Portrait

Greetings good citizen, yesterday we addressed the shrubbery and today we'll critique the artwork.

What would a snapshot of our society look like? Given that the average individual sees what they want to see [and much of that is imaginary] we would find some mighty bizarre vistas rendered for our hypothetical query.

Even if we were to issue guidelines in an effort to minimize the overbearing religious theme that dominates half of humanities worldview we'd still end up with renderings that portrayed life as the long and arduous journey towards heaven.

Worse, there is zero consensus on what this heaven is like, just that it is 'wonderful' (in a decidedly indescribable way...)

Representations of this mythical quest would vary from ribbon thin trails bordered by steep drops directly into the gaping maw of hell and heaven being represented as a tiny GOLDEN dot on the horizon.And no matter how long you've been walking along that increasingly narrow trail Heaven never seems to draw any closer.

Those who depict the highway version have a more generous interpretation of the Almighty. The road itself is paved with gold and heaven itself is just one of many truck stops along the side of the road, each one bringing a new divine adventure!

For the doubters, the few that live in the real world, the journey is through throngs of nasty, deceitful people all passing judgement upon you as they wander cluelessly into desolation, all while pretending to be pious and upright. For the 'unbelievers' the journey isn't so much a path as it is a maze to be negotiated.

Between the doubters and the pious are the 'abandoned'; those the almighty afflicted either directly or indirectly and their unanswered prayers hardened their hearts but didn't break their resolve.

Some convince themselves if their prayers go unanswered they must have been praying for the 'wrong' things [a ponderous list indeed and World Peace is right at the top!] while the average individual reaches a point where it dawns on them that prayer is just something used to comfort the young, your pleas to the almighty fall upon deaf ears with many of them cancelling each other out in an eternal tug of war where each side is evenly matched.

Still others cut to the chase and realize they are only talking to themselves, finding solace in the fact that nobody else hears what they are thinking or they'd be long dead by now.

The intellectuals would attempt to render images of Democracy with some trying to provide what they think this guy Fabian looked like. Um, for those of you who ask that same question, all you need to know is Fabian is the name of the guy credited with the idea of electing 'representatives' to vote for us. Thus is the most common form of democracy sometimes referred to as democracy at arms length because your participation stops cold after you vote for who you think the better candidate is, often regardless of the facts or their track record.

Since it has too many moving parts it's been repeatedly demonstrated that Fabian/representative democracy doesn't work at all as a system of governance but it works like a charm for providing the 'illusion of participation'.

The 'believers' are too fixated on negotiating the narrow and winding 'stairway to heaven' to pay much attention to their earthly circumstances. The doubters [half of whom pretend to be believers] can't get enough people to pay attention to what's going on because they have too much heaven on their mind! The unbelievers are skinning anyone that will sit still long enough and the dumb ones twice! [Not that ALL unbelievers are 'evil/wicked' despite our dominant opportunist nature.]

How ironic is it that our opportunism leads many of us not to be able to see past the tip of our own noses?

For too many life isn't a journey as much as it is the instructions on the back of the shampoo bottle, "Rinse & Repeat"

Completely rhetorical question good citizen but what does the portrait you drew look like? {Perhaps more interesting is what you think mine looks like?}

[Um, no I can't refund your fifteen minutes because it's not my fault you're a slow reader...ten minutes max.]

Thanks once again for stopping by for your free self-inflicted wound,

Gegner

Landscape

Greetings good citizen, enough with all this morbid political wrangling, let's talk about something really important: SHRUBS!

Lame, I know but the 'stage' our life plays out on is probably just as important as the actors themselves.

The thing to keep in mind is we get 99.9% of our information second hand [at best, often it's been parsed, grated and regurgitated a few times before you ever get wind of it.]

