THE EARTHIAN — 20

 

THE EARTHIAN, Number Twenty, Effective Learning Publications, https://www.effectivelearning.net/effective-learning-publications.html 32 East Main Street, Statesboro, Georgia, USA, October 30, 2020   

THE EARTHIAN is a digest of articles containing facts, perspectives, theories, models, analyses, and recommendations concerned about existential states of affairs affecting all species of fauna and flora around Spaceship Earth. Recent relevant articles written and published by intelligent hard-hitting truth-seeking writers in Internet journals about psychological, social, economic, political, military, religious, and ecological states of affairs around Spaceship Earth are linked below as sources, following a usual comment by the editor.

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

OR SO IT SEEMS TO ME RIGHT NOW

By Richard John Stapleton

Here’s an email I sent to my Effective Learning Report mailing list in the last two weeks that I also posted on my Facebook page several times:

“FIRE TRUMP! 2020

“Yes, Biden’s a weak and flawed candidate, and he should not have been nominated by dim Dem voters and corrupt DNC insiders rather than Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

“And, it’s too late now for banal subjective arguments and comparisons about lesser evils.

“For whatever it’s worth, however, I will say, this being my own email, I think Trump is the most dangerous of the two. He sees himself as a fascist dictator, as evidenced by his admiration and affinity for fascist dictators such as Hitler, Mussolini, Putin, Kim Jong Un, et. al., plus he’s a narcissist seriously addicted to playing psychological Games. While there’s probability Biden will do harm if elected, it seems to me the probability of Trump doing worse harm is much higher.

“More chickens keep coming home to roost from mistakes made by USian Dem and Repug voters and their federal governments for many decades, and the prognosis is not good.

“Regardless,

“TRUMP’S A WORLD CLASS NIGYSOB PLAYER (and he should be let go)” as shown at https://blog.effectivelearning.net/trumps-a-world-class-nigysob-player/

Which prompted a response from a fraternity brother of mine from our college days at Texas Tech University:

“WHEN YOU FIRE SOMEONE, YOU NEED TO HAVE A REPLACEMENT THAT WILL MAKE THINGS BETTER.

“TRUMP BELIEVES IN THE AMERICA WE ALL KNOW AND LOVE.  HE WORKS TIRELESSLY TO MAKE THINGS BETTER.

“BIDEN, THE CORRUPT, CAREER POLITICIAN, AND HIS RADICAL LEFT CRONIES, DO NOT LIKE THIS AMERICA AND WANT TO MOVE TOWARD CHANGING IT TO A MORE SOCIALIST TYPE COUNTRY!  AND THEY WANT TO BE IN CHARGE OF DIRECTING THOSE CHANGES….WHERE THEY ALONE HAVE THE POWER!

“IT’S NOT ANYMORE COMPLICATED THAN THAT!”

It seems to me right now these two emails exemplify one of the most debilitating problems of USian government–polarization. The country is and has been for decades split almost fifty-fifty between left-wingers and right-wingers, between Democrats and Republicans, causing constant conflict, agitation, and stagnation, if not decline, and no one it seems can do anything about it. The problem has been obvious for several decades and little or no progress has been made correcting it. Biden has made a big deal of this in his speeches this year assuring us he is able to get along with both Dems and Repugs in Washington and he will work for all USians if he is elected. We’ll see.

To my knowledge the polarized attitudes and beliefs have not changed much if any in my adult life. National presidential elections are always about fifty-fifty and senate and house races always seem to result in small numerical differences on both sides of the aisle in congress, thanks to the votes of voters in Red and Blue states.

Consequently, problems don’t get solved, and sanctimonious self-righteous ideologues generally rule the roost with platitudes and politics as usual in the house, senate, presidency, and supreme court, mainly trading favors to get bills enacted and cases decided that will get their side elected again, heedless of the cost of their pork barrel bills for all USians in the long run, and regardless of how much their behavior and unethical sub–optimum decisions increase the budget deficit. And the devil continues to take the hindmost and the good times continue to roll in the short run for politicians and lobbyists.

