How To Recognize When Your Society Is Suffering A Dramatic Decline
Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com, When historians and analysts look at the factors surrounding
the collapse of a society, they often focus on the larger events and
indicators — the moments of infamy. However, I think it’s
important to consider the reality that large scale societal decline is
built upon a mixture of elements, prominent as well as small. Collapse
is a process, not a singular event. It happens over time, not overnight.
It is a spectrum of moments and terrible choices, set in motion in most
cases by people in positions of power, but helped along by useful
idiots among the masses. The decline of a nation or civilization
requires the complicity of a host of saboteurs. So, instead of focusing on the top down approach, which is
rather common, let’s start from the foundations of our culture to better
understand why there is clear and definable destabilization. Declining Moral Compass
There is always a conflict between personal gain and personal
conscience — this is the nature of being human. But in a stable society,
these two things tend to balance out. Not so during societal decline,
as personal gain (and even personal comfort and gratification) tends to
greatly outweigh the checks and balances of moral principles.
People often mistake the term “morality” to be a religious creation,
but this is not what I am necessarily referring to. The concepts of
“good” and “evil” are archetypal — that is to say they are
psychologically inherent in most human beings from the moment of birth.
This is not a matter of faith, but a matter of fact, observed by those
in the field of psychology and anthropology over the course of a century
of study. How we relate to these concepts can be affected by our
environment and upbringing, but for the most part, our moral compass is
psychologically ingrained. It is up to us to either follow it or not
follow it.
Watching how people handle this choice is a bit of hobby of mine, and
I do take notes. You can learn a lot about the state of your
environment by observing what people around you tend to do when faced
with the conflict of personal gain versus personal conscience. It is
saddening to admit that even though I live in rural America, where you
are more likely to find self-reliance and cultural stability, I can
still see a faltering nation bleeding through.
I have seen supposedly good people act dishonestly in business
agreements. I have seen local institutions scam hardworking citizens. I
have seen a court system rife with bias and a “good old boy” attitude of
favoritism. I have seen local companies pretend to be benevolent
contributors to the community while at the same time running constant
frauds and rackets. I have even seen a few people within the liberty
movement itself put the movement at risk with their own avarice,
gluttony, narcissism and sociopathy.
Again, it is important to make a note of such people and
institutions, for as the system continues its downward spiral it is
these people that will present the greatest threat to the innocent.
As Carl Jung notes in his book The Undiscovered Self, there
is always a contingent of latent sociopaths and psychopaths within any
culture; usually about 10% of the population. In normal times, they, at
least most of them, are forced into moral acclimation by the rest of the
populace. But in times of decline, they seem to leak out of the
woodwork like a slimy fungus. During heightened collapse, they no longer
have to pretend to be upstanding and they show their true colors.
Most dangerous is when latent sociopaths or full blown sociopaths
assume roles of leadership or power during the worst of times. With
everyone distracted by their own plight, these people can become a
cancer, infecting everything with their narcissistic pursuits and
causing destruction in their wake. Disinterest In Rewarding Conscience
During wider cultural collapse, it can become “fashionable” to see
acts of principle as something to be scoffed at or ridiculed or to even
see them as threats to the status quo. The concept of “going along to
get along” takes precedence over doing what is right even when it is
hard; this attitude is not relegated to the less honest people within
society.
As a system collapses, a fog of apathy can result. Good people can
become passive, scrambling to their individual corner of the world and
hoping evil times will simply pass them by. The phrase “I just want to
put all this behind me” is spoken regularly; but as we ignore the
trespasses of terrible men and women, we also enable them. How? Because
by doing nothing we allow them to continue their criminality, and we
subject future persons and generations to victimization.
When doing the right thing is treated as laughable or “crazy” by what
seems like a majority in the midst of widespread corruption, you are
truly in the middle of a great decline.
In Christian circles, the idea of “the remnant” is sometimes spoken
of. In Christian terms, this usually represents a minority of true
believers surviving a tumultuous and immoral era. I see “the remnant”
not so much as a contingent of Christians alone, but as a contingent of
people that continue to maintain their principles and conscience when
faced with unprecedented adversity. In the worst of times, these people
remain stalwart, even if they are ridiculed for it. Disinterest In Independent Effort
It is said that in this world there are two kinds of people — leaders
and followers. I’m not so sure about that, but I can see why this
philosophy is promoted; it helps evil people in power stay in power by
encouraging passive acceptance.
I would say that there are in fact two kinds of people in this world —
people who want to control others and the people that just want to be
left alone. In life sometimes we are both leaders and followers; we just
have to be sure that when we lead we lead by example and not by force,
and when we follow, we follow someone worth a damn.
In any case, passivity is not a solution to determining our roles in
society. In most situations, independent action is required by every
person to make the world a better place. Yet, in an era of systemic
crisis, it is usually independent effort that is the first thing to go
out the window. Millions upon millions of people wait around for
someone, anyone, to tell them what they should be doing and how they
should be doing it. In this way, society finds itself in stasis, frozen
in a position of inaction. Poisonous collectivism wins through mass
aggression, but also through mass passivity.