So it is most of our 'news' is 'pre-spun', you don't get a clear picture of what actually happened to avoid social upheaval...which could result in revolt (or worse, a coup.) [Don't you worry good citizen, should the cat ever escape the 'spin-bag', there's a 'controlled/pre-recorded' coup waiting to spring into action at a moment's notice!] Which is to say it doesn't have to be a real coup, all they have to do is convince you one has taken place.

With Generals retiring/resigning at a fevered clip that damn thing must have to be re-shot every few months but I digress.

The 'stage' is maintained by the spin doctors, it's the reason the GWOT remains in the background rather than being front and center, where politicians would have their feet held to the fire to end the madness...but no, instead 'perpetual war' in the planet's oil patch simmers largely unnoticed and atrocities go unreported [because the media is committed to it's primary goal of keeping the public 'docile' and that means pretending everything is above boards and most of the suffering stays 6,000 miles away.]

Without the media 'embedded' with the troops have you noticed they don't 'move'?

Be a mighty awkward conversation if we were to grill the generals as to what they were attempting to accomplish, wouldn't it? [Since they have made ZERO MEASURABLE PROGRESS in almost 18 years!]

But our 'honest journalists' have their mandate to keep the public docile...even if that means endless 'lies of omission.'

Just like El Trumpo's campaign rally last night because he's too much of a narcissist to shrug off being the brunt of some lame jokes.

We have been lied to so long we have adopted the stance of 'same as it ever was' but it's not the same, things have changed considerably since the advent of mass communication.

Now the lies have to be more uniform so there's a lag between when an event occurs and when/if it's reported.

The question is still how many lies can a society turn a blind eye to before societal collapse ensues?

The war is only one of the elephants in the room. The political landscape has become untenable, nobody trust the system and the outcomes just keep getting worse. [Which is to point out that the Rubicon was crossed in 1980.]

Rome has fallen and we are still pretending it didn't happen.

The factor to keep in mind, good citizen, is there are worse thing than social collapse. [There's social collapse cut off by a police state that rules through perpetual 'emergency powers'.

The emergency (like the GWOT) will NEVER end.

Would you trust this crew with extra-judicial powers?

Like the book foretells, the blood would run to the horse's bridle. Some innocent, some guilty but all INSANE.

Sort of like a nuclear strike, the lucky ones will go in that blinding white flash...everybody else is going to suffer and we will ask once again why we need a place called Hell?

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Criminal

Greetings good citizen, once upon a time there was a comic strip titled 'There ought to be a law!' which satirized the idea of anybody making up laws against whatever offended them.

Lip service is given to building a better mousetrap but nobody is actually serious about it thus does what pass for our justice system produce some decidedly unjust outcomes so a few can live 'above the law'.

Worse, NOBODY has this problem solved because the people running things believe it is their right to punish the 'uncooperative'.

[Brings us back to the ancient, "We can't make you do it, we can only make you wish the F you did!" [A direct holdover from the slaver mentality.]

Perhaps the thing people fail to understand here is we were slaves much longer than we've been, er, 'free-ish'. Probably wise to point out that we'd still be slaves if somebody didn't figure out that economic slavery was much more lucrative than the regular kind and it made the slaves much more cooperative without beating them at all!

It's not belaboring the obvious if you live in denial...and most of you think you're 'free' solely because nobody has a bill of sale with your name on it when nothing could be further from the truth.

Thus the H.A-E. law. It passes muster with the golden rule because it outlaws EVERYONE from making their living off of someone else's labor/misery. (if it doesn't pass muster with the golden rule [of do unto others] then it CAN'T be a law!)

If you fail to plug the no exceptions loophole you end up with criminality masquerading as justice so 'a few' can do what they please.

That's why the 'No Legislators' law, because the laws belong to those who must live under them we would block anyone from pulling new laws out of their butt, custom tailored for the situation they want to avoid prosecution for.

No mulligans either.

Rarely is it ignorance that results in a crime, if it is an accident, then that's what it was but if it could even remotely be considered intentional then the full force of the law is brought to bear.