Assuming a good law is passed, such as the Glass-Steagall Act, sooner or later another side will get enough votes to get rid of it. The military keeps getting bigger and bigger and the courts keep getting more and more political and ideological. The distribution of the national income keeps getting more and more unequal and unfair. Poverty keeps increasing and inequality keeps getting worse. The taxes of large corporations and the elite rich keep getting lower and lower. And the federal budget keeps getting more and more bloated with bigger and bigger yearly deficits, with a larger and larger pile of debt dropped on the USian balance sheet every year. Meanwhile global warming and climate change keep getting worse, more consequential, and more threatening.

Part of the problem is there is no way for anyone to prove what is really right in politics, and not only is “All’s fair in love and war,” all’s fair in USian politics is also true, if your party can change the rules and back out of agreements to suit selfish interests.

In general, what’s true for most people in economics and politics is whatever butters their bread, or, as Upton Sinclair put it, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

We are not only talking about “a man” in this context: Sinclair’s maxim applies to every human, man or woman, adult or child, saint or sinner, all sexes and gender classifications, all humans of any age, all forms of salaries, all forms of daily bread, all forms of security, recognition, status, structures, etc.

Why do people believe what they believe? They are paid to believe it, that’s why. They are paid in many more ways than money, including strokes, or units of recognition, prestige, security, power, structure, acceptance, bonding with like-minded people, satisfying feelings of all sorts, appreciation, love, safety, and many other things. Who knows what the real psychic satisfaction or payoff for anything is in the cases of specific individuals in specific cases?

Most humans are always needy or greedy for something and after being stroked, rewarded, punished, reinforced, and paid over and over again, sooner or later they come to believe the ideas, notions, fantasies, social structures, religions, ideologies, groups, organizations, transactions, time structuring patterns, beliefs, hobbies, social relations, psychological Games, and life positions they have inherited and use are without doubt the way, the truth, and the light, which are by now set in concrete in rock-like heads, almost impossible to change with any kind of facts, data, evidence, reasoning, and arguments. Thus voters stay Repug and Dem; and Red states stay red and Blue states stay blue.

I don’t know how many times lately I have read or heard on my Facebook page newsfeed and elsewhere someone expressing exasperation and consternation about how so and so as intelligent or well educated as he or she is could possibly believe what she or he believes, often not being able to understand how so and so could possibly believe Trump, a chronic liar and Game player, misogynist, ego maniac, narcissist, crook, and whatever else, who favors himself, the elite rich, and the military, is a good president.

Well, I can’t imagine it myself, but I also think I have at least connected in the immediately above paragraphs some of the relevant dots explaining how human beliefs happen and get set in concrete in individual human heads, inexorably and inevitably through time, causing the perpetuation of the USian political polarization problem.

Unfortunately, throughout human history around Spaceship Earth when humans have accidentally stumbled upon optimum political solutions for social and economic problems sooner or later some greedy SOB, group, organization, or government came along with enough brute force power to change them to suit his, her, or their personal beliefs, tastes, interests and greed, set in concrete in their heads, winning elections and fighting wars causing enormous human suffering, which is why I think after all is said and done the only hope for Earthian humans is to sooner than later turn all major decision-making about economics and politics around Earth over to artificial intelligence programs and supercomputers working in a new organizational structure similar to what I have called Spaceship Earth, Inc., using organizational processes similar to what smart humans running organizations such as Renaissance Technologies, a quantitative investment management company, now use to “make” billions of dollars.

Human males and females in all countries around Spaceship Earth have proved time and time again to be too weak, dumb, and greedy to take care of all species of flora and fauna, inexorably gradually creating up to now an Earthian ecological crisis that threatens the existence of the entire human species, as thousands of other living species become extinct every year because of habitat destruction, caused by ever–increasing numbers of encroaching needy and greedy humans hungrily devouring Earth’s resources, creating a human population bomb that threatens all species.

Someone asked Benjamin Franklin what kind of government on the North American continent he, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, et. al. had created. He famously replied it was “A republic, if you can keep it.”

A republic is not a full democracy but it’s freer than a monarchy or a fascist dictatorship.

Not only is freedom not free, as advertisements for the US military remind us: freedom is also grossly unequally distributed.