In fact, when individualists do take action they can be admonished
for it during times of societal breakdown, even if their actions have
the potential to solve a problem. The idea that one man or woman (or a
small group of people) could do anything about anything is sneered at as
“fantasy” or “delusion.” But mass movements of citizens working
towards a practical goal are rare, and even more rare is when these
movements are not controlled or manipulated to benefit the established
order. It is not mass movements that change the world for the better,
but individual people and small organizations of the dedicated, acting
without permission and without administration.
It is these individuals and small groups that, over time and through
relentless effort, inspire a majority to do what is necessary and right.
It is these people that inspire others to finally take leadership in
their own lives. Individual Self-Isolation
I write often on the plight of the individual and individual rights
within society, and I continue to see the factor of the individual as
the most important element in any culture. A culture based on protecting
and nurturing individualism and voluntarism is the only culture, in my
view, that will ever be successful at avoiding full spectrum collapse.
That said, the downside to overt individualism is the danger of self
isolation. That is to say, when true individuals only concern themselves
with their personal circumstances and ignore the circumstances of the
rest of the world, they eventually set themselves up to be crushed by
that world.
Organization on a voluntary basis is not only healthy but vital in
the longevity of a society. The more people turn in on themselves and
only care about their own general conditions, the easier it is for evil
people to do evil things unnoticed. Also, self isolation in the wake of
collapse sets individuals up for failure, as no one is capable of
surviving without at least some help from a wider pool of knowledge and
talents.
In a system based on corruption, the establishment will encourage
self isolation as a means to control the populace. Or, they will offer a
false choice, between self isolation versus mindless collectivism. The
truth is there is always a middle ground. Voluntary organization and
individualism are not mutually exclusive. I call this the “difference
between community and collectivism.” A community does not supplant the
individual, while a collective requires the complete erasure of
individual pursuits and thought.
If you find yourself surrounded by people who refuse any
organization, even practical and voluntary organization in the face of
instability, then your society may be in the latter stages of a
collapse. Disaster Denial
Even as a crisis or collapse unfolds, if a society actually reels or
reacts to it and takes note of the problem, there is hope for that
society. If, however, that society willfully ignores the danger and
denies it exists when presented with overwhelming evidence, then that
society will likely suffer complete disintegration and will probably
have to start all over from scratch — hopefully with a set of principles
and ideals based on conscience and honor.
The strength of a culture can be measured by its willingness to self
reflect. Its survival can be determined by its willingness to accept its
flaws when they arise and its willingness to repair the damage done.
Self-aware societies are difficult to corrupt or control. Only in denial
can people be easily manipulated and enslaved.
If you cannot accept the reality of the abyss, you cannot move to
avoid it or prepare yourself to survive the fall. I see this issue as
perhaps the single most important element in the fight to save the
portions of our society worth saving. Educating people on the blatant
facts behind our own national decline can dissolve the wall of denial,
and perhaps we will find when disaster strikes that there are far more
awake and aware individuals ready to act than we originally thought.
John Schmid, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Published 6:00 a.m. CT April 6, 2018 | Updated 1:16 p.m. CT April 6, 2018
Economics reporter John Schmid talks about the rise and fall of Racine
and how planners in the impoverished Wisconsin city aim for a turnaround
that eluded it in the past.
RACINE - If it fulfills its pledges,
Foxconn Technology Group is destined to shatter job-creation records.
Its flat-screen manufacturing campus in southeastern Wisconsin could
eclipse Boeing’s footprint in Seattle, Tesla’s in Nevada and some of the
biggest factories in China. Fully built out, it would be three times
the size of the Pentagon, the world's largest office building.
And
yet, despite its multibillion-dollar taxpayer subsidy, Foxconn’s jobs
boom might ripple right past Wisconsin’s fifth-largest city, five miles
east on Highway 11.
Once a titan of manufacturing,
Racine's identity has been largely erased in the digital age. Its
industrial heyday now an echo, the city has been impervious to decades
of jobs programs, wars on poverty, upswings in the national economy and
the consistent philanthropy of local industrial champion S.C. Johnson
& Son.