[STOP]

We live in a criminal cesspool right now and the law is rapidly becoming meaningless, worse, your understanding of the law is 'irrelevant', they're going to do what they are going to do and if you don't like it there's nothing YOU can do about it.

You can't call the cops because 99% of the time it's the people that tell the cops what to do that are running roughshod over your rights/sensibilities.

So why would you ever swap a criminal cesspool you are familiar with for one that promises to turn life as you have come to know it on its head?

Under the 'system you know' you have been repeatedly lied to and there isn't a thing you can do about it...and your choices have never been between honest and only slightly underhanded, your choices have been between bold-faced liars and slime coated snakes, neither of who have any intention of living up to ANY of their campaign promises nevermind what the 'party platform' says.

Then there's the US vs. Them BS. If we're ALL in this 'together' how does opposite teams work?

Quite simply people have come to regard this as a 'winners vs. the losers' competition [and the RICH are 'winning' so if you vote for the 'party of the rich' good things will happen to you [but only if you are both extremely lucky and are 'well positioned' to take advantage of your 'loyalty'.]

Just remember that stupidity is its own reward.

UNDER ASP there are NO 'parties' [largely because the 'slavers' and wealthy both disappear with the stroke of a pen.]

Without the wealthy fighting to protect their 'privilege' everybody can be on the same page and the resources of the planet can be utilized 'wisely'.

You don't hear that word often because people have been lied to so often that they have come to equate wisdom with lies and deceit.

Millennia of the feckless telling you one thing only to pull the rug out from under you when it came time to deliver has soured the public on self rule. [And longing for the gentle embrace of a noble and just monarch (that never existed) is just plan reckless.]

The answer lies in perfecting the system. Many believe the first step to towards 'leveling' society is to totally demonetize...but a system without a regulator suffers perpetual shortages (often artificial) as the feckless manipulate the system to get their way [or sometimes just to prove they can do it! People really are assholes that way.]

Um, what probably, er, concerns most of you is the um, 'harshness' of punishment under ASP. Take our 'hold my beer and watch this' idiot. What do you suppose should happen to our 'clown'?

Should punishment be 'proportional' or is the violation of trust enough to warrant more severe measures?

Now, under ASP there is dueling, exile...done, sort of a behave or pay the price equation. The tool box has long been next to empty if you abandon torture (then it fills right up.)

Guess what falls into the 'torture' category? Prison.

Funny how it keeps circling back to 'comply or die'. You'd think we were put here to obey and do what we're told [even if the people running things couldn't tell their own ass from a hole in the ground!]

Worse, most of you are afraid of government of the willing would look like, so deeply invested as you are in Adam Smith's lies of 'benevolent self-interest'.

There's no such thing and you're soaking in the 'proof' (but don't take MY word for it.)

Ironically the question, when viewed from here, becomes one of whether you'd be better served making common cause with your 'common' peers or are you better off trying to hitch your fortune to the privileged?

You know what the answer should be but we don't live under a system that levels the playing field.

So most of you play the 'go along to get along' game hoping you'll get 'lucky' when you know you'd be a LOT better of just getting an even break.

Don't be a dunce, the rich know you're trying to play them and they feel no pity. Your circumstances are 'god's will'...who are they to interfere?

Which in itself is criminal.

Funny how that changes depending on where the 'bar' is set.

We NEED to move that damn bar...now!

Thanks once again for letting me inside your mind,

Gegner

Unique

Greetings good citizen, adherents of the 'laws of nature' more commonly known as the Law of the Jungle haven't learned/noticed/considered how mankind is unique to every other mammal on the planet.

Using nature as a model, anthropologists 'assume' that early man was a hunter gatherer solely from observing the behavior of other predators. Since we don't know how we got here and the planet of origin is lost to us our beginnings remain shrouded in the mists of speculation.

In a bizarre twist, we could be some machine race's answer to the hellacious distances space travel entails. [Biological units self-repair, a highly desirable feature when you're a million light years from the nearest replacement part facility.]

