THE EARTHIAN

Effective Learning Publications, 32 East Main Street, Statesboro, Georgia, USA, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-earthian-2/, August 1, 2018

Or So It Seems to Me Today

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

It seems to me the Doomsday Clock aboard Spaceship Earth keeps ticking ever closer to Midnight.

I have used the word Earthian since encountering it in the 1970s in Buckminster Fuller’s book Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, one of the most relevant books I have read. It is my understanding that Fuller invented the word Earthian, and the appellation Spaceship Earth, implying Earth is something that has to be managed by humans monitoring regular interdependent physical processes in the infinity of airless time and space–trees and other plants emitting oxygen that humans and other animals breath–with humans, other animals, and various processes emitting carbon dioxide that plants ingest–to make new oxygen in hopefully never ending co-dependent systems. Such production systems have to stay in synchronous interdependent regularities, requiring not cutting down and burning too many trees, and not putting too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere burning fossil fuels, as most humans should know by now given what they have heard, seen, and read in various media about global warming, evidenced by the heat and wildfires burning anything that will burn right now on various spots of terra firma around Spaceship Earth.

What is an Earthian? The term applies mostly to humans aboard Spaceship Earth, aka Planet Earth; but it includes more than humans: it includes all sentient species of fauna and flora.

In other words, the purpose of The Earthian is to advocate preserving all species aboard Spaceship Earth, not just right wing or left wing political humans, especially rich oligarchs now constructing themselves underground bunkers to survive what they call “The Event” that they think will wipe out most humans. The purpose of The Earthian is not to cause humans to learn something just for the sake of learning it, or something that might make their personal lives better, but to learn something that might make for smoother sailing for all species aboard Spaceship Earth.

This issue of The Earthian as usual links recent articles written by clear and deep thinking hard hitting independent writers in various open fearless Internet publications dealing with current ecological, economic, military, religious, and political affairs around Spaceship Earth. I included in this issue an article, not the clearest and deepest of this issue by any stretch, I recently wrote titled “De-Gaming And Saving Democracy,” in which I point out democracy seems to be waning in the Western World and capitalism has failed to satisfy a majority of citizens. I proposed in the article a new way to rejuvenate democracy. The upshot of the article is that the fate of Spaceship Earth depends on people like you. Read the article and set up a De-Gaming Democracy group in your community.

A decision was made in June of 2018 to encourage the formation of De-Gaming Democracy groups around Spaceship Earth to facilitate relevant face-to-face discussions about economic and political affairs affecting Earthians. Humans spending more and more time staring at TV, computer, and cell phone screens, now about eight hours per day per human on average in the US, looking at faces, hearing voices expounding and manipulating mostly about gossip, politics, sports, and soap operas, and hearing and reading fake news, and even some truthful news, has not resulted in economic and political success and satisfaction for all. Something new needs to be tried. As Albert Einstein pointed out, doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result is insane.

And it seems to me it’s even more insane to do the same thing over and over saying you want a better state of affairs and never getting it, which is what happens much of the time in institutions, such as schools, colleges, universities, churches, political parties, legislatures, congresses, and corporate and military units, who really want to preserve their status quo to protect their vested interests.

Most of the time supposed experts and power people get together in committees and decide what kind of drivel, excuse me, dogma and party line bullshit to inflict on their subordinates down the chain of command, usually via the lecture method of teaching with victims, er, subordinates sitting in seats and desks in neat rows and columns obediently trying or pretending to memorize what is laid on them for some sort of test or task. Most people enjoy standing rigidly erect pointing with their index fingers with a stern look on their faces lecturing others. Even five-year-old kids can sometimes be seen taking pleasure lecturing other kids.

What I recommend in “De-Gaming and Saving Democracy” is not doing this, but, rather, having learners and teachers sit in circles using a spinner to randomly select the leader of the day to start a democratic discussion of a relevant problem or opportunity. This entails everyone being equally ok and having an equal chance to be the leader, which is the essence of democracy.

I took my own advice and tried to set up a De-Gaming democracy group in my town Saturday July 21, 2018, as explained here. I invited 153 people on my Internet list to what I called the Ogeechee Economic Forum, telling them I was hosting a forum in our Stapleton Learning Company offices, using principles outlined in “De-Gaming and Saving Democracy,” and announced the time and how to get there. One person showed up, not enough to democratically select anyone in a group, but the discussion was randomly started nevertheless. Something in the person’s mind showing up caused the person to bring up the problem discussed during the assigned hour of the forum, namely the uncertain state of affairs now agitating what used to be Georgia Southern University in Statesboro and Armstrong State University in Savannah caused by the University System of Georgia in Atlanta deciding to merge the two universities under one name, Georgia Southern University. It was an interesting discussion and made interesting content for this article.