Police in Sheboygan, Wis., appealed to the public for help in late
March tracking down a most unusual perpetrator. “Over the past year and a
half,” the department posted on its Facebook page, “someone has been
clogging the women’s toilet (at the Deland Community Center) with
20-ounce soda bottles. This is very strange… and gross.” The Sheboygan Press
reported that the string of more than 25 incidents began in 2016. Joe
Kerlin, the city’s parks and forestry superintendent, says the suspect
is likely an adult male, based on security camera footage from outside
the restroom. The city’s resulting plumbing bills have totaled between
$2,000 and $3,000. In a Tight Spot
A man playing with a baseball on the roof of a parking structure in
Honolulu on March 23 had to be rescued by firefighters after he fell
into the seven- to nine-inch-wide space between two buildings and got
stuck, KHON2 TV reported. Security guard Ray Rodrigues was dispatched to
the roof to run the 55-year-old off, but found the man had fallen into
the narrow gap between the cement walls. When pulling him out with a
rope failed, firefighters resorted to using drills and saws to cut
through the concrete to free him. He was taken to a hospital in serious
condition. More Than They Bargained For
Shoppers at the Miracle Mile Shopping Center in Monroeville, Penn.,
got an eyeful on April 8, 2017, as model Chelsea Guerra, 22, and
photographer Michael Warnock, 64, conducted a nude photo shoot around 11
a.m. inside the mall. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,
as Warnock took photos and families looked on, Guerra walked around and
posed wearing only thigh-high black stockings and high-heeled shoes. In
early March of this year, Guerra and Warnock pleaded guilty to
misdemeanor disorderly conduct after other charges were dropped, and
paid a $300 fine. “My nude modeling is honest work,” Guerra said, “and I
use it mostly to fund my college career.” Don’t Drink the Yellow Milk
A dairy truck driver lost his job in early March after being caught
on a surveillance camera urinating near dairy cows in a barn at Tremblay
Farm in Highgate, Vt. While no charges were filed, Monica Massey of the
Dairy Farmers of America said the driver’s behavior was unacceptable.
“We saw the videos. What we saw was deplorable,” Massey said told WCAX
TV. Farm co-owner Darleen Tremblay said she was “shattered” by what she
saw on the video. “I couldn’t move. I froze and I shook,” she added. Next Stop: Mordor
In Didcot, England, known as the country’s “most normal town,” one
resident creatively tried to change people’s perceptions with additions
to road signs along local highway A4130. The prankster added
destinations such as Narnia, Gotham City, Middle Earth, Emerald City and
Neverland to roundabout signs, telling the BBC (on condition of
anonymity): “To me, there’s nowhere that is ‘normal’; there’s no such
thing.” He said he’s been making “creative interventions” all over the
country for about 20 years. The Oxfordshire County Council responded
that, while the additions were “amusing,” they’ll be removed as soon as
the county’s potholes are fixed. Expedition: Victoria
Maghan LeGlue, 25, of Bridge City, La., shifted her rage into high
gear on March 24 when she used her 2004 Ford Expedition to pin her
27-year-old boyfriend up against his Ford Crown Victoria, according to
the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. The Times-Picayune
reported that the couple, who have three children together, had been
arguing when LeGlue hit him, shattering his leg. Doctors performed
emergency surgery on the victim, and LeGlue was taken into custody and
was held without bond. What an Asphalt
Eastern Michigan University student Andrew (who, understandably,
didn’t give a last name), 22, claims that he wasn’t making any kind of
statement or protesting any government action (or lack thereof) on March
12 when he filled a pothole in Trenton with a whole box of Lucky Charms
and a gallon of milk. Andrew then lay on the road with a spoon and ate
the cereal out of the pothole. “I don’t know where the inspiration came
from, but when it hit me, I knew it was a great idea,” he told
MLive.com. “It tasted great”
RACINE — A growing portion of taxes paid to the City of Racine is being spent to pay down debt, a newly released analysis shows.
Racine spent more than 30 percent of the taxes it collected in 2016
on its debt, according to the study titled “City of Racine’s Fiscal
Condition: Living Within Its Means.” The analysis was released Wednesday
by the Wisconsin Policy Forum. It analyzes the city’s financial status
and strategies to determine how healthy Racine’s future looks.
Good morning everyone I hope all of you had a good week. I am still recuperating from helping my mom out last week. Trying to get back to my own routine is very hard or I have just been over tired from being up north. Thank you to everyone for your prayers and comments for my mom. I just want to let you know she is getting a little better each day.
Here are your questions-
1) Is there someone other than a family member you know you can count on?
2) If so are you both there for each other?
3) Do you have a family member that you can count on?
My computer table faces the south. That blasts the sunrise onto the computer from approx. 7:30 - 9:00 AM. This was never an issue before because I rarely got up before noon. Now, I'm sleeping 4 hours here, 4 hours there, and find myself blinded by the sun early in the day.
Laura Mandaro and Mike Snider, USA TODAY
Published 1:55 p.m. CT April 4, 2018 | Updated 4:31 p.m. CT April 4, 2018
Here's how a data firm helped Donald Trump get elected as president. We have the
the FAQs.
USA TODAY
The new estimate, disclosed in a blog post
where it detailed other plans to tighten privacy of its users' personal
information, is higher than the estimate of 50 million people reported
three weeks ago by The New York Times and The Observer.
The
social network's latest disclosures are likely to heighten concerns
about how it gave too-free access to its users' personal information and
that efforts to roll back this access come too late. Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg has been on the defensive and is now scheduled to testify
next week before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
In
an hour-long call with reporters, Zuckerberg addressed these concerns
while acknowledging how vulnerable users had been to malicious
activity.
"It's clear now we didn't focus enough
on preventing abuse and thinking through how people could use these
tools for harm," he said. "We didn't take a broad enough view of what
our responsibility is, and that was a huge mistake. It was my mistake."
