Posting Past Drafts that I held back before

 There were various reasons I hesitated before, that don't seem to matter all that much now, so I decided to put them out now for posterity's sake.

The Contradiction Of Needing Information, But Also Being Loath To Share It

Corporate debt in general, but also Corporate Bonds, and Corporate Bond Derivatives, are in turmoil now for several big reasons, where, of course, it is the uncertainties of not only the impossibility of knowing, at this early point, just how much initial, chaos might continue, because so many nations are only still discovering that that have a curve to flatten at all, let alone what they will need to do to get it flattened; even beyond that is there also the uncertainties of what the very need of Capitalists, to always find another way to make money off something that has become too staid, or lackluster, in ability to provide profit; what that does to keep them creating more uncertainties for themselves. And in that case, now that the Fed has made the commodity of money itself virtually free, and thus not so conducive for returns maximization, what is a good Capitalist to do? Well add a new level of abstraction to an already existing commodity, and then trade in that. That's why futures trading exists in the first place, you know, for almost anything.

Back before 2008, of course, it was the wonderfully obfuscating euphemism, that they called derivatives, that packaged mostly bad stuff, with a little good stuff, in the context of home mortgage loans, that was dreamed up. And we know where that went.

There are protections now, in place, to protect against too much of that kind of speculation, for ordinary people, bank borrowing. For the big business sorts of borrowing, though, not so much. And so a lot of not so profitable companies have been able to keep going because they've been able to tap into more speculative oriented lenders, willing, supposedly, to take on more risk, precisely in order to get a higher commodity price for that commodity called money. And because that's been going on for a while, naturally people would create new, packaged investment instruments with which institutional investors get tempted into adding to their portfolios because its just too damn easy. 

The Awful Calculus Of "Acceptable Deaths a Year"

And of course what we're talking about there is the rate for any particular process deemed essential to the current economic system.

This is getting trotted out now because the Masters of Money are truly worried weather their system can survive. And I am talking about much more than just this first shoe (which just happened to be a biological event), in what has been but one of many, able to start, perfect storms, of perfect storms, of great chaos, and disruption.

Before I go any further, though, I feel obliged to point out that I have used a similar argument in talking about what I have felt was an over reaction to the, understandable fear, that resulted from the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

That gave us, you will recall, the TSA, Homeland Security, and an airline industry that found a way to make a lot of money turning necessary social logistics into a an exercise in "Aluminum tubes of humiliation sausage," for far too many, just for semi-affordable (because most paycheck to paycheck, working people, still can't afford it, and so cannot afford to "Vote With Their Feet"), regional mass transit.

My complaint was that, the choice of giving up a lot of freedom, for a questionable gain in safety, in this context, was odd, considering we all take the tens of thousands of deaths we cause ourselves, on our freeways, with only moderate notice, simply because we also like to use our distracting, media devices; stating that TSA agents would save more lives by being deployed to driveways, street fronts, and garages, to confiscate these devices (forcing the users to put them in the car trunk, lets say), before you could begin your traverse to wherever.

Seeing how the argument is now being used by the "The Demented Clown Car Driver" administration (with King Boso himself, gleefully tossing the steering wheel out the window), I have been given cause to reconsider the long term costs of its continued use. Even if mine was a bit less, starkly cold, on the prospect of people dying in the first place.

In being made to think about this further, now, I believe I have come to some tentative conclusions you might want to consider here:

1: First of all, lets be clear that, for the most part, the majority of deaths any of might be talking about, in these types of considerations, in this economic system, are going to be among hourly, paycheck to paycheck, working people. And you do not have to look very far to see facts to allow you to believe that; as in, from the beginning, who among us have always been able to get the good tests, and the best treatment, as well as the best chances for a non desperate type of "sequestration?" Yup, you guessed it, the most well to do of us, that's who. The very people who have reserves to fall back on, if only for a limited time, certainly, with the way these people like to burn through self indulgence.

2: What are the assumptions inherent in allowing this argument to take place at all? Are you sure you are clear on them?

For instance, a lot of what we are supposed to take for granted, as a part of modern economic life now, is that a certain number of us will die on the highways; and of various diseases, and various accidents, because of the very fact of everyday occurrence, as a part of economic life. And we accept that without looking very deeply into what serves to exacerbate those very things; which is, of course, the system itself; because it is, and always has been, a toxic monster. The only difference now is that it is an electrically accelerated one, seeking the impossibility of moving all processes at the speed of light (because now, if it doesn't kill you by environmental poisoning, it will kill you with one kind of work related stress, or outright physical damage -- when the corner cutting, on the thirst for more profit, in creating output ever faster, with less cost, makes things break down, or explode, in terrible ways).