So, as my experiment Saturday July 21, 2018 shows, it will not be easy to set up De-Gaming Democracy groups for bottom-up Game-free democratic discussions around Spaceship Earth, the primary reason possibly being that most people really do not like face-to-face democracy. They may actually prefer being told what to believe and do in authoritarian top-down systems, on TV, on their cell phones, in video movies, in schools, in homes, in churches, in workplaces, in military units, etc.

But we should keep trying to save democracy it seems to me. I intend to by hosting another Ogeechee Economic Forum at the same time and place this coming third Saturday of August. Maybe more people will show up this time. Read my books Business Voyages and Born to Learn for more data, information, and background on learning, democracy, and the beneficial results of randomly selecting discussion leaders.

Earthians have been on a long business voyage evolving from one-celled amoebas slithering about in the soup and mists of primordial time, dealing with the business of survival as best they could, as long as they could. Some evolved species have survived up to now, most of the originals became extinct, and most of the current survivors may become extinct if human affairs keep trending as they have been around Spaceship Earth.

The smartest specie, homo sapiens, has not only adapted to its environments to survive it has changed its environments, learning how to create ever more sophisticated production and consumption systems in ever more complex organizations.

Early humanoids initially evolved as individuals, soon evolved into family and tribal groups, and later evolved into members and leaders of business, ethnic, religious, political, social, civic, governmental, military, corporate, and cultural groups and organizations. The quantity and quality of learning and knowledge produced in this Earthian evolutionary process is mind-boggling, far too much for any one human to comprehend. Some humans know more than others, but all are dummies relative to everything there is to know now.

According to the philosopher Karl Popper, taken from a passage on page 100 of Business Voyages, it’s possible for humans to know about phenomena in three worlds:

Writers can only write about what they know about and can imagine. I have formally studied, taught, researched, and published in degree programs that focused on economics, organizational behavior, management science, and transactional analysis. Despite the fact I can now recall verbatim only a small fraction of the content I was exposed to in those programs, hopefully I shall recall or imagine here what is most relevant for what should be written in this blog today. I should know more about these subjects than most people not having my experience and formal training, but no one knows right answers for all relevant problems and opportunities that require knowledge from all three of Popper’s Worlds. The best hope is to develop consensual answers in democratic discussions that work better than others for all Earthian species.

For all practical purposes a case can be made that “right” answers for real world problems and opportunities do not exist.

That said, it seems to me democratic discussion methods generally work better in human affairs than authoritarian methods, since they produce answers created by more than one person. On the other hand, it is not necessarily true, it seems to me, that consensual answers get better and better as more and more people contribute to them. It seems to me new tweaks might make consensual answers worse, not better.

Unfortunately, most people are like my father, who tried to teach me, “There can be only one boss.”

It seems to me the most relevant issue is not whether democratic learning methods are better than authoritarian methods, but rather how can humans overcome a natural bias toward authoritarianism and fascism embedded in human nature. Children, after all, have to be controlled and dogmatically taught in their early stages in many cases for their own protection; but what would it hurt to let the child express his or her opinion about what is wrong and what to do in some cases? Most of the time no harm would result, and the child’s self-esteem and confidence would be increased.

It seems to me in most groups, families included, most parents and parent-like people–supervisors, cops, politicians, prison wardens, FBI directors, presidents, managers, preachers, parents, teachers, coaches, sergeants, generals, corporate CEOs, etc.–enjoy being the boss, and they hog all the power they can get their hands on by forbidding one way or another others from participating in democratic discussions, and if this goes on over and over again enough even underlings and underdogs begin to enjoy it and feel good about it, and begin to withdraw from any sort of dialectical face to face human contact and communication; and if everybody does this a stagnant society will ensue, a society that is only concerned about preserving the status quo, which is about where humans are now around Spaceship Earth, despite mounting evidence significant unplanned changes are about to happen regardless of what humans think, wish, or believe.

As any transactional analyst knows the most significant human learning is script-based. Children are programmed by social and psychological messages transmitted by parents and others before the age of eight to adopt a life script that includes the do’s and don’t’s for living their lives in their families and environments.

“Wash behind your ears”, “clean those nails”, “study hard”, “work hard”, “get along”, “make something of yourself” are common verbal social messages transmitted from the Parent ego states of parents to the Parent ego states of children.

