THE EARTHIAN, Number Thirty-Four, October 23, 2022, Effective Learning Publications https://blog.effectivelearning.net/ , 32 East Main Street, Statesboro, Georgia, USA, specializing in Adult education.
THE EARTHIAN is a digest of articles written by free-thinking truth-seeking critical-thinking creative-thinking truth-accepting courageous independent writers in linked Internet journals containing facts, perspectives, theories, models, memes, analyses, and recommendations concerned about psychological, moral, ethical, philosophical, social, economic, political, military, religious, and ecological states of affairs affecting the existential well-being of all species of fauna and flora aboard Spaceship Earth.
“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 ROUT LOGGER
A proposition of As the Rooster Crows Earthian OKness Increases, demonstrated in a fictional metaphorical fashion, is that Earthian humans can increase their OKness through Adult—Adult, Game-Free, democratic discussions of existential problems. Rout Logger, a logger of routs, is the protagonist of the story.
Following in this essay are excerpts from As The Rooster Crows explaining what Earthian human OKness is showing how to estimate different levels of OKness.
If you would like to know more about the contextual meaning of transactional analysis terminology such Parent, Adult, and Child Ego States, psychological Games, Scripts, etc. you can find explanations of them with a simple Google search. Just add the words transactional analysis to them, making them transactional analysis psychological Games, ego states, OKness, etc., and ask Google what they are.
“SPATIAL OKness
“The strangeness of the process in the first two meetings caused Not-OKness to increase, but as the months rolled by the members began to experience increased OKness and satisfaction. Those entering the process with I’m Not OK— You’re OK; I’m Not-OK—You’re Not OK; and I’m OK—You’re Not OK life positions by the end of the last session spent more time in the I’m OK— You’re OK winner quadrant of the OK Corral, the upper right quadrant of a mathematical space encompassing two axes crossing at zero in the center of the space, with negative and positive OKness estimated west and east of origin on the horizontal axis and positive and negative OKness estimated north and south of origin on the vertical axis, with I being the vertical axis and You being the horizontal axis. Intersecting I and You positive or negative OKness combinations for specific individuals could exist at points in all four quadrants of the OK Corral (Ernst, F., 1971).
“OKness cannot be precisely measured, but it can be estimated by observing others and by self-evaluation. Most humans if they think about it know if they are OK or Not OK at any moment. How OK is another matter? OK relative to what? “Relative to how OK one was yesterday, or six months ago? And how OK about what? Estimating OKness is a subjective judgement call, but it can be done. Empathetic humans can determine by looking and hearing whether someone is OK or Not OK.
“There are at least two types of OKness: Psychological and Social.
“Social OKness is generally talked about.
“Psychological OKness is generally not talked about.
“In many cases humans are socially OK but psychologically abysmal.
“Social OKness is based on fact relative to standards concerned with whether and to what degree goals, objectives, and missions have been achieved, such as whether someone has adequate food, clothing, and shelter. If someone is hungry, cold, and miserable it’s an objective fact s/he is Not OK. If someone is in acute physical pain caused by an accident, malnutrition, or disease s/he is Not OK. The same is true for individuals who cannot function in society because of emotional, mental, and behavioral disorders caused by traumatic genetic and social inheritances.
“Psychological OKness, on the other hand, is a judgmental subjective opinion an individual holds regarding her/himself and others not based on current objective data and information that concerns characteristics such as sex, gender, race, sexual orientation, overall appearance, behavioral traits, personality traits, intelligence, knowledge, beliefs, abilities, and worthiness.
“Rout’s group members were all socially OK in the sense they were all functioning members of society and were getting their needs met at levels that provided OK levels of satisfaction, not great levels of satisfaction necessarily but OK levels. On the other hand, they had life positions and satisfactions that were non-I’m OK—You’re OK regarding races, sexual orientations, religions, abortions, economic classes, social classes, professions, and political parties. They were unequally not-OK regarding these issues.
“The members learned in Rout’s group how to transact with one another socially using I’m OK—You’re OK transactions and Adult ego states and how not to play psychological Games; but their psychological structural programming and scripting was left largely intact. Some increases in psychological OKness probably happened over the course of the six once-a-month six-hour meetings on a Saturday; but significantly changing psychological structural programming for all group members would require years of group sessions in most cases with more intimate discussion content than what happened in Rout’s group.
“Here is some transactional analysis theory formulated by Martin Groder, MD about OKness and Not OKness involving problematic humans (Stapleton, R.J., Business Voyages: Mental Maps, Scripts, Schemata, and Tools for Co-Constructing Your Own Business Worlds, 2011, pp. 148-151) in a different sort of transactional analysis group.
“Humans generally give little thought to what kind of human they are and where they fit in the spectrum of various types of humans. Innumerable philosophers, writers, social scientists, and others have categorized humans in various ways. Following is a schema developed by Martin Groder, a psychiatrist, organizational development consultant, and entrepreneur, who also had an undergraduate degree in physics (Groder, 1977). Groder developed this schema working with inmates in the maximum-security federal prison at Marion, Illinois in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. He was involved in a process of changing hard-core criminals into law-abiding citizens. Such a process would challenge the abilities of the most skillful and powerful of change agents.
“According to Groder humans vary on two fundamental dimensions. One dimension is Okness, which is estimated on the horizontal axis of a mathematical space; the other dimension is the energy level of the individual estimated on the vertical axis.
“In this schema people vary in terms of how OK they see, feel about, and experience (1) themselves, (2) friends, (3) their group, (4) other groups, and (5) the world. In Groder’s terms, they are OK or not-OK with respect to I, You, We, They, and It (the world). Groder estimates how OK they are on each of these five dimensions on a scale of minus 1 to plus 1, -1 being as not-OK as possible and +1 being as OK as possible. Thus, people with extremely high self-esteem might exist at the +1 level regarding themselves; someone with extremely low self-esteem might exist at the -1 level regarding themselves. People could exist at any level in between, at -.5, 0, +.25, etc. The same would be true of the attitudes of specific individuals with respect to buddies on a one-to-one basis, groups with which one belongs, other groups with which your group cooperates or competes, and the world in general. Summing the 5 dimensions, I, You, We, They, and It, the highest possible rating would be +5 and the lowest possible would be -5. A +5 person would have the highest possible feelings of Okness regarding himself or herself, the OKness of a buddy or friend, the OKness of her/his group, the OKness of other groups, and the OKness of the world. Such an individual would have very positive feelings of self-worth, self-esteem, self-confidence, etc. On the other end of the spectrum, a -5 person would have the lowest possible feelings of self- esteem, well-being, regard for others and the world, self-confidence, etc. Very negative people tend to end up in prison. Very positive people tend to end up cultural heroes. The most profitable life position for an entrepreneur in a capitalistic economy would be I’m OK, my employees are OK, my company is OK, the world is OK, but my competitors aren’t worth a damn, since this attitude would motivate his or her employees to steal more business from competitors to help him or her win BALANCE SHEET psychological Games, in which no amount of money is ever enough, involving incessant stealing of business from other businesses under capitalism.