Zuckerberg's
April 11 appearance before the committee will be his first
congressional appearance, but not likely his last. Discussions continue
into Zuckerberg's appearance before two other congressional committees:
the Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees.
Facebook last month disclosed it knew Cambridge Analytica had obtained
personal information from hundreds of thousands of users who had
downloaded a personality profile app that then passed it on to the firm,
which says it had assisted Donald Trump in his successful presidential
campaign. Cambridge Analytica denies using any ill-gotten Facebook data
in those efforts and repeated that defense Wednesday.
The
situation has resulted in an investigation into Facebook by the Federal
Trade Commission and attorneys general from 37 states and territories
calling for information from the company on its data security
procedures.
Even
before news arose of this massive data-mining operation of Facebook
users, CEO Mark Zuckerberg had pledged to spend 2018 attempting to
counter various concerns facing the social network. Among them:
fabricated news that misled millions, live broadcasts of homicides and
terrorism, racist targeting of ads, troubling search results and Russian
manipulation.
The increased estimate follows a
disconcerting pattern for Facebook when it's come to disclosing
practices that have violated its users' privacy.
Zuckerberg,
after initially calling suggestions that "fake news" on Facebook
influenced the election in any way "pretty crazy," later backtracked and
apologized. Under pressure from lawmakers' last fall, Facebook
executives testified and released increasingly higher estimates on the
extent and breadth of Russian manipulation on the platform. Just this
Tuesday, Facebook again disclosed it had found more Russian-organized fake accounts and posts on its platform and its Instagram service.
On Wednesday, Zuckerberg again apologized for initially dismissing the worries about faked news
Join up! Join up! Join up! What could possibly go wrong?
Daniel Bice, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Published 9:08 a.m. CT April 4, 2018 | Updated 2:05 p.m. CT April 4, 2018
Madison reporter Patrick Marley discusses the results and the aftermath
from yesterday's elections including what this means for the Republicans
and the next races to watch.
1. Gov. Scott Walker got the message — loud and clear: The biggest losers in the state on Tuesday were the St. Louis Cardinals (walk-off homer by Ryan Braun), the Boston Celtics (swatted away by Giannis) and Walker. Not only did the second-term Republican governor's pick for the Supreme Court go down in flames, but the voters also rejected his party's proposed constitutional amendment to do away with the state treasurer's office.
And a Walker-endorsed candidate narrowly lost
in a race for Waukesha County Circuit Court judge. Yes, in Waukesha
County, the base of the Republican Party in Wisconsin, making the
governor 0 for 3 for the night. And how did Walker respond? By going to
Twitter and blasting his opponents — "driven by anger & hatred" — while most people were still in bed. Hmm, sound familiar?
The big question for
Democrats now is, can they settle on an opponent for Walker this
fall? Last we checked there were still nine legitimate candidates, with
no clear frontrunners, vying for the right to challenge him.
2.Democrats are deeply motivated to vote:
Both Republican and Democratic insiders were in agreement on one thing
Tuesday night — a blue wave had just swamped the state. Said one top GOP
official: "Dems are pissed at losing." And at President Donald Trump.
And at the National Rifle Association. And just at whatever.
This
was never more true than in Dane County, where liberal Milwaukee County
Circuit Court Judge Rebecca Dallet rolled up an 81% to 19% advantage
over conservative Sauk County Judge Michael Screnock.
The
numbers have got to worry U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman and House Speaker
Paul Ryan at least a little bit — Dallet got about 48% of the vote in
their districts — and the Republicans running in the upcoming special
elections in June. "You'd have to call out the National Guard to keep
Democrats from the ballot box right now," said a Dem strategist.
3. Eric Holder and his group were massive in the election: One
top Democrat had this to say Tuesday night: "The full extent of the
weight Holder laid down here isn't totally understood." Behind the
scenes, the former Obama attorney general and the National Democratic
Redistricting Committee pumped $500,000 into local groups for organizing, advertising and getting other groups, especially unions, to help Dallet.
Beyond that, Holder's outfit successfully sued Walker
over his decision not to hold special elections after two GOP lawmakers
stepped down to join his administration. The court fight meant two
weeks of bad publicity for the governor.
Holder's help was key, given that the state Democratic Party did next to nothing to help out Dallet. While the Republican Party spent more than $345,000 on Screnock, the Dems gave a single in-kind donation of about $6,000 to her campaign.
4. Democrats finally found a winning formula for the Supreme Court:
The last time a liberal candidate won an open seat on the state Supreme
Court was 1995. Many of the young Dems getting out the vote this week
weren't even born then.
How did the Democrats do
it? Consider Dallet's profile. She's a veteran local judge
with experience as a prosecutor. And she's a Gen-X-er. And a woman.
Don't be surprised to see Democrats field similar candidates for the
Supreme Court in the future.
With her victory, the
state's highest court will soon have six female justices and one male.
Back in 1992, when I first started covering politics in Wisconsin, it
was the reverse, with six male justices and one female. The one
constant: liberal Justice Shirley Abrahamson, who is up for re-election
next year.