Freedom in any country is distributed on a continuum from most free to least free–regardless of whether the country is democratic, fascist, monarchist, capitalist, socialist, communist, or whatever. The most free are an elite minority at the top who can do more than all the rest, travel, learn, experiment, whatever, doing about whatever they want to do at any time. The least free are those at the bottom who have to do what they are told, having no power to travel, study, learn, start a business, whatever, being almost totally dependent on getting some sort of job to be dictated to by some sort of boss day in and day out, if they are lucky enough to find and hold a job. The rest of humanity are situated at fine gradients of freedom in between the grossly unequal polar extremes.

In most cases where one is situated on the freedom continuum is a function of her or his accident of birth, not free-will ability, work, or merit. Earthian human life is not fair, or at least it never has been. Maybe there’s hope though. Who knows?

Suffice it to say the USian presidential election process culminating once again next Tuesday, November 3, will provide one more answer for history tests–who became the new president of the US in 2020? Assuming Biden or Trump receive a clear majority of votes the answer could be clear November 3. If not, the country may once again be thrown into an agonizing ordeal of trying to prove with electoral votes who won; and if this does not work, the six ideological Repug judges now on the US Supreme Court could wind up creating the answer their way.

One way or another there will be another right answer for history test questions about the names of US presidents within a month or so from November 3; but no matter what happens there will never be right answers in history books proving the whole process was fair and just, from the primaries through the final verdict.

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

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

See my essay “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 humans to develop an I’m OK–You’re OK life position. 

This entails humans peacefully reducing through natural attrition 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.

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

Max CjXj, s.t. AijXj ≤, =, or ≥ Bi

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

Flying aboard an airliner about to land at night moving at four hundred miles an hour at thirty thousand feet with cloudy and rainy weather below, which would you rather have landing the plane, the plane’s radar and computer system or the pilot and co-pilot, seeing nothing out their windows but clouds and lightning?

I am indebted to Buckminster Fuller for teaching me in his book Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth the metaphor in the above paragraph and planting seeds for other ideas in my essay “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc.,” such as computers being the best hope for mankind and humans not doing work that machines can do better, being paid to think instead with what he called mind grants. To my knowledge Fuller was the inventor of the appellations Earthian and Spaceship Earth.   

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

TO RESPOND:

As usual this month’s THE EARTHIAN  links and cites as SOURCES recent articles written and published by clear deep-thinking hard-hitting independent writers on various Earthian states of affairs.

Some Game playing goes on in the articles, i.e., a writer is psychologically persecuting, rescuing, or victimizing someone, but it seems to me the writers are generally trying to paint accurate pictures of what they think is really going on.

Unfortunately it seems to me one can build a case politicians spend most of their time playing psychological Games, mostly wasting their time and energy pastiming (bullshitting) and engaging in rituals (shuffling paper, filling out unnecessary forms, attending useless meetings with lawyers and others, and the like). Almost everything done in so-called foreign policy is a move in a psychological Game it seems to me.

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

It’s better to be honestly wrong than dishonestly wrong. Telling someone something you know is fake as if it were true is worse than telling someone something that’s fake because of genuine ignorance. A good case in point these days is most USians calling FICA insurance premium payments “payroll” taxes. It’s hard to know if sayers calling FICA payments payroll taxes really do not know any better or if they really do know better but are overtly lying about it go along with the crowd to get political brownie points for conforming to a group lie.

It seems to me most lying is lying by omission, people not telling people things they know are true that others need to know. Whether lying by omission is more or less harmful than lying by commission, telling people things you know are false and fake, is debatable, as is proving whether it’s getting easier or harder for most people to know what’s fake and what’s not. Political parties, Earthian governments, and Mainstream media lie by omission with alacrity, information about the Julian Assange case being a case in point.

If you have ideas on how to democratically discuss in Game-free ways economic and political problems and opportunities in something like the Ogeechee Economic Forum at  https://www.effectivelearning.net/ogeechee-economic-forum.html

go to our RESPONSES page and let us know about them at  https://www.effectivelearning.net/responses.html .

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

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

FOR A FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO THE EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT AND THE EARTHIAN: Email [email protected] and enter the word Subscription on the subject line.     

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

Richard John Stapleton, PhD, CTA, certified transactional analyst, educator, octogenarian emeritus professor of management, writer, editor and publisher.   

