Category Archives: Economy

New frontiers which will change our world in the next Global Bounce.

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The subjects in this post can be considered ‘new ideas’ but like all new ideas, they have been percolating through thinkers and tinkerers for decades. Just now though, these ideas are emerging into the public consciousness as having both a means of production and a cultural purpose. The first idea is about what motivates our willingness to work and the second is about the fact that science already has the capability to change any, even most of any creature’s DNA – including humans.

PBS News Hour covered both topics in one edition of the program on January 5, 2017.[1]

The mariner wrote a post about what motivates us to work and the manner in which we can sustain our livelihood if ‘jobs’ aren’t available.[2] Mariner quotes three cogent paragraphs which apply specifically to this topic:

“It is important to dissect “job” from “work.” A job is the result of hiring by an employer wherein the individual hired receives a salary or some form of recompense. Work is the act of investing personal time, energy, and other resources wherein the individual feels justified in one’s behavior and feels personally responsible for one’s contribution; the individual also derives a sense of self-worth from doing the work. A job can fulfill an act of work but work has a broader definition that includes the wellbeing of the individual.”

“There will come a moment when a great layoff will occur for which job replacement is not available. In that moment, a new world of work will be born wherein citizens are paid a stipend so that each citizen may continue to work – whether a job definition exists is irrelevant. A society cannot operate except people are allowed expression through work, contribution, and personal gratification. A “job,” on the other hand, is a matter of definition, nothing else.”

There is no doubt that the welfare mother who raises her children to be responsible adults is doing valuable work. In the future, this could be considered her job.

In the PBS interview of Dan Ariely,[3] he says that many experiments have been performed with unsuspecting workers to determine the overall effect of a bonus cash reward versus a personal gift or even just a genuine ‘great job.’ Surprisingly, except for workers with financial hardship, more workers preferred a gift or good job bonus. Also interesting, once a cash bonus was paid, the potential for another one did not motivate worker productivity to the same level – in fact, productivity was lower!

At the speed with which computerization replaces human beings, it is time to begin serious discussion about how citizens will find jobs, or by modern definition how they will find work. Mariner suggests that we will have to wait until the electorate elects a full slate of contemporary and forward-sensitive government representatives – a far, far cry beyond the interest or competency of the in-coming President, most State governments and the Congress.

Another discussion is how the electorate will elevate its understanding of what a government is supposed to accomplish. Will our school systems have to include civics classes again?

– – – –

On to the second topic: total ability to change any aspect of any creature for any reason. It is possible you may not even recognize your grandchildren because they look like a movie star or have muscles the reader never had – to say nothing of the hyper intelligence the reader never had either. When have we ever seen two-foot long hummingbirds? Sounds silly and likely is but if the reader can think of a reconfiguration of any kind, it won’t be long until it is possible.

Michael Specter, the individual interviewed by PBS, suggested the slightest change in mosquito DNA could turn it into a global weapon affecting only humans with a predetermined DNA strain. Is it possible that the weapons of war will no longer need explosives and explosive weapons? Will it not be necessary to employ zombies when we can create endless numbers of specifically targeted humans that look like Arnold Schwarzenegger?

The interview with Michael Specter is enlightening and uses excellent demonstrations. Mariner recommends checking out the January 5 News Hour program.[4]

Ancient Mariner

 

[1] See http://www.pbs.org/video/2365927144/

[2] See The Future of Work – III When Jobs End, July 12 2015

[3] Book: Payoff – The Hidden Logic that shapes our Motivation, Dan Ariely. Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University and is the founder of The Center for Advanced Hindsight.

[4] See footnote 1 and also http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=dan+ariely+motivation&qpvt=dan+ariely+motivation&FORM=VDRE Also check your library in a week or two or ask the librarian to use ‘Interlibrary Loan’ for Rewriting the Code of Life by Michael Specter. It is in the New Yorker magazine or Annals of Science Journal.

Whither We Go?

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Welcome to 2017. As we roll into our new year, the entire world is beginning a new bounce. Politics is part of the bounce but looks more like blowing trash; economy is part of the bounce but looks more like a vacuum cleaner; environment is part of the bounce but looks more like a starving dog; technology is part of the bounce but looks more like an algae bloom sucking all the oxygen out of a pond; human management is part of the bounce but looks more like Times Square on New Year’s Eve and the attendees have no home to which to return.