Washington Bureau Chief Craig Gilbert talked to voters in three of
Wisconsin’s most Republican counties, Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington
5. Money can't buy you love or even a new Milwaukee County Board:
First, let's all agree on this — Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele
has more money than any of us realized. We should have figured that out
when he spent $5.6 million of his own cash to win re-election in 2016.
Then Abele goes out over the past year and drops another $1 million
from his campaign account and via a new group, Leadership MKE, on
County Board and other local races. In all, he won in nine of the 14
races in which he took sides, even knocking off incumbent Supervisors
Peggy West and Steve F. Taylor.
But Abele missed his biggest target — Milwaukee County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb Sr. It's not clear yet how much the county exec spent from his wallet
on the board chairman, but many in the district would say it was too
much. In the end, some strategists say, there was a backlash in the
district against all the ads and numerous mailers from Abele's team.
Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 224-2135 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.
Hello, my childrens! How are you? What happened to Spring? The whole darn winter was weak, but it's gaining strength now that it's officially over. I'm sure the weather played a big part in keeping the vote down yesterday. "Racine's City Council President Dennis Wiser was unseated in Tuesday's
election for District 10 alderman, according to unofficial election
results. " Hooray, hooray! More of the slimy monsters should follow suit. We're taking back our city.
I'd like to take us back 50 years when jobs were plentiful and crime much lower. The American worker stood for something back then besides unemployment benefits. We'll see what effect Foxconn has. Yesterday they held an event and 500 companies showed up. There's the real indication of where our economy is headed. Everybody needs help. I know. I've tried to meet the requirements to have an apprentice. I"m sorry, but I can't have lackadaisical know-nothings on my team, even if they do run the city. Skill has given way to power grabs.
The clown at the front of the room is our guide. His name is Trump. Rhymes with rump. A complete idiot. He's perfect for us.
As we lower the intelligence level required for certain jobs, we should remember that everyone's intelligence is affected by that. Dumb it down, dumb it down, and you end up with a roomful of dummies. Or a nation. Keep watching people walk into things as they're preoccupied with the electronic gadgets in their possession. Weld those games to their hands.
Darn, the Chinese satellite didn't hit me in the head. Maybe I can till sue. I can say that worries affected my job performance. Because they do.
Does anyone know what Mayor Cory Mason does all day? Mayor Do-Nothing. Delegate, delegate, delegate, and then blame, blame, blame.. Mr. Mason strikes me as the type of person who would fit in in a library, hushed amongst the books. He seems to be a man of intelligence, but not action.
Guess what? Junior has his own car. Some piece of junk he picked up with his lawn mowing money. It's not currently running, which is where I hope it stays. I get the feeling that this car has made the rounds of Junior's friends and now it's his turn to try to start it. I can make sure it starts, but that the transmission falls out. The car was built before Junior was born. I shouldn't complain because Señor Zanza is overseeing all of this. That wonderful man. I think I love him.
There. I said it. I love you, too. I love all of my readers and critics. You make my world spin.
Take some comfort that the calendar is on our side. It will warm up one of these days. I think . . . __________________________ Please donate: paypal.me/jgmazelis If you don't like PayPal, send me a note at madamezoltar@jtirregulars.com and I'll send you my street address so you can send a check or money order. Thank you.
I’m Art Kumbalek and man oh manischewitz what a world,
ain’a? So I hear we got that Masters golf tournament coming up and that
Tiger Woods, after quite a focking fallow spell, is looking pretty gosh
darn good again. But apparently there’s one aspect of his game that has
yet to come around, as illustrated by this old chestnut:
What did Lady Di have that Tiger Woods doesn’t? A better driver, don’t you know. Ba-ding!
Or something like that. Anyways, maybe I’ve been watching too much
college basketball on the TV of late, but I don’t contemplate much of an
essay for you’s this week ’cause I really ought to suspend myself with
pay for being flagrantly foul. And I got to tell you, it couldn’t come
at a better time. I’ve been experiencing some stiffness if not downright
soreness in the skull compartment and before I take the measure of
having my head examined, maybe a little time off is what the doctor
would’ve ordered anyways, so what the fock.
Besides, I got some off-the-page personal matters that need tending
to before they fester into some kind of career-threatening carbuncled
calamity. I abso-focking-lutely need to deal with the chaotic morass
that is my sock drawer ’cause I’ve just got to believe there has to be
at least one sock in there that bears a resemblance to another. I need
to check the sofa for loose change. And speaking of morass, I need to
renew my subscription to Bend Over Magazine ’cause they’re offering a free Jane Russell Bra Phone if you sign up for two years, I kid you not.
And I got to finish filling out my goddamn income tax form—no sense
waiting ’til the last minute—which every year consists of a short note I
mail in, and it goes something like this: Dear Sir or Madam, Hey, I already paid. The federal tax on cigarettes alone I cough
up yearly to you’s ought to be enough to buck-up a bridge or fill a
focking pothole somewheres, ain’a? So let’s call it even. And may I
remind you that in the Book of Kumbalek, “income” is a synonym for
“imaginary.” But thanks for your interest. Sincerely, Art Kumbalek
As I’ve said maybe in the past, I do believe this Internal Revenue
Service tax compact really ought to be made voluntary, like they did
with the military service. How ’bout they turn tax-time into a pledge
drive, Ã la National Public Radio. If the citizen chooses
to flip the government some dough, he and/or she at least should
receive a focking tote bag or coffee mug for making the donation, don’t
you think?