At the same time, children are programmed by psychological non-verbal messages, called injunctions, transmitted from the Child ego states of parents to the Child ego states of children. Following is a common listing of script injunctions taken from a passage on page 160 of Business Voyages:

“Don’t Be; Don’t Be You (the sex you are); Don’t Be a Child; Don’t Grow; Don’t Make It; Don’t; Don’t Be Important; Don’t Be Close; Don’t Belong; Don’t Be Well (or sane); Don’t Think About X (forbidden subject); Don’t Think What You Think, Think What I Think; Don’t Feel; Don’t Feel X, Mad, Sad, Glad, Scared, etc.; Don’t Feel What You Feel, Feel What I Feel.”

These authoritarian social and psychological messages cause family scripts to stay much the same generation after generation. Certain family scripts fit various kinds of organizational scripts in society better than others. Thus people with the same kinds of family scripts tend to populate the same kinds of organizations generation after generation, such as various political parties and religious denominations. This early script-based teaching before humans are eight years old is difficult to change, almost impossible some say, making it difficult to change national scripts causing deleterious and disastrous feelings and behaviors, such as fear, greed, hatred, hubris, chauvinism, and aggression, that cause poverty, inequality, war, environmental pollution, and specie extinctions.

According to Eric Berne, MD, a psychiatrist, and the euhemerous of transactional analysis, script messages laid on children in families produce three kinds of generic life script outcomes: winner, loser, and non-winner. If true, this evolved process for determining human outcomes is grossly unfair for humans scripted to be losers and non-winners, an unfair process for which no human can be blamed, caused by ineluctable inevitable accidental cause-effect chains of evolutionary forces, in the infinity of time and space.

Here is a passage I wrote about human scripts taken from page 157 of Business Voyages:

“As Shakespeare pointed out, the world’s a stage and everyone must act a part. It is theoretically possible not to act out a part or script in life by autonomously making rational decisions given actual cases using Adult ego states in the here and now. Whether anyone has ever actually accomplished this cannot be proved. According to Berne, a script is an on-going life plan decided upon by a child before the age of eight–which includes such basic decisions as the life position of the person (whether I’m OK–You’re OK, I’m OK–You’re Not OK, I’m Not OK–You’re OK, I’m Not OK–You’re Not OK), what type of person to marry, how many children to have, the nature of role in life, the nature of life outcome, whether winner, loser, or non- winner, and who will be around when life ends (Berne, 1970). The early influence and programming of parents and the commitment of offsprings to the influence and programming determine scripts. Once the offspring decides to accept the influence and programming it becomes a part of the script that is acted out on the stage of life. In this sense a child less than eight years old determines most lives. Some scripts work out well and some do not. Criminals, entrepreneurs, saints, and sinners are generally what they are because of scripts, not autonomous feelings, thinking, and doing in the here and now. Therefore they are not to blame or praise. People do in the present what they decided to do in the past regarding important matters. According to Berne, only trivial matters are decided by reason in the here and now.”

About the only hope for changing script-based feeling, thinking, and behaving it seems to me is by getting people with disparate scripts together in Game-free democratic dialectical discussions that enable participants to compare their script messages with those of others in relation to particular problems and opportunities confronting everyone so as to construct new consensual answers that are acceptable for everyone.

This is hard to do, impossible some say, because “Birds of a feather flock together,” only associating with their own kind, hearing the same authoritarian messages over and over from their elders, leaders, and managers, and their peers, in a process that creates an addictive psychological security blanket for themselves and their group. This human behavior ironically and unfortunately, when summed internationally, causes all species to become less secure. This happens because the process precludes the development of consensual answers for common problems and opportunities among groups that would have precluded conflict and future problems–and most disastrously the process causes isolated group leaders and members to develop feelings of superiority and self-righteousness that lead to discounting and hating other groups, ultimately leading to serious tissue-tearing wars, global warming, and specie extinctions, possibly also including sooner or later homo sapiens.

Power-hoggers at the highest levels in organizations such as the US government and congress and in most other countries, in the UK, India, France, Germany, Russia, China, Syria, Japan, Indonesia, Bulgaria, Ireland, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Cuba, Chile, Mexico, Holland, Iran, Turkey, or wherever, and in multinational corporations of any national origin, having no Game-free democratic open dialectical discussions among themselves generating consensual answers for problems at their level have now brought Spaceship Earth to its most dangerous state of affairs of all time, largely caused by their hogged power being greatly increased, relative to that of their analogous power hoggers of the past, by the collective accumulated learning and knowledge of humans through time in Worlds 1, 2, and 3 that enabled humans to learn, mostly in the last one hundred years or so, how to generate and transmit electricity to power countless electrical devices; learn how to power automobiles, tractors, airplanes, tanks and other mobile devices by burning fossil fuel; learn how to detonate nuclear bombs to kill people in wars; learn how to use two digits, zeros and ones, to create words, numbers, pictures, and sounds in computers and cell phones; learn how to use digits to create data bases, money, and computer programs capable of controlling almost anything that moves; and learn how to do almost anything but cause ordinary humans to communicate and live together in harmony, peace, tranquility, and satisfaction.

