I have an economist friend that isn't huge fan of Dr. Goss. But, I'll put that aside since I frankly can't break down his models any better than your average junior high school student. He took a look at marijuana legalization and noted large economic growth and a corresponding increase in crime. I'd like to note that both of these cross over political interests of mine, namely loosening of American restrictions on contraband and an end to the American police state. You can follow the link to Goss's blog below.
http://economictrends.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Saturday, July 21, 2018
Political Voyuerism and American Apartheid
Before you read this please know:
1) I am still working on this
2) links to citations are highlighted in the text and can be followed to sourcing material
I am a committed political spectator, and, I do love to watch otherwise hard working and intelligent people behave foolishly and sully their good names in pursuit of power, but even so, watching the first year and a half of the Trump administration has been difficult for me. The absurdity of our political dance has reached new heights, and as an American, I find my national leaders to be a source of shame as often as they are a source of pride.
Now, this has many reasons of course. Men and women who achieve at a high enough level to lead a nation of 325 million people simply do not have the luxury of stupidity. So, when a political leader appears to be acting erratically, yes, there are isolated incidents of senility and mental illness, but usually there's a good reason.
National, and even state, municipal and county leaders are all accountable to an almost infinite number of stakeholders all seeking to influence the office holder. What often looks to be a lasting judgement, is more often the effect of decades of work coming to fruition. The largest conglomeration of these stakeholders in American politics today are the political parties, and the coming to fruition of their decades old plans is beginning to become a problem.
The really tough choice American's sometime in their future are going to have to face is, can large a large democratic nation exist for long with only two major parties. India appears to be the closest comparions,
but I ran out of time for research [Mark In Edit]
That's not to say that political parties are by their very nature problematic to Democracy, is to say that would be to say a broken arm is problematic to the body. The arm is not problematic, the fact that the arm is broken is. Removing parties would be akin to removing the arm, and that's not a good solution at all.
Partisanship is an inherently divided and subversive way of thinking, and in the past that's worked to our advantage. That's why our founding fathers, with an eye towards British hegemony over American governance decided to engage in it. It is a tool for seizing and maintaining power, and with a hostile super power eyeing our young nation with contempt and avarice, it was necessary for someone capable to do just that.
Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, the ten dollar bill and the nickle respectively, were both preeminent architects of our democracy and partisan prototypes. They sniped at each other and spread baseless rumors to confound the Internet's most devious provocateurs today. They were also men of great political genius with competing visions for the evolution of their young nation. They spread hatred and division throughout the land, and in the process laid the groundwork for our American civilization.
The parallel to our current state is both comforting and alarming. Yes, this is the way things have always been done in our country. But, yes, we do tend to end up in bloody and terrifying conflicts because of it. Our civil war has direct parallels to the conflict between Jefferson's states rights ideology and Hamilton's vision of a strong central government.
Throughout American history, the country has been plagued by division after division and crisis after crisis, and has thus far survived them all. That's not a given though, and the country must continue to evolve if it is going to survive in the new multi polar political environment that has evolved after the fall of the soviet union.
The union has traditionally evolved by continually expanding suffrage and economic opportunity as it has grown and must continue to do so, lest it parish. Citizens have the right to engage with their government, and even run for office should they choose, but the current state of affairs makes it nearly impossible for a person who is not born into the political cast or at least born to wealth and power to ascend to lasting political power and influence. This has left our democracy in a polarized state, where large swaths of the population are underrepresented in politics and undeserved or oppressed by their government.
That is not to say that our nation's disenfranchised majority would be better off under another form of government or in another place. While no competent student of history will ever assert that democracy is a fair and just form of government, most who approach the subject objectively are forced to acknowledge that it is the most fair and just of multiple alternate tyrannies.
As subjects of one form of evolutionary tyranny, it's easy for us citizens of the United States of America to take for granted that we live under the yoke of our masters the same as everyone else. This is not the case. Our yoke is much lighter, and Americans should be cognizant of this if they wish to truly understand the world the inhabit in context.