This is why you have the truly monumental absurdity of our "Boso" saying we have to accept a certain amount of deaths, while at the same time having just gutted the EPA rules on restricting power plant pollution, based on health concerns. And having already gutted pollution rules for most vehicles to be produced in the future, to list just a few things this demented clown car driver has already done.

And even more absurd yet: he boasts, at the beginning of this biological event, that all he is really concerned about is having "his bad numbers go up," and by obvious implication, his good numbers go down. And just as obvious, his good numbers are those that make sure rich people are making more, and the bad any that makes him look bad. And nothing can make you look bad a whole lot worse than folks fixating on the fact that they are dying in very significant numbers; and for no more "good reason." than a minimum wage job, and help for what ails you that you can hardly ever afford.

Nope. The true message here is that you are supposed to accept these risks, as well as the crushing debt, because that's simply you lot in life. Whereas theirs is to be the privilaged, ruling class.


Boso The Demented Clown Car Driver

In Trump's 'LIBERATE' tweets, extremists see a call to arms

The Awful Calculus Of Acceptable Deaths a Year

Dr. Oz and other TV docs hit with new coronavirus symptom: tripping over their own tongues

Here's An Eerily Prescient Warning About The Threat Of Doublespeak To American Democracy

For me the interesting part of this excellent book, and author, and someone, I am ashamed to admit, that I completely forgot about, is how quickly the author moves from the political realm to the commercial. And then how that ties directly to the development of what I call the "Hard Sell."

I was up to my armpits, at the time, in dealing with not only a failed second marriage, but also the unbelievable new complications of trying to work within the emerging desktop computer hardware, and software business, with my own DBA (as in "doing business as" for a personal checking account) "Old Softy Computer Assistance."

It was a crazy time to say the least as I had to transition from doing installs, and custom software, for small businesses, to doing software exclusively, for medium, and big businesses. So much so that I'm pretty sure I didn't have the time to read this book back then, but I am pretty sure I heard about it, because I've always been a fairly deep reading, news junkie.

Anyway,

I mention this now because it relates to this post ("Everything Is Potential Commodity In Capitalism") done back in 10-6-2019), and how everything is commodity now and, as a result, subject to the "Hard Sell."

The one thing that post neglected to emphasize, though, was the acceleration factor now so embedded into this mutating system; an acceleration mandated by the fact that money has become "as electrons in electrical circuits, seeking the path of least resistance," and always wanting to move ever more like the speed of light itself.

This is what, in my opinion, is making everything spin faster and faster, every month.

It used to be every few years or so. Then it suddenly became quarterly, and now it's pushing for every week.

That this also tends to generate big numbers, whether in gross economic activity, or the counts of those caught in ever increasing kinds of "collateral damage," tends to get things really confused.



Here's An Eerily Prescient Warning About The Threat Of Doublespeak To American Democracy

See Also:

Everything Is A Potential Commodity In Capitalism

So Many People Voted For Both Candidates Thinking They'd be The One To Supply the Jobs

Here it is, the morning after and we're still, all, hung over with fear, dread, and loathing, because it's still way to close to call.

 So why would I juxtapose such, seemingly unrelated articles? 

Because they are surely not unrelated at all. Not when you think about this sort of thing in the stark terms of: "which would you really wish for?" And the reason for this is implied contrast here of "Assisted Reality," as opposed to truly "Manipulated Reality." 

I as this question because, in my view, it is a choice between Unbelievable Capability for everyone, or simply "Doing More With Less People." 

And of course, the main difference between them can be summed up by saying that Empowerment is what would drive the first, and only the unquenchable thirst for profit driving the second.

What would that mean?

If we had truly context sensitive AI, delivered through the kind of AR glasses that Microsoft is already deploying, in increasing numbers, to various industries, so that generally capable people can be directed to, and assisted in, accomplishing, increasingly more complex task steps, in the ever changing, process requirements, of an ever accelerating competition, to deliver a thing better than whoever else is out there trying to do the same thing back at you, whether you're tired, Covid Susceptible, or still, actually, not making a living wage; while the robots won't have to care at all.  Oh... Wait... That went off the rails didn't it.

But of course it would have to because Microsoft isn't doing any of this for empowerment, nearly as much as it is for the bigger pile of ones, and zeros, in it's bank account servers; which is also a big profit center for all of the Tech Giant.