American party politics looks like it did in 1890: What are democrats? What is democracy? Aristocracy, oligarchy and authoritarianism are America’s choices as we ride the current bounce to its end. Donald has emulated Ronald by appointing a Cabinet with harsh ideologues who are philosophically opposed to the existence of their own Departments. Do not look for egalitarianism any time soon – like maybe a generation or more if ever again.

International politics are more frightening. The European Union was wobbling under a unification intended to be a transition to a more solid cultural and economic relationship. But the EU was shot down like a flight over Lockerbie by massive immigration from Northern Africa and everywhere in the Middle East. A slowly growing effort by EU to strengthen the economies of Moldovia, Romania and Albania among others were trampled to nothing by the immigration.

China’s solution to inadequate food and a seacoast of threatening internationalism is to take over and own the whole geographic area – not very different from the relationship between the US and the Caribbean and Gulf islands if the US decided to make them part of the United States of America. It’s bad enough pirate-minded billionaires are stealing these wonderful islands and their economies – and kicking unique cultures into the sea. The mariner has sailed most of these islands; it is a tearful thing to watch.

To his fellow citizens, mariner apologizes to say that the top ten socialist democracies are in better shape to ride the world bounce than the top ten capitalist or authoritarian nations. Unlike capitalist and authoritarian nations, socialist nations pay for health, education, and enforce financial and social equality. As the world bounce continues, work for greater profit and the indifference of socially controlling corporatism will run out of playing field. Mariner never wanted his sports arena named after a corporation anyway. (Apologies for the flood of metaphors)

Regarding the global economy, this is how it works: If you own something, I’ll give you a faster depreciating something if you let me be a partner with you in your longer lasting personal worth; if you have wealth, partner with me to maximize our joint wealth; if you are in a position to help me increase my wealth faster than yours, I will give you money. This economy underwrites aristocracy, plutocracy and oligarchy and undermines democracy and favorable treatments of the environment and human management.

There has been a recent spate of technologies, shifts in economic opportunity and, importantly, even some political decency toward environmentally friendly intentions. The appropriate response to these intentions is “show me the money; show me the real change.” Still, the oil industry’s next frontier is destruction of Canada’s Great Northern Wilderness where oil drilling will expand 300 percent in the next few years; the pure, clean rivers are becoming toxic just like the salmon breeding grounds in Northern Alaska and Canada near the Arctic Circle. And Donald is opposed to wind power because windmills are unattractive – mariner suspects he never visited a coal burning power plant or sailed down the Mississippi River past endless fuel fabricating factories.

As the world writes off 600 mammalian species because of habitat abuse and the oceans increase acidity in ocean water to the point that uncounted hundreds of species disappear every year and climate change will likely swamp major edifices of humanity like London, Manhattan, Hong Cong, Miami, and Rio de Janeiro, a starving dog is about the norm as an icon for the planet to survive the bounce.

Human management is the issue that no one wants to manage. Talk about overhead! We’re talking about our own species – talk about troublesome! It’s a lot easier to manage money, brutalize nature and fight wars.

What does mariner mean by a bounce? He mentioned “part of the bounce.” A world bounce is 120 years long, give or take a few years. For example, it is clear that momentous things are about to happen; 120 years ago was around 1900. That’s when a lot of stuff was invented that launched the bounce that’s ending now; a belated part of the current bounce was the invention of the transistor in 1948 by German scientists – the beginning of the Technical Age. 120 years before 1900 was 1780. The start of the industrial age is pegged to 1790; the USA popped up on the world scene about then (1776-78) which clearly contributed to a new bounce and 120 years before that was 1660 – a significant event reflecting on Christianity in America: Jun 1 1660 Mary Dyer is hanged for defying a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Christian commandment to love everyone clearly has survived until today’s bounce; Jamestown Virginia was established; England returned to being a monarchy with the return of Charles II; Thirty Years War began between Protestants and Roman Catholics. Galileo made science news observing the moons of Jupiter. And so on.

So what changes can we anticipate in the next bounce? It appears to be starting in good form for a bounce: lots of commotion, misunderstood decisions, growing populism, growing wealth of the few, failing international associations, inadequate statesmanship all over, new and old religious beliefs filling cultural voids, etc.

In other words, the world’s peoples will know why change is not wanted. It’s the same as changing a baby’s diapers – a real mess. So this is our mission in 2017: Get rid of junk in your life, streamline your circumstances similar to preparing for a tornado, have your financial future secured as much as possible, get a valium prescription, and then don’t forget to have a good time!

REFERENCE SECTION

Some Notable Quotes.