Power hoggers at the top of countries around Spaceship Earth don’t cause ordinary humans to live in harmony, peace, tranquility, and satisfaction because they need them to fight one another so the power hoggers can continue to hog their power, and hog the money and wealth their hogged power enables them to steal. Yes, the international behavioral system of trade, commerce, and war at the highest power level around Spaceship Earth is now a system of unorganized and unregulated crime–theft–top power hoggers in all countries stealing and trying to steal whatever they can lay their hands on from underdogs in their own countries and from underdogs in other countries, ostensibly for the good of underdogs in their own countries.

Topdog power hoggers around Earth still use the time-honored and tested strategy of divide and conquer to weaken underdog power hoggers in their countries, bribing, paying, and rewarding them to satisfy, muzzle, and corral underdogs down the chain of command under their control, much like kings and dukes did to underdog barons, knaves, and serfs during the Middle Ages, making sure underdogs stay chained in their places in their groups, talking only to one another at their level about local gossip, daily chores, politicians, sports, children, parents, and what have you, maintaining a banal status quo, a banal status quo that gets so boring from time to time that many local underdogs actually look forward to traveling around Earth to fight in a war, possibly getting killed, yet possibly coming home a hero because of killing others.

Humans throughout recorded history have always been at war somewhere around Spaceship Earth; and the biggest promoters of war today are the power hoggers at the top of the US Deep State.

Figuring out how to eradicate power hogging, the most virulent, vicious, ubiquitous, insidious, pain-causing, lethal, possibly fatal mental illness contaminating the human species, is the best alternative for insuring long term human life aboard Spaceship Earth, or so it seems to me today.

Read my article “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc.,” for more ideas on how this might happen.

SOURCES:

August 4, 2018

Here is a voting system, The Voters’ Bill of Rights, conceived and written by my long time friend from the 1950s at Wolfforth, Texas, one of the greatest supporters of democracy of our time, William John Cox, a retired lawyer and now political activist, that allows you to vote right now on whether to amend the US Constitution so as to guarantee a right to vote for all US citizens, which, you probably do not know, we do not have now. Take a look at the Voters’ Bill of Rights and cast your vote, now, to amend the US Constitution to include the Voters’ Bill of Rights at

https://thevote.io/.

August 4

Here is why we need Wm Cox’s amendments to the US Constitution rather than the Koch Brothers’ amendments

August 2, 2018

Sounds like complete gobbledegook to me. Economic theory does not prove diddily squat

“No, We Haven’t Drained the Earth’s Resources,” by Jonathan Newman, MISES.ORG, https://mises.org/wire/no-we-haven%E2%80%99t-drained-earth%E2%80%99s-resources.

August 2

Who has the time to keep up with this?

“A Fork-in-the-Road Approaches: The Short List – 95 Revelations from July, 2018,” by Doug “Uncola” Lynn, THE TOLL ONLINE.COM, https://thetollonline.com/2018/08/01/a-fork-in-the-road-approaches-the-short-list-95-revelations-from-july-2018/.

August 2

Say it ain’t so Joe

“The consciousness of hate,” by Renee Parsons, INTREPIDREPORT.COM, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/24722.

July 31

Just what we need

“Participatory Democracy: A Tool for Social Change,” by Alexander Kolokotronis, TRUTHOUT.ORG, https://truthout.org/articles/participatory-democracy-a-tool-for-social-change/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare.

July 31

Sad indeed

“Why wages are going nowhere,” by Robert Reich, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/24709.

July 30

Pathetic state of affairs

“Argentina Militarizes the Drug War,” by Brian Saady, https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/30/argentina-militarizes-the-drug-war/.

July 30

Here’s a new article by Effective Learning Report colleague Joyce Wilson. Sounds like good advice given the nature of today’s world. Back in my day in grade school all it took was a metal lunch box, a pencil, some crayolas, construction paper, glue, scissors, ruler and maybe a protractor. I learned the ABCs while eating Campbell’s vegetable soup at home, and just ran around outside doing whatever I wanted to do with friends after getting home from school. It was a bit of a problem fitting in with the other kids in school for me in the first grade.