And if any high roller chips in big time to the government, say, in
appreciation for all the corporate welfare entitlements the Feds
provide, the high roller receives, not some crappy-ass tote bag, but the
CD boxed set of all the John Philip Sousa marches, as recorded by the
United States Air Force Band.
Talk about listening pleasure, you betcha. JPS all told wrote 136
marches; or was it he wrote one march one hundred and thirty-focking-six
times? I forget. But I do know that a CD collection of the Sousa
marches would last me a musical lifetime. I could listen to one of his
marches and, what with all those blaring flugelhorns blasting their
butts off to kingdom come and back, I’d say it’d be at least a year ’til
I was ready to listen to another. One down, only 135 to go, yes sir.
But before I go, a little story. My buddy Little Jimmy Iodine told me
he was over by his brother-in-law’s place in West Allis there on Easter
Sunday when they had the Easter egg hunt in their dinky backyard for
Jimmy’s two little nephews. So these katzenjammer kids are traipsing
around and they come across some rabbit turds, except the younger kid
doesn’t know that, so he asks his older brother, “Hey, what’s that?”
The older kid says, “They’re smart pills. Eat them and they'll make
you smarter.” So the younger nephew chews on a couple, three and says,
“Hey, these taste like shit.” And the older boy says, “See? You’re
getting smarter already.”
Yeah yeah, I take it the moral being that the older you get, the more
you know what shit tastes like. But the trick is that you never want to
develop a taste for it, ’cause I’m Art Kumbalek and I told you so.
It's supposed to snow across the state today, with heavier stuff to the north. I know the weather is crappy, but please drive carefully to your polling place and vote. Then drive carefully home and smile, knowing that your voice will be heard.
Amanda Soto, the wife of U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, was booked into the
Orange County Jail late Sunday night on suspicion of disorderly
intoxication. (Orange County Jail)
The wife of U.S. Rep. Darren Soto was released from the Orange County Jail early Monday morning after her arrest on a charge of disorderly intoxication.
Amanda
Soto, 33, was booked into jail at 10:44 Sunday night, according to the
jail’s online database.
The charge against her is a second-degree
misdemeanor.
In a statement, Darren Soto said his wife has been
treated for depression for years and recently stopped taking medication
“in accordance with her treatment plan and under her doctor’s
[supervision].’’
“Yesterday, she drank too much and reached an
argumentative state with a family member, which led to arrest,’’ Soto
said in the statement. “She deeply regrets her actions and takes full
responsibility for them. Amanda and her physician will be reviewing her
mental health treatment, immediately.’’
Soto, a Democrat, was elected to Congress last year from the Ninth
District, which includes parts of Orange and Polk counties and all of
Osceola.
With
China's Tiangong-1 space station (translated as "Heavenly Palace") full
of highly toxic chemicals such as hydrazine, set to crash into the
earth at a still unknown location some time today, Michigan isn't taking
any chances.
As a reminder, several weeks ago Aerospace.org predicted that
while the list of possible crash sites includes locations in Northern
China, South America, Southern Africa, Northern Spain and the United
States, lower Michigan in particular is among the regions with the
highest probability of a direct hit.
Fast forward to today when in advance of Tiangong's atmospheric
reentry, sometime between now and April 2, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has
activated the state's Emergency Operations Center today to monitor its
travels.
According to the Detroit Free Press,
and as noted previously, pieces of the 8.5 ton space station have the
potential to land in the southern Lower Peninsula of Michigan, according
to the Aerospace Corporation. Still , while the possibility that space
debris could land in Michigan looms, the odds of it actually happening
are miniscule.
"When considering the worst-case location ... the probability that a
specific person (i.e., you) will be struck by Tiangong-1 debris is about
1 million times smaller than the odds of winning the Powerball
jackpot," according to Aerospace, a government contractor that provides
research, development, and advisory services to national-security space
programs.
In any event, Michigan's Emergency Operations Center urges anyone who
suspects they have encountered debris from the space station to call
911 and stay at least 150 feet away from it.
In a follow up article we will present readers with several options on how to track the space station's trajectory in real time.
This is a real-time display of the Tiangong-1 ground track which is
continuously updated to show the current position.
The red area around your location shows where the
satellite would be visible above your horizon. The size of this
area depends upon the current height of the satellite.
You can see the current height above the ground updating in the data
table.
Re-entry will start when the height drops to roughly
100km:
http://heavens-above.com/GroundTrack.aspx
I just want to give a real big Thank You to Daddy Orbs for always being there for me to do Four for Fridays. He is always there when I need someone to post it for me.