“The ballot box in itself is not enough to render a system a ‘democracy.’ A true democracy needs separation of powers, rule of law, freedom of speech, women’s rights, LGBT rights, free and diverse media and independent academia. Without all these institutions and values you can only have ‘majoritarianism.’ And majoritarianism is not the same thing as democracy.”

–       Turkish novelist Elif Shafak

“Companies like Google profit enormously from data mining of your personal searches, behavior and habits,” he said. “There is more money in selling that data than in selling a product. It’s surveillance capitalism. It really is a new kind of totalitarianism.”

–       Writer and director Oliver Stone

In the 2015 WorldPost Year-End Roundup, we observed that we were then “on the cusp of a tipping point” in the race between a world coming together and one falling apart. In 2016, we have indeed tipped over into a new era.

The profound upheavals of this year were anticipated in an essay we published in March titled “Why the World Is Falling Apart.” In that piece I wrote, “The fearful and fearsome reaction against growing inequality, social dislocation and loss of identity in the midst of vast wealth creation, unprecedented mobility and ubiquitous connectivity, is a mutiny, really, against globalization so audacious and technological change so rapid that it can barely be absorbed by our incremental nature….The determination to “take back control” across the Western democracies among those dispossessed by change was explosively expressed in 2016 in a widespread revolt against the elite custodians of the status quo through Brexit, the Trump victory and the ongoing anti-establishment insurgency in Europe.

–       Editor-in-chief, WorldPost, Nathan Gardels

Ancient Mariner

Election Postscript

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The 2016 election has left the nation deflated. A citizen, no matter their ilk, can take only so much wear immersed in politics, morality, philosophy, culture and other esoteric, massless issues none of which ever produce absolutes a citizen can count on. Alas, the wear has only begun. One segment of the nation’s politic, a narrow one, will feel positive about the outcome of the election: the upper and middle class far right. One pundit on CBS television said “We have a President with no ideological direction appointing intense ideologues as Secretaries, supported by the most conservative and dominant Republican Congress since before the Great Depression.”

The largest losers are the faithful who voted for Donald. There’s an old saw that goes, ‘Why would a working class person ever vote Republican’? Fareed Zakaria had it right before the holidays: the electorate votes for the personality most like themselves; policy is not a factor. It is normal for voters to select preferable bits of gossip and campaign noise to support their opinion; 2016 saw uncontrolled abuse from the social media – Donald among them.

A tonic for the general public – and an important lesson in civics – is an interview of Jon Stewart by Charlie Rose that ran last November and was rerun on Bloomberg channel last week. Jon is no one’s court jester. His wit made him a leading personality in serious politics. Jon has a no-nonsense attitude about politics and feels all’s fair in love and war as the spirit and purpose of our democratic republic is hammered out by the electorate. “It’s a messy business,” he said, “but it’s our job to keep this country free rather than let it slip into something else.” He commented on his intense campaigning for the passage of a bill that would pay the medical bills of first responders on 9/11 by saying that if the government is doing something immoral or abusive, it’s everybody’s job to take action to set things right.

Mariner suspects not every political activist has the loyalty to the nation that Jon has. Typically, political activists are warriors for a cause; anyone with another opinion is a dangerous enemy. Once a voter absorbs his personal opinion, not even ISIL can change that opinion. Jon said this firm attitude is what it takes to run this country. However, it isn’t very intellectual. Donald said he could shoot someone down in the middle of Broadway, NY and not lose a vote. So it seems….

What our country is left with in the game of nations is a jump ball. Fortunately or unfortunately each nation has its own ball. The nation with the best overall game will win. Trouble is, our team just drafted teammates of Jerry West.[1]

Jon also said the democrats no longer represent the hometown citizen, the people each of us know next door or in our family. Every time a labor union is busted or a right to work law is passed by state and local governments, it continues to weaken an already bad situation for the working class. The only solution is to strengthen the local democratic presence in order to elect democratic candidates who will support labor friendly legislation; in other words remove redistricting completely from party-sensitive control. Accomplish that and the rest will be easy.