“Entrepreneurs have higher energy levels than middle managers and normal people. Entrepreneurs in Groder’s schema have approximately the same energy level on the vertical axis of his mathematical space as Monsters, the minus-three convict leaders of other convicts. Monsters have the attitude “I’m OK, my buddy is OK, but everything else is not OK, and I am going to make the world pay.” According to Groder, it is more difficult to change the energy level of a human than the OKness position. In rehabilitation work, he attempted to arc people across the gap of the curve in the space to make entrepreneurs out of monsters, middle managers out of creeps, slobs, etc. Sometimes people arc across the gap the other way. Honest entrepreneurs can turn criminal. Entrepreneurs are winner- survivors; Monsters are loser-survivors. Winners achieve goals and objectives; losers do not.
“It is interesting in this schema that less energy is required to be a normal human than to be any other kind of human. According to Groder, normal humans never leave the culture of their origins and adopt the cultures of both parents, which were homogeneous and compatible with the culture of origin. Normal humans do not make many changes as they grow up. More energy is required to change than not to change. The whole essence of entrepreneurship is change. Groder says people can be categorized as sheep, wolves, or hermits. Normal people, like sheep, placidly stay in one place grazing existing pastures. Wolves travel over many pastures, keeping sharp eyes out for easy prey and enemies. Hermits retire to their caves. Entrepreneurs tend to be wolves and sometimes get killed off fighting other wolf packs. Normals do not get involved in competition with others outside their environments, but tend to be the first to be killed off during wars, economic depressions, and other disasters. The limited experience they develop by virtue of accepting the security of the culture of origin leaves them relatively inflexible and unadaptable.
“Groder said some entrepreneurs abandon their parents at some point in childhood, after deciding they could not get anything good from their parents. The basic problem is that high-energy children are hard to be held, trained, and disciplined by parents. Some high- energy children abandon their parents by becoming Persecutors, Rescuers, or Victims. Persecutors become hysterics and like characters; Victims develop borderline psychotic-type personalities. Rescuers become entrepreneurs, therapists, etc. What is needed for high-energy people is a well-functioning culture.
“A cause of clinical depression, according to Groder, is children abandoning parents and deciding they cannot get anything good from parents. In some cases, pathological entrepreneurs are driven to self-destruct, having given up on life itself as source of satisfaction.
“Risk-taking and the excitement it generates become addictive. No matter how much money the pathological entrepreneur takes in, it is never enough. New ventures and risks must continually be undertaken to provide excitement, which the entrepreneur needs as an antidote for depression. The acquiring of more and more money causes problems for the entrepreneur because money tends to create “enemies in the world.” This comes about because the wealthy entrepreneur must hire people to be around to take care of the money. Such people resent the entrepreneur because they know the entrepreneur does not really like them and is using them to preserve the money. Humans like to be liked as individual humans and dislike being used as objects. The entrepreneur may have to hire food tasters, and someone to taste the food tasted by the food taster, etc.
“Most entrepreneurs are not pathological. If you want to be a cultural hero entrepreneur you need a high energy level and high self-esteem, high self- confidence and generally positive attitudes toward other people and the world. At the same time, you cannot be a normal person. Perhaps you should count yourself lucky if you are not an entrepreneur. All roles in life have advantages and disadvantages. For more details regarding various characters and roles found in the business world, see Business Games: How to Recognize the Players and Deal With Them, by Martin Groder (1980), published by Boardroom Books. See also “Groder’s 5 OK Diagrams” (Barnes, 1977).”
It’s not hard to see where pathological entrepreneurs such as Donald Trump and Elon Musk are located on Groder’s People Map.
Causing significant positive change in the OKness levels of individual Earthian humans is difficult; but it’s many magnitudes more difficult to cause significant positive change in the OKness level of Spaceship Earth, considering longtime ingrained scripted self-serving traditional and conservative family, social, religious, economic, political, cultural, governmental, military, and technological policies and practices that have propelled Earthian humans down a path leading to dead ends such global warming and climate change (GWCC) and militarization and nuclear weapons proliferation (MNWP).
The history of Earthian human states of affairs has largely been a matter of I’m OK—You’re Not-OK leaders, groups, and organizations, including religions and governments, playing psychological Games, acting out Victim, Persecutor, and Rescuer roles on a Drama Triangle, enslaving billions of humans in not-OK situations in the process.
However idealistic and quixotic it might be to think about such things, following are some recommendations for increasing the OKness of Spaceship Earth in the short and long run. Probably the best outcome Earthian humans can hope for is to muddle through somehow in the short run avoiding catastrophe long enough for significant changes to evolve. GWCC and MNWP have been known existential threats for decades but so far little or nothing has been done by Earthian humans to eliminate them anytime soon.
On the other hand, a Victim madman leading a nation possessing nuclear weapons can destroy the OKness of Spaceship Earth in a heartbeat. All he has to do is drop nuclear bombs on his Persecutor enemies, playing the ultimate tissue-tearing psychological Game called NIGYSOB, Now I’ve Got You, You Sob.
Establishing democracy chapters around Spaceship Earth as recommended in As the Rooster Crows might develop consensual answers regarding existential matters from the bottom up that would filter up to randomly-selected humans who would count the consensual answers to make necessary changes. Consensual tactics, strategies, and policies would then be developed around Earth for dealing with the whole computerized Spaceship Earth management system, that could be operated and controlled using artificial intelligence programming in magnum computer systems. Forget about hunans doing it. They have long since proved they are too weak minded, corruptible, and egotistical to do the job.
Randomly-selected groups of Earthian humans of high intelligence with impeccable moral and ethical character and credentials would control codes for changing the Earthian Magnum Computer System programming to implement the bottom-up recommendations of millions of members in discussions in democracy chapters around Spaceship Earth. Each member of elite groups in charge of the codes for the magnum computer system would serve limited terms. These members would not vote or decide what to do. They would see to it that the Magnum computer system implemented the consensual answers of millions of Earthian humans from all walks of life, as determined by honest, free, fair, and frank democratic Game-free discussions in democracy chapters all around Spaceship Earth, as explained and shown in As the Rooster Crows Earthian OKness Increases. The overall objective would be to manage the system in such a way as to maximize the lifetime satisfactions of all Earthian humans, as well as all other species of life aboard Spaceship Earth.
Various and sundry necessary moral and ethical requirements and constraints could be programmed in the Magnum management system that temporary elite Earthian humans at the top would be required to obey. If changes should be made in the moral and ethical codes in the overall program caused by changes in the environment they would be sent back to the Spaceship Earth democracy chapters for discussion and analysis before any changes would be made in the Magnum system programming.
This Magnum computerized management system would require a strict system of security controls like the current codes of nations possessing nuclear weapons, hopefully providing security several magnitudes more secure than current nuclear codes, to make sure a madman could not get in control of any aspect of the Magnum Spaceship Earth Management System.
A management system such as this would significantly improve previous systems used around Spaceship Earth that have historically empowered fickle, egotistical, greedy, power mad, grandiose, poorly educated, not-very-bright individual Earthian humans to make existential decisions affecting the OKness of thousands, millions, and billions of humans around Earth, an incredibly dumb thing to do, that has been done over and over again for millennia, resulting in incredible losses and suffering at various moments of history caused by the unfair and indiscriminate inexorable tunneling out of Bad, OK, or Good Luck for hundreds, thousands, millions, or billons of Earthian humans around Spaceship Earth at all times since time immemorial, resulting from the cosmic evolution commencing with the Big Bang.
A tough lesson for Earthian humans to accept propositioned in Effective Learning Publications books is that everything that happens in human states of affairs is either predetermined or accidental and therefore individuals are not to blame or praise for what happens in human states of affairs. This is easier to swallow after accepting that believing and acting otherwise will support and perpetuate the I’m OK—You’re Not OK life position that has bedeviled, sabotaged, and undermined Earthian humans since time immemorial, making losers out of most of them.
