richard

CB to RJS December 24, 2019 9:50 AM

“Human caused global warming, a massive global economic collapse, and nuclear bombs can bring Earthian human affairs to a screeching halt.” 

Sad – and – I agree.

CB to RJS December 24 10:20 AM

This man is a college mate of mine; he is now a Professor of world religions…

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/letters/20191224/letter-day-let-us-still-be-thankful-christmas

Letter of the Day | Let us still be thankful for Christmas | Letters | Jamaica Gleaner Although there are these dubious associations, and mythological elements surrounding Christmas, let us still eat, drink, be merry, and be thankful that we’re still alive; and that we have family and friends around us during this season. jamaica-gleaner.com

RJS to CB December 24, 2019 11:11 AM

Agree

________________________________________

* COURTENAY BARNETT is a graduate of London University. His areas of study were economics, political science and international law. He has been a practising lawyer for over thirty years, has been arrested for defending his views, has been subjected to death threats, and has argued public interest and human rights cases. He has published several articles in the Effective Learning Report. He lives and works in the Caribbean.

* RICHARD JOHN STAPLETON, a certified transactional analyst, is an emeritus professor of entrepreneurship, organizational behavior, and business policy at Georgia Southern University. He has a BS, MBA, and PhD from Texas Tech University. His areas of study were economics, organizational behavior, and management science. He is the founder, editor, and publisher of the Effective Learning Report.

BY COURTENAY BARNETT

THE ADDRESS TO CONGRESS WHICH ( IN MY WILDEST IMAGINATON NEEDS TO BE HAD) – AT THE TIME OF IMPEACHMENT OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.

Honourable Chairman, distinguished members of this joint sitting of the Congress of the United States of America, honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen, I am truly honoured to have been asked to address this august body.

The historical context

I am Jamaican by birth, human by accident of existence, and an aspirant to be of  a higher order’s making, yet  truly humanitarian at heart. Why this humble person  should have been asked to address one of the world’s ( if not the world’s – save and except the UN General Assembly’s) most powerful bodies ( if not bodies combined) – totally astounds and defeats my wildest imagination. Nevertheless, here I am, so I advance  in response to the three(3) issues I have been asked to speak on:-

1. What is my opinion of what is the greatest strength of the Constitution of the United States of America?
2. What is my opinion of the Constitution’s greatest weakness?
3. What is my opinion on the recent impeachment of President Donald J. Trump?

The first question

In answer I can be very brief. It is that the U.S. Constitution is a well crafted document designed to ensure that there is strong governmental oversight with accountability and checks and balances.

The second question

This is a more complex matter, for the Constitution as a living document subject to the socio-economic environment within which it operates lends itself  susceptible to the power within and impact from that very environment. I shall explain with one (1) central and important example.

Now let us raise two(2) important names in US Post World War 11 history. The first is George Kennan – but – who was he? He was the US Ambassador to Moscow and then the US architect of the ‘Cold War’. Truly a brilliant man who authored a series of foreign policy papers which defined more than over half a century. Here is what he said with foresight:-

“Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy.”

He was correct and presaged what then in his farewell speech General ( Later – President) Eisenhower had to say with great sagacity and prescience  to the American people:-

“So is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

Stated briefly – he was saying – beware the military-industrial complex.

That is the nub of this, my Congressional address. All of you are there.

1. Where is the rationality in building and stockpiling more armaments ( many nuclear ones) which can never be deployed against another nuclear power without the predetermined outcome of mutually assured destruction ( MAD)?
2. What sense is there in building this global arsenal of bases and war planes and armadas and more weaponry – on and on and on?
3. Where in your Congressional oversight and is there anyone who ever begins to ask rational questions – such as the forgoing just posed?

I could proceed – but you would have to invite me back to present a full-throated delivery. Far too diplomatic to proceed further on this occasion  – lest I offend.

The third question

Here, I see that there is both a Constitutional and political  problem in the United States of America.

So, here I stand,  before you as an invitee to address the difficulties which your country presently faces.

I could lay a foundation to build on a structure of historical references. Rather, I speak and shall limit myself to the  truth about and immediate impact of the impeachment.  I do believe that what I have to say can be coded and encapsulated in quite diplomatic terms from which your own honest determination can make as an informed decision. I do so by way of an analogy.  

Problem

The problem in essence is that there is a President who is alleged to have abused his high office?

Issue

Did he?

Answer

I am not an American and so, while on American terrain, let me then address you in this wholly diplomatic manner.

I therefore reason, as I said I would, by way of analogy.

Say, for instance, a lawyer of great experience finds himself or herself asked by a Judge to represent on legal aid, an indigent female client.

The lawyer accepts.

The lady attends for first interview – and she happens to be extremely attractive.

The lawyer after accepting the professional obligation, in private, in coded language, makes clear to the client that while he is willing to advance her case, it would be subject to conditionalities of an amorous sort. He effectively seeks a ‘favour’ from the lady. He goes further and indicates relative to his professional duty that he could expedite to trial or he could await a longer route to trial. Unbeknown to him, a member of his office staff overhears the conversation and is appalled.  The  staff member anonymously brings the matter to the attention of the Ethics Committee of the Bar association.  In effect there is this  ‘whistle blowing’.

The lawyer  discovers that a formal complaint has anonymously been lodged against him in a two(2) pronged process:-

1. To the Ethics Committee of the Bar Association to see whether or not there is a serious matter to be addressed and then be referred upwards.
2. Reference to the Disciplinary Committee of the Bar Association, if there is a case to be answered.

The lawyer treats the Ethics Committee with total contempt and tells them that he will not be present and says further that the process is a  total sham and that it is a ‘witch hunt’ and forbids all his staff from speaking to the Ethics Committee.

The Ethics Committee in those circumstances examines the limited evidence which they have and in turn decide that the conduct ( read: misconduct) is sufficiently serious to be referred to the Disciplinary Committee. There is a case to answer.

The lawyer, knowing full well that his close and personal associations with all the members of the Disciplinary Committee, who are friends of his and/or persons who are wholly dependent upon him for referral of case work – which he is most able to feed to all and sundry – sits back with ease.

Conclusion

I am a total outsider – yet – I posit a humble opinion based on my legal knowledge. It is for you to decide whether or not the conduct of such a person, be it the lawyer or the President of the United States is ethical, is principled, is in accordance with the requirements and requisite standards of his office.

As I said, I am not an American citizen, but I realise that America has a Constitutional crisis on her hands.

Thank you for having afforded me this opportunity. 

While the lawyer in my analogous reference, is standing on safe ground – what does that auger for the future of the integrity of the lawyer’s Bar Association and legal system? Without undue interference – in any future American electoral process – what does President Trump’s situation auger for the American Constitution?

I remain most appreciative that this, again stated, august body, thought me worthy to address to their elected members.

________________________________________

* COURTENAY BARNETT is a graduate of London University. His areas of study were economics, political science and international law. He has been a practising lawyer for over thirty years, has been arrested for defending his views, has been subjected to death threats, and has argued public interest and human rights cases. He lives and works in the Caribbean.

BY COURTENAY BARNETT

I dispatch this missive to those who are thoughtful, intelligent ( whether from the right or the left) and who do believe that in this globalised world of ours, we actually all do need each other. In fact, even back to ol’ Ghengis Khan’s time  and before – ‘globalisation’ is not, on an accurate historical assessment, a new phenomenon. It has so been packaged to serve the interests of a narrow modern day elite ( but that commentary for another day and another time). Today we shall examine, in a brief way, the recent British election results.

First, let me go wide to narrow my observations.

For those of us who follow global political processes, then this becomes evident.  Jo Swinson, of the Liberal Democrats,   took a position which did defeat Labour remainders. She lent her support to Boris Johnson and his  call for an early election. That is where it all started. Comment: Swinson lost  her  seat to the Scottish National Party ( SNP) – a point to which I shall return.

Put the politics aside for the  moment and let me share my opinion ( for what it is worth) on the more important issue  of the economics of the moment as it may impact the United Kingdom going forward.

Frist, across the wide Atlantic we find some similarities between the US and Britain:-

1. In the US there is a so-called ‘rust belt’. 
2. In the UK there is the midlands and then Northern England.
3. With regards to both A and B these are primarily working class and blue collar people areas which traditionally are either solidly Democratic or Labour voters.

So, what happened in the UK?

I answer my question in this both practical and theoretical way.

It is not highly likely that persons faced with daily bread and butter issues are going to be raising questions in their minds about what is structurally dictated unemployment? Or, what is, as related to the first question, globally dictated  structural unemployment? The first question relates to domestic shifts in investment and the latter to the global situation. But, what does all of that have to do with anything? Actually – everything.

When global capital decides that it is investing in a region, or country ‘A’ or ‘B’ or ‘C’ as the case may be, the decision is made in totally pragmatic terms. More profit relative to the level of investment.

So, when jobs move from the traditionally established Western countries to more attractive and profitable regions of the world, such as China, then there is an unemployment hole left in the former US and UK industrial belts.

What then?

Well, the unemployed, or under-employed situation and others suddenly need an economic answer. How does that come?

It comes in the US from Donald Trump making a series of anti-immigrant; anti-Muslim; anti-Semitic embraced speeches and statements ( such as that there were good people on both sides in Charlottesville Virginia where the neo-Naizs were marching) and a general anti ‘other’ set of politically motivated speeches – which help to create tensions amongst diverse people within a country. Playbook followed over in Europe too.

But what is the real  problem?

Well, ‘dear leader’ Boris – may I suggest that your real challenge is as follows:-

1. How do you address the issues which the people in the Midlands and the North of England face – especially regarding jobs and unemployment?
2. If you can succeed in striking a US/UK trade deal – then on what terms and will same be proven to be mutually beneficial for both the US and UK? We already know that Donald, as with all his other ‘successful’ business ventures will be angling to do as he did with China – only to find that he has absolutely no basis of understanding of economics 101 when it comes on to trade-wars. But, be forewarned – the UK does not wield as much power as China.
3. You have promised more, much more investment, in education – and – you are to be commended for that.
4. There is the question of the future treatment of the NHS – and that remains to be seen.
5. The relationship with Northern Ireland and whether you prove to be a man to your word – remains to be seen.
6. Last, but not least, there is the SNP victory, which now necessitates an early, if not immediate second referendum on Scottish independence.

Boris, I am not your enemy, for at heart and throughout my legal career I have demonstrated and proven myself to be a humanitarian. Hate not – and – try to assist as best one can as a human being – one to the other.

I have given you a short ‘dirty dozen’. Do not despair – my hearty congratulations on your victory.

My short six( 6) points constitute  just an adumbrated form of the challenges which you face going forward.

But victor Boris and vanquished Jeremy, really and truly do not despair. I am on the cusp of completing my five(5) star Villa in the Caribbean, hopefully to be operational by mid-February, 2020. When the post-election stress hits both of you, be assured that both of you shall be welcomed. As regards you Boris – you are an avowed capitalist; and you Jeremy are an avowed socialist.

Let me give both of you  a warning.

Boris – you will have to pay top dollar, for that is what the market commands and you will have to pay full price for a top retreat and your much deserved  relaxation.