This past week I was up north taking care of my Mom she was real sick. I went up there last Sunday and came home yesterday. She was in the hospital with pneumonia and the flu the week before then she was real weak. So during the week I got her to eat, drink and got her strength up. I will tell you it wore me out taking care of her and I also spring cleaned her house. I came home last night and I am so happy to be home.
The only thing I do not understand is my younger sister lives down the hallway in the same apartment building and she can not look after my Mom.
Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, Nothing stays the same in dynamic systems, and it's inevitable
that the current glut of low costs / cheap stuff will give way to
scarcities that cannot be filled at current low prices. One of the books I just finished reading is The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire.
The thesis of the book is fascinating to those of us interested in the
rise and fall of empires: Rome expanded for many reasons, but one that
is overlooked was the good fortune of an era of moderate weather from
around 200 BC to 150 AD: rain was relatively plentiful/ regular and
temperatures were relatively warm.
Then one of Earth's numerous periods of cooling--a mini ice
age--replaced the moderate weather, pressuring agricultural production.
Roman technology and security greatly expanded trade, opening routes
to China, India and Africa that supplied much of Roman Europe with
luxury goods. The Mediterranean acted as a cost-effective inland sea for
transporting enormous quantities of grain, wine, etc. around the
empire. These trade routes acted as vectors for diseases from afar that swept through the Roman world, decimating the empire's hundreds of densely populated cities whose residents had little resistance to the unfamiliar microbes.
Rome collapsed not just from civil strife and mismanagement, but from
environmental and infectious disease pressures that did not exist in
its heyday.
Colder, drier weather stresses the populace by reducing their food
intake, which leaves them more vulnerable to infectious diseases. This
dynamic was also present in the 15th century during another mini ice
age, when the bubonic plague (Black Death) killed approximately 40% of
Europe's population. Which brings us to the present: global weather has been
conducive to record harvests of grains and other foodstuffs, and I
wonder what will happen when this run of good fortune ends, something
history tells us is inevitable. Despite the slow erosion of inflation,
food is remarkably cheap in the developed world. What happens should immoderate weather strike major grain-growing regions of the world? Then there's infectious diseases. Global air travel and trade
has expanded the spectrum of disease vectors to levels that give
experts pause. The potential for an infectious disease that can't be
mitigated to spread globally is another seriously under-appreciated
threat to trade, tourism and cheap stuff in general. There are other factors that could spell the end of cheap stuff, not just food but manufactured goods:
1. Fossil fuels could become much more costly. While I consider it
highly likely that the price of oil in US dollars will fall to
$40/barrel or lower in a global recession due to a sharp drop in demand
(what I've long termed the head-fake), longer term, it's
inevitable that the cheap-to-access fossil fuels (other than coal) will
become depleted and the cost of accessing, processing and transporting
what's left will rise.
Since fossil fuels remain the backbone of industrial societies
everywhere (yes, including Germany), a steady increase in fuel costs
will push the cost of everything that uses energy (i.e. everything)
higher.
2. Trade restrictions/conflicts. Globalization and populism both
target "unfair trade practices" in which "unfair" is in the eye of the
beholder: imports hurt the domestic economy everywhere, and exports help
the domestic economy everywhere.
If trade is restricted for whatever reason, the costs of commoditized goods will likely increase, possibly by a lot.
3. Global wages are rising. You've probably seen signs at Home Depot
and fast-food chain outlets announcing "we're hiring": even though 100
million working-age people are "not in the work force" in the U.S., many
of these individuals lack the skills and/or willingness to take jobs in
the modern economy, which demand a lot of workers even in so-called
low-skill fields such as fast food. To work in fast food, individuals
must be able to handle high pressure and a fast pace; it's not an easy
job by any means.
Many employers are reporting that they can't find enough qualified
candidates who pass drug tests, yet another fallout of the opioid
epidemic. Many people are saddled with felony convictions for nonviolent
drug offenses, rendering them ineligible for most corporate or
government employment.
Immigration restrictions and minimum wage laws will add to the rising cost of labor.
Globally, the baby Boom generation is retiring, leaving worker
shortages on the horizon even in China. (Note that workers tend to
retire much earlier in Asia and Europe than in the U.S.: 60 or 62 is
typically the mandatory retirement age in much of the global economy.)
As Immanuel Wallerstein has observed (I've written about his work
many times), there are systemic, secular pressures to raise wages and
benefits everywhere: costs are rising, and people expect more government
services such as education and income security, and as taxes increase,
wages must rise to maintain the net earnings (purchasing power) of the
workers. We in North America have become accustomed to cheap stuff; we consider it our birthright:
cheap fuels, cheap manufactured goods, cheap food and cheap labor.
Without even being aware of it, we feel entitled to "low prices always."
We may feel fuel, food and consumer goods are expensive now, but we are
comparing prices to an extended period of extraordinarily low costs.
Prices for energy could easily rise 50%, impacting the cost of
everything; should harvests be crippled by bad weather, the cost of
grains could easily double or triple from their current historic lows.