About the only way anyone can be caused to be significantly changed psychologically and socially by others is through democratic face to face discussions in honest serious and rigorous dialectical, dialogical, analogical arguing about facts using reasoning of all kinds, dealing with Earthian human existential states of affairs. The only real sin in such a process is lying.
What is considered natural, unnatural; normal, abnormal; right, wrong; ethical, unethical; righteous, sinful; worthy, unworthy; or sane or insane by a particular Earthian human is caused by information lodged in her/his brain caused to be lodged there by the concatenation of infinite cause-effect chains causing her/him to exist and slowly inch through the Earthian worm hole of existence inexorably tunneled out for her or him by his/her specific unbroken infinitely-regressing cause-effect chains inexorably-progressing throughout his/her infinitesimally short cosmic life, regardless of how Bad, OK, or Good that luck or fate might be as judged by any Earthian human; and all Earthian humans must keep on inching forward in their worm holes as best they can dealing with inevitable problems and opportunities caused to exist at that stage in their unique tunnels, as they are knocked around like balls in a pin-ball machine, as events inevitably and/or accidentally happen in their so-called real worlds, and in their subconscious and conscious minds, however Bad, OK, or Good their inherited Luck might have absolutely been, which cannot be proved, however easy it might be to relatively estimate.
It follows that changing the life scripts of Earthian humans for the better requires changing the course of unique tunnels of existence in which individual humans accidentally and inevitably live, a tall order indeed. Some biological constructivists would consider this notion a pipedream, while considering the whole process a meaningless drift in the infinity of time and space.
What is God? Whatever it was that caused the Big Bang setting in motion myriad cause-effect chains causing everything to exist.
Constructivism is considered relevant in all four Effective Learning Report books recommended below, having been discussed in some detail in Business Voyages and listed as a source in the bibliographies of three books.
For more information on the use of Transactional Analysis https://www.itaaworld.org/ to create better discussion groups and democratic processes read Born to Learn: A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=born+to+learn++richard+john+stapleton#imgrc=6JdwDPzcAQ1kSM%253A
For more information on how to co-construct better organizations and economic systems using transactional analysis read Business Voyages: Mental Maps, Scripts, Schemata, and Tools for Discovering and Co-Constructing Your Own Business Worlds
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=business+voyages+richard+john+stapleton
Read free “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc,” https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-evolution-of-spaceship-earth-inc/ for some management science ideas on how Earthian humans might eventually co-construct an economic system that is viable and satisfying for everyone aboard Spaceship Earth, making it possible for all Earthian humans to develop an I’m OK—You’re OK life position.
Read As the Rooster Crows Earthian OKness Increases. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=as+the+rooster+crows+earthian+okness+increases#imgrc=ZY7nv3jiN9jMCM%253A
This recently-published novel features a new kind of seminar invented and coordinated by Rout Logger that might reduce the probability of Earthian human extinction that requires participants in a seminar to speak out and up when randomly selected by a Truther rooster positioned in the center of a randomly-selected group of forty humans sitting in a circle. The Truther rooster resembles a spinning weather vane. The rooster is programmed to bob its head up and down and raucously crow after being twirled by a randomly-selected seminar participant, as it spins round and round winding down, letting group members know it’s time to wake up and get to work, before it’s too late. When the Truther rooster stops spinning whoever is at the end of a line of imaginary fire extending from the rooster’s beak to her or him sitting in the circle is automatically selected as the Leader of the Moment for the group, proving pure democracy can happen. The Leader of the Moment must then lead the group into a democratic discussion of what s/he considers the most serious existential problem around Spaceship Earth. Each of forty participants from all walks of life was paid $5000 monthly for participating in weekend seminars conducted in central city hotels in various cities randomly selected around the US. If randomly selected as the Leader of the Moment the participant had to define what s/he thought was the most important problem facing Spaceship Earth, present alternatives, and make a recommendation for change. What s/he said would then be discussed by members of the group on a free-flow first come-first serve basis. It was against the law of the seminar to interrupt speakers or raise hands to get permission to speak. Discussions lasted until they ran out of steam with most issues covered. The results of the discussions would be published to the general public and the wealthy donors financing the process.
Rout Logger was convinced most Earthian humans would not volunteer to participate in this sort of seminar to merely help save Spaceship Earth using their Nurturing Parent, Adult, and Free Child Ego States, given that their life time and energy was already programmed and consumed with various forms of withdrawal, rituals, pastimes, activities, psychological Games,and intimacy in their unique tunnels of reality, as they acted out their inherited life scripts; so they were paid $5000 per month to participate in a Game-free, Adult-Adult democratic seminar that would require them to honestly discuss existential problems with forty participants from disparate walks of life, if they were randomly selected by the spinning Truther Rooster as the Leader of the Moment. Rout Logger sat in the circle in a chair just like all the others sat in and became the Leader of the Moment just like anyone did if randomly selected by the Truther Rooster.
According to Effective Learning Publications books, achieving Earthian human sustainability entails such things as Earthian humans peacefully reducing through natural attrition (natural deaths exceeding births) the human population aboard Spaceship Earth, never doing work that machines can do better, and delegating the day-to-day management of systems for scheduling, producing, and distributing the necessities of life to artificial intelligence programs and supercomputers, assuming sufficient quantities of non-human clean energy can be discovered and developed using mind grants.
This is possible managing Spaceship Earth using the general algorithmic matrix algebra form
Max CjXj, s.t. AijXj ≤, =, or ≥ Bi
explained in “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc.” at https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-evolution-of-spaceship-earth-inc/ .
This mathematical formulation could one day develop for Earthian humans power in economics loosely analogous to the power of E=mc2 in physics. The formulation has been around for many years in management science, operations research, and linear algebra courses.
Max CjXj, s.t. AijXj ≤, =, or ≥ Bi symbolizes knowledge that gives the Earthian human species about as much potential power to perpetuate itself as Albert Einstein’s formula E=mc2 symbolizes knowledge that gives the Earthian human species the power to exterminate itself.
Riding aboard an airliner about to land at night traveling at four hundred miles an hour at thirty-five thousand feet with clouds, rain, wind, and lightning below, what would you rather have figuring out the path, speed, and angle of descent of the aircraft for touch-down, the plane’s auto-pilot, radar, and computer system or the pilot and co-pilot, seeing nothing out their windows below but clouds and lightning?
The main reason why delegating the scheduling, production, and distribution of the necessities of life to AI programs and magnum computers would be a good idea is that magnum computers and algorithmic AI programs do not get greedy and power hungry or play psychological Games. Thus far in Earthian human history most leaders and rulers atop large organizations such as nations have become corrupt one way or another playing psychological Games, acting out selfish greedy ego trips, hogging all the power, money, strokes, stimulation, and recognition they could get their hands on for themselves and their cronies, leaving the hindmost to their underlings. Whatever their limitations and possible threats, algorithmic computer programs and super computers are not egotistical, greedy, and power-hungry.
Thanks to Buckminster Fuller for providing the above airplane-landing metaphor in his book Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, first published in 1969, and for planting seeds for other ideas in the essay “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc.,” published in the Effective Learning Report, such as computers being the best hope for mankind and humans not doing work machines can do better, being paid to think instead with what Fuller called mind grants. Fuller said unemployment all around Spaceship Earth could be eliminated overnight with mind grants. Buckminster Fuller was the inventor of the appellations Earthian and Spaceship Earth.