 

REFERENCE SECTION

Mary Noble interviews Arlie Russell Hochschild

THE MORNING AFTER Trump’s victory, The New York Times recommended “6 Books to Help Understand Trump’s Win.” Number two on the list was Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, by Berkeley sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild. The book takes us to Louisiana, where Hochschild spent five years among Tea Party voters who have suffered at the hands of the oil industry. It’s people like these that have become Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters. Hochschild explores the emotional logic behind what she calls their “deep story”: they believe that the government helps minorities “cut ahead of them in line,” while liberal America mocks their values. [2]

This book and the interview are a humanistic and thought provoking look at the intimate experiences of those citizens who have nowhere to turn for a future. We may think of them as misguided or uneducated. But the truth is, the truth is, they have come to us and discovered there is nowhere to turn. If Donald can rock the boat and make a crack in the vast unresponsive firmament, maybe there will be a place to go. It was their last hope.

Ancient Mariner

[1] Jerry West played basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1950’s and 60’s – the implication being the new nation’s leaders still abide by political philosophies and problem recognition that existed over sixty years ago.

[2] Quote from Los Angeles Review of Books, https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/reaching-out-not-backing-down-an-interview-with-arlie-russell-hochschild

The Wind Is Changing

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The mariner does not make predictions or propose a direction at this time but feels the wind differently. Just a small whiff that may mean nothing.

Donald sees himself as king of the world, not just the United States.

Four larger democracies are suffering from authoritative would-be kings who hold no allegiance to human rights and intend to “fix things” and not be wrong about it. (US, Russia, Greece and Turkey) The fuse is the Middle East.

Donald already has infringed on freedom of the press telling it when and where it can receive canned news releases. Individual threats have been made at several specific news agencies. Where is enforcement of the First Amendment?

Donald already has made it clear that his judgment is not to be fair but rather never to be wrong and he will visit his wrath on those who may insist he is wrong. (Sounds exactly like Kim jong il).

It is obvious his scope of importance does not separate the opportunity for profit at the expense of human welfare – wherever profit may take him internationally.

The mariner can go on endlessly with these thoughts but two cultural indicators are emerging that hold his attention: too many crooners and incidents of swing music are popping up on entertainment media and too many Father Knows Best shows are popping up – signs of transition in pop music and entertainment suggest instability in cultural values – couldn’t ask for a better barometer.

Our last chance to avoid war is to stop Donald absolutely without fail at the emolument clause with an impeachment. A bleak future with the US Congress is far better than a world with Dictator King Donald.

Ancient Mariner

Donald

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There are many who have made up their mind about Donald. Some see strengths in his extremely pragmatic judgment, which is counter to the conservative’s doctrinaire adherence to the Reagan era; some see opportunity in Donald’s intellect, that is, his ability to see the state of affairs differently; some see a new public representative to the corporate world and among the one-percent – those who believe corporatism is the path to US strength and prosperity.

Others see Donald as politically incompetent and dangerously uneducated at a time when certain mistakes and improper behavior may be destructive; some see disruption to the establishment by his disregard for old-school liaisons; some see a collapse of multidimensional government because he has no allegiance to public wellbeing.

Still others see Donald as morally corrupt and untrustworthy; some see life-long cronyism and business relationships dominating his perception of what is important; some see his narcissistic disorder, pathological lying and his aberrant ego as disqualifying.

To be honest, all these perceptions of Donald have some validity – some have more merit, others less. Factually, Donald does not react normally to doctrine, morality and public perceptions; Donald is all that everyone sees.

Granting Donald with a free pass to the Presidency, accepting the whole person, will he do the nation some good? To answer that question, another one: what does the President need to provide to our nation? Ponder the second question broadly. Some examples using other Presidents (mariner’s perceptions):

George Washington provided weighted stature to a young, helter-skelter nation. He won the war with England, never wore anything but his military garb, and defended the idea that independence could not co-exist beside authoritarianism.

Andrew Jackson was an outsider like Donald (much ado in social media about similarities). When Andrew moved to the White House, he rode in the front door on horseback. Andrew had no allegiance to decorum; he was a racist; he ordered the Trail of Tears; he closed the Central Bank; he started the Democratic Party. Like Donald, his report card was not all A’s in any case. But Andrew gave the nation what it needed. The following quote from Tablet Magazine clarifies the contribution Jackson made to the US versus that expected from Donald:

“….Jackson preferred a republic without a special class of uniquely privileged aristocratic rulers: a democratic republic, in short. Democracy was a pressing matter, in his estimation, and not just a utopian aspiration. Modern capitalism, with its sophisticated system of banking and credit, took root in the United States in the 1810s and ’20s and was proving to be a mixed blessing. The new economic sophistication allowed the financiers to assemble vast piles of capital, which was good. Only vast piles could pay for ambitious new industrial enterprises. But the new sophistication also allowed and even encouraged a swindler’s economy, based on unsecured loans and misrepresentations. Swindler capitalists began to set off one financial crash after another—the Panic of 1819 was the first—which were devastating to ordinary working people. Jackson and his followers worried that swindler capitalists were going to establish themselves as a malignant new aristocracy, on top of the traditional old aristocracy. And Jackson and his political movement became the enemy of swindler capitalism—the enemy of financial frauds and exploitations in their own time, and the enemy of swindler capitalism for the American future.