“How to Set Your Kids Up for a Successful Stress-Free New School Year,” by Joyce Wilson, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/how-to-set-your-kids-up-for-a-successful-stress-free-new-school-year/.

July 29

Here’s an upbeat post

“Ireland Divests,” by The Years Project, https://www.facebook.com/YearsOfLiving/videos/576588436076184/UzpfSTEwMDAwMDM0OTY1MTE4NjoxODk1ODczMzUzNzY3NjM1/.

July 29

One more nail in the coffin of democracy

“Jewish Nation-State Law: Why Israel was never a democracy,” by Ramzy Baroud, INTREPIDREPORT.COM, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/24692.

July 29

Another must read article by John Whitehead, a constitutional lawyer

“No doubt about it: The Deep State is real and Trump is its latest tool,” by John W. Whitehead, INTREPIDREPORT.COM, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/24694.

July 28

It appears most sheeple just want to keep up the insane circus conducted by ringmaster Donald Trump and forget about it

“The Burning Hot Planet,” by Robert Hunziker, COUNTERPUNCH.ORG, https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/27/the-burning-planet/.

July 28

Say it ain’t so Joe

“You Can’t Eat GDP”: Reminder That Most Workers Are Struggling as Trump and Corporate Media Tout Economic Growth,” by Jake Johnson, TRUTHOUT.ORG, https://truthout.org/articles/most-workers-are-struggling-as-trump-and-corporate-media-tout-economic-growth/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare.

July 28

Here is a great article by Joan Roelofs brought to you by way of Paul Craig Roberts, one of the greatest truth tellers around Spaceship Earth today, posted by Tyler Durden, editor of ZeroHedge.

It’s a shame we are so dependent on the socialism of what Joan Roelofs calls the military industrial congressional and everything else complex. I too have been a recipient of a lucrative and beneficial contract with the US military, a teaching position with Troy State University Europe, now Troy Univ, in Montgomery, Alabama, that had a contract with the Air Force, to teach management systems to Air Force personnel from all ranks working on a master’s degree, including some nationals of the countries, on US NATO bases at Incirlik Air Base near Adana, Turkey; Hellinikon Air Base near Athens, Greece; Soesterberg Air Base near Soesterberg, Holland; Hessich Air Base near Hessich, Germany; and Aviano Air Base near Aviano, Italy, during 1982-83. I taught three month long courses at each of the locations, Soesterberg and Hessich concurrently.

I admired and was amazed by the operations and culture of the “World’s Largest Airline,” the US Air Force, and did my best to teach my students some things to improve their operations. The Air Force was by far the least racist and fairest organization I had ever experienced. It was a superb example of socialism and meritocracy in action. I expect much the same could be said about internal air force, navy, and army operations today.

It’s unfortunate the MIC’s reason to exist is to kill people in other countries, and it’s pathetic that the US treasury cannot use its copious supply of real tax money, borrowed real money, and funny money–created by punching digits into computers at the Federal Reserve System to buy treasury bonds, thereby putting so-called money in the US treasury to buy things with and to make payrolls–to create and fund non-military meritocratic socialistic systems to improve the internal operations and culture of the entire US economy and society, and Spaceship Earth itself, rather than waste most of it on the military industrial congressional and everything else complex, fostering conflict and hatred around Spaceship Earth, a funded parasitical system shielded and protected from the discipline of free market capitalism, providing good jobs and incomes for only a special, some say heroic, segment of the US population.

I come from a long line of Calvinist preachers, teachers, and military leaders in the US, a militaristic aggressive nation from its inception a little over two hundred years ago. One of my great grandfathers many times removed The Reverend Doctor James Maury, a French Huguenot, taught four US presidents, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, in a boarding school in Virginia. A distant cousin, Matthew Fontaine Maury, a West Point graduate, and a commodore in the confederate navy, taught physics at the Virginia Military Institute and was one of the founders of Virginia Tech. He is the author of the book, famous in its time, Physical Geography of the Seas: The Physical Geography of the Sea and Its Meteorology,” which is still in print. Another distant cousin, Dabney Herndon Maury, also a West Point graduate, was a general fighting for the South in the War of Secession. He published a book titled, Recollections of a Virginian in the Mexican, Indian, and Civil Wars. On the other hand, a great great grandfather of mine, Thomas Sanford Gathright, opposed the South seceding from the Union and was a confederate draft dodger. Despite this, he was the first president of Texas A & M University, recommended for the post by Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America. He was fired after a few years at Texas A & M and was replaced by a retired confederate general. President Gathright wanted Texas A & M to be more or less a liberal arts college rather than a military school.