SOURCES:

October 29, 2020

A cogent article it seems to me. Say it ain’t so Joe.

“America’s Imperial Expenditures and Escapades Are Stranger Than Fiction,” by Maj. Danny Sjursen, USA (ret.), ANTIWAR.COM, https://original.antiwar.com/danny_sjursen/2020/10/26/americas-imperial-expenditures-and-escapades-are-stranger-than-fiction/?fbclid=IwAR3npyqnULdGjpTcBs46XKDgMbXTi5IUk5hbHzhNVnZL1ZdjkjEVdm7Blu0.

October 29

Scary

“Tsunami Of Empty College Dorms Risks Student Housing Market Implosion,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/tsunami-empty-college-dorms-risks-imploding-student-housing-debt-market?fbclid=IwAR38TXDzUGhGZiC_MkQVkTIEcD7g017lxCLF7b_v6EAvV6UTpfEDdh1fAOY.

October 27

So it seems to me

“Trump’s A World Class NIGYSOB Player (and he should be let go), by Richard John Stapleton, EFFECTIVE LEARNING PUBLICATIONS, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/trumps-a-world-class-nigysob-player/?fbclid=IwAR2HBYWCjQKeJ7jzmEG8Dyej36DPSiRaOswMLt97sXan5xpk3tsVcpmF-9U.

October 27

Sounds logical to me

“Forests as Carbon Preserves,” by George Wuerthner, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/26/forests-as-carbon-preserves/?fbclid=IwAR1d9OiTNDsa2J33IQ8dJzUecLfChneSPGGoTV00AL0emwphTUwdvghhZBA.

October 26

If free enterprise capitalism is so great why can’t the USian govt just let supply and demand set prices for all goods around Spaceship Earth and buy what it needs like everybody else?

“American militarism marches on: No discussion or media coverage of Washington’s war against the world,” by Philip M. Giraldi, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/31126.

October 26

Right as rain

“‘Democratic’ Means Social Equality,” by Thomas Mountain, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/26/democratic-means-social-equality/?fbclid=IwAR3npyqnULdGjpTcBs46XKDgMbXTi5IUk5hbHzhNVnZL1ZdjkjEVdm7Blu0.

October 26

More lies and bullshit

“’60 Minutes’ Reveals What Was Really In That Giant Trump Health Care Book,” by Ed Mazza, HUFFPOST, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-health-care-book-60-minutes_n_5f9649d4c5b69b2ad5ac1cd3?ncid=engmodushpmg00000003&fbclid=IwAR3X3Huc-Y3yXaEKrjhZYXDSTHcRREwYlr4E1A3kA5z_nmS5pg6NKEpHk20.

October 26

So much for religions and ethnic freedom and security in Western Asia

“The case for affirming the independence of the Armenian Republic of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabagh, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/31100.

October 25

If all politicians are psychopaths and you should not vote for a psychopath how can you vote at all?

“Remember, education precedes action. Citizens need to the do the hard work of educating themselves about what the government is doing and how to hold it accountable. Don’t allow yourselves to exist exclusively in an echo chamber that is restricted to views with which you agree. Expose yourself to multiple media sources, independent and mainstream, and think for yourself.”

“Don’t vote for a psychopath: Tyranny at the hands of a psychopath,” by John W. Whitehead, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/31123.

October 24

So it seems

“Opinion: King Kong Trump Losing His Grip,” by Maureen Dowd, THE NEW YORK TIMES, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/24/opinion/sunday/trump-losing-his-grip.html?smid=fb-share&fbclid=IwAR2jDm8Uxk2tgKKJ_lnYS_3Ynd3S1LwN3T1lsk8hRuVa2f7GQIp0ZhzMgk8.

October 24

This is not anti-intellectualism; it’s truth-denying no matter what, nihilistic rockheads protecting their make-believe dream worlds to further their idiosyncratic interests and fantasies.

“Wrecking America: How Trump’s Lawbreaking and Lies Betray All,” by Ralph Nader, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/23/wrecking-america-how-trumps-lawbreaking-and-lies-betray-all/?fbclid=IwAR1jQ3atH_3DP76e10YOJz6COdE5D7zsqoYTTF2T1hCH-qhxdQySPiT4Fks.