On this count alone, Andrew Jackson was not a Donald Trump. Jackson was an anti-Trump. The whole style of Trump’s business empire, with its systematic bankruptcies, tax evasions, and mountains of debt, is a throwback to the swindler style that Jackson found offensive….

….[Andrew] tried again in 1828. His party was by then on its feet. The party mobilized the largest electorate by far in the history of the world—a mass of people who in many cases were enjoying for the first time their political rights. The immense size of the electorate guaranteed victory. It was a revolution. And, in his triumph, Jackson succeeded in ascribing his preferred meaning to the American Revolution and to the United States, which was democracy, and not aristocracy: a democratic republic, and not an aristocratic one. Today we do not remember Jackson’s achievement because we assume it. We cannot imagine the United States in any other light, and therefore do not give the matter any thought. But we had better give it some thought.”[1]

Abraham Lincoln was a rare politician in that he firmly followed virtuous objectives. Abe knew in a practical sense that the nation was splitting further apart over slavery. It was a conflict between citizens engaged in a slave economy and citizens (who did not use many slaves) engaged in an industrial economy. Yet underneath there was a democratic Republic that would not survive a split economy. Abe saw that the ideals of the nation would be destroyed as two economies put pressure on the US culture. He had the fortitude to press the slavery issue to closure. He knew that the slave states would be exposed to economic collapse that would require decades for recovery. He signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Six hundred thousand citizens died in the Civil War that followed but the concept of freedom, liberty and justice for all was restored and the nation remained whole. The nation needed a virtuous imperative at any cost.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected President at a time when the US was broke. Not just in debt, broke. The banks were closed. The citizens were broke; the economy had failed. As in every economic model that lasted long enough to dominate world economies and alter the morality and ethos of its time, the unique economic freedoms were abused to excess. In the time of FDR, it was about to roll over a nation losing the core experiment on which the US was founded: freedom, liberty and justice for all. Among many Presidential acts and decrees, and a government dominated by Andrew’s Democratic Party, FDR resuscitated the nation. Despite the firm disrespect for FDR by conservatives and establishmentarians that exists even today, FDR provided what the nation needed to survive.

It is time again to require a powerful and virtuous President. The nation’s old economy, a typical tail end era of hodge-podge banking practices, disappearing middle class, over assimilation of wealth, growing numbers of poor, and inadequate regulations on the economy have again threatened the survival of virtuous and multidimensional beliefs that support a signal concept among nations. The framers of the Constitution wanted a democratic republic founded on the crazy idea that the citizens should manage the nation – not authoritarians, plutocrats, totalitarians, or kings.

The citizens must take note, however, that their votes for a virtuous President come only from citizens who have virtue in themselves. Loyalty to the survival of a democratic republic is a voter’s number one responsibility – especially now!

Ancient Mariner

[1]  http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/219613/donald-trump-andrew-jackson

Things You should Keep in Your Brain’s Ready-Reference

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It’s true information is more available to individuals than it has ever been. It’s true that information is relatively inexpensive compared to past forms of data collection. It’s true that more information is available to us intentionally manipulated either for business purposes or deliberately maligned to influence us with falsehoods and premeditated lies. Each of us needs a small ready-reference to keep our head straight about reality and rationality. Mariner offers a few samples that not only provide guidance but are the kind of values that tell us who we are as well.

  • Asset/Debt Ratio (A/DR)…..For example, the net worth of your home, your car, all your savings and investments, and your bank balances (say a total $150K) divided by all your debt balances – mortgage, car, furniture, credit cards, loans, outstanding betting slips, and any other debts outstanding (say a total $80K). Divide 150K by 80K = 1.875. This quotient is your Asset/Debt Ratio.

Track this number every time you complete a budget cycle, probably monthly. If you live within your normal cash flow without changing budget credits, perhaps quarterly may be frequently enough. Why it is important to have your A/DR in your ready-reference is to compare it to the new A/DR. Rule one: under normal circumstances, it should never be below 1.0; that means you are not worth anything; you have no assets. Rule two: it should not drop three months in a row without investigating why. If either rule is broken, you must identify the cause and move to repair it as much as possible.