I took ROTC one year at Hardin-Simmons University at Abilene, Texas, a Baptist college, during 1958-60, which was required for all male students for two years, but got out of it after one year after learning I could never become an officer because three vertebra in my spine had been fused in a surgery, regardless of the fact I was attending Hardin-Simmons on a basketball scholarship. I quit basketball and gave up the scholarship largely because of twisted ankles and blisters caused by the original birth defect causing the back surgery, and transferred to Texas Tech as a junior. The spinal fusion later caused a doctor to tell me during my Army draft examination at Amarillo, Texas for the Vietnam War that, “I’m sorry, but you are permanently disqualified from military service,” which was fine with me, considering how much I detested the bullshit of disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling “my baby,” my M-1 rifle, shining brass, and saluting and marching on the drill field for “inspections,” for academic credit during my one year of Army ROTC. Plus I had no desire to go to Vietnam and “get my ass shot off,” as a lot of kids called it in those days.

For more detail see my article, “A Synopsis of My Family Background,” by Richard John Stapleton, at http://www.effectivelearning.net/rjs-family-history.html.

“Paul Craig Roberts Exposes The All-Pervasive Military-Security Complex,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE.COM https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-27/paul-craig-roberts-exposes-all-pervasive-military-security-complex.

July 28

Say it ain’t so Joe

“American Society Would Collapse If It Weren’t For These 8 Myths,” by Lee Camp, TRUTHDIG.COM https://www.truthdig.com/articles/american-society-would-collapse-if-it-werent-for-these-8-myths/.

July 28

This is the first time i have seen something like this, a rich man taking such a stance. I seriously regret the humanitarian trade-off it may entail, but I basically agree. It seems overpopulation is one of Spaceship Earth’s major problems, a major cause of global warming and climate change, and other problems, such as wars and mass killings. To save all of humanity individuals may have to sacrifice some of their parental feelings and needs, and have fewer children. I think we need a one woman one child rule for several generations to peacefully shrink the human population back down to a sustainable level. And capitalism has to change. Unfettered economic growth as a goal as we know it will have to go if the human species is to survive indefinitely around Spaceship Earth.

“Millionaire Democrat Wants To Tax Parents With More Than Two Kids As ‘Irresponsible Breeders’,” by Mac Slavo, SHTFPLAN.COM, http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/millionaire-democrat-wants-to-tax-parents-with-more-than-two-kids-as-irresponsible-breeders_07252018.

July 27

Seems to me a big problem is that many US citizens are disillusioned or hypocritical. They have learned too much or not enough about how the world really works, thanks to the Internet and psychological defense mechanisms, including learning how vicious US government is and has been in many cases. It’s not that they should not have learned it, since it is the truth; but learning it came at a cost to their mental and physical well being. How can any reasonably intelligent US citizen be truly happy knowing what foul deeds the US and its agents, such as the CIA and the military industrial complex have done to victims in the last two or so centuries? Whether US govt has been too vicious is debatable when you consider a government being vicious may be required for a nation to survive on a planet dominated by aggressive vicious governments, at least until one of them viciously shoots off a bunch of nuclear bombs from missile silos, as if shooting off fireworks celebrating a national holiday.

“Sorry, Bernie, We Need Radical Change,” by Paul Street, COUNTERPUNCH.ORG, https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/27/sorry-bernie-we-need-radical-change/.

July 26

Once again Paul Craig Roberts tells it like it is

“More lies from the corrupt elite,” by Paul Craig Roberts, INTREPIDREPORT.COM, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/24662.

July 25

Now here is an example of free market capitalism if ever there was one, actually socialism, by that great Republican exemplar of capitalism, Donald Trump, who caused the need for the $12 billion rescue welfare handout by starting a trade war. Where is the money to come from? The same place the socialized non market military industrial intelligence people get their money. Funny money of course, if all else fails. All Trump’s US Treasury employees have to do is sell the Federal Reserve System some more treasury bonds, which the Federal Reserve will pay for with digits they call money they will punch into their computers, if nobody else wants to buy the bonds, and the US Treasury will use that so-called money to relieve the distressed farmers. Sooner or later there will be a day of reckoning.

“Trump to Provide $12 Billion in Aid to Farmers, Critics Cry “Welfare”, by Yuval Rosenberg, MSN.COM, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-to-provide-12-billion-in-aid-to-farmers-critics-cry-welfare/ar-AAAmNJN?ocid=ob-fb-enus-280.