Most Earthian humans like to win BALANCE SHEET psychological Games, to feel superior and lord it over others, regardless if Spaceship Earth is going to hell in a handbasket around them because of global warming and climate change (GWCC) and militarization and nuclear weapons proliferation (MNWP), regardless of how much they have failed in other areas of their lives, and regardless of how heinous were crimes and misdemeanors they may have gotten away with, since they were saved, as it were, by taking in and controlling more almighty monetary units than other lesser mortals, saved, hallelujah, as if by Jesus, who forgave them their sins.
If you want to learn more about transactional analysis words, such as Ego States and psychological Games, read my book Born to Learn: A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning.
Most Earthian humans know what it is to be egotistical, but they have little understanding of specific human egotistical manifestations, such as Parent, Adult, and Child ego states.
One of the biggest egotists of Earthian human history, a narcissist, playing BALANCE SHEET psychological Games, is Donald Trump. He is also a world-class liar and loser playing BALANCE SHEET, and he should go to jail for it, just like other political USian BALANCE SHEET psychological Game players in the US have, such as the renowned Georgia US representative, Bo Ginn, in 1995, and the notorious cotton farmer Billie Sol Estes of Pecos, Texas in 1965, who had political ties to the USian president from Texas Lyndon Johnson.
Trump psychologically told voters and bankers he was extorting votes and money from he was a stable genius and billionaire who would pay them back for their votes and loans, how many billions worth of a billionaire he was he never said, at least not to voters, arithmetic not being his strong suit; but it now appears it’s possible he’s no billionaire at all, using accounting principles and real market values, which he has refused to show since walking on the USian political stage for the 2016 presidential election. It’s possible he’s no kind of naire at all, not even a millionaire, having liabilities that exceed the market value of his assets, being close to bankruptcy.
It now appears as shown in recent public posts that Trump, his loyal Trump Organization lackeys, and his chosen loyal family members lied to bankers about his net worth to get loans, proving once again that “All that glitters is not gold.”
P.T. Barnum is said to have proved there’s a sucker born every minute. If so, Trump may have proved there’s a sucker born every second, in high and low places.
If you have ideas on how to democratically discuss in Game-free ways (devoid of Persecutor, Rescuer, and Victim roles) economic and political problems and opportunities go to the Ogeechee Economic Forum at https://blog.effectivelearning.net/ogeechee-economic-forum/ and scroll up to and click on the RESPONSES tab at the top of this blog page and speak out about them in writing.
If you feel you’ve gained value from THE EARTHIAN, go to the Internet or any walk-in bookstore around Spaceship Earth and purchase or order one or more of the above books. As the Rooster Crows Earthian OKness Increases is the latest and probably most engaging Effective Learning Publications book, including an overview of USian economic history, including the Trumpian affair. Rout Logger is the protagonist of the novel story. It’s available now at Amazon for immediate unrestricted digital reading on any device as a Kindle book for $4.99. You can read it free at Amazon in a restricted KDP option.
For some doable short run strategies for dealing with Spaceship Earth’s social, economic, political, and military problems in the US read Recommendations for Waking Up From the American Nightmare by Richard John Stapleton, Effective Learning Publications, 2012, 217 pages, at https://www.amazon.com/Recommendations-American-Nightmare-Business-Voyages-ebook/dp/B009TOJVPI
For more information on short run policies and strategies for dealing with current USian economic and political problems read free “The FreeFairProgress Party” at https://blog.effectivelearning.net/freefairprogressparty/.
FOLLOWING IS THE MOST IMMEDIATELY RELEVANT PART OF THE EARTHIAN, A SMORGASBORD OF CURRENT THINKING OF TRUTH-SEEKING TRUTH-ACCEPTING TRUTH-TELLING WRITERS AND ARTISTS, HONESTLY FEELING, THINKING, CREATING, AND WRITING FROM ALL THEIR EGO STATES, PUBLISHED IN RECENT WEEKS IN LINKED ARTICLES, PODCASTS, AND MEMES IN INTERNET MEDIA AROUND SPACESHIP EARTH.
SOURCES and NOTES
October 23, 2022
Scary
“Before and after: See how the Mississipi River and its tributaries have dropped to recond lows,” by Angela Fritz and Brandon Miller, CNN, https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/22/weather/mississippi-river-low-level-drought-climate?fbclid=IwAR1Lue6Sj-RgB-Plfx9VVi02bpt0Du7kTQ_AFuRG8j6URaRP9QyGH9Ul-6c
October 23
Afraid he’s right. But can competent, trustworthy, accountable Earthian humans be found that can make something like the USian Federal Reserve System work for all humans under capitalism?
“’It’s Just Not Right,’ – One Trader’s Rage Spills Over At ‘Incompetent, Untrustworthy, Unaccountable’ Fed,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/its-just-not-right-one-traders-rage-spills-over-incompetent-untrustworthy-unaccountable-fed?fbclid=IwAR0EGThFy16iV9Md_KvSYNdGLw7b4qQrez3GdC9x6g_OFlcYw741fuWwaik
October 23
Probably right, but read at your own risk
“’Dr. Doom’ predicts NYC destroyed by nukes, storms in next 20 years,” by Eric Spitznagel, NEW YORK POST, https://nypost.com/2022/10/22/dr-doom-nouriel-roubini-predicts-scary-demise-for-us/?utm_source=facebook_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons&fbclid=IwAR0r67eeVWAMwglJ9TakUhEtiE7fLSRr0eaT6bNEpfBCn4IbIqW990PufFw
October 22
A bright idea indeed
“Virtual Power Brightens the Future,” by Robert Hunziker, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/21/virtual-power-brightens-the-future/?fbclid=IwAR1gfoXUXBWeqwwxtvimY5li7Wyr6GT45jVVla6S6Wjg7pofDiPuy4pe_FI.
October 22
Why is the USian govt reluctant about negotiating? To keep the Usian military-industrial complex needed, busy, and funded?
“The Time to Negotiate Peace in Ukraine is NOW,” by Richard E. Rubenstein, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/21/the-time-to-negotiate-peace-in-ukraine-is-now/?fbclid=IwAR2FUoFNJ2YtePDgNes1Xr2wl7tzlHeiLZZblubOsQq-56XoA8w31Tiolxo
October 22
Here’s some more straight hard-hitting writing by Eve Ottenberg
“Homeless in America,” by Eve Ottenberg, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/21/homeless-in-america-2/?fbclid=IwAR2k9cGl2W94jh6nw3G6W_3_VmW6VXV2_oJqtjE5X5k6Vu91raLqUJS-W4Q
October 22
So it seems
“Ukraine War Evolves: Slouching Toward Armageddon,” by Richard Falk, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/21/ukraine-war-evolves-slouching-toward-armageddon/?fbclid=IwAR0az6hTb4yU-rwir5st9XT5GxN9I-r77ObV8c0Ygz47-9RKROJQ7uAlrQs.