If we truly want to have power back to the people, it will occur only when we can wrest back full control of information; in all of its aspects back into our hands. 

And even if the the Dems still, somehow, find a way to make the vastly superior popular vote, be actually reflected in the electoral count, don't think for one minute that they will want to give us that full control. They will certainly be more friendly in throwing us a bone or two, to give it a good look, but Big Money will no more be seriously challenged by them, than with that moron the other side thinks is going to save them.

One thing is for sure, though.

If the popular vote remains so hugely lopsided against the incumbent pres. but the electoral vote goes to him anyway, this will become the most fractiously divided country since the last bloody Civil war. And how we'll work through that will all of the disasters coming, as well as what we already have on our plate. is anybody's guess.

Microsoft Establishes Its Hololens 2

The Robot Revolution Is Happening-Like It or Not -- WSJ

Our Economy And The, So Called, Free To Play Game Paradigm

 Anybody who has play games like "Armored Warfare," "World  Of War Ships,"  or  the other "World of" line, and certainly a vast array of others -- even more popular, if you're not  a certified (Magic the Gathering, Civ 5, Supreme Commander, Forged Alliance, Skyrim, Mod loving) geek; anybody who's played them knows how these things work.

And simply put, it boils down to frustrating the ever living hell out of you. Doing this via various approaches to making sure that, if you don't have the biggest, and badest, addons, for whatever can be added to, you are up a feces creek, with only your nose left to paddall with.

It is always interesting to me, though just how much this ends up as one form. or another, of addiction.  Because if you give in to it, and start feeding it money like crazy, you can gain the momentary high, more and more, of course, because of the ever more lavish way it is presented, that comes with the status gained in your particular community of addiction.

The catch, though, is that this must necessarily be fleeting. And that is so because, with the new stuff that you acquire, and the much more probable victories, comes the new level of difficulty, which then starts the process over again.

These are the kinds of things you should be thinking about if you still do not think we need to reboot the entire system. Reboot from a whole new operating system install. 

Sure, It's A Dirty Job, but somebody's got to do it...

...And If You're A  Regular, Working Stiff (hourly, salaried, or entrepreneurial -- and even making millions a year) , then guess who's going to be on the bad end of the stick when it finally gets down to: we do this or we die.

Yah, it's going to be a big feces sandwich, and working people are going to the only ones left, on the flooded, tornadoed, wild fired, or whatever other kind of catastrophic ground that's becoming ever more likely, of late, you might also want to contemplate, to have to take a bite, and swallow it too.

This is so because we all know that, in the most significant of majorities, the very rich are going to do what they've already shown us is likely; as in bugging out, and hunkering down, in whatever, lavishly accessorized to be sure, bunker like, gated community, is the most cost/amenities effective. Whether it will do them any real good, if things do get as bad as they are quite likely to be, or not. And I can assure you, in the bitter end, and most of us working stiffs (on the treadmill to nowhere) are already gone, and they don't have anybody, anymore, to do the "dirty" jobs; well, use your own imagination.

I have to say, though, that I do love that line. It has become a wonderful cliché for me, over the years.

If you check, you'll find that there is still some confusion around where it came from, but as one person said, a few years back, it was from a WW2 war movie, that was done in the fifties. For the life of me, though, I can't quite recall who said it, in what exact movie, but I'm sure it was someone like John  Agar, Frank Lovejoy, Van Johnson, or James Whitmore, etc., who uttered it, because I can still hear it clearly in my head.

Anyways... We are not going to be able to do this job, however, precisely because the super rich still think money will save them; no matter what happens to us. And I have to say that this will be one, very Lethal assumption.

Just know this: If the Twaites Glacier goes, and that big Antarctic current, that used to be a big carbon sequestration engine (circulating as it did from very deep water), continues to be a new, carbon source, and most of the Artic ice goes as well, we will see not only many tens of feet of sea rise, but ever more crazy weather to make that even more horribly bad. 

Which means that not only will at least a billion people, all around the globe, will be rendered homeless, and as such, refugees on the move, but every major port city in the world will be rendered virtually useless, as well; so, just like Sypher said in "The Matrix," the "Kansas" of our economy is going bye bye.

What I also worry about, though, even after all of the melting has run most of its course, is that, if there then comes to be a much less significant source of temperature differential, at both poles, what then will then happen to other, terribly important atmospheric, and oceanic, currents? 