October 24

Yes, authoritarian nihilists out to steal everything they can get their hands on in the short run

“Trump Isn’t Spewing Random Nonsense–He’s Consistently Authoritarian,” by David Renton, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/trump-isnt-spewing-random-nonsense-hes-consistently-authoritarian/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR2tRiXbvtKR-BMP2Ge3Bhb4xX3s2Yrt73gtKMHJWfoHIYVQn2MqDQcv284.

October 24

Tradeoffs everywhere

“The Fed Saved the Economy but is Threatening Trillions of Dollars Worth of Middle-Class Retirement,” by Allan Sloan, ProPUBLICA, https://www.propublica.org/article/the-fed-saved-the-economy-but-is-threatening-trillions-of-dollars-worth-of-middle-class-retirement?fbclid=IwAR2ufY8OaBA2UlKf541thbq74EejOzRqxFZkDlcYIn5AIhmNJLBiUSQj3pc.

October 23

Right as rain

“Jimmy Carter: The U.S. is an ‘Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery’,” by Jon Schwarz, THE INTERCEPT, https://theintercept.com/2015/07/30/jimmy-carter-u-s-oligarchy-unlimited-political-bribery/?fbclid=IwAR2cxnpZnAk19doUmlJiy1HxnYTAONAqifOXjc06wCaQwSPdiRldGvjvpjg.

October 22

Who doesn’t. Both sides are now playing the psychological Game YES, BUT YOU ARE MORE SCREWED UP THAN I AM.

“Rabobank: We Approach Tonight’s Debate With Trepidation,” Michael Every, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/every-approach-tonights-debate-trepidation?fbclid=IwAR14WneXye_O8eBxGrDKboE_7Vx9tHyUHf67EI1fgx7KPxs7esI-JGkfXzY.

October 22

Great article. Factual and cogent analysis by a great investigative journalist. Could not agree more.

“The Guardian’s silence has let the UK trample on Assange’s rights in effective darkness,” by Jonathan Cook, JONATHAN COOK.COM, https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2020-10-21/the-guardians-silence-has-let-the-uk-trample-on-assanges-rights-in-effective-darkness/?fbclid=IwAR1vf3excGd8vYwM7eZQrcbauGSisXZFzTkrGdb7s2-4mWnthpRlAt84K9c.

October 22

“Scientific advice on resource allocation is best handled by generalists with a comprehensive view on health. Disease experts wish to capture public attention and sway resource allocation decisions in favour of the disease of their interest. We referred previously to the principles of guidance on health by the British National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), cited as “We make independent decisions in an open, transparent way, based on the best available evidence and including input from experts and interested parties. Support from disease experts is crucial in delivering opinion, scholarly advice and evidence to a team of independent general scientists. But this team should independently propose decisions to policy-makers and be held accountable for them.”

“The World Health Organization in 2011 Warned Against a ‘Culture of Fear’,” by Jeffrey A. Tucker, AMERICAN INSTUTE OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH, https://www.aier.org/article/the-world-health-organization-in-2011-warned-against-a-culture-of-fear/?fbclid=IwAR1mPepqvnlaXcUmos78oTCdlCSUNeAqE4gGHWdezy8tuzUx6uUu062PN2Y.

October 22

Three cheers for the Bolivians. Great article by Glenn Greenwald

“Bolivians Return Evo Morales’s Party to Power One Year After a US-Applauded Coup,” by Glenn Greenwald, THE INTERCEPT, https://theintercept.com/2020/10/19/bolivia-returns-evo-morales-party-to-power-one-year-after-a-u-s-applauded-coup/?fbclid=IwAR2sM1qTY6XsPa8gx7YFaR9JzOCKY3d7pasE08Ftw4sEoWObv1WhTQaPbVg.

October 20

Say it ain’t so Joe

“Joe Biden’s Boosters Wrote His Prodigal Son’s Entire Resume,” by Paul Sperry, RealClearInvestigations, https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/10/16/joe_bidens_boosters_wrote_his_prodigal_sons_entire_resume_125616.html?fbclid=IwAR1AwegJEt8wrsnZd39IsipJ7NMlBs_Gx_VO-biFohVPcT6towNo1sWhkeg.