Should trade be restricted and wages rise virtually everywhere,
manufactured consumer goods could go up in price even as robots replace
human labor: energy and raw materials will still be costly inputs even
if all human labor is eliminated.
Add in some stiff tariffs for unfair trade practices, and all the robots in the world won't keep prices down. Nothing stays the same in dynamic systems, and it's inevitable
that the current glut of low costs / cheap stuff will give way to
scarcities that cannot be filled at current low prices. Cheap stuff
will go away, and everything will cost more. It seems highly likely that
the next decade will not be like the last 10 years of abundance and
cheap stuff.
Courtesy of Incrementum AG, here is a chart of the commodity/S&P 500 ratio. Commodities are at historic lows in relation to stock market valuations.
Stocks can decline, or commodities can rise, or both can occur in
tandem. If history is any guide, this ratio will reverse and reach a
peak within the next decade. * * * My new book Money and Work Unchained is $9.95 for the Kindle ebook and $20 for the print edition. Read the first section for free in PDF format. If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.
Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, It hasn’t been a great month for America’s electric car fantasy. Elon Musk’s Tesla company — the symbolic beating heart of the fantasy — is whirling around the drain with
its share price plummeting 22 percent, its bonds downgraded by Moody’s
to junk status, a failure to produce its “affordable” ($36,000 — Ha!)
Model 3 at commercial scale, a massive recall of earlier S Model sedans
for a steering defect, and the spectacular fiery crash in Silicon Valley
last week of an X model that may have been operating in automatic mode
(the authorities can’t determine that based on what’s left), and which
killed the driver. Oh, and an experimental self-driving Uber car (Volvo brand)
ran over and killed a lady crossing the street with her bicycle in
Tempe, Arizona, two weeks ago.
Don’t blame Elon for that. There’s a lot to like about electric cars, of course,
if, say, you’re a Google executive floating through life in a
techno-narcissism bubble, or a Hollywood actor with wooly grandiose
notions of saving the planet while simultaneously signaling your wealth
and your “green” virtue cred.
Teslas supposedly handle beautifully, ride very quietly, have great
low-end power, and decent range of over 200 miles. The engine has
something like twenty moving parts, is very long-lasting, and is easy to
repair or change out if necessary. Are they actually “green and clean?” Bwaahaaaaa….! Are you kidding?
First, there’s the energy embedded in producing the car:
mining and smelting the ores, manufacturing the plastics, running the
assembly line, etc. That embedded energy amounts to about 22 percent of
the energy consumed by the car over a ten-year lifetime. Then there’s
the cost of actually powering the car day-by-day. The electricity around
the USA is produced mostly by burning coal, natural gas, or by nuclear
fission, all of which produce harmful emissions or byproducts. But the
illusion that the power just comes out of a plug in the wall (for just
pennies a day!) is a powerful one for the credulous public. The
cherry-on-top is the fantasy that before much longer all that electric
power will come from “renewables,” solar and wind, and we can leave the
whole fossil fuel mess behind us. We say that to ourselves as a sort of
prayer, and it has exactly that value. There are at least a couple of other holes in story, big-picture wise. One is that electric mass motoring — switching out the
whole liquid fuel fleet for an all-electric fleet — won’t pencil out
economically. We probably started the project forty years
too late to even be able to test it at scale, because economic events
are now moving so quickly in the direction of global austerity that the
putative middle-class customer base for electric cars will barely exist
in the near future. Americans especially nowadays are so financially
stressed that they can’t qualify for car loans — and that is mainly how
cars are bought in this land. The industry has strained mightily
to bend the rules so that these days it’s even possible to get a
seven-year loan for a used car whose collateral value will dissipate
long before the loan is paid back. Hard to see how they can take that
much further.
The usual answer for that is that you won’t need to own a car because
the nation will be served by self-driving electric Uber-style
cars-on-demand, which will supposedly require far fewer cars in all.
That really doesn’t answer some big questions, such as: how might
commuting work in our big metroplex cities? Even if you posit multiple
occupancy vehicles, it still represents a whole lot of car trips. Oh,
you say, everybody will just work from home. Really? I don’t think so —
though I wouldn’t rule out an end to corporate organization of work as
we’ve known it, and if that happens, we will be a nation of farmers and
artisans again, that is, a World Made By Hand. Also consider, if
the car companies only need to make and sell a fraction of the vehicles
they sell now, the whole industry will collapse. Another hole in the story is the universal assumption that
the USA must remain a land of mandatory car dependency, hostage to the
fiasco of our suburban infrastructure. I understand why we’re
attached to it. We spent most of the 20th century building all that
shit, and squandered most our wealth on it. It’s comfortably familiar,
even if it’s actually a miserable environment for everyday life. But
none of those monetary and psychological investments negate the fact
that suburbia has outlived its limited and rather perverse usefulness. We’re so far from having any intelligent public debate
about these issues that the events now spooling out will completely
blindside the nation.
"The
divide in Mt. Pleasant isn't partisan, it's personal. A group of
friends who work for and with each other. Hiring family, neighbors and
friends - working to enrich each other - using your tax dollars."
From The Shepherd Express:
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