Considering how far we've come in just the past century, if 'life' has had, say 3 billion years to 'evolve', what would come after sentience succeeded in immortalizing itself via machinery? [and space itself continuing to expand at Faster Than Light-speed] doesn't the question become 'What else is out there?'

Now our unimaginably ancient machine, er, ancestors can't stray too far from their life-giving spare parts facilities [gone is apparently still gone, baby!] so who do the send across ever expanding space to seek out other lifeforms?

Sounds bizarre when we say it but biological lifeforms are born 'expendable'. The immortality sword cuts in both directions and life, regardless of how it manifests itself, is nothing if not 'cautious'...[at least the ones that survive longer than a few minutes.]

So if our biological predecessors created more permanent units to store their 'essence' in it would become their 'trap'. They would be required to develop other means of gathering news of what was transpiring beyond the limits of their vessel's maintenance needs.

NOT that this was our sole or even original purpose.

Having already developed near immortal versions of their biological selves they mastered the ability to self-replicate [clone] and sent their clones out to do the dirty and dangerous job of mining distant space to explore ever deeper into the unknown, leaving behind 'colonies' as they went.

Even a simple mining operation, such as the one here on Earth, would require a considerable degree of specialization as they harvested a planet's star ship fuel.

Now let's turn to the Bible for some 'answers' shall we?

Created in 'God's image'...check, we're cloned from his/her cells!

King of kings and lord of lords...check, do what you're told and don't ask questions! [You LITERALLY can't handle the truth!]

Oh, and you'd better behave because we're coming back! [Not!]

[END biblical reference]

Um, more disturbingly...if we follow the likely/logical progression, the first vessels sent out would establish 'supply depots' along the intended route so subsequent missions could re-supply on their long voyage to the rim of the universe.

Since the advent of mass communications (and even before) there have been UFO sightings. Were these advance units reporting back to base or were they renegades of a collapsed empire, we don't know. What 'appears' to have happened is our rock got mined out, making stopping here for anything other than food a waste of time.

'Dig we must' is no longer the reason for our existence. We can only wonder if our nascent space program is a feeble attempt to follow our, er, 'creator' into space...and nobody is stepping up to provide us with the break though necessary to create star ships [because the fuel's gone!]

If there's another way to cross the void, our multi-billion year old ancestors haven't found it. [One is tempted to add 'yet' but if you've had 3 billion years to figure something out, I think we can scratch 'not looking hard enough' off the list.]

Speculation is a formidable thing because it has so many unforeseeable outcomes/consequences. The above is born of the idea that one species has survived long enough to 'can' themselves and returned to using biological technology for it's, er, 'efficiency' [cheap and self-replicating.]

We tend not to consider ourselves as 'expendable' yet we treat each other as though we were...and that comes down from the top.

Since 'science' is 90% speculation [with the remaining 9% being theory and, if we're generous, 1% fact] much of what we believe is simply 'plausible'.

The gulf between the truth and need to know is what fuels both ignorance and poverty [keep the 'expendable' thought centered in your mind.]

They matter and YOU don't. [Zero logic behind this, it's simply how they think!] If that isn't bad enough they will use 'junk science' to justify their behavior.

The above is 'speculative fiction' [albeit rooted in logic with A leading to B and resulting in C.] while the theory that we are wild beasts that 'learned' to work together [when evidence to the contrary is EVERYWHERE]

If we can't break out of the mold then we will remain discarded and abandoned biological tools completely devoid of purpose.

You're more than that [or at least you have the potential to be] because the other thing that makes humanity unique is our ability to DREAM!

Our creators envisioned possible futures and made them so...maybe they didn't choose wisely and maybe they paid the ultimate price for that miscalculation. We don't know the facts but we didn't just spring up out of the ground a hundred thousand years ago [which is what the fossil trail tells us.] You WON'T find 'the missing link' here because this isn't the planet of origin.