October 20

Ugh

“Traces of coronavirus found on frozen seafood packaging in China,” by Jesse O’Neal, NEWYORKPOST, https://nypost.com/2020/10/19/traces-of-coronavirus-found-on-frozen-seafood-packaging/?utm_source=facebook_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons&fbclid=IwAR1mPepqvnlaXcUmos78oTCdlCSUNeAqE4gGHWdezy8tuzUx6uUu062PN2Y.

October 20

Say it won’t happen here

“Brazil militias control more than half of Rio: Study,” AFP, YAHOO.COM, https://news.yahoo.com/brazil-militias-control-more-half-214150208.html?soc_src=hl-viewer&soc_trk=fb.

October 18

Seems right as rain to me. Way to go Pepe Escobar

“Potus Punk vs. Dem Dementia,” by Pepe Escobar, STRATEGICCULTURE, https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/10/15/potus-punk-vs-dem-dementia/?fbclid=IwAR1D9D21qlyJRzqOq62iSG9_dve2saPoooqhKgIRH5sIm1d6wIMMxyDxY60.

October 18

Like sitting on the Titanic blissfully ignoring the fact the ship is sinking?

“The ‘Titanic’ Analogy You Haven’t Heard: Passively Accepting Oblivion,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/titanic-analogy-you-havent-heard-passively-accepting-oblivion?fbclid=IwAR2CJzZQt3d9-MNnY7LFuhpC-zG_iS-WDMbzdTVUBvf2ZeWovRFiP8WM7FQ.

October 18

So how long can the Fed Reserve keep buying stock with funny money to make the stock market go up, or stay up?

“Outside of Tech, There Has Been Zero EPS Growth in the Past 12 Years,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/outside-tech-there-has-been-zero-eps-growth-past-12-years?fbclid=IwAR1yQyDZaKe60UQEBFvu5T3eZPSlq83NbvfCRtPfCpNg3dRmAXQCKrQyJwQ.

October 17

Say it ain’t so Joe

“The U.S. Did Not Defeat Fascism in WWII, It Discretely Internationalized It,” by Gabriel Rockhiss, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/16/the-u-s-did-not-defeat-fascism-in-wwii-it-discretely-internationalized-it/?fbclid=IwAR0AiUWsc8VDahXbQlw7VTv1QQ0uBvnbGxC5hk5NE5h0qOjVVP-n9UkdeN8.

October 17

Living on borrowed time?

“US Budget Deficit Triples To Record $3.1 Trillion in 2020 As US Spends 90% More Than It Collects,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/budget-deficit-hits-record-21-trillion-fiscal-2020-us-spends-90-more-it-collects?fbclid=IwAR3RlaglE9cma4hQY0qczzDBLkZq-t01vHcN9Kwa6VMEnzr8B1JcghQ4OoU.

October 14

Say it ain’t so Joe, but this time it might be true.

“Fed Vice Chair Makes “Shocking” Admission: Fed May Never Be Able To Stop Manipulating The Market, by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/fed-vice-chair-makes-shocking-admission-fed-may-never-be-able-stop-manipulating-market?fbclid=IwAR1yQyDZaKe60UQEBFvu5T3eZPSlq83NbvfCRtPfCpNg3dRmAXQCKrQyJwQ.

October 14

The whole heroic dramatic process does seem hokey, getting over the whole thing in about a week, good as new again like superman, etc.

“Michael Moore claims Trump might be faking Covid diagnosis,” by Graig Grazioni, INDEPENDENT, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/michael-moore-donald-trump-fake-coronavirus-b750245.html?fbclid=IwAR2Ez_etRQtcyOS6goq5jkd96-ZUXB49aeddddYiQTXSBuXK6DVUme2wes8.

October 14

Only question seems to be how long it will take to hurtle there if serious changes are not made.

“Earth is hurtling toward a catastrophe worse than the dinosaur extinction,” by Andrew Glikson, MIC, https://www.mic.com/p/earth-is-hurtling-toward-a-catastrophe-worse-than-the-dinosaur-extinction-30602151?utm_term=share&fbclid=IwAR0nLl8W24bi9rHeTWutl8HgursViBMnfSjUqe-5Zw3dAEvihaDSVfS3skY.