That is to say, what will happen when there is no longer the difference that made our current circulations work the magic, that they have been making, for over a million years at least? The ones that gave us the intricately  balanced system, of many sub systems, that allowed us, and everything else, to evolve as it did. Because, at that point, all there will be is hot. And oceans boiling off ever greater amounts of water. 

That will fuel something, certainly, if only by water evaporating, and then condensing again when it gets pushed to higher altitudes (assuming it gets pushed); so as to fall back as rain. A situation that, in my opinion, will be sure to do only one thing: put too much rain, in foo few places, and not nearly enough, in too many places.

So the bottom line is this: The lead times to get such tremendous programs designed, planned, and then be readied for execution, are such that we have to start doing a vast array, of multiple things, at the same time. And to do that, we will need access to all of the technological tools that society has made possible, for one and all, to get rich with, in the first place.

And to do that we, and the very rich, are going to have to accept the fact that a divorce is going to be necessary; a divorce where we have to play the part of the wife, who gets the house, while the rich husband gets to keep most of the rest of there cashed out value. A process, certainly, that won't be easy. For either side. But one that will have to bee done if we expect any chance at all, slim though it still might be.

And that, unfortunately, my friends, is just the way it is. Like it or not.

There is an alternative, though, and I sincerely believe I have outlined, at least a portion of it. I can only hope you will come to take it as seriously as the problem itself.

 

This Will Be My Last Post In The Google Blogging System

Now that the electioneering is all but over (whatever legal, or non legal, machinations that come to take place, after the poles close), my intention here is to proceed to a new site to air my, I have to admit, unusual form of radicalism. And that site will be Reddit. 

As such, this message is being posted simultaneously with Google Blogs, and Reddit.

Since I have accumulated a significant amount of posts at Google Blogs (with something close to 5 years of input, and nearly 2000 posts, see here, and here), however, I will continue to monitor things there, as well as to utilize the trove as a living archive.

As I do this, I want to be clear about a few things here before I stop posting on Google.

I have stopped in the last few months of the campaign because I wanted to, first of all, give the BLM movement a chance to be heard without one more white voice adding to the din; that cacophony being, of course, the ever escalating information deluge everybody has to contend with, these days, in the process of trying get a consistent message out; especially when so many, well funded efforts, are out there, to work agendas that both try to hinder, and help, at the same time. As well as where few on either side of that divide really know what their talking about in the first place. 

I also wanted to keep quiet because I firmly believe that, if you are going to hold off criticizing one side (because I do feel we need a change in leadership, to get anything important done), you must also stop criticizing the other. 

That being said, however, doesn't change the fact that I can assure you that I have plenty of criticism available, for both sides.

Now, as to the reason I am leaving this site, is to finally admit, publicly, that starting at Google Blogs in the first place, was a huge mistake. 

A hugely painful mistake as it represents years of writing effort. Effort that seems to have been buried by either money grubbing incompetence, or because some of the content was getting too controversial for the Parent company to handle; or the ever present possibility of some combination of both as well, of course.

I can can say that because, not only have the company screwed with their blogging system three times now (First trashing Google+ -- which was connected to Google Blogs --, then cancelling Google+ completely, once the new changes really made things worse; and now screwing with Google Blogs itself. 

This beyond the fact that they did comparatively nothing to help promote the blogging content as a whole, of course; because, at one time, way back when, Google+ was an amazingly diverse, and wonderfully creative, expressive place. And it wouldn't have hurt their image, one little bit at all, to show, if they were truly proud of the role they were playing in the world, that they could take whatever criticism might crop up, precisely because of their regard for that kind of creativity in general.

Perhaps more importantly, though, is the fact that my appeal to the tech community, which I thought were my contemporaries, went largely ignored.

Now whether this was the fault of the messenger, the message, the intended audience, or another example of some combination of "all of the above," matters not nearly as much as the fact that important questions were being asked.

Things like: If you find yourself in a completely new operating environment, relying on an operating system created centuries before, for a completely different, much more primitive environment, how can it not be time for a completely new operating system?

Or like: How can you continue to have a viable Democracy when information cannot be allowed to move freely; precisely because it has become both a commodity, and money itself.

Or Like: Could the economy be booming along a good deal more now, not so much because its so great, but because you have the mutually, negatively reinforcing, combining of, first, money becoming as electrons in circuits, seeking the path of least resistance (which fosters corruption), and secondly, the issue of it's need to continue the ever maddening dash to get closer to the speed of light itself, making every cog, in an old machine, turn ever faster and faster, like a turbine going redline, which, among other things makes pretty much everything crazy. 