[STOP]

What I'm trying to tell you is you have a head full of fairy tales and you WON'T be able to work in your own best interest until you wake up to the idea your 'reason to exist' is a LIE!

It's a ticking time bomb good citizen and if we don't DO SOMETHING about it it's going to take us out!

Step 1. We have to stop following morons! People who lack vision have no business leading our species.

Um, when I make an important point such as that one I end the piece so it stays with you.

the second step is equally important, we have to THINK! Animals do just fine operating on instinct but they aren't at the top of the food chain, are they? Well if YOU DON'T THINK then neither are YOU!

Thanks for letting me inside your mind,

Gegner

Vetting

Greetings good citizen, while it's pretty simple to fool strangers it's considerably more difficult to 'fool' your co-workers...as Trump's nominee to replace the Obama era director of the Veteran's Administration is finding out.

His chickens are coming home to roost and I'll bet he'd be shocked to learn it wasn't his 'inner circle' that ratted him out. Nope, the 411 usually precedes a boss before he takes the reins and people make it a point to learn all they can because regime change can be more than a little, er, 'unsettling'.

In what has increasingly become the 'screw-up/move up' conveyor belt, those unfortunate enough to be saddled with clueless/tyrannical/infantile supervisors dig up the dirt from those who have had the misfortune of dealing with this fellow previously.

Tarred them all there which isn't fair to the above and beyond kind of guy that keeps thing running smoothly, the ones that understand it's their responsibility to make sure you have EVERYTHING you need to be effective on your job. If you don't then he's not doing his!

Herein lies the importance of 'vetting' candidates for positions of responsibility.

Did you read the headline about the cop DNA found to be a serial killer? How do you suppose his boss [probably dead] feels about that revelation and the reflection it makes on his command, talk about incompetence and more than a little too much 'blind eye' going on.

I belabor the obvious when I point out we have a SERIOUS problem with Law Enforcement and a perverse lack of oversight nevermind accountability.

Close to the same subject we have the former governor of my state and scuttled presidential hopeful Mitt Romney tossing his hat back into the ring to become his home state's senator!

We all remember how Mitt was secretly recorded in a meeting with billionaire party heavyweights talking plainly and using terms every member of his audience held dear when he trash talked 50% of the electorate for being lazy, shiftless money-grubbers.

You'd think that would have made him toxic politically but he's hoping his fellow Mormons will overlook his little slip and he certainly didn't lose the favor of the monied crowd, it's a sentiment they all share when it comes to 'the rabble'.

Dickens wasn't being humorous when he gave Scrooge the opinion that Christmas was a "pretty poor excuse for 'picking a man's pocket' every 25th of December..."

And that's mild compared to how conservatives and libertarians view their (in their eyes) less ambitious peers.

It's when they mount the hobby horse of 'entitlement' that they really hit their stride.

I'll spare you the spiel, you've heard it many time before [especially the part about if they put HALF the effort they channeled into COMPLAINING about the issue it would have been done and over already [which isn't true at all but everybody know a windbag is a windbag is a windbag and there's no shutting them up. The ONLY way to change a windbag's mind is to KILL them!]

While you can get a pretty decent 'bead' on your neighbors and your co-workers, the 'anonymous' are harder to define and YOUR trust is based on the willingness of others to work with them.

But when it comes to badges, all bets are off.

Now you are relying on the 'system' [of nepotism] to vet people handed a weapon and a tacit if not explicit authority to kill anyone they feel 'threatened' by.

Funny what direction that fact has when it comes to talking out of class. If you KNOW Fred's a freak with a capital F, do you tell anyone?

It's your DUTY to but there are things that happen to those labeled 'RAT' when you work behind the Blue Wall.

Beginning to see why ASP has ZERO policemen [The Uh-oh squad is something else entirely and they will be vetted from the get-go.]

If we dance another step up this ladder we come to who 'the Palace Guard' (nominally) works for, the politicians.

Most of these guys (and gals, sadly) ooze slime. They have the 411 on each other but you don't want to throw stones lest someone else starts hurling boulders!