Jeremy – there shall be no Turks and Caicos Islands state subsidy paid out for your retirement and a justly due vacation. Full price as usual.

Based on that understanding, please book in advance.

________________________________________

* COURTENAY BARNETT is a graduate of London University. His areas of study were economics, political science and international law. He has been a practising lawyer for over thirty years, has been arrested for defending his views, has been subjected to death threats, and has argued public interest and human rights cases. He lives and works in the Caribbean.

By Richard John Stapleton

About thirty percent of US citizens love Donald Trump, mostly true-believing conservatives, evangelicals, etc.

About fifty percent of US citizens detest Donald Trump, mostly liberals, freethinkers, etc.

Some say the most significant difference between the two groups is racism, pure and simple. Who can prove it?

And some say there are fundamental differences in how the two groups see their worlds and think they should be run. 

True believer conservatives are in general authoritarians, generally seeing the world as black or white, with clear-cut rules that must be obeyed.

Liberals (moderates at least) are more democratic, more open-minded, more inclined to see shades of grey, and are more tolerant of differences.

And the personalities of the two groups are different.

True-believing Conservatives use more critical parent and adapted child ego state energy than Liberals. They believe more and question less.  

Since extreme Conservatives and Liberals know they are right they have permission to do less unto others than they would have others do unto them.  

They are more militant and warlike, more clannish. Their attitude is I’m OK and You (if you are different from me) are NOT OK.

Dyed-in-the-wool Liberals use more nurturing parent and free child ego state energy transacting with others. Being less authoritarian and less rigid they experiment more and are more respecting of the rights, feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of others.

Members of both groups think they are smarter than the other. Since they know they are right they must be smarter or they would not have decided what they decided in the first place, about how the world works and how it should be run, and about what and how one should adapt and flex transacting with others.

Trump may be the least hypocritical president the US has had, the most transparent, the least deceptive, thanks to his Tweets, in which he often blurts out whatever happens to pop up in his mind, despite generally being a venal ungodly selfish lying clown, who was smart enough not to lose all the money his family gave him, and who was smart enough to parlay his simplistic ideas and behaviors, and that inherited money, into becoming President of the (dis)United States–winning the biggest ego trip contest around Spaceship Earth.

Since Trump thinks like his supporters his supporters therefore think he is smart and they are smart for electing him president, confirming how smart they were all along, smarter than Liberals.

What needs to be drained in the Earthian political swamp is the pernicious pentagonal paradigm of organizational perversity, described by Stephen Karpman, MD, and the five deadly organizational sins, told to me by Martin Groder, MD, one of my transactional analysis mentors, described in detail in my book Business Voyages: Mental Maps, Scripts, Schemata, and Tools for Discovering and Co-Constructing Your Own Business Worlds (2008), still in print, available at Effective Learning Publications listed on the masthead of this blog above.

The Five Deadly Organizational Sins (drumroll please) are: Power, Money, Sex, Righteousness, and Smarts.

Why are these sins deadly in organizations? They’re deadly because they corrupt organizations, rendering them incapable of achieving effective goals efficiently.

If an organization’s members focus most of their mental and physical energy on proving how powerful they are, how much money they have (regardless of how gained), how sexy they are, how right they are, and how smart they are they will naturally waste energy that should have been used to achieve the organization’s legitimate goals.

Teaching organizational behavior in a business school and doing organizational development work with organizations as a consultant, I used to draw a pentagon on a flip sheet and then label the five points of the pentagon with the words power, money, sex, righteousness, and smarts, and then explain to my learners how each of the points could erode and maybe destroy the functioning of their or any organization.

In order to be effective and worthwhile an organization has to do work in its environment, changing something for the better or producing necessary goods and services in its environment, that cannot be done efficiently, or maybe at all, if people in the organization are primarily focused on adapting and flexing to the power, money, sexual, righteousness, and smarts urges and messages of others, especially if supervisors and managers up the organizational chain of command are demonstrating in multifarious social and psychological ways they are more OK than others, playing Top Dog, the most ubiquitous psychological Game in organizational life, caused by organizational leaders engendering an organizational culture in which subordinates are required to recognize socially and psychologically using verbal and body language signals (by saluting in fascist organizations) how powerful, rich, sexy, right, and smart their supposedly superior organizational leaders are.

For more detail on why and how this is true read my e-book, Recommendations for Waking Up From The American Nightmare, at Amazon.com, or my paperback book, Born to Learn: A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning, also available at Effective Learning Publications above.

One can build a case the US under Trump as an organization is now more sinful than any previous US administration, and the US is now the most organizationally sinful nation around Spaceship Earth.

The US has been sinking into its power-mad narcissistic self-righteous egotistical sinful ways for decades after inevitably winning WWII, electing relatively sinful presidents, starting in 1946 with Truman, with since then one relatively sin-free president, Jimmy Carter, but including three off-the-chart sexual sinners, Kennedy, Clinton, and Trump.

Truman, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II were among the worst money-grubbing, power-mad, and self-righteous US presidential sinners since the 1950s, dislocating and killing millions of Earthian humans, trying to prove capitalism is right, communism is wrong, and the US is entitled to a disproportionately large share of Earth’s wealth and resources.

Trump seems to think he is the smartest, calling himself a stable genius.

How to get the populations of all nations around Earth off the Five Deadly Organizational Sins Pentagon, not only top dog leaders, is another matter.

Whether it can be done before the consequences of past organizational sins destroy all Earthian species through global warming and climate change or shooting off nuclear bombs remains to be seen. 

Fascist economic and political systems encourage the five deadly organizational sins more than most, but no Earthian nation has been without organizational sin.

The US and China are now the economic and political leaders among Earthian nations. Both the supposedly capitalistic US and the supposedly communistic China have become more fascist in recent years. Whether Communist China becomes as fascist as Communist Russia did before it imploded remains to be seen.

One can build a case all national governments throughout Earthian history eventually ruined themselves committing The Five Deadly Organizational Sins, Power, Money, Sex, Righteousness, and Smarts, eventually becoming ruled by fascists mired in orgies of organizational sin, attempting to gratify themselves ensconced in isolated centralized power-mad hierarchies. Nero comes to mind.

Nations as organizations exist because of historical evolutionary forces that caused existing human practices and problems to be moved into new territories enabling individuals and groups to accumulate enough power to delineate and defend geographic boundaries, within which Earthian humans with similar beliefs, ideas, practices, and so forth could live with a modicum of peace and satisfaction. This process naturally entailed conflict, competition, and wars among nations and people.

Through time humans became addicted to competition and war, many finding it satisfying, raping, killing, pillaging, etc.

Many Earthian humans now think the major purpose of a nation is to win wars and prove it’s more powerful, rich, sexy, right, and smart than competing nations, as if playing college or professional football and basketball games in conferences and leagues, hoping to win a national championship.

Not so. The only legitimate justification for the existence of a nation is to produce services that enable Earthian humans to live peaceful and satisfying lives, proving in the process its salaried teachers, politicians, judges, civil servants, and military employees actually do some work, rather than waste their time and energy engaged in entropic time structuring such as playing Top Dog, I’m Only Trying to Help You, If It Weren’t For You, and other psychological Games not doing much for citizens and doing violence against other nations, imposing sanctions, invading and looting, and dropping bombs; reciting, performing, marching, and participating in ceremonies and rituals; and bullshitting with individuals, groups, and organizations.   

The best hope in the short run would be for deep-thinking hard-hitting politicians like Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard to resign from the contaminated ineffectual DNC to run in 2020 as Independents for president and vice president.

There might be enough of us disillusioned US voters and non-voters out there to put them in office.

They could not fully drain the swamp in eight years, but they could make a good start, proving third party candidates are more likely to drain the swamp than Deep State bought and paid for pork barrel establishment politicians, touted by conservative establishment Demos and Repugs in the DNC and RNC National Committees.

Feel free to repost, reprint, or otherwise share this essay any way you see fit.

Richard John Stapleton, PhD, CTA, is a certified transactional analyst, and the Editor & Publisher of the Effective Learning Report and The Earthian Forum at www.effectivelearning.net        

 

THE EARTHIAN FORUM, Number Thirteen, Effective Learning Publications, https://www.effectivelearning.net/effective-learning-publications.html 32 East Main Street, Statesboro, Georgia, USA, November 11, 2019

THE EARTHIAN FORUM is a digest of articles containing facts, perspectives, theories, models, analyses, and recommendations concerned about existential states of affairs affecting all species of fauna and flora around Spaceship Earth. Recent articles written and published by writers in Internet posts on ecological, economic, social, psychological, sexual, political, religious, and military states of affairs around Spaceship Earth are linked below as sources.

“ASK LESS WHAT YOUR NATION CAN DO FOR YOU–ASK MORE WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR SPACESHIP EARTH”

OR SO IT SEEMS TO ME RIGHT NOW

By Richard John Stapleton, PhD, CTA, Editor & Publisher

According to Michael Adzema, an anthropologist I encountered on the Internet a few years back, humans had it pretty good before they started growing their own food and raising livestock. Back in the day, say maybe thirty thousand years ago, the human species made a living by hunting and gathering food that nature provided in abundance in a few hours per day without straining and stressing themselves doing hard supervised labor for wages and salaries.

Humans lived in small groups that worked cooperatively to make a living. There would have been no need for hierarchical authoritarian management structures such as those in large corporations, governments, armies, and political parties today.

While most lives were probably shorter than they are now they could have been more satisfying and peaceful. 

But when humans started growing crops and raising livestock they had to compete with other humans for land, which they had to defend.

Over thousands of years humans created stories about how their states of affairs evolved. A common story was that human-like gods created humans to alleviate boredom and loneliness for themselves.

When things went wrong on Earth, such as droughts, diseases, and famines, humans assumed they had displeased their gods, so they created priests to figure out ways for humans to say and do things to please the gods, especially to obey things the gods told the priests they required. 

Humans gradually developed warriors and more and more powerful military forces to defend their tribes from competing tribes and to conquer land from other tribes.

This process of development stemming from moving from hunter-gathering to agricultural enterprises inevitably led to the creation of more and more specializations of ways of producing things and structuring time.

Most humans grew crops and herded cattle and sheep, but others spent most of their time fighting and training to fight, while others spent most of their time praying and conducting rituals and ceremonies to please or appease the gods; and some spent most of their time building houses and lodges, or erecting things such as pyramids, and doing many other things.

Over centuries or millennia some of the religious stories told humans they had once lived in a fabulous garden free of strife wherein they were happy, secure, and satisfied–until they angered the gods so much they were banished from their bountiful garden, according to one story, caused by eating a forbidden apple.

Stories about humans being banished from a fabulous nurturing garden to a hostile miserly world are still true in some particulars. Some humans still have to work long and hard most days to earn their bread by the sweat of their brows, and it remains true that most humans today live lives in miserly environments vastly different from life in any sort of Garden of Eden.