  • Know your income tax bracket. It is an important tool to analyze the real value of all sorts of things.A part of an IRS web site is copied below.[1] .

Federal Tax Brackets

Your tax bracket is the rate you pay on the “last dollar” you earn; but as a percentage of your income, your tax rate is generally less than that. Here are the tax brackets and the income ranges where they apply:

Taxable Income          Tax Bracket

$0 – $9.275                        10%

$9.275 – $37.650               15%

$37.650 – $91.150              25%

$91.150 – $190.150            28%

$190.150 – $413.350          33%

$413.350 – $413.350          35%

$415.050 and above           39.6%

As a value in our ready-reference, it is used simply as a constant. One would say, “If I win 400m in the lottery, that will put me in the 39.6 tax bracket; I’ll only keep 241.6m.”

On the other hand, if a discretionary fund item, say 1b aid to college enrollment, and the article says that’s .003 cents of every tax dollar, you can whip out your tax rate and determine that the nation’s college assistance program will use your paid taxes, at a typical 25% tax rate – your sample tax bill (25x40K=$1,000) the 1b will cost you three dollars of your paid income taxes. Unless the IRS raises tax rates, your taxes don’t go up; it’s just that of your taxes, $3.00 will be allocated to the college fund line item.

The huge numbers in governments need your tax rate from your ready-reference to put some perspective on surrealistic values.

  • Another ready-reference in this post is to know the inflation rate. In years gone by fluctuating inflation had a serious impact in everything from groceries and gasoline to housing and automobiles; mariner remembers an annual rise of 14% during the seventies. Soon, inflation will be in the news. It’s one of the reasons the big banks are hyper. For the most part, inflation also is a constant used to evaluate savings and investment interest. Savings banks pay interest just a tiny bit above inflation (but not always) and if you don’t keep track, you may be losing money against inflation. Another common situation is converting a large investment CD. If you know your inflation rate, you’ll know the penalty for cashing the CD early is less than the interest you will lose to inflation over the remaining time for the CD.
  • The final ready-reference in this post is to know how dependable your data source is. Keep a check step in your ready-reference that causes you to think about the source you are using to improve your knowledge. The last election suffered greatly because social media became a source of undependable opinion and fact. Of course this is easily true because anyone can say anything without authorization or validation. Are you using PBS or reading a reputable paper or magazine? Your chances are decent that the information is true and not skewed or missing too much. On the other hand, private websites (like this one), commercial websites, ideological websites, Facebook, twitter, et al are wide open to manipulation, garbage opinions and destructive lies.

There are other values to keep in your brain’s ready-reference. We’ll go back to them at some point.

This has been a nice diversion. Don’t look out the window – Donald is out there.

Ancient Mariner

[1] See: http://www.moneychimp.com/features/tax_brackets.htm

Everyone should have a Financial Bomb Shelter

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Things are getting a little too uneasy. It’s one thing to read about a war zone and another to be in one. Donald is showing his real persona: He is a sleazy con-man with no morality. He has abandoned his base lock, stock and barrel. All he wanted were their votes. Now he doesn’t care. His cabinet and staff picks are fellow selfish autocrats with whom he has dealt for decades. Mariner hears echoes of Reagan appointments when the Secretaries did not believe in the virtues of the Secretariats they were appointed to and brought an end to a democratic foundation fostered since FDR.

This is worse. There is a foul smell about. The mariner fears that the Republic itself is at risk. No one has hit Donald between the eyes with a steel bar to tell him he can’t mix personal business with public trust. He will find a way. In fact, if he brings a few more plutocrats and generals aboard, Donald can meld the Republic and his business empire into one objective: make money for the team. Screw the public trust.

Meanwhile Paul Ryan and Mitch the Turtle are unencumbered in their plans to disassemble the remnants of the whole concept of discretionary spending.

Will it become so distressful that truly in fact the US will have a problem with emigration as citizens follow their jobs into other countries? If we are incapable of managing our own freedom because an international mafia has taken the country, what else are we to do? There’s one option: turn the second amendment militia loose.