Despite a legal system that requires natural gifts, years of education, and hundreds of thousands of dollars to understand and effectively utilize, we live in the most free, most fair, and most just society in the world. The question is, do we wish it to continue. Should the past inequities damn our nation to purgatory? Or can we, as we have done in the past confront our failings and stumble on towards their amelioration.
American Slavery and its aftermath is one of many examples of American folly followed by a long and stilted path towards redemption. There are many others. The conquest of and disenfranchisement of Native Americans, South American imperialism and Japanese internment spring to mind easily.
And while American apartheid has never been called as such, due to our economic and military preeminence, it nevertheless did occur to our everlasting shame. But to understand what happened, why it happened and to put it into context, a person has to look outside their own personal experience and place the events of our nation's past in the scope of a wider world.
When that is done, one can see a world where slavery, institutionalized cruelty, terror and apartheid are still rampant. The United States may be an imperfect union, but because of our quasi-enshrined freedoms, citizens are allowed to confront the evils that plague our world far more effectively than it's been possible to do in other places and times. It's ok to be angry about past injustice, but to allow that anger to tear down the very system that allowed it to be addressed is foolish indeed.
This country still serves as a beacon of hope around the globe. And while, like any nation, it's past is checkered with the sins of its forefathers, it must never be mistaken for anything but the great hope of all free people. With that in mind the citizenry must be vigilant in its defense. As long as freedom, or some facsimile thereof exists, tyrants will fear and seek to undermine it and to focus on reform or even revolution while discounting American security places that freedom at risk. Aggressors abound. Currently Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are the biggest threats to American liberty. But, assuming this nation survives, which is not a given, that can and will change over time. The need to be vigilant will not. Liberties which ought be the natural right of all human beings are under assault and we as Americans ought damned well stand up and fight for them when necessary.
Whether democrat or republican, black or white or even Trumpian or Clintonite, it is necessary for Americans to engage one another with mutual respect and civility. Without that the nation will tear itself apart and we will watch the liberties this nation has bled to establish and defend slip away. That is why the current state of affairs saddens me so much. One simply can't try to address a problem in today's climate. Someone then has to take offense and become combative so that winning involves subjugating alternate points of view rather than incorporating them. I personally think it's time for a multi party democracy, so that opposing sides must build coalitions to govern and the grip of the partisan grandees over American political thought can be broken. But that's just my opinion, I'd be happy to hear yours, just please, be civil about it.
1) I am still working on this
2) links to citations are highlighted in the text and can be followed to sourcing material
I am a committed political spectator, and, I do love to watch otherwise hard working and intelligent people behave foolishly and sully their good names in pursuit of power, but even so, watching the first year and a half of the Trump administration has been difficult for me. The absurdity of our political dance has reached new heights, and as an American, I find my national leaders to be a source of shame as often as they are a source of pride.
Now, this has many reasons of course. Men and women who achieve at a high enough level to lead a nation of 325 million people simply do not have the luxury of stupidity. So, when a political leader appears to be acting erratically, yes, there are isolated incidents of senility and mental illness, but usually there's a good reason.
National, and even state, municipal and county leaders are all accountable to an almost infinite number of stakeholders all seeking to influence the office holder. What often looks to be a lasting judgement, is more often the effect of decades of work coming to fruition. The largest conglomeration of these stakeholders in American politics today are the political parties, and the coming to fruition of their decades old plans is beginning to become a problem.
The really tough choice American's sometime in their future are going to have to face is, can large a large democratic nation exist for long with only two major parties. India appears to be the closest comparions,
but I ran out of time for research [Mark In Edit]
That's not to say that political parties are by their very nature problematic to Democracy, is to say that would be to say a broken arm is problematic to the body. The arm is not problematic, the fact that the arm is broken is. Removing parties would be akin to removing the arm, and that's not a good solution at all.