But evolution since the supposed human banishment from nurturing generous gardens has caused drastically different forms of misery for humans brainwashed in disparate inevitable cause-effect chains. Most Earthian humans today are relatively or absolutely impoverished, working long and hard most days, if they have a full time job, or two or three gig jobs, to stay alive; while about fifty percent of Earth’s wealth is now owned and controlled by about one percent of the Earthian human population, who do no hard physical work, or maybe no work at all of any kind, while all humans (rich and poor, workers and non-workers) are threatened with extinction caused by global warming, climate change, and nuclear war.

The major cause of the unfair economic inequality now existing among humans that evolved after most humans stopped their hunting and gathering ways many thousands of years ago is the Earthian capitalistic economic system, which enables some humans to acquire their necessities of life and other goods and services not by working but by owning capital; and the more capital they own the easier it is to acquire more capital at an exponential rate, to further increase their wealth through time.

It’s worth mentioning that a few hunter-gatherer tribes still exist today in biological jungles around Spaceship Earth, and most of their members are probably more satisfied with their egalitarian non-polluting lives than are most humans not living off the land in remote jungles, who are subjected to authoritarian hierarchical organizations to make a living and who are addicted to technological devices of all sorts that necessitate the polluting of Earth’s land, rivers, oceans and atmosphere.

Present day hunter-gatherer tribes seem to be doing everything they can to keep on hunting and gathering to make a living while non-hunter-gathering humans are slowly but surely destroying the environments of the hunter-gatherers.

However successful today’s hunter-gatherers may be defending themselves and their environments from invaders in their remote isolated biological jungles, most likely they too will become extinct if technologized Earthian humans mostly living in apartments in concrete jungles in large cities do not change their ways.

Assuming some anthropologists are right and the remote ancestors of humans today did live for many hundreds or thousands of years in a natural garden of sorts, hunting and gathering to make a living, what caused their good times to come to an end?

Did they displease their gods by doing something like eating a forbidden piece of fruit, or did they screw up some other way?

Most likely the hunter-gatherers were not banished from their good life in their garden because of violating an arbitrary godly commandment about not eating forbidden fruit. A more plausible answer is that they had to give it up because of having too much fun having sex making too many babies.

Despite having to work hard and long as farmers and ranchers to feed, house, and clothe themselves immediately after leaving their natural garden the former hunter-gatherers continued their overly-fecund sexual ways, producing by now 7.7 billion Earthian humans living aboard Spaceship Earth.

According to some versions and interpretations of the forbidden fruit story, the god was not arbitary, capricious or brutal.  He did not forbid humans to eat a real apple, and humans were not altogether to blame for taking a bite of the forbidden fruit. A snake seduced humans into eating a metaphorical apple, and the snake was a metaphorical devil, or some sort of evil. 

According to this interpretation, the god tried to protect humans from what has happened since then by metaphorically warning them about the consequences of unwise economic, social, psychological, sexual, political, and technological activity and policy-making.

An assumption of transactional analysis is that humans can learn to “see what is really going on” with themselves and others as they transact with one another socially and psychologically living their daily lives so as to increase their chances of living satisfactory lives, regardless of how not-OK their economic, social, psychological, sexual, and political worlds might be.

According to transactional analysis theory there are three naturally occurring generic life outcomes caused for humans:  winner, loser, and non-winner–caused by inherited physical characteristics and “messages” one is exposed to throughout life–and by the decisions humans accidentally make from earliest childhood about the messages that become quasi-permanent determinants of emotional, intellectual, and behavioral responses throughout their lives.

Whether one naturally introjects a winner, loser, or non-winner script is determined by naturally-occurring inevitable cause-effect chains one is accidentally exposed to in one’s environment and the accidental early decisions one makes before the age of eight about the messages. Some transactional analysts assume proportions of winner, loser, and non-winner scripts in the Earthian human population remain relatively constant from one generation to another.

A purpose of TA is to help individuals and groups insert new causes and decisions into natural cause-effect chains so as to increase the probabilities and proportions of winner scripts and outcomes in the populace.

Superceding a loser script with a winner script requires hard work but it can happen if a person somehow acquires new script messages powerful enough to control frustrating, debilitating, or harmartic script messages stored in subconscious memory. TA can provide people basic concepts and tools for attempting such a thing, requiring perhaps learning to use different ego states and transactional patterns and learning how to communicate in more effective ways psychologically and socially.

Superceding a loser script may entail changing the way one structures time, learning how to spend more time in work activity rather than playing psychological Games, or learning how to spend more time transacting intimately with others rather than spending time bullshitting, flirting, and doing rituals with others.

Using TA in some cases can help people gain more satisfaction from living, regardless of external circumstances, by enabling them to see more clearly what is going on in their lives and in their personal emotional, intellectual, and behavioral processes to make salutary changes, or in some cases by learning to accept one’s natural processes and script to focus on finding a niche in which they’re compatible.

On the other hand, a relevant question is whether serenity is possible for most humans in today’s world, beset as it is by global warming and climate change and by escalating tensions, agitations, and Game-playing among families, groups, and organizations around Earth.

TA never promised anyone any rose gardens, or eternal bliss in heaven, but it does advertise that it can help individuals, groups, and organizations become more ok, ok not only in terms of achieving goals but more ok transacting with others so as to live with more dignity, satisfaction, peace, and tranquility, based on contracts agreed to in Adult-Adult social transactions.

No one could blame you if you believe in tuning out TA and blogs such as this one. Maybe the best strategy for increasing your serenity is to tune out the world, burrowing up in your burrow as much as possible, reading no newspapers and not watching television, with no Internet. A problem however if you do this is boredom. Most humans have an innate need for stimulation, achievement, and recognition.

Regardless of what sort of cognitive structures humans might use, TA or whatever, sooner or later they have to take action, and this entails defining problems and goals, delineating alternatives, making recommendations, choosing things, trying new things, trial and error, over and over, till something works. 

1–What is the problem or opportunity?

2–What are the alternatives?

3–What do you recommend?

We live in precarious times that probably encourage people to play AIN’T IT AWFUL more than usual, a psychological Game in which Game players collect strokes for talking too much about the evils and troubles of world, positioning themselves as Victims of obsolete economic, religious, and political systems manipulated and exploited by greedy self-interested power-mad sociopathic oligarchs and leaders and their corrupt bought and paid for lackeys, especially lobbyists and politicians, however true that might be in reality.

By the same token, it will do no good for humans to passively pretend everything is just hunky-dory and swell, with everything coming up roses for everyone, living in small imaginary Candide-like best of all possible worlds, playing a psychological Game called GREENHOUSE by transactional analysts, in which players are rewarded with plastic strokes for making nonsensical positive cheerful upbeat comments about the environment and political, economic, social, sexual, and psychological states of affairs, regardless of how bleak they are in reality.

It seems to me the most dangerous psychological Game increasingly played today is IF IT WEREN’T FOR YOU, involving polarized agitated angry individuals, groups, and organizations who experience increasing insecurity and hopelessness causing them to blame others and find scapegoats for their plights, escalating their anger as they transmit threats from their angry Parent and Child ego states to the Parent and Child ego states of others, sometimes attacking others verbally and physically for their perceived misdeeds and beliefs. Some of the threats include the threat of international and civil war.

IF IT WEREN’T FOR YOU entails aggrieved aggressive humans psychologically believing that opposing competing parties maliciously and arbitrarily decided using free will to commit the harmful actions and deeds they are accused of committing, instead of realizing the others were caused by circumstances and script messages to do what they did just like the aggrieved aggressive people were. Getting rid of the other will not solve underlying problems such as poor family scripts, poor educational systems, poor religions, and poor economic and political policies and systems.

For more information regarding the use of Transactional Analysis  https://www.itaaworld.org/  to create better discussion groups and democratic processes read my book Born to Learn:  A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning.  https://www.amazon.com/Born-Learn-Transactional-Analysis-Learning/dp/0692584331 

For more information on how to co-construct better organizations and economic systems read my book   Business Voyages:  Mental Maps, Scripts, Schemata, and Tools for Co-Constructing Your Own Business Worlds   https://www.amazon.com/Business-Voyages-Schemata-Discovering-Co-Constructing/dp/1413480810

See my article “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.  This entails Earthians 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.

This can be accomplished using linear programming based on the general algorithmic matrix algebra form

Max CjXj, s.t. AijXj ≤, =, or ≥ Bi

as explained in “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc.”   https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-evolution-of-spaceship-earth-inc/  

Flying aboard an airliner about to land at night moving at four hundred miles an hour at thirty thousand feet with cloudy and rainy weather below, which would you rather have landing the plane, the plane’s computer system or the pilot and co-pilot looking out their windows with their hands clutching their steering wheels?

For details regarding my transactional analysis and management science qualifications see my RJS Academic Vita at https://www.effectivelearning.net/rjs-academic-vita.html.   

TO RESPOND:

As usual this month’s THE EARTHIAN FORUM  links and cites as SOURCES recent articles written and published by clear deep-thinking hard-hitting independent writers in various Internet publications on ecological, economic, social, sexual, political, religious, and military affairs around Spaceship Earth.  I generally agree with these writers about what is most relevant about Spaceship Earth states of affairs, but each of them brought up facts, analyses, conclusions, ideas, or perspectives that were new to me when I read them during the last thirty days or so, thereby teaching me something, which is why I included them in this issue of THE EARTHIAN FORUM.  

Some Game playing goes on in these articles, i.e., a writer is psychologically persecuting, rescuing, or victimizing someone, but it seems to me the writers are generally trying to paint accurate pictures of what is really going on economically, socially, sexually, psychologically, and politically. Unfortunately it seems to me one can build a good case that politicians spend most of their time playing psychological Games.

It’s not easy, impossible some say, to separate relevant from irrelevant focal points in order to comprehend global cases, systems, and processes, while being inundated with fake news and true facts of states of affairs generated daily around Spaceship Earth, made public on the Internet, and elsewhere, to see what’s really going on, using primarily inductive and analogical reasoning, based on probability, not deductive logic. Almost never can anyone prove with deductive logic that a general proposition about economic, social, psychological, sexual, or political states affairs is absolutely true. About the best humans can hope for is to develop consensual answers that are generally acceptable and true based on probability.

It’s better to be honestly wrong than dishonestly wrong, meaning it’s less harmful to tell someone something is true when you really do not know it’s not true than it is to tell someone something is true when you know for a fact it’s not true.

I am not sure which is most harmful: lying by commission or lying by omission. It seems to me most lying is lying by omission, people deliberately not telling people things they know are true that would be good for people to know. Lying by commission is deliberately dispensing fake news, telling people things you know are not true. Seems to me it’s getting harder for most people to know what’s true and what’s not, especially with a prolific Tweeter and consummate psychological Game-player like Donald J. Trump occupying the loftiest international leadership position around Spaceship Earth, thanks to about twenty-five percent of US eligible voters. It’s hard not to play LET’S YOU AND THEM FIGHT in these times, another psychological Game identified by transactional analysts.

If you have ideas on how to democratically discuss in Game-free ways economic and political problems and opportunities in something like the Ogeechee Economic Forum at  https://www.effectivelearning.net/ogeechee-economic-forum.html. go to our RESPONSES page and let us know about them at  https://www.effectivelearning.net/responses.html .