And lastly, because of this incessant need to go faster, and faster, do we also have the ever increasing amount, and severity of competition itself. Ever more grueling. Ever more demanding, and occurring in too many dangerous instances; as has been made abundantly clear in what we see now in world economic markets, world resources, and the techno-military industrial realm, where weapon, and useful tool otherwise, in both commercial, and civilian life, become ever more blurred. 

And notice also that this all revolves around the growing econo-environmental crisis that Capitalism, as a cost based form of economy, cannot hope to contend with. Not when you come to realize that the effort its going to take, to properly heal things, will be at least 50 to 100 years in the making. And I can say that because it isn't just going to be about healing the planet, and us. It will also be about getting ever greater numbers of us off planet, and involved in all aspects of making habitat out there, as well as here.

So. Maybe. With an appeal to a broader audience, the analysis of Capitalism I have provided can get more people, at least thinking about asking, the deeper kinds of questions; the ones that will get them to consider that this, more than several hundred year old operating system, has had it's day, and that it is long past time for a replacement; and now even more critically so because we have biological catastrophe to add to already burgeoning geophysical, atmospheric, geopolitical, and social, catastrophe.

And I want to be clear here that I believe that this analysis comes with a quite specific, alternative to Capitalism, that is, actually, being proposed (if you check the "Pages" subsequent to the first, "Posts" page, you will see some "In a nutshell" entries, that attempt to provide an overview of what I am talking about), with descriptions of the specific, aiding technologies that I have developed over the years.  

There is, as well, an additional, separate Blog, that has attempted to describe the philosophical view that provides the underpinning moral, and spiritual, foundation, of not only why I dislike Capitalism so much, but also for what guides the formation of my alternative.

As far as my background is concerned know that I was a Systems Analyst/Developer, in the Puget Sound region for over 25 years (I have a still visible resume on Linked In -- and remember, it's spelled Jeffery Vale, and not Jeffrey). 

You can also get more info on my background from the only two videos I have uploaded to YouTube (see KingTVLotteryClip, and Humanity At a Fork in the Road), as well. And just for grins, and giggles, I've included a link to a post about by last actual, developer's gig. One I did for the company I swore I would never work for, Microsoft; even if it was only as a temp via Nytec. 

And the last thing I was to make clear is this: Everything I do is "Open Source." And by that I mean, beyond the usual, basic "Non profit, means tested, application, I want to assure you that I will not profit, in any way, from the application of any of the technologies, or ideas, that I am advancing here. 

I live on my SSI income now, making due with Medicare for my health care provider. And that is all that I am ever going to take in the way of money any more. Which is only another way of saying a pledge I've already made, years ago; that I would never take money again for work. When I start working again, if I live that long, it will be for a community that has redefined work, and where money doesn't need to apply any longer. 

[Post note: This is the link to the Google search pictured above. J.V.]

Why It's Always Half Past Later Than You Think With Global Climate Change

See Also:

Money As Electrons

The actual number of Americans jailed or imprisoned, about 2.3 million

[Post Note: This edited part of the regular CNN "What Matters" email feed (just after the last Presidential Debate), for 10-23, has a quite pertinent reference to the real degree of severity that we face with climate change. And I can assure you all that, even the "Green New Deal," good start though it might be, is not going to be nearly enough to get done what is going to need getting down to turn things around, because it is far worse than almost everyone in the know has been admitting. J.V.]

CNN ''What Matters'' On Climate Change -- 10-23-2020

How thawing permafrost could fuel climate warming

Arctic researcher warns the 'the ice is dying' after landmark expedition

Unprecedented data confirms that Antarctica’s most dangerous glacier is melting from below

[Post Note: This is the post on my last gig with Microsoft. J.V]

I Was There For This Debacle

[Post Note: And this is the last post in "Capitalism Is Obsolete." J.V.]

There Is No Going Back, There Is Only Going Forward, Whether We Want To Or Not

[Post Note: My two videos on YouTube. J.V.]

KingTVLotterClip

Humanity At a Fork In The Road

There Is No Going Back, There Is Only Going Forward...

...With A New Understanding Of Just How Deeply In Trouble We Are All In Now.

And to do that we must understand a very important new fact: 

We are all Submariners now, whether we want to be or not.

So what do I mean by being "Submariners?"