So here 'vetting' becomes a non-issue. [Worse, Trump did little to hide he was a sleaze-ball and he still got 'elected' (appointed) thanks to the Electoral College (which supposedly exists to prevent precisely such a thing from happening...oh well!)

I'd eliminate this decision-making ability by eliminating elected officials altogether and voting directly upon new projects and policies.

No more 'stolen elections' or defacto voter fraud via the media 'declaring' winners and losers without ever counting a single vote.

[Yet another elephant in the room ignored by our glorious 5th Estate.]

I'm okay/You're okay and circles of trust are born out of the value 'vetting' brings to society. What does it say about a whole segment of people that want nothing to do with the rest of us [who are, not so coincidentally, holding all of the cards?]

Who keeps short sheeting your bed?

You know but the card holders knows you won't complain about it if you know what's good for you! [And this is how Serial Killers with badges get away with it...]

No, it's NOT safe to go back in the water and it won't be until we drain the swamp COMPLETELY!

Thanks once again for letting me inside your mind,

Gegner

Sickness

Greetings good citizen, sickness is something we've all been keenly aware of but because of the vagueness of the term we disagree on both the causes and the symptoms.

I usually point at desperation and the vise most modern survivors find themselves trapped in. Worse, it's a problem compounded by our inability to make common cause with one another [largely thanks to the media that persists in demonizing racial schisms.]

What am I saying? ALL LIVES MATTER! Why does one group come out behind the banner of their own identity? Because the feckless media ignores the GENOCIDE being committed against them by (of all people) the JUSTICE DEPARTMENT!

Totally brilliant in today's NY Times was the piece about the Toronto police officer that apprehended the murderer in a white van without firing a shot!

Maybe Canadian psychopaths are more willing to surrender because they know the end of the line isn't a 'for profit' prison without possibility of parole. [Although widely ignored is how parole is the worst of both worlds. You're not behind bars anymore but you're not 'free' either. You still have to report on demand and if you don't they'll lock you up again. Worse, you've lost your free room and board, factoring that in, jobs cons can get on the outside don't pay any better than they do in stir...]

[STOP]

I have drawn for you a picture of unbridled incompetence that we are powerless to correct utilizing the current political system.

This isn't an accident, it was designed this way [all kleptocracies are.]

In order to 'enjoy' democracy, YOU have to be given a method by which you can participate directly! Living under a system that repeatedly denies both justice and equality only serves the feckless who are in it for what they can get out of it [and nothing more.]

While it's tempting to point at the mess in Washington right now and opine we've never witnessed the like, why do we get that uneasy feeling that we ain't seen nothin' yet?

This is only the beginning of 'over the top' government excess and lack of restraint.

Worse, the corporate owned 'lie machine' tells us we keep voting for 'more of the same!'

Who are you gonna believe, your lying eyes or Fox News, the most trusted network [even if they are the only ones saying it?]

Why do I keep playing this 'one note song'? Because if you don't act you WILL be acted upon...and if you don't know/can't agree on what needs fixing, nothing will get fixed and we collapse that much quicker.

So what's it going to be, good citizen, go down in flames or turn this turd around?

Thanks once again for letting me inside your mind,

Gegner

Royalty

Greetings good citizen, seems some things never change. Princess Kate delivered a third heir to the British crown and today's NY Times asks if it's 'wrong' that many are still enthralled by Royalty.

Well, I guess that depends on how you define 'enthralled'. What is it (specifically) that people find so 'fascinating' about Royals? Is it that 'master of all you survey' baloney or does the 'interesting' part have more to do with the obscene wealth [that only SOME royals enjoy?]

There's a certain mythos associated with royal blood [that is often self-perpetuated] What mythos is that? The one where royalty were selected by God himself!

One of the common threads of royalty is how the position is hereditary BECAUSE God personally selected your ancestor to be his 'representative' in perpetuity.