Feel free to respond with comments about any of the SOURCES listed below using our RESPONSES page; but please don’t make ad hominem attacks. Criticize the facts, data, evidence, reasoning, and conclusions in any of the articles any way you want to; but don’t slander the characteristics of the authors to illogically try to prove their arguments and conclusions are wrong and yours are right. Even Donald J. Trump is right about something ever now and then.

I don’t sell subscriptions or advertising or solicit donations for THE EARTHIAN FORUM, but I would like to sell more books. If you feel you’ve gained value from THE EARTHIAN FORUM and would like to reciprocate go to our Effective Learning Publications page and purchase one or more copies of my books at   https://www.effectivelearning.net/effective-learning-publications.html  .

Best wishes, RJS

SOURCES:

November 12, 2019

Say it aint so Joe

“Let us pause for a commercial,” by Dave Alport, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28552?fbclid=IwAR0mnwmDa3GCJGymi7UtNuZMDY_8hLSnbdJYDHZ60ipChbrLNYAT9310mg0

November 12

Has been obvious for several weeks

“Why the billionaires love candidates such as Pete Butergeig,” by Eric Zuesse, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28555

November 12

Say it aint so Joe

“Trump designates November as a de facto ‘white peoples’ month,” INTREPID REPORT, https://www.facebook.com/richard.stapleton.397

November 12

Sickening

“US staged coup d’etat in Bolivia,” by Stephen Lendman, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28562

November 12

Another nail in the coffin of USian democracy

“Our point remains: PBS should broadcast impeachment hearings in primetime,” by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28565

November 11

Pathetic

“Who Wants to Destroy the World?” by Phil Torres, OneZeroMEDIUM.COM, https://onezero.medium.com/who-wants-to-destroy-the-world-e7571c66397 

November 11

US no longer the kind of country I thought I grew up in

“US coup plot to oust Bolivia’s Evo Morales,” by Stephen Landman, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28539

November 11   

Let’s hope not

“The whole repo rigmarole underscores the sleight of hand on which our money and banking systems are built, and why it is time to change them. Banks do not really have the money they lend. To back their loans, they rely on their ability to borrow from the reserves of other banks, generated from their customers’ deposits; and if those banks withhold their deposits in the insatiable pursuit of higher profits, the borrowing banks must turn to the public purse for liquidity. The banks could not function without public support. They should be turned into public utilities, mandated to serve the interests of the people and the productive economy on which the public depends.”         Ellen Brown

“Is the run on the dollar due to panic or greed?, by Ellen Brown, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28546.

November 11    

Another great idea by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship

“PBS, televise the impeachment hearings for all to see,” Michael Winship and Bill Moyers, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28549.

November 10

Another significant spot-on hard-hitting article by Paul Street

“The Real Constitutional Crisis: The Constitution,” by Paul Street, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/11/08/the-real-constitutional-crisis-the-constitution/?fbclid=IwAR28Wt_zgNEXnMo8JmmAOmPVA2Je-6EH8_ZSj_ecG_pZKzJ1Za83cgwgdr8.

November 10

Now here is an interesting conspiracy theory for you, which seems more right than wrong to me. This fellow Pollock is the most tenacious and fearless truth teller I have heard in a while.

“USA Communist – China Nazi,” by Warren Pollock, GREG HUNTER’S USAWatchdog, https://usawatchdog.com/usa-communist-china-nazi-warren-pollock/?fbclid=IwAR0_PGprJA9CXyhuO7xQQWDg9oDk08njSSzahBWu5c9xG0-GQoo4dfRGoRo.

November 10

Interesting, hopefully true, but ominous if it is.

“Former Central Banker: ‘As A Young Man I Would Have Never Imagined This Would Be Our Destination,” by Eric Peters, CIO One River Asset Management, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/former-central-banker-young-man-i-would-have-never-imagined-would-be-our-destination?fbclid=IwAR3_ruh-4wotesxcqGJXPiK68_0ISLUPddturk27M7dhIpbVAFdjZQbA9O8.

November 9  

If you say so

“It’s As if JPMorgan and Goldman Vanished…,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/its-if-jpmorgan-and-goldman-vanished?fbclid=IwAR3gMvyVDavvQxV63uqkcyQe8d0au_wavUtSL1Vccim2maVsOSOxW0MnXpU.

November 9

More wise words from David Stockman

“David Stockman On How The Deep State Really Works,” by David Stockman, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/david-stockman-how-deep-state-really-works?fbclid=IwAR2oq2bD4mMYV3KY5HFwDF_lSLeipbjjEH0ffX5TY5CKv6MVq2Hx131f3S4.

November 9

Ominous

“53 Million Americans Drowning in Cycle Of Low-Wage Work,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/david-stockman-how-deep-state-really-works?fbclid=IwAR2oq2bD4mMYV3KY5HFwDF_lSLeipbjjEH0ffX5TY5CKv6MVq2Hx131f3S4.

November 9

Could not agree more. See my article “Why Large Powerful Political Parties are Evil,” at https://blog.effectivelearning.net/why-large-powerful-poli…/.

“Chris Hedges and Paul Street: The Problem is Not Trump. It is a Political System Dominated by Corporate Power and The Mandarins of the Two Major Political Parties,” by Chris Hedges and Paul Street, DANDELION SALAD, https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2019/11/09/chris-hedges-and-paul-street-the-problem-is-not-trump-it-is-a-political-system-dominated-by-corporate-power-and-the-mandarins-of-the-two-major-political-parties/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DandelionSalad+%28Dandelion+Salad%29&fbclid=IwAR2_ScHPq4FEWeuXU6d8uHgCl1SWBZRrBbbk6G5iXoMtS0dgP9bN9HRFy-w.

November 9

Here’s a new one on me

“AP’s ‘robot journalists’ are writing their own stories now,” by Ross Miller, THE VERGE, https://www.theverge.com/2015/1/29/7939067/ap-journalism-automation-robots-financial-reporting?fbclid=IwAR1vyxrXDpTZ87qSWoZhfyiVv0XpEXdTaCTt616LZ3X2DCVz1AUG0bpxzzM.

November 9

Yuk

“‘The World Could Look Like This’: Weather Channel Unveils Global Warming Apocalypse Propaganda,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/health/world-could-look-weather-channel-unveils-global-warming-apocalypse-propaganda?fbclid=IwAR0YAMP2d2iwhJlFHLunxpU9GCjaoidnFJca86nqf_Ozxu3jTuFyJoDLa-E.

November 9

What has this world come to?

“America’s Endless Wars: ‘At West Point, Graduation Day Felt More Like A Tragedy Than A Triumph,'” by US Army Major Danny Sjursen (ret.) via The Nation.com, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/political/americas-endless-wars-west-point-graduation-day-felt-more-tragedy-triumph?fbclid=IwAR1SFhScTuXeyehVvE2EWmAlksiY2qQbHT7b9X3Jgz5i0fvwlIRzeeB_Za0.

November 8

Now this will be an interesting case. About time this Harvard pettifogger got seriously challenged in court.

“Alan Dershowitz being sued by Jeffrey Epstein accusers’ lawyer for defamation,” by Priscilla DeGregory, Lee Brown, and Emily Saul, NEW YORK POST, https://nypost.com/2019/11/08/alan-dershowitz-being-sued-by-jeffrey-epstein-accusers-lawyer-for-defamation/?utm_source=facebook_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site+buttons&utm_campaign=site+buttons&fbclid=IwAR2kD4OLPAflnCjGUSd-DaNPTouFLV0p26LFp6PtooFmQnql8r2z0EM26Cc

October 31

Shows Tulsi Gabbard won the DNC CNN debates.

Shows a majority of US citizens of all persuasions and faiths might vote for Tulsi Gabbard for president.

Shows how the US two party system is ruining the country.

Richard John Stapleton, Writer, Editor, and Publisher, Effective Learning Report

“Why Large Powerful Political Parties Are Evil,” by Richard John Stapleton, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/why-large-powerful-political-parties-are-evil/?fbclid=IwAR16fQR7OgQipouoX6SsLupt1QEcU6Y1162FUKYhZ5YPxNpd5vB1H9ciVGQ

November 8

Another great article by Edward Curtin.  Most mass shooters we have had in the US have been “jokers.”

“What’s Joker’s joke? By Edward Curtin, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28527

November 8

Another must read article by John Whitehead

“A new kind of tyranny: The global state’s war on those who speak truth to power,” by John W. Whitehead, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28531

November 7

THE EARTHIAN FORUM – 12

THE EARTHIAN FORUM, Number Twelve, Effective Learning Publications, 32 East Main Street, Statesboro, Georgia, USA, October 2019

THE EARTHIAN FORUM is a digest of articles containing facts, analyses, perspectives, and recommendations concerned about existential states of affairs affecting all species of fauna and flora around Spaceship Earth. Recent articles written and published by writers in Internet publications on ecological, economic, social, political, religious, psychological and military states of affairs around Spaceship Earth are linked below as sources.

“ASK LESS WHAT YOUR NATION CAN DO FOR YOU–ASK MORE WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR SPACESHIP EARTH”

OR SO IT SEEMS TO ME RIGHT NOW

By Richard John Stapleton, PhD, CTA, Editor & Publisher

“Stop Believing In Free Will To Cause Peace Aboard Spaceship Earth,” by Richard John Stapleton, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/stop-believing-in-free-will-to-cause-peace-aboard-spaceship-earth/?fbclid=IwAR0ZGcdlCeQd1vqVUna6F9O_-cdHmP_znJVuHdJ67YgIn-sH6KFRZwRwOvI

November 7

Worth considering

“‘Not QE’, Monetization, & ‘Definitely Asset Inflation’,” ECONOMICA, https://econimica.blogspot.com/?fbclid=IwAR2OE02O9eJWmluodnbsFcWdrXkZ1Uvwem1ZrZ5DOlgDlGLe0opCGRYVppw

November 6

But even if you have money in the bank when the crash hits what happens if your bank fails before you can buy something on the cheap?

“Crashing The Financial System For Fun And Profit,” by Bruce Wilds, BRUCEWILDSBLOGSPOT.COM, https://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2019/11/crashing-financial-system-for-fun-and.html?fbclid=IwAR3OECqB2bsPf-T93Yq7u00xjLyc9kaKZuNlubCuQy3H9bd2meN7EL3ufL8.

November 6

So what. It’s common sense. Most likely if present trends continue, the human species around Earth will become extinct. Reducing the Earthian human population can be done peacefully over several generations, with more people naturally dying than being born. A rule such as no more than one child per female would do it. What is so horrible about that?

See my article “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc.” for some management science ideas on how this might peacefully happen at https://www.effectivelearning.net/spaceship-earth–inc..html.

“45 Population-Control Quotes That Expose The Elites’ Plan to Cut The Number Of People On The Planet,” by Michael Snyder, THEMOSTIMPORTANTNEWS.COM, http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/45-population-control-quotes-that-prove-the-elite-really-do-want-to-reduce-the-number-of-people-on-the-planet

November 5

Pathetic

“Trump to small farmers: Get lost,” by Jim Hightower, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28495

November 5

Say it aint so Joe

“Fascist pro-nuke assault on anti-bailout referendum headed to Ohio Supreme Court,” by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Waserman, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28497?fbclid=IwAR1BTXZZMc1jWMgOEsm91LKO4u_gtncwP6yUMc3f9Xkv3CJowMIZ-Z9w0Fs

November 5

If something like this can be done for $500 billion then it should be done ASAP.