July 28

I think trump’s personality and character and most of his actions as president are and have been abominable, but in this case I agree with Paul Craig Roberts: this Russiaphobia media coverage is an insane overblown distraction, primarily to save face for Hillary and the Democrats, and to provide an enemy for the US military security complex to justify their existence and to acquire US tax money and funny money to fund their positions, ambitions and egos. Assuming some Russian subjects did hack the DNC, causing Trump to win, what difference does it make? There is still no proof Trump is the greater evil as president, and Russia is still no threat to the security of the US, except from nuclear bombs, which the Russian govt is smart enough not to shoot off, unless the US shoots at them first with nukes. If what the alleged Russian hackers found out and disclosed about Hillary and the DNC caused her to lose maybe we are better off for it, especially considering her war mongering proclivities disclosed during the campaign. Some of the dirty linen disclosed about Hillary, her husband, and her fund raising during the campaign was seriously egregious, regardless of who was responsible for disclosing it, Russian hackers, Seth Rich, wikileaks, or whomever.

“Is President Trump A Traitor Because He Wants Peace With Russia,” by Paul Craig Roberts, PAULCRAIGROBERTS.ORG, https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/07/16/is-president-trump-a-traitor-because-he-wants-peace-with-russia/.

July 23

Here is my report about my first Ogeechee Economic Forum

“First Ogeechee Economic Forum,” by Richard John Stapleton, EFFECTIVELEARNINGREPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/first-ogeechee-economic-forum/.

July 21

Pathetic situation. Brave reporting by a brave lady. So sorry the US is a part of this

“As Millions Face Starvation, American-Made Bombs Are Killing Civilians,” by Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh, TRUTHOUT.ORG, https://truthout.org/video/as-millions-face-starvation-american-made-bombs-are-killing-civilians/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare

July 20

Say it ain’t so Joe

“It’s all fake: Reality TV that masquerades as American politics,” by John W. Whitehead, INTREPIDREPORT.COM, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/24636.

July 20

Oh yes it does. It’s necessary for the US Military-Security Complex to get paid $700 billion per year by the US treasury without looking like greedy grown-up boy scouts enjoying jamborees around Spaceship Earth

“War Doesn’t Make Sense Anymore,” by Tom Streithorst, THEAMERICANCONSERVATIVE.COM, https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/war-doesnt-make-sense-anymore/.

July 20

I don’t believe they are doing this intentionally but I agree many of them inadvertently are creating causation in this direction

“Crazed US presstitutes drive the world to nuclear war,” by Paul Craig Roberts, INTREPID REPORT.COM, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/24619.

July 19

Fake news everywhere

“The Crummy Good Economy and the New Serfdom,” by Frank Stricker, COOUNTERPUNCH.ORG, https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/18/the-crummy-good-economy-and-the-new-serfdom/.

July 19

Excellent Amy Goodman interview of two experts regarding the Helsinki meeting of Trump and Putin. I could not agree more with Glenn Greenwald, a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist

“Is Trump-Putin Summit a Danger or Crucial Diplomacy Between Nuclear Powers?” by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, https://truthout.org/video/is-trump-putin-summit-a-danger-or-crucial-diplomacy-between-nuclear-powers/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facook&utm_campaign=mashshare.

July 18

The US constitution has enslaved a majority to the whims and prejudices of a minority, and it should be changed, as Paul Street’s magnificently crafted treatise here shows

“Time to Stop Playing “Simon Says” with James Madison and Alexander Hamilton,” by Paul Street, COUNTERPUNCH.ORG, https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/13/time-to-stop-playing-simon-says-with-james-madison-and-alexander-hamilton/.

July 17

Say it ain’t so Joe

“Oil Underground in Neuquen, Argentina – and a New US Military Base There,” by W. T. Whitney, COUNTERPUNCH.ORG, https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/17/oil-underground-in-neuquen-argentina-and-a-new-us-military-base-there/.

July 17

Does it matter?

“Percentage of Americans Who Believe Climate Change is Real Reaches New High,” Jerri-Lynn Scofield, TRUTHOUIT.ORG, Naked Capitalism, https://truthout.org/articles/percentage-of-americans-who-believe-climate-change-is-real-reaches-new-high/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare.

July 17

Say it ain’t so Joe

“Commandos Sans Frontieres: The Global Growth of US Special Operations Forces,” by Nick Turse, TomDispatch, TRUTHOUT.ORG, https://truthout.org/articles/commandos-sans-frontieres-the-global-growth-of-us-special-operations-forces/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare.