When you think about it all you are are really talking about is the basic fact of living, and working, in a pressurized, hazardous environment. All the while being incredibly dependent on a vast array of very tightly integrated systems, to keep the living, operational functionality of the whole, going. Whatever that living, supposedly functional, operation may be.

In the future, most of humanity will be forced to live in exactly that kind of environment; the only difference will be on which side of the the pressure barrier the pressure you are concerned with resides (not forgetting for a moment that "pressure" can also come from our own, supposedly social, environments). That and the fact that, out in space, whether on a habitat station, a moon, or a new planet, the other physical hazards multiply considerably.

More basic to our problems now, however, is the lack of appreciation for just how much our own planet is becoming equally hazardous to us; mostly, of course, because of our own frailties are the true root of all evil; and that because it is only our ability to rise above those frailties that gives us those rare opportunities to do things in greater correspondence to what we try to aspire to.

Now we face the harsh realities of choices made, within a system that might have made sense once, back when things were a great deal more simple, but it was created by rational men who mistakenly thought that people would always act rationally; at least if presented with an operating system, that I am sure they felt quite strongly, was based on rational thought. 

Well... as it turns out, sometimes we can be rational, and a lot of other times we are not (you only need think of our problem with "How Much Is Enough," to have an example of this). We are not especially when one feature, of the "rational system," not only allows for, but actively encourages, self advancement through doing things faster, and more effectively, before some one else does; so much so, in fact, that "doing whatever it takes" to achieve your ends becomes a watch phrase; in all aspects of getting, and then selling, what you have to offer, over what the "competition" has to offer.

That being said, we now have, after decades of too many "entrepreneurs" not even thinking about long term affects, let alone being able to price such concerns into a sales worthy product, even if you had the broader perspective of holistic systems thinking, a truly hazardous living environment as a result. And whether those hazards are radiation oriented, or chemical spill oriented, or bad gases escaping (or not) oriented, or ever more chronic, catastrophic weather conditions; or even new found biological hazards, that either came into being naturally, or came into being from our own, greed fueled, exploitation of biology; even under all of that it hardly matters at all.  

What does matter is that we realize that, for any kind of working life to go on, the organizational methodology utilized must become more like life lived as people colonizing a planet for the first time. And for that, certainly, you need all sorts of new ways of doing mundane things outside of protective living barriers; just like astronauts, or deep diving aquanauts; which means not only rethinking what work is in the first place, but what all sorts of "normal" apparel might look like, that would still look good, be practical in both comfort, and ease of use, as well as easily mass produced. All in a system that moves us away from thinking in terms of abstract "costs," and puts it instead into how we organize effort. In how we equitably arrange for the material needs of everybody's required "inputs," and needed "outputs." 

Which is no more than to say systems integration on both a human needs, and a practical requirements, in a new kind of dynamic balancing act. One where we working people would all participate directly, in not only the owning of, but also the governance, of a newly formed Federation; a Federation of more independent City Sates. 

The bottom line to be clear on here is this. No matter how impossibly difficult you might think negotiating all of this out might be, I can assure you, without any hesitation at all, that the alternative we have racing towards us will be incomparably worse.

The Corporate Right Is Giving Us Two Choices: Go Back to Work, or Starve

Map: Killer heat and humidity is spiking decades sooner than we feared

America’s True Covid Toll Already Exceeds 100,000

'There'll be more death': Trump says it's time to reopen country despite fears of coronavirus rebound

Study: Global warming to place billions in "near-unliveable" heat

See Also:

How Coronavirus Could Make People Move

Midwest manufacturing workers sound alarm over COVID-19 outbreaks

Hurricane season is expected to be worse than normal

Articles showing the similarities of living in submarines as opposed to space habitats

It's All Related To This Pivotal Time In Human History

I started this post with just the first article from Knowable. Wrote a whole thing just for that, and from the viewpoint of how information has come so far in its history (truth has always, in one form or another, been "The First Casualty of War," after all) of being "weaponized." In lock step, of course, with how our advances in instrumentality; our extensions of all of our faculties as Marshall McLuhan used to say; with the emphasis, of course, on how the electrification of experience retrieval, especially on Capitalism, has been of primary importance.