“These U.N. Climate Scientists Think They Can Halt Global Warming for $300 billion,” by Adam Majendie and Pratik Parlia, Bloomberg, TIME.COM, https://time.com/5709100/halt-climate-change-300-billion/?fbclid=IwAR2ZGg-Q2J5hy88DvS-OhOw__YjyfRKWn1fzg-smuYyHDtFh0BrNwMRX98I

November 4

A well written story, not what you might expect.

“American Capitalism is Brutal. You Can Trace That to the Plantation,” by Matthew Desmond, NYTIMES.COM, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/slavery-capitalism.html?smid=fb-share&fbclid=IwAR3Jj1AH2F0a6rawhKAwtZbqu4FcIOaw3ZbVjPODmEC7H7UKFZW0G-7fBRI

November 4

And every spring gets a little quieter.

“The Writing of ‘Silent Spring’,” by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, GETPOCKET.COM, https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-writing-of-silent-spring-rachel-carson-and-the-culture-shifting-courage-to-speak-inconvenient?utm_source=pocket-newtab%3Futm_source%3Dfbsynd&fbclid=IwAR3w4CU5fUBvHs9iAESXzM9WMQ5bu7oN4L1P2lQZvElqSWDnZgY47qHi3qI

November 3

But money did not talk loud enough for it.

“69 years ago, a president pitches his idea for national health care,” by Howard Markel, PBS.ORG, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/november-19-1945-harry-truman-calls-national-health-insurance-program?fbclid=IwAR16aCNXkpCzaRSdI-2UsR21zIy7JERpxx5bWEovJizzJZpVZuVfg8hSTwc

November 3

And it’s been going on for several centuries. Cannot be cured overnight. Earthian humans have got to get smarter about this.

“Over-population is the real cause of climate change – it’s killing us all off,” by Joe Barry, CHURCHANDSTATE.ORG, http://churchandstate.org.uk/2016/05/over-population-is-the-real-cause-of-climate-change-its-killing-us-all-off/?fbclid=IwAR0Wn0U_JI3rezXX-mzBGTKT5JsKjdyj6tUDHgOvWBfULQ7c85fPxvgepmU

November 3

Warning. This story contains opinion trotted out as fact, not fake news per se, and probably qualifies as a conspiracy theory. Generally it’s a right wing extreme defense of free enterprise. The author asserts everything would be just fine if central bankers would just leave the wonderful capitalist economic system alone, not arguing there were would not be recessions and depressions, and much suffering caused by them, but making a case the suffering would be less than what is coming when the whole charade created by government intervention comes crashing down, like the sky falling. No way to prove any of this, but there is a grain of truth in it here and there. Fact is nobody knows what will happen any time soon. Unfortunately if Earthian human history does repeat there will be hell to pay by a sizeable percentage of the Earthian human population too soon. Carpe diem!

“The Federal Reserve Is A Barbarous Relic,” by MN Gordon, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/federal-reserve-barbarous-relic?fbclid=IwAR13TJ5w2H4C8oeNdqBLHRj0BX8kAIqJXMPpigIpW_U_xVXurA0RS_NmIX8

November 3

Give the devil his due on this one.

“Assad Calls Trump ‘Best US President Ever’ for ‘TransparEncy’ of Real US Motives,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/political/assad-calls-trump-best-us-president-ever-not-concealing-reality-us-action-abroad?fbclid=IwAR2E0zA1jcaPOY5edkVpWqbnXXm2Fr4RSLwklR3_8hH9IBmeFVU_oj6DJTM

November 1    

A US and UK atrocity

“‘All of us are in danger’: John Pilger delivers warning from Julian Assange,” by John Pilger, U-TUBE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/political/assad-calls-trump-best-us-president-ever-not-concealing-reality-us-action-abroad?fbclid=IwAR2E0zA1jcaPOY5edkVpWqbnXXm2Fr4RSLwklR3_8hH9IBmeFVU_oj6DJTM

November 1    

Harder for a rich man to get into heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle? This one might make it.

“Billionaire Marc Benioff: Capitalism has ‘led to horrifying inequality’ and must be fixed,” by Catharine Clifford, CNBC.COM, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/14/marc-benioff-capitalism-led-to-horrifying-inequality-must-be-fixed.html?__source=sharebar%7Cfacebook&par=sharebar&fbclid=IwAR37cGt6Yo9csmuKO-KUXm-cJwlQM36zuSmMCDf2unoFANNQjXknTLmjBo8

November 1   

A great article by a great candidate

“In Defense of Tulsi Gabbard,” by Maj. Danny Sjursen, TRUTHDIG.COM, https://www.truthdig.com/articles/in-defense-of-tulsi-gabbard/

November 1   

How the Internet evolved. Well worth a read.

“How the Internet lost its soul,” by Janet Abbate, The Washington Post, GREENWICHTIME.COM, https://www.greenwichtime.com/opinion/article/How-the-Internet-lost-its-soul-14775213.php?utm_campaign=CMS+Sharing+Tools+%28Desktop%29&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&fbclid=IwAR0VRqUaAmM-wk9pHSGQl1BxZbgzb1eoiCbWitMb9vJC7fOouztfzackzqs

November 1  

Remember Madlyn Albright? Secretary of State under Clinton, a former college professor who smarted off one day, “What good does it do to have this beautiful military if you never use it?” Well we should never have had this beautiful military in the first place, but if we had to have it we should not have used it. We were never threatened by a serious enemy. Part of the problem was the Great Depression taught the US how to avoid depressions. WWII solved the Great Depression by getting USians back to full employment killing people overseas and making tanks, airplanes, ships, ammunition, bombs, and what have you in US factories, via Ruby the Riveter who learned how to do man’s work in US factories while US men were making the world safe for democracy fighting Germans and Japanese in their countries. Assuming it was necessary for the US to enter WWII the US should have kicked its warmaking addiction as soon as WWII ended and developed a peacemaking economy, assuming such a thing is possible under capitalism, an economic system that requires halloween-like vampire nations to periodically suck blood from victim nations to stay alive longer than the rest. If the US had really wanted to be a peaceful nation the Korean War, Vietnam, and the Middle East wars would not have happened. On the other hand was it really necessary to do all this warfighting to capture enough oil to keep the us economy powered and USians rolling around in the US in cars, trucks, tractors, Harley Davidson motorcycles and what have you, making USians much richer than other folks around Spaceship Earth, for a while after WWII at least?

“The real basis for impeachment? Not phone calls but murder…,” by Jane Stillwater, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28445

November 1  

Another spot on article by Jake Johnson. Pretty much the same thing happened to retired faculty in the University system of Georgia health plan about four years ago when they were notified they were fortunate to be having more choices from now on. The result has been more and more costs for prescription drugs and other things. Overall health care costs for insurance and copays went up thousands of dollars per year for most retirees. Yes the retirees have more freedom of choice but so what if their costs and frustrations are greater? Buttegeig, Biden, and all the other Washington politicians bought and paid for by big pharma be damned. Profit making healthcare does not work for consumers. Healthcare is a natural monopoly. If the industry is not regulated as a monopoly by the government resources will inevitably be mismanaged and costs will not be controlled to benefit consumers. Providers will not be able to resist the temptations they will have to gouge people. Free enterprise is best in some industries, but not in this one, where consumers have to buy the product at any price or die or become maimed or chronically impaired. See my article “Why Healthcare Should be Managed as a Natural Monopoly,” at http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/21752.

Basically the federal government needs to regulate the healthcare industry like electricity is now regulated by states, setting equitable rates and prices based on return on investment criteria using mathematical processes, the only way in this industry to minimize cost for consumers and provide fair returns for producers.

For sure infinitely greedy oligarchs like Bezos will not minimize healthcare costs for their employees. What do you want to do, impoverish everyone but the elite rich who know how to game the system, for whom health care costs are trivial for them personally?

“‘We Need Medicare for All’, Progressives condemn Bezos decision to shift more health insurance dosts onto Washington Post staffers,” by Jake Johnson, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/28467.

October 31

Can you believe this? Money is so worthless as an investment you have to pay a bank in Denmark to allow you to deposit your money in their bank. How long will it be before US banks do this?

“World record in negative rates has bankers testing no-man’s land,” THE BUSINES TIMES, https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/banking-finance/world-record-in-negative-rates-has-bankers-testing-no-mans-land

October 30

Another truthful right on hard-hitting article by Paul Street, except he left out that Tulsi Gabbard won the CNN DN C debates. See my article “Why large powerful political parties are evil” to set this matter straight at https://blog.effectivelearning.net/why-large-powerful-pol…/….

“Money Talks, Bullshit Walks on Cable News,” by Paul Street, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/10/30/money-talks-bullshit-walks-on-cable-news/?fbclid=IwAR3-gEVxP_khMhNzzyOVVw6z0t7SXP71vHYtFdd5nJPqoY1Mow_PVo0HDdQ

October 30

Not good. This is fascism pure and simple. Scary

“Vowing Nationwide Crackdown, Trump Touts More Militarized US Police,” by Jake Johnson, TROUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/vowing-nationwide-crackdown-trump-touts-more-militarized-us-police/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR3x7WcR9OBVQCLbmMpPM1I1In63i1PeM1WeO4rdrvePrwx9I7Iqj1FtmuY

October 30

Apparently we need a USian Magna Carta

“Trump Says the President is Above the Law. Don’t Let This Doctrine Stand,” by Sasha Abramsky, TROUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/trump-says-the-president-is-above-the-law-dont-let-this-doctrine-stand/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR0N0bKoYUpfeaGfDAIoDf5YqJNj47OTE5BwXjTTMBUpJC9oJiIu9I5CD7Y

October 29

Interesting

“Three things you didn’t know about the crash of 1929,” by Simon Black, SOVEREIGNMAN.COM, https://www.sovereignman.com/investing/three-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-crash-of-1929-26123/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=website_share&fbclid=IwAR0Wuz4az4F6wyl9qCt8r5PoDxP9_vNaBBUm9XCXaXgpGwQJrqO4qYa4MmQ

October 29

Excellent points. Been saying the same things myself since the Reagan voodoo economics days of the 1980s.

“Warning! Interest Rates, Inflation, and Debt Do Matter,” by Bruce Wilds, BRUCEWILDSBLOGSPOT.COM, https://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2019/10/warning-interest-rates-inflation-and.html?fbclid=IwAR3sHOxpEQ1ppN1M4EYJBpqDZrq8DmZGUnp53NJGK8P3z_wiLAKWE9K5NQg

October 29

Excellent article. Legalize and tax all drugs and then control them, and get rid of not only street peddlers but cartel lords.

“The Evil of the Drug War – The Future of Freedom Foundation,” by Jacob G. Hornberger, THEFUTUREOFFREEDOMFOUNDATION.ORG, https://www.fff.org/2019/10/28/the-evil-of-the-drug-war/?fbclid=IwAR39ULXrJ0m1X00BVWyxaj26HJS24plI_rj0t9_-P7iod0I8613kLqcPMWM

October 27

The same story everywhere?