October 21
No news is good news
“Tyrant ‘will blow up Kherson dam’ and create ‘historic disaster’ says Zelensky,” THE SUN, https://www.the-sun.com/news/6391144/ukraine-news-latest-war-russia-putin-nuclear-live/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebarweb&fbclid=IwAR3wWqR1aZhTA7HdBo2cR7YgMlKMQupVp-LDdJEh8cWl0d3nZU3iCtgCQOI
October 22
What fascism is
“The ‘Mass Man’ and the Specter of Fascism,” by David Rosen, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/20/the-mass-man-and-the-specter-of-fascism/?fbclid=IwAR14qr6q8nw11n9SGoFe2mkgp8dgcuymtvdP9vFXu_lx8tTkPUF3lkAvfIs
October 21
Insanity run amok
“’The Missile Crises,’ Then and Now,” by John Kendall Hawkins, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/20/the-missile-crises-then-and-now/?fbclid=IwAR3z8Dpct8LpWZGS78HV_IuGTzG73RJojY-7qYsIfsA8oKUkzVd-mGPGvmA
Ocober 21
Another threat caused by Spaceship Earth’s greatest enemy, global warming and climate change (GWCC). The second greatest enemy is militarization and nuclear weapons proliferation (MNWP)
“’It’s Disastrous’: Mississippi Barge Captain Warns About Supply Chain Crisis As Water Levels Drop,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/its-disastrous-mississippi-barge-captain-warns-about-supply-chain-crisis-water-levels?fbclid=IwAR3404ppWlf56vunwCUi00qQ8LZ4OWrE_yau8h1hyajGLHobuxKr8UskepU
October 20
I agree with Musk. End this insanity now, before it’s too late
“Russia Wants Talks To End The War, US Advisor Reveals,” Dave DeCamo, ANTIWAR.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-wants-talks-end-war-us-advisor-reveals?fbclid=IwAR2tXsqDj9NaITk3OndC8tQnLik0wjjoyeG5GWfMruaw559hssGnRzxD6is
October 20
What next from the dim dems?
“Pelosi Dismisses Call For New Democrat Leadership: ‘There’s No Substitute For Experience’,” ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/political/pelosi-dismisses-call-new-democrat-leadership-theres-no-substitute-experience?fbclid=IwAR2OEvR42rElX_WO0WabDeXJZDs2kLSmnQtp6ku_Atp0A7AuAtrv783UO6U.
October 20
Say it aint so Joe
“Musk Planning to Fire 75% Of Twitter Staff: WAPO,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/musk-planning-fire-75-twitter-staff-wapo?fbclid=IwAR1Bpcu2vOsTn0WGaQsNRtkfGTIvy_sFiqUyI21LE-2JKRQbNjep8W_77l8.
October 20
If only we in the US could get rid of an incompetent leader as quick as this
“Truss Quits, but UK’s political and economic turmoil persist,” by Jill Lawless, AP NEWS, https://apnews.com/article/liz-truss-europe-economy-business-e18e6e6007c28f6e11cc1a201c545b71?fbclid=IwAR0duk1We5PbB3TD71nlLkDIlHedJMIMyWrfMrhot8GnicQdEFJivflHXSo.
October 16
Probably. And while Spaceship Earth burns USian Neros fiddle with Trump, abortions, tax cuts, stealing elections, the Ukraine, China, Taiwan, etc.
“Is Humanity Destined to Self Destruct?” by Steven Higgs, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/17/is-humanity-destined-to-self-destruct/?fbclid=IwAR29YhLZXsSUI0wN9LhFYUFRW44Q5aL0ewowlyKnOlICIDI9bLwVnouU2Lo.
October 16
Same old, Same old. Here’s Biden reiterating what he has already said, repeating a strategy that has been used over and over in Earthian human history, that has never worked in the long run, that is now called Neo-Liberalism, which is about the same as Neo-Conservatism mouthed by Repugs
“Biden’s National Security Strategy Is a Defense of US Domination, Not Democracy,” by Ashley Smith, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/bidens-national-security-strategy-is-a-defense-of-us-domination-not-democracy/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR29YhLZXsSUI0wN9LhFYUFRW44Q5aL0ewowlyKnOlICIDI9bLwVnouU2Lo.
October 20
Gaslighting is a new buzzword. Nothing new here in my opinion. Earthian humans have always been gaslit, in families, churches, schools, businesses, countries, cultures, etc. The gaslighting of some organizations and groups is more in sync with reality than others but Spaceship Earth has never been able to evolve a human system capable of producing OK lives for all Earthian humans. Get born at your own risk.
“The Gaslighting Of The Masses,” by CJ Hopkins, THE CONSENT FACTORY, https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/hopkins-gaslighting-masses?fbclid=IwAR2sCmiYxMddxw8-ZoG8ar-Uyuw-Es7OlMmI_U2QJVyo925yoEpPEpeCrqY.
October 19
Winning the USian BALANCE SHEET psychological Game, 2001-2008
“The Wealth of the U.S. Wealthiest One-Tenth of One Percent,” by Rick Baum, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/14/the-wealth-of-the-u-s-wealthiest-one-tenth-of-one-percent/?fbclid=IwAR0k8rKjtA_62PyEq-TgUf5_EmYbYX2xy1CHocVNR1D0ai9hoLWbV9B1dRk.
October 19
Here’s USian congresspeople using insider information to cheat playing BALANCE SHEET a psychological Game in which players try to prove they are superior—intellectually, morally, ethically, and culturally—if they pile up a larger net worth on their balance sheets than others. No matter how much money they take in and pile up it is never enough because there is always someone who has piled up even more, or threatens to. This pervasive Game creates constant strife and discontent. BALANCE SHEET is especially pernicious in this case since insider trading is illegal and USian congresspeople are worrying about winning BALANCE SHEET Games instead of doing their jobs—supposedly creating fair and rational laws for we the people. Most politicians have the morals and ethics of an alley cat.
“The Scandal of Congressional Stock Trading,” by Eve Ottenberg, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/14/the-scandal-of-congressional-stock-trading/?fbclid=IwAR2sCmiYxMddxw8-ZoG8ar-Uyuw-Es7OlMmI_U2QJVyo925yoEpPEpeCrqY.
October 19
Here’s Henry Giroux telling another episode of the on-going horror story of Earthian human existence
“The Nazification of American Society and the Scourge of Violence,” by Henry Giroux, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/14/the-nazification-of-american-society-and-the-scourge-of-violence/?fbclid=IwAR31dQ6N6cipgw4KAkMEqhUDNSrUHfEHAeJirUzsBFT4_nPH4B91-h-UW98
October 19
Did the supremes do something right lately?
“Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Trump’s Mar-a-Largo Documents Appeal,” by Chris Walker, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/supreme-court-refuses-to-hear-trumps-mar-a-lago-documents-appeal/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR1mr1iW0JWO3iwO71sI0MS6Gj02xAdDpxUgWKhhRrWKoBh_FUWIxJuO1-s
October 14
This article of mine has gained some traction lately
“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=IwAR289vsm_iXAwVjGwDBAfnnKd5ybQlAHPG7owJDWBNxZ_OXSeq5ANvoXGYg.
October 12
Hard to believe to indict or not to indict in this insurrection case would be left to one person, Merrick Garland, the attorney general of the US. Regardless, given the evidence presented in this insurrection case, including the January 6 hearings, it seems to me it’s clear Garland should indict Trump for inciting an insurrection of our government, and not to do so would be pusillanimity.