Mariner suspects Donald is having difficulty appointing a Secretary of State because of two circumstances: first, Donald is in up to his armpits with shady deals worse than he accused Clinton of during the campaign; the Secretary of State will be exposed to Donald’s illegalities and un-American financial ties with adversaries to the US. Second, there is no doubt that his ‘friends’ overseas are hardnosed friends just as he is and should things not go as expected, the result won’t be sharing ice cream cones. US military will be put into action for less than scrupulous causes.

Out of harm’s way as change slowly approaches us, Amos[1] has casually warned about increasing tension and feelings of imminent risk. Amos has warned about the confusion and turmoil of the moment of chaos. Similar to global warming, change is here – now.

Donald et al will cause great damage to us. Think North Korea. How can this be stopped?

Ancient Mariner

[1] One of mariner’s 3 alter egos; fashioned after Prophet Amos in the Old Testament. Amos is always complaining about the quality of our behavior.

How High the Moon?

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Who among us remembers this song when it was popular? Les Paul and Mary Ford made a hit of it and the Beatles covered it in their era.[1]

We on Earth, for the most part, pay little attention to the Moon except as an ornament in the sky. Many are educated in a general way about the Moon’s role in the creation of the Earth – an unimaginable clash of two giant spheres colliding head-on thereby creating an Earth-sized piece and a Moon-sized piece; The Moon ended in orbit around the Earth and set the Earth on an angle that created Earth’s seasons and continues to affect tides not only in water but in Earth itself.

Here is an intriguing update on Moon stuff: The Moon is drifting away from Earth each year by the same distance as our fingernails grow in a year, about 2½ inches. Balanced in a strange pirouette (both spin), the two bodies are held in place by gravity and pulled apart by centrifugal force. Evidently but very slowly, centrifugal force is stronger and eventually will pull the Moon out of its Earth orbit. What will happen next is not agreed upon by astronomers and astrophysicists. Will the Moon simply fly away into space, leaving the Earth an unrestrained pirouette wobbling uncontrollably around the Sun? At some distance will the Moon find neutrality and settle into a new orbit? As the Moon lessens the balance held today, will polar wobbling on Earth become an issue? Stay tuned.

– – – –

When mariner was a young rebellious teenager, his favorite comic book was Mad Magazine. Mad is a disrespectful, ill mannered publication that holds no restraints with its tasteless satire and mockery. Fortunately, Mad is still around[2]; there are times when only Mad’s commentary is equal to reality. In honor of Mad, here is the latest cover:

mad

– – – –

Mariner hasn’t taken a tour of his Internet/magazine reading list for awhile. Every so often he offers a list of websites that constitute a decent review of most of the subjects that fill our lives. Here forthwith:

Politics, Economy and Public News

http://www.politico.com/  …….everything newsy and active in politics

https://www.theatlantic.com/  and the paper edition…….mariner ranks Atlantic as a premier data source for today’s busy, changing world

http://fivethirtyeight.com/  …….a statistical look at many subjects by the numbers

http://www.nytimes.com/  (New York Times) and the paper edition…….world-encompassing coverage of news

http://www.pbs.org/  …….At the website one feels they are in a library. True! Pick your subject

http://bloomberg.rapid-news.cool-links.georgemoen.tel/  …….top notch cable series Reality, Big Problems, Big Thinkers

http://www.economist.com/ and the paper edition…….best common sense reading about the state of economics

https://www.c-span.org/  …….tens of thousands video clips, articles, and programs

 

Science, Technology and the Future

http://www.livingscience.com/  ……eclectic collection of information from scientific sources; written for light reading

http://www.nature.com/news/  and the paper edition…….serious articles about new positions taken on any scientific subject

https://www.scientificamerican.com/  and the paper edition…….many articles about science frontiers and how they affect humanity

http://bloomberg.rapid-news.cool-links.georgemoen.tel/  numerous social, scientific and general interview shows of excellent quality

 

Literature and the Arts

Bloomberg Television   interviews and presentations of operas, artists, sculptors, etc.

http://www.aldaily.com/  (Arts and Letters Daily) source of URLs to numerous artists and other literary news

https://www.wikipedia.org/ …….can’t be beat for detailed review of language, arts, music, writing, philosophy and their histories

 

Health

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/ …….satisfying survey of current issues

http://www.webmd.com/news/default.htm ……. catch some news and use their libraries to check on your symptoms

 

Social Sciences and History

http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/  and the paper edition, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/

https://www.wikipedia.org/ the best, most comprehensive data source on the Internet

 

Entertainment

Science TV Channel (Outrageous Acts of Science)

http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/politicalcartoons/ig/Political-Cartoons/Debate-Gotcha-Question.htm#step-heading …….even in these troubled times, a visit is comforting

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/cartoons/cartoons_of_the_week/ …….another rewarding stop

Mariner recommends making a quick stop at the list every week or so or when you have an interest in a specific issue.