“Over 1 Million Chileans Take to the Streets to Demand Political Reforms, Change to Country’s Neoliberal Economic System,” by Eoin Higgins, COMMONDREAMS.ORG, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/26/over-1-million-chileans-take-streets-demand-political-reforms-change-countrys?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR035pDiMW8mpA5B0Fy93VOu_lkgYSHUO1JV1JQs7ZoyIH88-o0U9EQk5ok

October 27

Right on

“Tulsi Nails it on National TV…, US Regime-Change Wars,” by Finian Cunningham, STRATEGIC-CULTURE.ORG, https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/10/18/tulsi-nails-national-tv-us-regime-change-wars/?fbclid=IwAR3EpAuwXP6s103uGzTBmLRryXR5xPGjqE6zbXT5GbdiSdoF_T8qiI9Kmeo

October 27

Right on

“Edward Snowden and Turnkey Tyranny,” by W. J. Astore, BRACINGVIEWS.ORG, https://bracingviews.com/2019/10/26/edward-snowden-and-turnkey-tyranny/?fbclid=IwAR0AorABjO7uRoiPuHJQf33kj4iB2pjPne8UHaH7YAxs-eE0EN-5j3heXjE

October 27

Yuk

“California Fires Spark Massive Mandatory Evacuations; Wineries Burn As Winds Hit 93 MPH,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE.ORG, https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/california-fires-spark-mandatory-evacuations-wineries-burn-winds-hit-93-mph?fbclid=IwAR1moULX7dVYVLCV3cwz-DJv2v4Z8QlvIFGrMfhwoqwZ-MkN61JmFel_8zk

October 26

Is this 2008 all over again and they’re not telling us about it yet?

“Fed Ups Its Wall Street Bailout to $690 Billion a Week as Media Snoozes,” by Pam Martens and Russ Martens, WALLSTREETONPARADE.COM, https://wallstreetonparade.com/2019/10/fed-ups-its-wall-street-bailout-to-690-billion-a-week-as-media-snoozes/?fbclid=IwAR0LXm1HxJ01pzQuWk-YFZKAxJcpJz_vjiRK6P1Uoxgfkx0HgYju-tB5Oig

October 26

Yes, definitely. I have been saying so since 2004 on my FreeFairProgressParty page at https://www.effectivelearning.net/freefairprogressparty.html. 

“Is it Time to Throw Out Both Democrats and Republicans?” by Peter Gemma, INTELLECTUALTAKEOUT.ORG, https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/it-time-throw-out-both-democrats-and-republicans?fbclid=IwAR3udQyXGS5oi2R2rB3UZBrllg4IpseGzDFln9LgYoPeP0C4TaCozSP32I8

October 26

What the hades is going on over there?

“The United States, Turkey and the SDF: The Internal War Between Syria’s Enemies,” by Frederico Pieraccini, STRATEGIC-CULTURE.ORG, https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/10/25/the-united-states-turkey-and-the-sdf-the-internal-war-between-syrias-enemies/?fbclid=IwAR2B6xIDee2NEsPDwcowcxzEODfAlnVOO6YYHO8EQ2133cFPE3pRvaLRxkU

October 26

Sick. It seems they’ve robbed Peter (such as the Social Security system surpluses) to pay Paul as much as they can internally, so now the Fed and the people have to caugh up more to buy the debt. How long can this go on? Before tax rates have to be raised back to where they were in 1980 and military expenditures are cut dramatically? Or the debt is repudiated? Or hyperinflation is ignited by the privately owned Federal Reserve System punching digital funny money into their computers approaching infinity to purchase treasury bills and notes?

“Putting Federal Debt in Perspective Against those Responsible in the Future,” ECONOMICA, https://econimica.blogspot.com/2019/10/putting-federal-debt-in-perspective.html?fbclid=IwAR3tBVjVvEFlGd0ZC2S_M-QKr_itHhXG0D4F0doMvncQCLdCL-vll3z3BVI

October 26

Better than a .5 probability this is true it seems to me.

“Zombieland,” by Sven Henrich, NORTHMANTRADER.COM, https://northmantrader.com/2019/10/26/zombieland/?fbclid=IwAR0iVNZMV9tvJpna-VillcW1BrEjnRwmoBwPxZ-7Y9bbgOiwDQWAXCDiNzM

October 23

Here’s what’s wrong with US politics, pay to play from the git go. To win a primary you’ve got to solicit big money, aka bribes, or be a billionaire and fund your own campaign like Trump did at first.

“Corporate America freaks out over Elizebeth Warren,” by Ben White, POLITICO.COM, https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/23/elizabeth-warren-corporate-america-055142?fbclid=IwAR0ItAYZwGMvTn3SPo7vI1jmTZVPz8FtOU4rnzec3xqd7uIy8ylDfGRSpuQ

October 23

Sanders is probably still the best bet for we the people, but the corrupt DNC, caring only for their own interests, will probably sabotage him again if he gains traction again.

“Noam Chomsky: Bernie Sanders is Not a Radical, He Has Mass Support for Positions on Healthcare and Taxes,” DEMOCRACYNOW.ORG, https://www.democracynow.org/2016/4/27/noam_chomsky_bernie_sanders_is_not?fbclid=IwAR3XQNKfFY_KX4HrTzLcQt3-yGiKeS2IP1tKfNCIlXZnfhgRWOSfZ65dl2g

October 22

Here’s why I voted for Jill Stein in 2016.

“Jill Stein Responds to Hillary Clinton’s Russian Asset Smear: ‘A Sick Era of McCarthyism,” U-TUBE.COM, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY5KIcK2iug&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3K92YArgY5SIDvRBIuSv7FSpm9B4UKKJtZ704l2Z8hoZ6elZ2zDCWq8c8

October 21

Are all but Sanders, Gabbard, and Yang bought and paid for by Big Pharma?  Seems like it to me.

“Disingenuous Attacks on Medicare for All Distract from Cost of a Broken System,” by Amy Goodwin and Juan Gonzales, Democracy Now, TRUTHOUT.ORG, https://truthout.org/video/disingenuous-attacks-on-medicare-for-all-distract-from-cost-of-a-broken-system/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR3irVWRD4bTYq6XbWxPtEIOb26itsCSGstr7Fv75iG6ehznNeQ9-HTtt4M

October 21

Seems like something new that might help.

“A UN Treaty Guarantees Youth Rights Everywhere on Earth – Except the US,” by Jessica Taft, TRUTHOUT.ORG, https://truthout.org/articles/a-un-treaty-guarantees-youth-rights-everywhere-on-earth-except-the-us/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR2i8UCI5SZZ_tYcnLZWhd5IP3HIhn-bx_tLgAIOjQ9yc9jw0tzC8hYIJeA

October 21

Some good ideas here.

“Why Extinction Rebellion Might Succeed – and in Many Ways Already Has,” by Diana Stuart, TRUTHOUT.ORG, https://truthout.org/articles/why-extinction-rebellion-might-succeed-and-in-many-ways-already-has/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR2g5rkz_r3MSLsRAP5_axAjr6vogWXouTp29CQxO1p2LxHv-KfYZ6g28bE

October 21

Good economic overview by Nomi Prins

“The Federal Reserve Was Set Up to Provide Capital to Largest Wall Street Banks,” by Laura Flanders, TRUTHOUT.ORG, https://truthout.org/articles/the-federal-reserve-was-set-up-to-provide-capital-to-largest-wall-street-banks/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR06Ez4TutUSWMIEC-ej-t-1ZnOpI9wj0fvsJ8F9yMjiiR6j4a91H5GTC7c

October 21

The Tories and their followers made a mistake. They should have voted to remain in the EU. What Earthian humans need is an even broader EU, an Earthian Union, to combat global warming and climate change, to stop Earthian extinctions of fauna and flora, probably also including sooner or later the human species, at the rate states of affairs are deteriorating around Spaceship Earth.

“British Parliament Forces Boris Johnson to Request Another Brexit Delay,” by Sasha Abramsky, TRUTHOUT.ORG, https://truthout.org/articles/british-parliament-forces-boris-johnson-to-request-another-brexit-delay/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR3egqQvPxW80TvYESlP9jkGi7LUdpodFN1rxx2xkM1dZT7-Of_vEGZK1JM

October 21

Ominous. Even Siberia is burning.

“Global Wildfires Are Raging, Leaving Long-Lasting Damage,” by Robert Walker, TROUTHOUT.ORT, https://truthout.org/articles/global-wildfires-are-raging-leaving-long-lasting-damage/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR3u-E3JZZo-a182gbamthiGZeuOYo4aKq7yXF5nESvlYy-5Rrt5-hik-TU

October 20

Here is a well-said explanation of what it means to call someone a “Russian asset” without evidence, a despicable defamatory low blow political smear job, especially when said with a merry smile.

“‘Russian Asset’ is a Meaningless Noise War Pigs Make With Their Face Holes,” by Caitlin Johnstone, MEDIUM.COM, https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/russian-asset-is-a-meaningless-noise-war-pigs-make-with-their-face-holes-c883685ad4c

September 16

Now here is an interesting post, showing clearly something is wrong with political reporting in MSM and CNN land (Mainstream Media), and in DNC land.  According to this poll Tulsi Gabbard won the sixth DNC debate handily with forty percent of the vote, far head of the next best, Yang, with about twenty percent.  Biden and the rest got less that seven percent each.  Gabbard also won another such debate I saw with about the same results as this one. Yet there has been no mention of this I have seen in MSM.  It’s not that MSM publishes fake news so much by comission; apparently they mainly publish fake news by omission.  According to MSM and the DNC Tulsi Gabbard is not a serious Democrat candidate. Are these Drudge Report Internet polls anomalies?  Or what?

“**DRUDGE POLL** WHO WON THE SIXTH DEM DEBATE? https://poll.fm/10434126/results?msg=voted&fbclid=IwAR1GYBal2hYlbhgdtoiOUqAUqOMNCvphjKn-nWjq2Z5-OhFtVzq4P-GjscM

 

September 16

Go Tulsi and Yang You-Tube Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7-9qF0sMyk&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR124vvehwbfB5FcwKdngCoxB-vNcKEI9wLWsO3qRatbFlgiHHZW839E6Rw https://blood-moon-casino.co.uk/

October 11

Another nail in the coffin.

“Temperatures in Denver dropped 64 degrees in less than 24 hours, setting a record,” by Lauren M. Johnson, CNN, https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/10/us/denver-temperature-record-trnd/index.html?fbclid=IwAR1RvLQ5sewVwM47R4AFChjk6GqZcwIjaQMThGK5wHOMDHke-nA6AT8odyo

October 11

Here’s a sophisticated video by a talented presenter taking advantage of state of the art facilities and computer technology, maybe the best I have seen, telling and showing you how your brain works. Well worth a watch and listen for about twenty minutes.

“Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality,” by Anil Seth, YOU TUBE, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyu7v7nWzfo&fbclid=IwAR0eC80ZLFo2_EvH8a2pSnvnmCdrGnvErV5bZvlUkooazV7ifWzlq7P6SxE. 