July 17

This lady minces no words

“Peace Talk Between Nuclear Superpowers Offends America’s Assholes and Morons,” by Caitlin Johnstone, MEDIUM.COM, https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/peace-talk-between-nuclear-superpowers-offends-americas-assholes-and-morons-14158ef5cade.

July 17

Say it ain’t so Joe

“The Global Reset Will Come Like A Thief in The Night,” by Egon Von Greyerz, KINGWORLDNEWS.COM, https://kingworldnews.com/alert-greyerz-the-global-reset-will-come-like-a-thief-in-the-night/.

July 16

Agree

“Undermining Trump-Putin Summit Means Promoting War,” by Dave Lindorff, COUNTERPUNCH.ORG., https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/16/undermining-trump-putin-summit-means-promoting-war/.

July 16

Agree

“When Did Russia Become an Adversary?” by Gary Leupp, COUNTERPUNCH.ORG, https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/16/when-did-russia-become-an-adversary/.

July 16

Scary

“Global Temperature Projections Could Double as the World Burns,” by Dahr Jamail, TRUTHOUT.ORG, https://truthout.org/articles/global-temperature-projections-could-double-as-the-world-burns/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare.

July 15

One of the biggest ripoffs of all time

“Big Pharma and the Rise of Gangster Capitalism,” by Charles Hugh Smith, CHARLESHUGHSMITH.BLOGSPOT.COM, http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2018/07/big-pharma-and-rise-of-gangster.html.

July 15

Say it ain’t so Joe

“World’s Largest Shipping Company Collapses As Trade War Reality Strikes,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-13/worlds-largest-shipping-company-collapses-trade-war-reality-strikes.

July 15

Maybe this self-described stable genius Trump is not quite as mindless as he seems

“Americans Voted for Real Change And It’s Coming,” by Eric Peters, CIO, One River Asset Management, ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-15/hedge-fund-cio-americans-voted-real-change-and-its-coming.

July 15

Say it ain’t so Joe

“The Military is A Jobs Program…For Immigrants & Many Others,” by Ryan McMaken, MISES.ORG, https://mises.org/wire/military-jobs-program-%E2%80%94-immigrants-and-many-others.

July 14

Say it ain’t so Joe

“A New World Order: Brought to you by the Global-Industrial Deep State,” by John W. Whitehead, INTREPIDREPORT.COM, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/24580.

July 13

One of the most depressing articles I have read in some time

“Survival of the richest: the wealthy are plotting to leave us behind,” by Douglas Rushkoff, CNBC.COM, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/11/survival-of-the-richest-the-wealthy-are-plotting-to-leave-us-behind.html?__source=sharebar|facebook&par=sharebar.

July 12

Say it ain’t so Joe

“What’s Happenng in Nicaragua?” by Task Force On The Americas, COUNTERPUNCH.ORG, https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/12/whats-happening-in-nicaragua/.

July 12

A good long article on why climate change is real

“The Sinister Underbelly of Climate Change Denial,” by David Mattson, COUNTERPUNCH.ORG, https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/12/the-sinister-underbelly-of-climate-change-denial/.

July 11

Say it ain’t so Joe

“America bombs, Europe gets the refugees. That’s evil,” by Eric Zuesse, INTREPIDREPORT.COM, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/24541.

July 11

Sad to say

“The Discovery of Central American Suffering,” by Nick Alexandrov, COUNRTERPUNCH.ORG, https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/10/the-discovery-of-central-american-suffering/.

July 11

Say it ain’t so Joe

“Coarse Culture Resurgent Racism,” by Tom H. Hastings, COUNTERPUNCH.ORG, https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/11/coarse-culture-resurgent-racism/.

July 11

Say it ain’t so Joe

“King Trump,” by Paul Hillier, COUNTERPUNCH.ORG, https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/11/king-trump/.

July 11

Say it ain’t so Joe

“Trump’s Supreme Court: Capitalism and Democracy Can No Longer Exist,” by Sharmini Peries, The Real News, TROUTHOUT.ORG, https://truthout.org/video/trumps-supreme-court-capitalism-and-democracy-can-no-longer-coexist/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare.

July 10

No surprise here

“Experts now rank the United States Among the world’s ‘declining democracies’,” by Hunter, DAILYKOS.COM, https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/7/7/1778307/-Experts-now-rank-the-United-States-among-the-world-s-declining-democracies.

Feel free to forward, share, print, reprint, or otherwise disseminate this issue of The Earthian any way you see fit. RJS