“The Inevitable Indictment of Donald Trump,” by Franklin Foer, THE ATLANTIC, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/10/merrick-garland-donald-trump-investigation-indictment/671683/?fbclid=IwAR3Fo_VfIjvss0j6kQ8EbRsTeJWog0dNINEWoacJ85mdzE-7Yg1uVLqo4-c
October 12
Seems to me all hell is going to break out over this one of these days. I just cannot believe this can go on forever
“Why questions are swirling about who will buy more than $31 trillion of U.S. debt — and at what price,” by Vivien Lou Chen, MARKETWATCH, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-questions-are-swirling-about-who-will-buy-more-than-31-trillion-of-u-s-debt-and-at-what-price-11665507637?reflink=mw_share_facebook&fbclid=IwAR2eXWquqc19DYsUisIGy-w6BSKU1C91v8X3IVsCrvu2qTRV0xbwotW20EM
October 11
I never did join the dim dems or the repugnant repugs. Always have been Independent. I generally agree with Gabbard here. She won the 2019 dem primary debates you know. I documented it in an article I wrote and published in my Effective Learning Report blog, “Why Large Powerful Political Parties are Evil,” October 27, 2019, at https://blog.effectivelearning.net/why-large-powerful…/
“Tulsi Gabbard leaves Democratic Party, denounces ‘control of an elitist cabal of warmongers’,” by Cami Mondeaux, WASHINGTON EXAMINER, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/tulsi-gabbard-leaves-democratic-party-denounces-control-of-an-elitist-cabal-of-warmongers?fbclid=IwAR3LvegRoQUrcccwIadFHT65aKH3g0_rV9uUsdo8CKvGDrW5ocYRd_cYbvw
October 11
Agree completely
“We are on a path of escalation to nuclear war, nothing less,” Jeffery Sachs, INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/57270.htm?fbclid=IwAR1zFUj8URiAf4IxJilPKAikJ0ZhuBNe6nkzF-b7zWT3pANv7swtnzOzxdI
October 9
It’s a shame it’s come to this
“US is Overcome with Debt and Death. We Must Fight Inequality to Stop this Crisis, by Liz Theoharis, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/us-is-overcome-with-debt-and-death-lets-fight-inequality-to-stop-this-crisis/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR1rJMxu8UTHq2qkpWFw7LUTeIVFpUHJ4SfDSJqP5GxcfVlsjfBAY96vIeY
Octobber 9
Lying amoral hypocrits
“Donald and Herschel: The Unholy Alliance,” DNYUZ.COM, https://dnyuz.com/2022/10/08/donald-and-herschel-the-unholy-alliance/?fbclid=IwAR2sgY-TiGRz9V7KmLuG2IfTV2mrV3HMTVTvLs_zItoM_y8HveQKC4ArhYA
October 8
Here’s Paul Street again right on the money again as usual
“Bad Republicans, Invisible Democrats,” by Paul Street, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/07/bad-republicans-invisible-democrats/?fbclid=IwAR0pcKqoH1YSEcsETKb4vmrtaZuSqhEzQ_vjwvkv4Za84B_q6lAmfGrB8wI
October 8
Another great article by the no-nonsense cogent on the mark Eve Ottenberg
“A Superstition Called the Presidency,” by Eve Ottenberg, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/07/a-superstition-called-the-presidency/?fbclid=IwAR1GLTmOGx4M71c3YDHZRIMxFaOax00Zsfyodt9x-5wockurOoxrWK6YLPA
October 8
Say it aint so Joe
“The Greatest Evil is War,” by Chris Hedges, CONSORTIUMNEWS.COM, https://consortiumnews.com/2022/10/04/chris-hedges-the-greatest-evil-is-war/?fbclid=IwAR1BKQHznSvzImUhr_fq5Kbz4lQHGQPWfnUlUfzKaSYkbvybJiTpJ0iK_Xk
October 7
Even smart people do not read books
As the Rooster C rows Earthian OKness Increases, by Richard John Stapleton, EFFECTIVE LEARNING PUBLICATIONS, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/richard-john-stapleton/as-the-rooster-crows-earthian-okness-increases/?fbclid=IwAR0pcKqoH1YSEcsETKb4vmrtaZuSqhEzQ_vjwvkv4Za84B_q6lAmfGrB8wI
October 7
They might keep you alive for a while, but will they enable you to continue to live indefinitely with any real OKness, if all hell breaks loose?
“U.S. Buying $290M Worth of Anti-radiation Drugs for Use in ‘Nuclear Emergency’,” by Chris Menahan, INFORMATION LIBERATION, http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=63385
October 7
Switzerland also has more direct democracy than any other country using referendums giving all citizens the right and power to vote about real issues. Representative democracy such as what the US has is better than fascist dictatorship but it cannot compete with direct democracy
“Switzerland, Not USA, Is The ‘Most Innovative’ Country In The World,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/switzerland-not-usa-most-innovative-country-world?fbclid=IwAR3qZq6NZ-NlKHLvaYxuB8cYra9Cp4Tob-If7hFqnrKd3GcaWIQYL4PsF0c
October 7
Let’s hope so.
“Put the battle between Good and Evil to one side. It is these three factors — class, race, geography — that will shape the outcome of the midterms, whatever the media says. The endless kabuki theatre pitting Trump and his minions against Democrats may delight and enrage America’s elites — but for the American people, it is still material concerns that matter.”
“What really divides America,” by Joel Kotkin, UNHEARD.COM, https://unherd.com/2022/10/what-really-divides-america/?=frlh&fbclid=IwAR1HtAEtJeKkXJjqKo0cSA8SEvvvCQ4dqFhdNK7SVISFLraEmhm1Ya08lQI
October 7
He finally did something helpful.
Now when is he going to legalize all illegal drugs so their distribution can be controlled by law enforcement and taxed like wine, beer, booze, and cigs, getting rid of street gangs and pushers, the now equivalent of alcohol gangs and pushers during the USian failed experiment with Prohibition during the 1930s?
“Biden pardons thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession, orders review of federal pot laws,” by Christina Wilkie, CNBC, https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/06/biden-to-pardon-all-prior-federal-offenses-of-simple-marijuana-possession-.html?__source=sharebar|facebook&par=sharebar&fbclid=IwAR3e1YFnhOtt9PWUw66ETpAjh2TsoNc1CqKZTbcN2MkoyTa16Gmy2Cet_-8
October 7
Then why not negotiate with the SOB and bring this bullshit to a halt?
“Biden: Nuclear ‘Armageddon’ risk highest since ’62 crisis,”by Ameer Madhani, Ellen Knickmeyer, and Josh Boak, AP NEWS, https://apnews.com/article/biden-nuclear-risk-1d0f1e40cff3a92c662c57f274ce0e25?fbclid=IwAR2-RuhT1StYUvgNsjJUJr109w9WX9wtX-qBrpS5MmEJXzq0qBrEEPpC5EQ.
October 6
Interesting. I grew up thinking I might have some African heritage given my unusual curly-wavy hair. This was not the case according to a DNA test at Ancestry.com that showed my heritage is England and Northwestern Europe, 46%; Scotland, 39%; Ireland, 9%; Wales, 4%; Norway, 2%.