And then these other two pieces from Vox caught my attention, whereupon it struck me, again, just how amazingly interrelated all of these events are when you look at it, not only through the lens of McLuhan media theories, but also through the lens of whether this is the "Pivot Point" faced by all sentient species, as they start making the leap, from the tribalism, that sure seems logical, as away to mark, the challenge, that maybe most such entities have to encounter, so as to see what can allow them to continue, now that they have eaten from the tree of knowledge; Because once you do that you have a very, very large tiger by the tail, precisely because of the power, even a single person can wield now, simply by the easy access to this new instrumentality; and there's no getting off, even assuming you can make it to its back, to ride with purpose, without major catastrophe.

In all of this, however, are several underlying points concerning keeping information as a commodity, as well as money itself, that you should keep in mind here:

1: It will make keeping Democracy virtually impossible, and for at least the reason of how can you have true liberty, or be a Libertarian at all, if you are not allowed truly informed consent?

2: It plays into the old tribalism fears of hording, that are especially expressed with Capitalism's ever more emphasized, zero sum mentality, in these modern times; as we have seen with the amplification of greed, and the feeling that the few must marginalize as many groups as possible so as to keep dominance, and control, and most especially the economics of scarcity for the many.

3: It has allowed the few to keep you from understanding your inherent power in simply not participating in a game that stopped making economic sense, for working people, the moment robots could do the old definition of work better than humans could; at least within the cold confines of economic value, the awful, old definition encompassed.

4: Now that a biological event has forced all working people to go on a "Strike" by other means, do we see just how much the moneyed few are suddenly a great deal more incentivized to listen to the real problems of working folks. Problems, of course, that, in my opinion, can be laid at the feet of this grossly out of date, and mutated, and toxic, economic operating system, itself.

The bottom line for me is as it has always been. We are at war, whether we realize it or not, and it is an information war. We are also in the midst of a planetary systems revolt. A revolt demanded because too many, delicately balanced, and interrelated, systems have been overburdened, way beyond their carrying capacities, for far too long now.

As such we have to mobilize as a nation, just as was done before, when the excesses of Imperialism, Fascism, and Capitalism, came to a head in an all encompassing, global conflict. And in all of this do we have to realize that there is absolutely no way to continue "Business As Usual."

Even more complicated, though, is the fact that we have to mobilize, and have a managed economy, but not a managed Capitalist one. Not indefinitely at least (as we will need to stay with it for a transition period).
No, it will have to be one where we must understand the need to redefine work. To come up with a definition that allows working people to own, as well as belong, to the communities they work to support, and make happen, as a part of that redefinition.

As I have also said before, it is time now for the tech to start working for working people, and not the other way around. We are not going to be able to heal anything until we grasp that very important, new, reality. And the only way we are going to get there, across the divide that separates this nation ideologically, is with a "Grand Compromise" that gets both sides to give up up something very important so that we can all find a way to tolerate each other, and then find common ground to work the further comprises with which something truly meaningful can get done.

In my opinion, it won't happen, successfully, any other way.

How the Covid-19 recession could become a depression

The most important lesson of the 1918 influenza pandemic: Tell the damn truth

Fact check: Trump claims 'normal life will return soon.' Doctors and scientists caution otherwise.

[Post Note: This is where the original post began. J.V.]
Information Apocalypse: All About Deepfakes


Would There Be Nearly the Number Of Incentives To Weaponize Information If We Weren't In So Many Dangerous Competitions?

And certainly the question that follows from that would be this:

Would there be nearly so many dangerous competitions if we didn't have an electrified economic operating system; one that not only was never meant to be electrified in the first place, but also one that has taken competition to the same levels of excessive amplification that is accelerating everything off the rails of normalcy? And this, of course, precisely because of its own success in spurring on the competition for cutting edge science. The very thing for very sharp people to wield when desperately trying to undercut the other competitors before they do it to you.

Of course Capitalism spurred us on to do amazing advancements in both general material well being, as well as scientific advancement. We can admit that freely, even as we also admit that a terrible price was paid in the course of achieving this outcome. A price that has come due now, in full, because doing just the minimum payment, as we've been doing, to pretend we're still interested, just isn't going to cut the cord that ties us to the reality of an inevitable outcome:

Burden any complex system beyond it's carrying capacity, for far too long, and you will reap the whirlwind. And aren't we just having bumper crop after bumper crop of those now; in various metaphorical renditions; in every complex system we operate in now, natural and human made.



See Also:

The Danger of Continuing With Dangerous Competitions

Whether You Want To Acknowledge It Or Not, We Are At War

Like I Have Said Before, We Truly Are At A Pivot Point

Within The Absolute Ascendancy of Capitalism

Can You Continue Building, Or Working On At All, Something You Don't Believe In?