 

Ancient Mariner

 

[1] To listen, see: http://www.last.fm/music/Les+Paul+&+Mary+Ford/The+Best+Of+The+Capitol+Masters

[2] http://www.madmagazine.com/

Why Have Elections?

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Mariner has lamented from time to time that his fellow electors never see politicians running for office the same as he does. For many (but not enough to win an election) who are disgruntled by all the candidates, there is little to celebrate as elections roll by year after year after decade after decade. JFK and LBJ was the last successful vote cast by the mariner and Lyndon chose not to run for a full term. Undercard elections are worse.

Constantly rejected in this manner, mariner is ever hopeful but more skeptical that ethical culture one day will emerge in his nation. Guru, mariner’s alter ego that looks far into the future, considers his vision a pastime; masses of voters will see to it that it is never achieved. Just call mariner a dreamer.

Mariner’s downfall is not the wrong ideology; it is not racial, sexist or subject to class accouterments. If all the sources he checked since the 2016 election are correct, (in his heart mariner knew it all along) he knows voters vote for themselves or at least the most like themselves in the election. Fareed Zakaria brought this home painfully in his show today: No one, no one votes for policy. No one votes for new plateaus or spiritual caring or conscientiousness. Voters vote for candidates who make them feel most comfortable about themselves – after all, this isn’t the time to go messing with one’s gestalt!

Quite seriously, in 2016 the entire world is in disarray: global understanding of economy is becoming unraveled; industrially based cultures are at the end of machinations to hold on to the way we get jobs, solve serious problems (as examples Brexit, Donald, and the playboys in France and Italy). Beyond the western world, Africa holds onto the word ‘civilization’ by a thread; China has internal conflict and an unbalanced national sense of self (they still debate birth policy and have begun imposing on all the small nations across Indonesia, the China Sea, and even moving toward India. Only India is large like China – both are sumo wrestling metaphors much larger than the US. India has a region in the northeastern part that has no government. If India had cowboys, NE India could be the US wild, wild, west all over again.

Wherever one looks, there is weakening economics, disappearing environment, tumbling governments, and collapsing cultural morality. Like the global warming issue, if one believes these silly rumors, one will not make as much profit if one must face the inconvenience and cost involved. This point is made in the household as well as the boardroom. Observing coal workers will tell us we have only to lose if we vote to feel good and think not at all.

Freedom is all we have in this unique nation of the United States. The electors don’t even know what it looks like.

Ancient Mariner

 

The Sky is Falling!

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A big chunk of sky fell in Indiana the other day. Chicken Little still is in a state of fear; he probably will remain in that state – not one of the fifty states – for another four years. Watching Donald begin to create an authoritarian state by bribing Carrier with seven million dollars of Indiana’s tax dollars doesn’t help Chicken, either. No need for Senate legislation; no need for House legislation; no need for an Executive Order; no need for Indiana legislation. Donald says do it and someone else puts up the money whether they want to or not.

It’s all about Donald’s chutzpah. It’s all about Donald never losing. It’s all about Donald basking in what he presumes is a win. Poor Donald; so simplistic, so narcissistic and so wrong on the Carrier deal. Congress is as eager as a chained dog to be turned loose on Obama’s heritage. Perhaps Congress should set aside Barrack and keep an eye on Donald. Shelling out $7,000 for every job kept from moving overseas (but not preventing the company and 2,000+ jobs from moving to Mexico) quickly will take the US and its fifty states into fatal debt levels. Oh well, just so Donald thinks he is winning. At least Carrier may give bonuses this year – if they feel like it.

Do not say, “Well, he saved a thousand jobs anyway.” The real price for 1,000 jobs is circumventing a Federal Democratic Republic to install a King. Just what the founding fathers were hoping for.

Our ancient ancestors believed the wind was a spirit because they could not see it. Ever watch a tornado take down a house? That metaphor means that more is at play in sustaining our great country than what Donald ever sees or understands. Like the trapped Indianans, we all will pay – except Donald, who always “wins.”

It is the mariner’s fervent wish that every citizen read Eric Mataxas’ s book “If they can Keep it.” We all are obligated to manage freedom. An authoritarian king owns ALL the freedom and ignores yours.

Ancient Mariner