Ancestry.com calls it your ethnicity inheritance, but it’s also genes you inherited that are similar to genes of most of the people living in various countries who are in the ancestry.com data base. I asked my grandfather once if he knew of any Africans in our family line. He said he didn’t, but he also said if you go back far enough we’re all Africans. It’s not only a question of how many African Americans have European heritage, a sizeable percentage pointed out in the article below, but also how many straight-haired pale supposedly Non-African American Americans have African heritage. The answer would not make any difference in a non-racist society, but it does in a racist society such as the US that causes insane ignorant racial slurs to be inflicted on Earthian humans living in the US because of their physical characteristics, regardless of their true genetic heritage, assuming knowing such a thing is possible
“Do All African Americans have European Heritage, if so how much,” by Kent Etheridge, QUORA.COM, https://blackhistoryandpolitics.quora.com/An-excellent-read-https-www-quora-com-Do-all-African-Americans-have-European-heritage-If-so-how-much-on-average-answe?ch=1&oid=57495062&share=f6c3c229&srid=hkkCWN&target_type=post&fbclid=IwAR3EWVxnundbb-uqjP-CFZN3aTcBPB_r43x12uqZSCcQBxz4kg3EixDRktY
October 6
Never knew this
“The Long Arm of US Slavery,” by Yosef Brody, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/05/the-long-arms-of-us-slavery/?fbclid=IwAR3pDMsRqvYVmwYUNRZo5uUISwzBRtfViOOCcDMSP65uXVry7VG883-OA7E
October 4
We already have a civil war in the US, a war of words so far
“Disunited States,” by Serge Halimi, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/09/30/disunited-states/?fbclid=IwAR0kFd73d67o91dONAze6u6Y1t9MCXVngrlUdjCenEZNZu9-S5Y1qzbTGTQ
October 4
Say it aint so Joe
“’End War in Ukraine’ Say 66 Nations at UN General Assembly,” by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/09/30/end-war-in-ukraine-say-66-nations-at-un-general-assembly/?fbclid=IwAR1XXbDDfC9qW0Wnl5pN9PBwgnu8yHJ4P9DBqGld3QyN1A5Rotvatdltumw
October 4
Another great article by Eve Ottenberg
“The Global Fight Against Fascism,” by Eve Ottenberg, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/09/30/the-global-fight-against-fascism-2/?fbclid=IwAR3eOb0sbs35KCV9GLFuPi6mG4Wv4MUKBNn0Pi8NUuRL7kTPiOki1YL5Jw8
October 3
Scary stuff
“Who Profits from Pipeline Terror?,” by Pepe Escobar, THE CRADLE, https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/escobar-who-profits-pipeline-terror?fbclid=IwAR304tJ7app4ib27XPsyWOTHUw8fcFlCz3icsVGU428D3jlv3T8QNwk-bh4
October 3
How much longer can this go on? The USian Federal Reserve System can create funny money by punching digits into its computer system to produce numbers it calls real money. They use this “money” to buy USian debt instruments, treasury bills, notes, etc., and private debt and asset instruments. The US govt uses this funny money and tax money to stimulate the private sector and to pay for its yearly military and other expenses, including loan payments to the Social Security System Trust Fund to pay back real money the Federal govt borrowed from the Social Security System. The private sector borrows funny money at low interest from the Federal Reserve System to advance its own interests, including the buying back of stock of corporations to enrich stockholders and executive cronies owning the stock. The total federal debt keeps growing and growing through time. As of 2:57 pm September 12, 2022, the total US federal debt, accumulated throughout its history, according to US Debt Clock.org, was about $30,884,777,487,108, almost thirty-one trillion dollars. So far in fiscal year 2022, total USian federal spending has been about $5,952,558,908,352, about six trillion dollars; and total tax revenue has been about $4,459,634,257,768; resulting in a deficit of about $1,492,922,523,176, about one and one-half trillion dollars, to be paid with Fed funny money and money paid by other purchasers of USian federal debt. The US Federal Reserve System now owns about 11.2 percent of the total USian Federal debt, about 2.5 trillion dollars worth. About 50 percent of the Federal debt is owned by foreign countries, China and others. About 48 percent of the USian debt is owned by USian private citizens and other purchasers in the US. The Federal Reserve is now worried about inflation, so it has been jacking up the interest rate charged everyone in the USian banking system. This causes recession in the real economy. How bad will the incipient recession have to get before the Fed starts lowering interest rates again to cure the recession they had to cause to lower inflation by raising interest rates? Since 1980 or so the losers in this process have been middle and lower income USians who have received no increases in their real incomes while the real incomes of upper income USians have significantly increased. It appears middle and lower income level USians in the private sector will again pay a high price for another roller-coaster ride in the undependable USian economy, getting stuck again with tenuous employment and lower real incomes after all is said and done coping with this swing of the business cycle, as the USian Federal Reserve System as usual creates funny money and lowers and raises interest rates causing and curing recoveries and recessions. How do Earthian humans responsible for creating and managing this diabolical system sleep at night?
Comment by RJS
“The US Productive Sector Recession,” by Daniel Lacalle, https://www.dlacalle.com/en/the-u-s-productive-sector-recession/
October 22
To take over the US, Repugs need to get more Repugs elected senators in various states.
How to get another one elected from the state of Georgia? Donald Trump and other oligarchs of the Republican Party knowing most Georgians like football, especially University of Georgia retired football stars like Herschel Walker, an African American, have arranged for him to be their candidate to run in the Georgia US senate race against Democrat Raphael Warnock, also an African American, a minister by profession, a good one who is articulate, intelligent, and coherent, but not charismatic.
Walker has worked for Trump before, starting his professional football career working for Trump’s professional football team in the now defunct American Football League, the New Jersey Generals, at an inordinately high salary in 1983, after dropping out of the University of Georgia after his junior year.
Georgia has a lot of African American voters, and to capture more of those voters, the Repug establishment decided to recruit Herschel Walker as the Repug candidate in the Senate race. Most non-African American Georgians in usual circumstances will vote for Repug candidates no matter who the Repug oligarchs put up, and most African American voters in usual circumstances will vote for the Dem candidate no matter who Dem oligarchs put up.
Therefore, a good strategy for the Repug power structure to win the senate election in Georgia, they seem to think, is to put up Herschel Walker as their candidate. Because of his football fame and charisma, he might draw votes from African Americans who would normally vote for the establishment Dem candidate, no matter how unqualified Walker might be as a USian senator.
Cedric the Entertainer in his podcast below says he thinks Hershey Walker has been taking Creatine after retiring as a football player to keep his muscles tight and bulging.
Whether Walker becomes a paid running back again, this time running plays called by sociopathic quarterbacks of the national Repug political machine, such as Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell, remains to be seen.
Walker has not been shown wearing a coat and tie, the uniform of a USian senator, in any political advertisement I have seen, most likely to keep Georgia voters focused on his unusual muscles instead of how much he knows about solving existential social, economic, political, religious, and ecological problems.
Will Walker not wear a coat and tie in the Senate Chamber in the US Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. if he wins this bizarre and sleazy Georgia Senate beauty contest Tuesday, November 8, 2022?
This is another political can of worms orchestrated by cynical USian Repug oligarchs for their own selfish short run entertainment and emolument, to be gained at the expense of others.