October 9

2050 or 2100? Does it matter?

“Rising Sea Levels Threaten Global Economy,” BLOOMBERG, https://sponsored.bloomberg.com/news/sponsors/zurich/threat-to-infrastructure-means-businesses-must-prepare-to-navigate-rising-seas/?adv=6712&prx_t=BkkFAAAAAAFEANA&fbclid=IwAR1ezu7sC9BtZnzFyMfcw4-JyyDlJYg1flcd3apPPchUHr-nXl5XcmLXMq8.

October 6

Sad to say a major problem is what would all those millions of military employees do if the US stopped being a warmaking economy?

“Military Keynesianism Marches On,” by Joan Roelofs, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/10/03/military-keynesianism-marches-on/?fbclid=IwAR3pIa6mgOeN8LlR5BdGrEHN8XH9mhmFahnVtPuQmWTbKQlz-aLm76GO3gE.

October 4

Acceptance my foot. They used him to assert their family scripts. To learn about the significance of family scripts in political states of affairs, read my book Born to Learn: A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning at www.effectivelearning.net.

“The Dangerous Acceptance of Donald Trump,” by Adam Gopnik, THE NEW YORKER, https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-dangerous-acceptance-of-donald-trump?mbid=social_facebook_aud_dev_kwjunsub-the-dangerous-acceptance-of-donald-trump&kwp_0=234406&fbclid=IwAR332mUsHDUa2EOks1dy2zUtWOCPoKMLCAP8QoSsmRq94X7SAx_yfQZh-o8.

October 1

Gabbard was probably the smartest and most truthful candidate in the DNC debates, now marginalized because of DNC rules and pork barrel politics. She won a Drudge Report poll I saw after one of the debates she was in that showed she won hands down, about forty percent of the total votes of eighteen thousand or so cast. This is DNC “democracy” in action, playing the psychological Game MOTHER KNOWS BEST, and to hell with the truth, get the man, in this case, you want, Biden, to keep everybody in Washington and throughout the Deep State in the US employed and well fed, especially DNC hangers-on, with better than average income increases. Sad state of affairs.

“Tulsi Gabbard Suggests Government is Run By A ‘Small Group of Political Elite’,” by Joe Martino, COLLECTIVE EVOLUTION, https://www.collective-evolution.com/2019/09/10/news-tulsi-gabbard-suggests-government-is-run-by-a-small-group-of-political-elite/?fbclid=IwAR2Y8BIp9omH28-0d683RCyGigAl5hIlY7m0uPohsXClWpCLmeOtK0hz7FA.

September 24

An interesting proposition.  Would solve a lot of problems.

“‘Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist’: Bernie Sanders Proposes Tax To Cut Billionaire Wealth in Half,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/political/billionaires-shouldnt-exist-bernie-sanders-rolls-out-super-aggressive-tax-plan?fbclid=IwAR1tFGWKEaEhByemYxWNsILRzad2xptdEutz5kq8PED6HVOwzW6fe8xQv_0.

September 23

Here is another well researched, informative, and timely article by Courtenay Barnett, an international lawyer, who unfortunately points out the US by and large ignores international law.

“America Confronts Iran: History of US-Iran Relations and the Rule of Law,” by Courtenay Barnett, GLOBAL RESEARCH, https://www.globalresearch.ca/what-law-who-breached-us-iran-west/5689912.

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By Richard John Stapleton

This essay shows with compelling evidence and analysis that Tulsi Gabbard won the CNN DNC primary debates by a large margin in the eyes of viewers of the debates.

Unfortunately the DNC establishment, CNN, and MSM (Mainstream Media) hid the fact. This is a classic example of MSM creating fake news by lying by omission.

Tulsi Gabbard would be the “frontrunner” in the eyes all US citizens for the 2020 ellection, if only the US had a truly democratic unrigged system.

I posted on my Facebook page a Drudge Report poll October 16, 2019 showing Tulsi Gabbard handily won the sixth Democratic National Committee primary debate televised by CNN, garnering 40 percent of some 47,000 votes clicked in by respondents at that time, which by today October 22 has grown to 207,726 votes clicked in for this poll, of which Tulsi Gabbard garnered 38 percent of the total votes in the last count, Yang being second with 18 percent, Buttigieg being third with 12 percent, Warren being fourth with 7 percent, Klobuchar being fifth with 6 percent, Biden being sixth with 5 percent, Sanders and Steyer being tied with 4 percent each, O’Rourke had 2 percent, Harris 1 percent, Castro 1 percent, Booker 1 percent.  These percentage ranks changed very little from October 16 to now October 22. The poll was programmed in such a way that no respondent could vote more than one time. I tried to vote twice after deciding to cast another vote for another candidate in addition to the one I had already voted for. The program would not accept the click and reminded me I had already voted, indicating the process was legit.   

The poll by POLL.FM was titled  “**DRUDGE POLL** WHO WON THE SIXTH DEM DEBATE?” and was posted posted at https://poll.fm/10434126/results?msg=voted&fbclid=IwAR1vzidQjjgTJYvlSGY8D3N4-UUJFYx7g8m9ElyLRuDvGhtRQEe7Njf5W0M.

You can also find today similar results reported for the fourth DNC debate by the Daily Caller at https://dailycaller.com/2019/10/15/drudge-poll-winner-fourth-debates/.

I included the following comment with my Drudge Report poll post where it says Say Something on my Facebook page October 16 shortly after seeing the DR poll results.

“Now here is an interesting post, showing clearly something is wrong with political reporting in MSM (Mainstream Media), and in CNN and DNC land. According to this poll Tulsi Gabbard won the sixth DNC debate handily with forty percent of the vote, far ahead of the next best, Yang, with about twenty percent. Biden and the rest got less than seven percent each. Gabbard also won another DR poll about another CNN debate I saw s month or so ago with about the same results as this one, which unfortunately I did not post on my Facebook page.

“Yet there has been no mention of this I have seen in MSM, which does not say much considering I rarely watch or read MSM, but my wife does and she has not said anything to me about seeing or hearing any news about Gabbard handily winning the DNC CNN debates. Apparently it’s not that MSM publishes fake news so much by commission; apparently they primarily publish fake news by omission. According to MSM, CNN and the DNC Tulsi Gabbard is not a serious Democrat candidate. Are these Drudge Report Internet polls anomalies? Or what?”

To which I received the following post in response on my Facebook page.

“Why would anybody even consider paying any attention to Drudge on the Democratic debate? Like listening to what a dog has to say about a cat beauty contest, run by cats, for cats.”

To which I responded with:

“There have been 205,918 Total Votes cast in this poll so far. Are you saying this is irrelevant? Or that everything posted on the Drudge Report is fake news? i watched the debate on CNN, and i think Tulsi and Yang were the smartest and the best. Unfortunately they have little chance of being nominated given the way “democracy” works in the US. On the other hand, I voted for Steyer, probably a mistake.”

Which prompted this response:

“The purpose of the Drudge Report is to present fake news. Sometimes this goal is best served by telling the truth but this does not make them a trustworthy source. About a (sic) reliable as DT’s tweets. And everybody knows you solicit any result you want in a poll.”

Which prompted this response from me:

“Wrong in your first sentence. Basically the Drudge Report is an aggregator. It links articles from all over, the New York Times. Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and Internet blogs nobody ever heard of, such as my Effective Learning Report. Yes, it’s basically a tabloid type thing primarily designed to attract casual readers and thinkers, but some of the shit linked is pretty good, overall giving any reader one of the best general pictures they could find free in a hurry of what is going on in the minds of all Earthian humans right now, of all persuasions and faiths, caused by hundreds of publication sources that are linked, MSM or social media, just by reading their headlines. Who needs a “trustworthy” source? If you need a “trustworthy” source that means you cannot think for yourself, and are being indoctrinated, being unable to figure out what is fake and what is not. Of course all the responses were solicited or the Drudge Report would not have gone to the trouble to make this voting process available. Did they try to manipulate people into voting as they did? Hell no. The Drudge Report is less contaminated by bias and prejudice than MSM since they are not dependent on charging customers for subscriptions. I have never paid the Drudge Report a cent for the information I have received from them. Don’t believe me, ask Google “how many hits does the Drudge Report get per day?””

Which elicited this response:

“Good topic for next time I can make The Ogeechee Economic Forum.”

And then this from me:

“Great. See You There.”

The Ogreechee Economic Forum is a Game-Free group I moderate the third Saturday of the month at 11-12 a.m. at the Eagle Creek Brewing Company in my hometown, Statesboro, Georgia, USA. For details about the forum go here https://www.effectivelearning.net/ogeechee-economic-forum.html.

There is nothing like face-to-face political discussions in small groups to get to the truth of the matter. You can often tell by looking at the faces of people in a group when they are lying and telling the truth. These truthful body language signals are not as obvious in mass media. On the other hand, unfortunately despite emailing to one hundred or more people within driving distance of Statesboro inviting them to the Ogeechee Economic Forum meetings, and inviting them to invite their friends, most people are not interested. Having moderated the forum about a year once a month by now, no more than three participants have shown up for any meeting. Unfortunately this small group is like most groups and organizations; we are mostly preaching to our own choir. Almost all the participants have been well-educated relatively intelligent relatively unprejudiced white males. In order for face-to-face groups such as this one to produce significant learning you need participants of all persuasions, faiths, sexes, ages and races in the group to generate dialectical give and take Adult-Adult ego state transactions that can produce consensual answers capable of generating peaceful life-sustaining policies and processes. Unfortunately, based on my experience trying to establish a Game-free open free fair face-to-face Adult-Adult ego state economic and political discussion group in my town, it appears to me a good bet is that most Earthian humans are too apathetic or too afraid to engage in such groups. One Ogeechee Economic Forum participant said most humans do not have psychological permission to discuss economic and political problems in public, being afraid their bosses and cohorts in various groups, primarily at work, will “talk down to them” about participating in such activity.

Having gained satisfaction from the above Facebook exchange about Tulsi Gabbard on my Facebook page with one of the participants in the Ogeechee Economic Forum, I decided to venture forth with some other folks on my Facebook page newsfeed who were posting comments about various articles about Tulsi Gabbard that had been recently posted on Facebook, mostly about Gabbard’s reactions to her treatment by the DNC, having accused the DNC of trying to hijack the primary debates, and her truthful and courageous responses to Hillary Clinton’s allegations that she was a “Russian asset”, framing Hillary as a hypocrite, calling her the “queen of warmongers” and “the embodiment of political corruption,” as reported at https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/19/20922122/hillary-clinton-tulsi-gabbard-queen-warmongers-russia-2020-election. .