Partisanship is an inherently divided and subversive way of thinking, and in the past that's worked to our advantage. That's why our founding fathers, with an eye towards British hegemony over American governance decided to engage in it. It is a tool for seizing and maintaining power, and with a hostile super power eyeing our young nation with contempt and avarice, it was necessary for someone capable to do just that.
Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, the ten dollar bill and the nickle respectively, were both preeminent architects of our democracy and partisan prototypes. They sniped at each other and spread baseless rumors to confound the Internet's most devious provocateurs today. They were also men of great political genius with competing visions for the evolution of their young nation. They spread hatred and division throughout the land, and in the process laid the groundwork for our American civilization.
The parallel to our current state is both comforting and alarming. Yes, this is the way things have always been done in our country. But, yes, we do tend to end up in bloody and terrifying conflicts because of it. Our civil war has direct parallels to the conflict between Jefferson's states rights ideology and Hamilton's vision of a strong central government.
Throughout American history, the country has been plagued by division after division and crisis after crisis, and has thus far survived them all. That's not a given though, and the country must continue to evolve if it is going to survive in the new multi polar political environment that has evolved after the fall of the soviet union.
The union has traditionally evolved by continually expanding suffrage and economic opportunity as it has grown and must continue to do so, lest it parish. Citizens have the right to engage with their government, and even run for office should they choose, but the current state of affairs makes it nearly impossible for a person who is not born into the political cast or at least born to wealth and power to ascend to lasting political power and influence. This has left our democracy in a polarized state, where large swaths of the population are underrepresented in politics and undeserved or oppressed by their government.
That is not to say that our nation's disenfranchised majority would be better off under another form of government or in another place. While no competent student of history will ever assert that democracy is a fair and just form of government, most who approach the subject objectively are forced to acknowledge that it is the most fair and just of multiple alternate tyrannies.
As subjects of one form of evolutionary tyranny, it's easy for us citizens of the United States of America to take for granted that we live under the yoke of our masters the same as everyone else. This is not the case. Our yoke is much lighter, and Americans should be cognizant of this if they wish to truly understand the world the inhabit in context.
Despite a legal system that requires natural gifts, years of education, and hundreds of thousands of dollars to understand and effectively utilize, we live in the most free, most fair, and most just society in the world. The question is, do we wish it to continue. Should the past inequities damn our nation to purgatory? Or can we, as we have done in the past confront our failings and stumble on towards their amelioration.
American Slavery and its aftermath is one of many examples of American folly followed by a long and stilted path towards redemption. There are many others. The conquest of and disenfranchisement of Native Americans, South American imperialism and Japanese internment spring to mind easily.
And while American apartheid has never been called as such, due to our economic and military preeminence, it nevertheless did occur to our everlasting shame. But to understand what happened, why it happened and to put it into context, a person has to look outside their own personal experience and place the events of our nation's past in the scope of a wider world.
When that is done, one can see a world where slavery, institutionalized cruelty, terror and apartheid are still rampant. The United States may be an imperfect union, but because of our quasi-enshrined freedoms, citizens are allowed to confront the evils that plague our world far more effectively than it's been possible to do in other places and times. It's ok to be angry about past injustice, but to allow that anger to tear down the very system that allowed it to be addressed is foolish indeed.
This country still serves as a beacon of hope around the globe. And while, like any nation, it's past is checkered with the sins of its forefathers, it must never be mistaken for anything but the great hope of all free people. With that in mind the citizenry must be vigilant in its defense. As long as freedom, or some facsimile thereof exists, tyrants will fear and seek to undermine it and to focus on reform or even revolution while discounting American security places that freedom at risk. Aggressors abound. Currently Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are the biggest threats to American liberty. But, assuming this nation survives, which is not a given, that can and will change over time. The need to be vigilant will not. Liberties which ought be the natural right of all human beings are under assault and we as Americans ought damned well stand up and fight for them when necessary.