October 14

Fat chance

“Dozens Of Amy Coney Barrett’s Notre Dame Colleagues Call For Halt To Nomination,” by Sarah Ruiz-Grossman, HUFFPOST, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/notre-dame-faculty-letter-amy-coney-barrett_n_5f861f12c5b6e9e76fb83530?ncid=engmodushpmg00000003&fbclid=IwAR1QX_pHFB65Lj4_yoTlcsOBce4d-36qBxl_G9inVCnzFMSJakiCcAouPGA.

October 13

Surely it’s not this bad

“Exclusive: America’s true employment rate,” by Felix Salmon, AXIOS, https://www.axios.com/americas-true-unemployment-rate-6e34decb-c274-4feb-a4af-ffac8cf5840d.html?utm_campaign=organic&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1fBQ_TrP4cohZoMrZUiQuLu8rx8rQtpPq-Z0aJ6VJ6AZjcX3QPyd-FbvI.

October 13

Not your ordinary article about how to get rich

“The Frustrated Money Manager: Vatican used charity funds to bet on Hertz credit derivatives,” by Ben Hunt, EPSILON THEORY, https://www.epsilontheory.com/the-frustrated-money-manager/?utm_campaign=website&utm_source=ET%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&fbclid=IwAR0sdZW4ofOAvm-XmVc18DwPzuKkgsKUex7421vmvxNhbqQjGQeZvvgb21k.

October 13

Scary assessment by Ralph Nader

“Expected Contervailing Forces to Trumpism are Failing,” by Ralph Nader, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/13/expected-countervailing-forces-to-trumpism-are-failing/?fbclid=IwAR1-ou8THzw3b0H-a6sXJi6y2JMjUYl-t1DlrUtrtg0bOMdcjcsS5psqs18.

October 13

Yes, it was a roller coaster afternoon emotionally

“Disappointing Football Games and A Loser’s Lamentation,” by Richard John Stapleton, Effective Learning Report, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/a-disappointing-football-game-and-a-losers-lamentation/?fbclid=IwAR2fbt6j59vnrLdEvJzXlA2-deeJNRLZbE2wwo7G561ofitq8f3-NuFW0dI.

October 12

Afraid he’s right

“How We Institutionalized Incompetence,” by Charles Hugh Smith, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/bailout/how-we-institutionalized-incompetence?fbclid=IwAR3EmoEdDTKpS_1aYP5CEYCPzqmxJnzwnZ9meli0c0ISYuvtpT4KtYE_8v8.

October 12

Say it ain’t so Joe

“Fascism: Now You See It, Now You Don’t!,” by Gabriel Rockhill, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/12/fascism-now-you-see-it-now-you-dont/?fbclid=IwAR1unwLAXzcBGJMWdEiWDxB-rT_kfAFDxiZC-om0D1k6iDYHMVjclEcka0A.

October 12

Say it ain’t so Joe

“The Nuclearization of American Diplomacy,” by Michael T. Klare, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/12/the-nuclearization-of-american-diplomacy/?fbclid=IwAR1ljxm71XIFf0IFQ67hkeXmVoY7-gw8Upi1x6PjeUKL5Hl0gYMfevEim7g.

October 12

So it seems

“Noam Chomsky: Trump is Willing to Dismantle Democracy to Hold On to Power, by C.J. Polychroniou, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/noam-chomsky-trump-is-willing-to-dismantle-democracy-to-hold-on-to-power/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR31VIQVCJpPZCMbuKDTR22zvhnqQxADY58CeAXkdOlfC_ABT6RjCHcFR_M.

October 8

One of the most pervasive and debilitating psychological Games extant aboard Spaceship Earth

“YOU STARTED IT–A Psychological Game Causing Major Trouble Aboard Spaceship Earth,” by Richard John Stapleton, Effective Learning Report, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/you-started-it-a-psychological-game-causing-major-trouble-aboard-spaceship-earth/?fbclid=IwAR38KlE9CTgZ9Azsq1j0U1G0xHJcuN4kennhc4Gk25TivdUJ0QqFXSHDWBg.