Apparently death doesn't revoke this choice despite God having chosen poorly in almost 100% of the cases studied. There are exceptions but it's more degrees of 'less bad' than anything even remotely resembling 'good'.

So it is the Royals of old, through mad intermarriage [thanks to this 'God ordained' attribute] paired with their cousins (or sometimes their own siblings) worldwide.

Do we need to circle back to mankind's opportunist nature? Nope, you can fill in your own blanks.

Although if you ask me (and no one is) this serves as further proof that this planet is some race's orbiting insane asylum.

I guess it depends on how closely fascination is associated with insane? Some find insanity compelling (but mostly from a confounding point of view.)

Which brings us full circle to 'Spirit in the Sky', with all of that power and glory [made that much more terrible when it's completely devoid of sanity or even a hint of reason...]

Yup, fascinating alright.

It's crap like this that makes us ponder if we weren't formulated/bred to be this stupid or if our widespread inability to sort fact from fiction is by accident or design?

The opportunists among us exploit this, er, 'weakness' every chance they get [despite being likewise afflicted themselves. Remember that callous disregard for consequences I keep pointing at?]

If you've ever wondered where the saying 'like the blind leading the blind' came from, now you know!

Since my observations overlap [considerably] let's return to the theorem that most of our, er, 'prejudices' are learned things...inorganic and unnatural, they are force fed to us at the knee of those who only want the best for us.

After all, we are just babies when we are taught about our brave and self-less nobles.

[STOP]

So it is we return to the question at hand, is our 'fascination' for/with 'the Royals' unseemly?

If we separate fact from fiction it is bizarre indeed. Monarchy wasn't overthrown for nothing [not that it's overthrow was completely successful if you can hear what I'm telling you.] The Royals were synonymous with tyrants so our 'fascination' is solely with the 'romanticized version' of royalty (although there are some sickos out there who worship the Royal's 'darker side'...the current POTUS is a fan and so are most flag waving Rethuglicans.)

Is this unhealthy? I have my opinion but it is NEVER my intention to tell you what to think...make up your own mind.

Perhaps the thing to keep in mind is how the Royals viewed their subjects. [Rabble and vermin jump to the forefront, you were never 'faithful & beloved subjects' unless they we asking you to fight their wars for them...[it is here our abject inability to sort fact from fiction bites us on the backside yet again!]

Yes, the Royals were going to protect us [from the safety of their castle] while YOU marched off to get slaughtered [usually for no good reason, the Holy Wars were a perfect example of this!]

Fact or fiction...only you can decide, if you're capable.

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Privatization

Greetings good citizen, after the Conservative Coup dubbed Morning in America we encountered a decided shift in economic policy...one that made the US a 'service economy' and many formerly publicly funded entities were 'privatized' as the pursuit of profits replaced commerce's original mandate of meeting the needs of the public.

Nobody knew at the time that YUPPIES would yield/become the nation's first crop of YOYO's! Now that the 'boomers' are reaching retirement age [but can't because they have nothing to show for forty years of being stiff armed by the self-interested's mismanagement of commerce.] SO they become the safety net's problem...and what a problem they'll be!

Older readers know what YUPPIE and YOYO mean but for my younger readers I'll spare you the trouble...[with background music.] Back when I first heard the term YUPPIE [it was in a song] and it meant young and upwardly mobile. Well that applied to exactly no one that I knew so like many things YOU will experience in life, some of them are like unicorns, rare, bordering on non-existent. [The only practical example of a Yuppie would be a Rock Star who would rise into the heavens only to disappear a few months later.

The second term we could ALL relate to because it means 'You're On Your Own!'

A bit more on that topic if you'd indulge me. What YOYO meant (even at the time) was 'the death of the American dream.' Literally half of my peers never owned a house and 99% of us don't have A.) pensions or B.) 'silver helmets' (sometimes referred to as 'a job for life' with which you could prepare for a 'secure future'.