Whether democrat or republican, black or white or even Trumpian or Clintonite, it is necessary for Americans to engage one another with mutual respect and civility. Without that the nation will tear itself apart and we will watch the liberties this nation has bled to establish and defend slip away. That is why the current state of affairs saddens me so much. One simply can't try to address a problem in today's climate. Someone then has to take offense and become combative so that winning involves subjugating alternate points of view rather than incorporating them. I personally think it's time for a multi party democracy, so that opposing sides must build coalitions to govern and the grip of the partisan grandees over American political thought can be broken. But that's just my opinion, I'd be happy to hear yours, just please, be civil about it.
Sunday, December 4, 2016
Smashing Donald Trump's Cell phone
Well, it's almost been a month now since a stereotypical sleazy 80's business man crawled out of the past and seized the American Presidency by promising the moon to anyone gullible enough to trust him. I'm not despondent of course. The beauty of the American system is that checks and balances exist to keep over reaching executives from tearing down the nation too quickly. I am however, very nervous about our soon to be commander-in-chief's pernicious cell phone habits.
Friday, November 18, 2016
Trump, Democracy, Nukes, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, South Africa and mother fucking America man
So, I think this is officially the most ambitious title I'm ever posted. First off, Donald Trump worries me. But, as elections and media reporting are generally pretty heavily colored by the times and places they're written in. While I find his antics, especially his threats to muzzle the free press and anti-trade rhetoric concerning to say the least. But, I'm gonna give the man a chance.
See, I believe the reporters get caught up in the times around them and it colors their reporting in a way that influences the perceived truth of their work. And though, in the end, US reporting standards and the US press are still the best in the world, any reporter worth a damned will tell you there is no removing bias. We need to remember that even venerable institutions can release opinion pieces as hard news the same as the partisan networks of MSNBC and FOX.
Just remember people, the only safe news source is all of them. Just preliminarily though, my observations are that Donald Trump seems like a very low character gentlemen, with a lot of money and dodgy finances, but I'm gonna give him a chance.
I was ideologically opposed to Clinton based on the abortion/reproductive rights issue though, so what's the difference between possible economic and nuclear annihilation and the sanctioned mass murder of children? Even though I highly suspect El-Trumpo is lying about his pro-life stance, that's one of the few things I take cold comfort in.
Perhaps Trump, who has so skillfully used bankruptcy law before, spies another opportunity to fuck over a bunch of creditors we don't like. Who can say?
I will say this, our republic worked and worked well. I just fucking hate its piss poor results and wish it were a direct democracy.
But lets get to some of the results I fucking hate. Trump has stated that he will substantially grow the military while substantially cutting taxes, he also pledges to start a trillion, yeah with a "T" infrastructure plan.
My opinion as a real, non-fake ass grin your teeth and get fucked up the ass Trump republican, is that he's talking about a massive unfunded budget increase and we're already sitting on an $20 trillion dollar debt. Paul Ryan is going to need to grow some big boy balls this year if he wants to save the nation cause it's about to get real.
If money does rain from the sky like mana from heaven though and all president Trump's hopes and dreams come true, here are a couple of nightmare scenarios I predict.
1) Brinkmanship up to and including nuclear war with China. Rudy Giuliani, member of Trump's team and widely expected to win a spot on his cabinet, has said that Trump wants to expand the size of the US Navy, by a lot.
He wants to do this tough and incredibly expensive move to present China with overwhelming force before China's military is more powerful than our own, as it will inevitably be. This will hopefully counter Chinese aggression in the Yellow Sea.
If this move can check China's open flouting of international law in their seizure of territory from other countries (and American allies,) it will have been worth it. But Trumpo's menacing of his allies with threats to pay more of the bill or he'll leave them defenseless might lose us our two strongest allies in the region in Japan and South Korea.
If that happens the US will still have a superior naval force but two of the most prosperous nations in the world will now be less cooperative in vital economic and supplemental support to our Navy. In short, we'll have the ships but not the supplies, cause Trump doesn't value continued business relationships enough.
We'll lose to China in the Pacific if we're not supported by our allies. If they're scared into China's orbit and Trump tries to intimidate the lot of them ... well, he might nuke shitty little North Korea.