Comment by RJS
“Cedric the Entertainer hits Herschel Walker in new attack ad,” by Juliegrace Brufke, WASHINGTON EXAMINER, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/senate/cedric-the-entertainer-herschel-walker-attack-ad?fbclid=IwAR2DYHeUO1lzTm3rg7MXIuaUFPEf9doa2U9QoiIndJzJORAovjR-Ox5xE8Q
October 2
I again find myself generally agreeing with a former prominent un-unhinged Repug, Ronald Reagan’s Director of his Office of Management and Budget (1981–1985), David Stockman
“Stockman Slams Washington’s Pointless War On Behalf Of A Fake Nation,” by David Stockman, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/stockman-slams-washingtons-pointless-war-behalf-fake-nation?fbclid=IwAR1XXYIzWAW5365hOgrzwHUVgkyhl8Id4nF8iK35b8YxKGYi2C5N-OJY6M4
October 2
It’s not hard to see why they are depressed considering how irrational Spaceship Earth is, but it does seem there might be a positive correlation between the anti-depression medicine usage of a country and its social, educational, economic, and cultural levels, indicating relative ignorance is more blissful than relative enlightenment
“The Growing Global Reliance On Antidepressants,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/growing-global-reliance-antidepressants?fbclid=IwAR0IaRaJtHybkUrw7iEWQj4T39Bjw7VFV2I5whB2TFWyxzl2djcdjknk7X0
October 2
Hard to believe
“Visualizing The Global Wealth Pyramid,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/visualizing-global-wealth-pyramid?fbclid=IwAR10rssvOa2LgLh-KPUpKRxZD64zdav7DHSKNQXFNlyKFMmtR-LRTTxYMHo
September 30
Say it aint so Joe
“The Democratic Party, Now the Leading Party of War,” by John V. Walsh, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/09/29/the-democratic-party-now-the-leading-party-of-war/?fbclid=IwAR2qfyJ1zQkv1fYpH_WvvFVmKKEYhd1EItqOYU01LeK-CsHkvGrQ5jVhWdQ
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Here’s Richard John Stapleton, PhD, CTA in his office at Georgia Southern University the year he retired in 2005, the senior professor of the university that year. The photo was shot by Lori Grice, a former student, founder of Lori Grice Photography.
The object under his left hand is a version of the Classroom De- Gamer™ he invented in 1978.
He would spin the spinner of the De-Gamer in his classes to randomly select a student at the beginning of each class session to lead a discussion of the case assigned for the day, a case taken from a planned or operating business prepared by casewriters at Georgia Southern, Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Alabama.
Grades were based eighty percent on class participation in dialectical discussions about what to do about problems and opportunities found in cases; the rest of the final grade was based on two case write-ups. One write-up was about what the student observed, researched, analyzed, and wrote about an existing business in the local environment or a business plan the student created. The other write-up was an analysis of a case researched and written by professors about a business assigned as the final exam. Cases used in his courses contained processes, problems, opportunities, and data occurring in all functional areas of business such as entrepreneurship, finance, marketing, operations management, control, management information systems, and business policy and strategy.
He has published refereed journal articles and books explaining how his democratic Game-free Adult-Adult I’m OK—You’re OK case method system works, by banishing Persecutors, Rescuers, and Victims playing psychological Games from the teaching and learning process, first documented in an article titled “The Classroom De-Gamer” he published in 1978 in the Transactional Analysis Journal. He has published seven books and over one hundred articles in various media containing cases, research data, and essays on teaching and learning and management policies and practices.
He learned and trained using transactional analysis with Martin Groder, MD; Graham Barnes, PhD; Vann Joines, PhD; and many others at the Southeast Institute at Chapel Hill, North Carolina (1975-1978).
He learned how the case method works teaching with Bernard Bienvenu, DBA and Rexford Hauser, DBA (Harvard Business School doctorates) at the University of Louisiana– Lafayette in 1969-70.
He has a BS in economics (1962), an MBA in organizational behavior (1966), and a PhD in management science (1969) from Texas Tech University, and an organizational and educational certification in transactional analysis (CTA) from the International Transactional Analysis Association (1978).
He taught his own case method track at the undergraduate level in the management department of the business school at Georgia Southern University offering four or five different elective case method courses each academic year (1970-2005), in which he led, coordinated, and graded about twenty-five or so students each year who took all or most of those case method courses in their junior and senior years, of about two hundred students who signed up for all his courses each year. He used a democratic circle or amphitheater classroom layout in all his classes. He also taught most semesters two sections of a capstone integrative business policy course he added to the business school curriculum in 1970 that was required for all undergraduate business majors that could be elected by any student in any major. He was the only professor in the business school to use the case method in any course.
His students agreed to a course learning contract that stipulated they would read the facts of the case before class and would lose a whole letter grade from the course final grade if the De-Gamer randomly caught them obviously not having read the case before class, if they had not slipped a note under his office door before class telling him they had not read the case, which they could do twice during the course without penalty.
About ten percent of his students made A’s and about five percent made D’s. Most made C’s, which is about right, since C = Average. There were few F’s in his courses. The main criterion for course grades was the quantity and quality of ideas sold by students in case method discussions. He used peer ratings to give students feedback showing what their fellow students thought about the quantity and quality of their ideas sold in class, having made it clear the final decision about final grades was his. He did not believe in Lake Wobegon grading.
No student was ever forced to take one of his courses to graduate, and the most hardened Game-players in the school did not sign up for his courses after he issued his Edict of 1972 in which he clearly spelled out in his syllabi the penalty for getting caught unprepared. His Classroom De-Gamer™ was roundly discussed by students in bull sessions across campus every year and was labeled various things, such as The Wheel of Fate and The Death Wheel. Most students near the end of his career simply called it The Spinner.
He appreciated Georgia Southern honoring his academic freedom by allowing him control of his teaching methods, classroom layouts, grading procedures, and course books, cases, and materials, some of which he researched, wrote, and published. He was promoted to full professor at age thirty-six.
He collected longitudinal research data using questionnaires in 1992 showing his case method students during 1972-1982 reported higher yearly incomes in 1992 than students electing the same courses in 1972-1982 taught by professors using the authoritarian lecture method and the militaristic row and column classroom layout, who graded students based on memorizing or calculating “right answers” for tests, indicating learners learning in Adult—Adult I’m OK—You’re OK Game-free democratic learning processes graded subjectively became more successful in the real world of business than learners lectured to and graded using so-called objective multiple-choice tests.
Only former students who had worked in the real world ten or more years after graduating from the Georgia Southern business school were included in the study. The data are shown, analyzed, and discussed in full in “Evidence the Case Method Works” in his book Business Voyages: Mental Maps, Scripts, Schemata, and Tools for Discovering and Co-Constructing Your Own Business Worlds, 2008, pg. 475). The data were also used in several refereed articles.
For more information on related classroom management ethical issues see Stapleton, R.J. and Murkison, G. (2001), “Optimizing the fairness of student evaluations: A study of correlations between instructor excellence, study production, learning production, and expected grades,” in the Journal of Management Education, 25(3), 269-292.
Stapleton had one of the lowest student grade point averages among professors in the business school and was one of the lowest-ranked professors as an instructor on computerized campus-wide student evaluations that weighted only instructor excellence scores up to 2000; but he was one of the highest-ranked professors in a computerized student evaluation he designed that generated data also showing and weighting study production, learning production, and expected grades scores for each professor, published in “Optimizing the Fairness of Student Evaluations.”
To read the Optimizing Fairness article in full, go to https://studysites.sagepub.com/holt/articles/Stapleton.pdf . After this research was published, Georgia Southern in 2001 added study production, learning production, and expected grades questions to the student evaluation form used campus-wide.
“Optimizing the Fairness of Student Evaluations” has by now (October 24, 2022) been cited as a reference in 83 refereed journal articles concerned about the ethics of student evaluations in several academic disciplines, including eight new citations since April 2021.
As the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein propositioned, “The case is all there is.”
If so, everything else said about Earthian human states of affairs is a rendition of what was or might be.
For more on Stapleton’s cultural, educational, and professional experiences go to https://blog.effectivelearning.net/.
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