Some folks sure seem to think so. Why else, at base, would you work wherever your money, or your ideology (because you'd do whatever thing, clandestine or otherwise. that your ideology required of you), was best served otherwise?

Some people, though, also create things whole cloth, out of whatever fevered fantasies, or delusions, that have hold of them for the moment. And they then work, too often to great excess, the process of trying to make their singular mental construct real; causing great "disruptions" from the obvious conflict with objective reality, however poorly decided upon by the working majority, that such contradictory behavior can usually be counted on to produce.

This is where I need to stop briefly so as to inform you, once again, that the text phrase "Build The Unbelievable" has once again been presented to me as a piece of actual advertising (as a direct email ad). And, coincidentally, that it also comes from the same online retailer that sent me the "Entertain The Madness" phrase of a previous post.

The sales pitch for this new ad was premised on the idea of being able to build the "unbelievable," powerhouse computer of your dreams, with which, of course, to blast through any game, or video composition, or music creation, or streaming process, you might want to be able to brag about; something I have to confess to being into for a while in the past.

In any case, though, this sort of banging of old cliches together, to make some new juxtaposition that draws you in, is as old as McLuhan's book "From Cliche To Archetype" (at the very least), where he described the process of taking old statements, phrases, and words, that once had a particular, significant, cultural meaning placed upon them; whereupon they then came to the inevitable, eventual erosion that both the shine that anything new goes through, along with various forms of satirizing, or criticism, that would turn them into cliches.

But now they can be re purposed, if you have the right, creative expressive ability, to make clever new ways to, in effect, pun them back into grabbing people's attention (McLuhan's favorite example was how the famous book title "The Grapes of Wrath" became the ad phrase "The Wrath of Grapes," way back in the late sixties, for a wine company that, supposedly, really knew how to treat grapes, to avoid such wrath, for the best wine outcomes).

Thinking about this new phrase, however, ought, it seems to me, beg one to frame a better beginning question, at the get go; something that gets us away from whether one can occupy one's self in things not believed in, or not, and ask instead why you would want to in the first place?

That's assuming, of course, that you wanted to live your life involved in something that has real meaning at all; because the only meaningful thing about the game of "Swimming With Sharks," that our hyper competitive, electrically mutated, economic operating system has become, is that it has clearly come to worship only self gratification, and aggrandizement, without limit, as an end goal. And whether that's sustainable or not be damned because we let them keep us working folks on the treadmill to nowhere; debt burdened, marginalized -- one way or another, and thus easily distracted; and at the very least, by having us be pitted against each other; fighting for the meager, trickle down, table scraps, that their insatiable thirst for profits leaves us with.

How could one see it otherwise when not even 100 billion dollar empires, and the ability to manipulate whole nations, are enough for most of the supposed titans of our new "Booming Economy." The people I can assure you are hell bent on doing whatever it takes to build you into someone who actually does believe the unbelievable; so that you will fall in line, to work for it, without causing such a fuss, all of the time; and most especially when their mistakes are paid for in your blood, and bone, suffering, and loss of home.

So, as Congress is likely to give more billions to failing corporations, while at the same time likely to be lucky to get restrictions on the stock by-back shenanigans that enriched CEO's, as well as already rich stock holders; and are also unlikely to even consider some form of "Quantitative Easing" for student load debt, or making Pot legal, and then giving the dispensary industry full banking rights (which would pump a huge new cash flow into the banking system, and get cops out of policing for pot), or even just more realistically increased direct payments to citizens, the only question remaining is what are you going to do about it?

Images for the false coronavirus narrative

images for the fox news version of the coronavirus


A Side-By-Side Supercut Showing How Fox News' Coronavirus Rhetoric Has Changed

Don Lemon says Trump is gaslighting you and rolls the tape

[Post Note: Wanted to be clear that the added, ad text, "Master Your Build," seen at the bottom of the header graphic above, was also just received from the same online retailer that sent me the "Build The Unbelievable" ad text. J.V.]

See Also:

Charting The Growth Of Coronavirus Cases In The US Versus Trump's Statements About It

For the COVID-19 Pandemic, Trump Used His Hurricane Maria Playbook

Coronavirus conspiracy video spreads on Instagram among black celebrities

Rep. Katie Porter -- 'I Think They Failed To Act Aggressively Enough.' -- Kasie DC -- MSNBC

Pelosi demands Trump authorize production of critical supplies to fight coronavirus

AOC calls on Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr to resign for stock sell-off ahead of pandemic