It's always been a mouthy little country that's loved running shit it can't back up, so why not give em' a good back hand pimp slap to get them to shut the hell up. Nuke Pyongyang and send those little fucks an unmistakable message. The Chinese' ears mike perk up a little too right? Riiiiiiigggghhht?
Sweet Jesus I hope so, because if Trump continues to antagonize our allies we might lose them, and, if we're not properly supported, China might be willing to take acceptable losses and make a run at the Yankees. Now, you know 'Merica aint about to sit around and take it if some Chinese soldiers are coming to our shores to tell us what's what.
I'm talking Armageddon man, end of days, end of the world, numberless soldiers invade, nukes fly, small pox is released and the blessed sarin nerve gas sets us free ... but, like I said I'm going to give him a chance.
2) Generational depression. Our debts at what, 20 trillion dollars now right? Well, congress is worthless, thus it would not surprise anyone if it gave Goldenhair Spendy-McGee rubber stamp spending. Donald Trump spends trillion and congress gleefully spends our lives away until American credit is no good anymore. The debt has swollen to 50 Trillion and we genuinely can't afford to service our debt anymore. America declares bankruptcy, and fuck it, peace; Trump out.
America has now been robbed of the gift of Alexander Hamilton and is without credit. Want a house? Sure lets go get a mortgage, nope. Or worse, sure but 40% interest. Want a car? Nope, same deal. Credit freezes and banks start to fail, banks that are ensured by the full faith and credit of the us government right? Oh shit !?!?!? The government's bankrupt. That's right bro, your money is gone. You just got Trumped.
A default in US credit would literally ruin us. Roads would decay, education would become a scarce commodity for the ultra wealthy and police would protect only where people could afford to pay them. Welcome to third world America. Don't worry we'll move out of mom's basement in 70 years but we just went bankrupt so we need some time to figure shit out.
Runner up catastrophic futures were:
1) dogs suddenly revolt to avoid a Trump presidency and proceed to start a world wide dog revolution that subjugates humanity.
2) The Clinton Foundation is militarized and fills the void ISIS leaves behind as we systematically pursue and destroy them.
3)You saw your parents having sex that night ... yeah, can't unsee that. You should get some counseling.
So, right. Now everything could go right too. Congress could grow a spine. Trump could back China off. Russia could realize it doesn't matter. Japan could militarize and South Korea could apply for annexation and mother fucking America could triumph uber allus! But Donald Trump would have still promised conservative American's everything they wanted even though we knew there was no way we could have it all and I would still be depressed. Cause I just got Trumped.
Thursday, October 20, 2016
An Ally Lost
America lost a key Southeast Asian Ally today as the Philippines have officially allied with China. Hopefully this will be a good move for the Philippine people, because it's certainly bad news for the Americans.
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
A good movie plot
Movies, if they're good, leave you in constant suspense throughout their course. They mimic the true reality that each of us experiences, that which requires all of our attention. But when hardship comes, luxury and fantasies melt away, and one is left with the cold reality that A=A. We are a nation deep in debt facing two powerful and warlike nations in Russia and China.
We are at the same time being confronted by dozens of commercial challenges. How do we survive and prosper? On a long enough time scale, the math doesn't add up. But, luckily, humans live short lives. It is my hope that the current set of sparring Illuminati don't kill us all. They probably won't, that's the whole point of the illuminati, er, Jackson Hole golf club, or whatever ... after all. Justice is a luxury enabled by survival.
The nature of survival is peace, and I think for the moment, peace remains.
We are at the same time being confronted by dozens of commercial challenges. How do we survive and prosper? On a long enough time scale, the math doesn't add up. But, luckily, humans live short lives. It is my hope that the current set of sparring Illuminati don't kill us all. They probably won't, that's the whole point of the illuminati, er, Jackson Hole golf club, or whatever ... after all. Justice is a luxury enabled by survival.
The nature of survival is peace, and I think for the moment, peace remains.
cows
I'm probably going to hell because I assume cows are conscious and I eat them anyway ... they're delicious.
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