Other Democrats in various posts have accused Gabbard of plotting a third party challenge maybe in the Green Party if Jill Stein would let her, to which Gabbard allegedly promised she would not run as a third party candidate if she did not get the DNC nomination, which, if true, seems to me to be a mistake. Being a Jill Stein voter in 2016, I posted a video October 22, 2019 on my Facebook page presenting Jill Stein in an interview truthfully and courageously telling Hillary Clinton what she thought about Clinton’s comments about Gabbard and herself being Russian assets. See this U-tube video interview posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY5KIcK2iug&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3Ysm8XKxqna5Zhb8SqFdOZ2UQA7NSV-xDXm__huGigKEqgfvmAuv2Whsw/     

Most of the respondents and commenters on my Facebook newsfeed I randomly got involved with as mentioned above apparently were Democratic true believers, being convinced Biden, Warren, and Sanders were clearly the leaders in the primary process and the rest should just willingly drop out to make things smoother for the DNC, to which I responded with, “But what about Tulsi? She is obviously a strong candidate? Have you seen this Drudge Report poll? According to this poll Gabbard won the sixth debate hands down,” posting the comment and the Internet address for the DR poll showing the above results in the thread of comments. 

And then three or four of the participants immediately started attacking me for having the temerity to post a Drudge Report post in their august midst, posting Parent ego state tirades about how low brow and fake the DR is, as anybody should know. One of them said she hoped I was getting paid for this since I was making such a fool of myself, implying I was a troll.

One person in the thread allowed they should at least cut Tulsi some slack and wait for more information, but none of the rest would hear of it, being convinced Warren, Sanders, and Biden were the only candidates worth considering. And then one of them posted a fact check website in response to one of my posts in which I asked them if they had any evidence the DR was an untrustworthy fake news site? According to the fact check site the DR did publish some fake news, also conspiracy theories, and was generally untrustworthy, recommending fact checking any post you might want to remember and use posted by the DR. The fact check site also criticized the DR for linking articles posted in ZeroHedge, another so-called conspiracy theory site. The fact check site said about seventy-five percent of DR readers were conservatives some of whom listened to Rush Limbaugh and others of his ilk. Having never listened to Rush Limbaugh nor watched Fox So-called News, considering myself a staunch Independent, I nevertheless began to think I might be more conservative than I thought I was.

The Facebook posts mentioned above convinced me the Drudge Report is labeled and villified as a fake news conservative site by a lot of Democrats, which I had not considered or concluded in four or years of perusing and reading the DR, mainly reading headlines just to see what is going on around Spaceship Earth, which I am still convinced is worthwhile, the DR being one of the best sites for this sort of thing. The negative posts about the DR and the fact checker information caused me to do a Google search about the DR in which I found out the DR now has probably the greatest number of hits per day of any web news source anywhere, over one million hits per day.

If some seventy-five percent of the DR hits per day are conservatives that means some of the other twenty-five percent could be people like me, Independent Jill Stein-voting-for Progressives, and many are people like Democrats of various persuasions, ranging from true believers to ordinary liberals, and that means a sample of 207,726 Total Votes cast in a DR poll over a week or so about a CNN DNC televised primary debate would be biased to some extend by an overweighting of conservatives, all other things being equal, but it would not necessarily be biased about what most US presidential eligible voters think, including about 50,000 non-right wing conservative eyeballs, and it is worth noting that the DR poll no doubt included eligible voters who voted in 2016 and those who did not vote in 2016, and those who will not vote in 2020, increasing the accuracy of the picture the poll painted about who won the debates, namely Tulsi Gabbard.  

As I understand political polling in the US, the sample sizes for most polls are not that large, much smaller than the DR poll referenced here, and thus would be more biased than the DR poll based on sample size alone. According to this CNN article about a CNN poll at https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/23/politics/cnn-poll-biden-lead-increases/index.html, Biden is way out in front as the winner of the DNC primary process, having the support of 34 percent of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters, as of October 23, with the next best Warren having 19 percent support and Sanders having 16 percent.

Here is a CNN comment from the above article: “But Biden has seen big spikes in support among moderate and conservative Democrats (43% support him now, up from 29% in the September poll), racial and ethnic minorities (from 28% among all nonwhites in September to 42% now) and older voters (up 13 points since September among those 45 and older) that outpace those among younger potential Democratic voters (up 5 points among those younger than 45)”.

The CNN poll write-up went to say Biden was considered by Democrats to be most likely to vote for issues that could be passed in Congress and he had the best grasp of foreign policy. The article said however that viewers of the last debate in their poll, the sixth one referenced by me above, viewed Biden less favorably than those who did not watch the debate.

Here is the CNN description of the poll size in the above referenced CNN article: “The CNN Poll was conducted by SSRS from October 17 through 20 among a random national sample of 1,003 adults reached on landlines or cellphones by a live interviewer, including 424 registered voters who are Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. For results among potential Democratic voters, it is plus or minus 5.8 points.”

If you want a view of what US voters as a whole think it seems to me the above referenced CNN poll was more biased than the above referenced DR poll, based on sample size alone, plus the CNN poll targeted Democratic true believers and likely Democratic voters with no mention of the political leanings of the remaining five hundred or so of the sample. In any case, a sample size of one thousand in the case of the CNN poll pales in comparison with the DR poll sample size of 207,726. Not being a statistician I have no idea how you would go about proving which poll had the highest statistical reliability and validity, but it seems to me the DR poll paints the clearest picture about who won the debates, and that picture shows most US eligible voters prefer Gabbard rather than Biden.

On the other hand, my homegrown sample of one, my Democratic professor emeritus statistically-expert mathematician wife had this to say: “So what, all those conservatives in the DR poll said they think Gabbard won the debate because they think she is the best looking, and they think she would be the easiest one to beat in a race with Trump.”

Regardless, it seems to me the statistical reliability and validity of the DR poll would most likely be just as high as the reliability and validity of the CNN poll. 

The question remains, who do most US eligible voters think is the best presidential candidate: Gabbard or Biden?

Seems to me it boils down to what you think is most enlightening, relevant and least fake, your own eyes and ears watching and hearing the debates, the above referenced DR poll, or the above referenced CNN poll?  

While there are several possible arguments one might make based on an analysis of this case, I have neither the time nor the energy to discuss them here. I also realize it is impossible to prove anything about the candidates or the DNC primary process based on the facts of this case; and I also know it is always impossible to find or generate provably-true right answers for political, economic, and social states of affairs anywhere anytime, the best you can hope for being to generate consensual answers satisfactory to most of the humans subject to them. Nevertheless, following are my conclusions based on evidence presented in this case. Call it fake news if you will.

It seems to me the DNC is again rigging their primary election, with Biden as the new Hillary, as Michael Moore has pointed out in a Facebook post. It was obvious to my eyes watching the first CNN debate referenced above that the show was rigged in favor of Biden. The debate questioners over and over referred to Biden as the “frontrunner,” giving him more deference and air time than the others.  It was less evident in the sixth debate but it was still there. CNN has conducted the debates to generate advertising revenues and then proceeds to conduct a poll about who won and then writes up the poll results for their advertisers and viewers. How unbiased is that?

I have no idea what is really going on internally within the DNC, but it seems to me there are parallels between their behind the scenes machinations now and whatever it was they did to sidecar Sanders in 2016. Warren in recent days has been saying the 2016 DNC primary election was rigged against Sanders, which seemed obvious to me at the time. Gabbard has recently said the DNC is trying to “hijack” the primary election now. Rigging, hijacking, whatever, this sort of the thing seems to be standard operating procedure for the DNC.

It seems to me the DNC is primarily interested in finding a presidential nominee who they think will preserve the perks, legacies, jobs, and careers of Democrat politicians and bureaucrats in Washington than they are in finding a nominee that can defeat Trump and improve conditions for we the people, humans not only living in the US, but homo sapiens and other species still alive all around Spaceship Earth, including about fifty percent of eligible US voters who did not vote in the 2016 election, which no doubt was to some extent caused by having to vote for a supposed lesser of two evils.

There is no proof that Trump has been more evil in office than Hillary would have been. At least Trump has not destroyed any more nations yet. Look what Hillary did to Libya when she was secretary of state under Obama.

It seems to me Tulsi Gabbard would have a much better chance of beating Trump and doing something to significantly improve the functioning of the US government than Biden, but she apparently does not stand a chance of getting the DNC presidential nomination, primarily because of the way the DNC primary process has been hijacked and rigged, primarily by forcing DNC presidential primary candidates to solicit large sums of money from elite rich and corporate donors to stay in the race, donors who in general will not donate to young highly intelligent creative and energetic progressive female candidates they cannot trust to do their bidding in office, in a process that in effect forces most presidential primary candidates to accept bribes psychologically obligating them to pay back their elite rich and corporate donors after they get in office by voting in their favor. Bernie Sanders was an exception in this regard in 2016 but it did him no good in the end, thanks to the rigging of the DNC.

It also seems to me most Democratic true believers are naively playing a DO ME SOMETHING psychological Game, socially pretending they primarily want a presidential candidate who will improve the US government and benefit we the people, whereas psychologically they want an older not so bright pork barrel male politician who they falsely think will help them personally (rather than elite rich and corporate donors) with more perks and benefits, which in my view are necessary in many cases, but which should not be the driving force behind voting in US presidential primary elections, otherwise the US and Spaceship Earth will continue their downward spirals.

Unfortunately large political parties become corrupted–having been bribed by the elite rich and large corporations, having created voting rules and processes that require politicians running for high office to take billions of dollars in bribes to purchase air, screen and print time and space from Mainstream Media to broadcast campaign propaganda to targeted audiences to get elected. They are authoritarian; evolve into fascism; cause humans to act like sheep; accomplish nothing of significance obvious to everyone when terms of office end, after promising to solve everything, after spending billions of dollars on elections; function like gangs fighting other gangs; encourage intolerance, polarizations and enmity among the populace; cause conformity and group think in organizations everywhere; create dependence; foment wars and warlike behaviors; foster obedience to party lines; waste money and resources; function with faux democracy like high school students winning popularity contests, where most of the time only those with narcissistic movie star-like looks, mannerisms, and speech win; create grandiose illusions that turn to ashes when terms of office end and poor people realize their lives have continued to deteriorate, causing anger, disillusionment, and depression; play psychological Games instead of doing things to solve real problems, such as poverty, inequality, and the like; exploit family scripts, preying upon generationally ingrained dysfunctional scripted family feeling, thinking and behaving, rather than encourage learning, growth and script-free feeling, thinking, and behaving; dumb people down; cause and reward immoral and unethical behavior, selecting leaders who have character and intellectual defects, often selecting sociopaths with little enough empathy to be able to maim and destroy nations and people with a straight face and keep a clear conscience, while presenting an innocent-looking face in public; use ad hominem slurs, innuendoes, and verbal attacks to slander humans who argue against their party line doctrines, dogmas, and slogans; create discord, mayhem, sanctions, and wars, frustrating, undermining, bullying, and destroying other countries and people around Spaceship Earth, playing one-upmanship psychological Games and plundering resources that justifies war making behaviors and expenditures to combat blowback and create jobs, profits, and votes internally; ignore global warming and climate change, to maintain their grip on the populace, telling their sheeple fairy tales instead of the truth, while not doing things to prevent the extinctions of Earthian species of fauna and flora, probably including sooner or later the Earthian human species.

Richard John Stapleton, PhD, CTA is an emeritus professor of operations management, management information systems, organizational behavior, business policy, and entrepreneurship at Georgia Southern University, using the case method in all courses. He is a founder and owner of Effective Learning Company, and the founder and moderator of the Ogeechee Economic Forum.