My personal resume is so long if I held it to my chin it would hit the floor AND it's almost completely 'phantom' [meaning the places I worked no longer exist so there wasn't much chance of getting a pension from them in either direction. [Prior to privatization, pensions acted like 'loyalty programs' and were used as part of employee retention programs during the overly competitive war years.

But like most things capitalist, once Europe rebuilt its industrial base loyalty was discarded. I believe it was my generation that saw the return of 'you're lucky you even HAVE a job!' attitude...which is also a symptom of the raging unemployment crisis that capitalism wasn't built to deal with.

In this respect the 'woke' phenomenon must have the people running this shitshow hemorrhaging pineapples. Between black lives matter and an unchecked posse of armed thugs on the public payroll people are starting to ask, who is in charge of this dump? (Because THEY need to be FIRED!)

This is just as disturbing as the news that the cop who murdered an innocent, unarmed black man was fired from the force.

WTF, now cops don't know what to do when one of their own commits MURDER? We got the WRONG PEOPLE toting guns round here! [Worse, we got the wrong people overseeing this travesty, the entire legal system is in dire need of a douche!

[But don't take MY word for it...]

So when your peers start telling you how the Boomers wrecked everything I just want to set the record straight and tell you about the what WE inherited from the so called 'Greatest' generation who, out of blind patriotism, voted Republican because they wrapped themselves in the flag while raping the workers of this nation.

'Let those that OWN the country, RULE the country!' [Last time I looked Buckwheat, you didn't own squat so your 'vote' means nothing...and neither did theirs!

Gotta walk it back children!

The good intentioned (but soft headed) cannot be blamed for their 'faith' but blind faith is its own reward. They HOPED for a miracle and that's what they got, HOPE.

Some of them pretended it meant something but most know exactly what it means to have your faith betrayed and that's disappointment. [Sort of like those who are waiting for God's 'return' when there is zero evidence he was EVER here! [but that's another fable altogether...]

Healthcare, that festering swamp of private interests was 'privatized' by none other than St. Ronnie Reagan [who also preached we were all going to retire millionaires, back when interest rates on money market funds were in the double digits! Who knew [like houses] that they wouldn't always rise! Oh, let me remind you who eliminated the Gold Standard and left St. Ronnie with astronomical inflation...Richard Nixon.

If you don't think the economy has screwed the pooch over the past fifty years, think again.

Thanks to privatization the price of a house has jumped from $20,000 to 2,000,000.

And its not that the bills are going to come due it's that the economy will grind to a halt when nobody can afford to eat. [YOU won't be able to afford food nor will you be able to 'liquidate' because there will be 'too few buyers', something that's driving the economy into the basement at this moment. It's why brick & mortar stores are collapsing, not enough customers and physical stores can't afford to pay employees while keeping their prices down.

It's 'mismanagement' but it's being blamed on 'automation'.

How ironic if we automated ourselves out of existence? [Proper context...if we LET ourselves be automated out of existence because of nitwit beancounters!]

Writing is on the wall TODAY people and this ship is sinking right here and now! [If YOU'VE been 'priced out of the market', tough!]

IF YOU don't purge the legal/legislative systems YOU will be 'left for dead' and nobody will fire a shot or come to your aid. You already know the feckless media will IGNORE you.

REMEMBER: this is the country where a form to file a complaint against police injustice DOESN'T EXIST! [You have to keep your complaints in your head because they don't allow evidence of abuse to hang around. IF you succeed in filing a written complaint it WILL get lost (but they won't lose your name or address, that's the first piece of information THEY WANT, who is RATTING THEM OUT!)

Still on the fence about exiling the lot of 'em wholesale? [Rhetorical question.]

Naturally this all begs the question of 'what is the PURPOSE of Commerce?' Does commerce exist to meet the needs of the public or [since 'privatization' and the conservative takeover of the Supreme court] does it exist to enrich those who own it?

If you answered BOTH you are DEAD wrong. [With the 'dead' part coming much sooner than you expect.]

I belabor the obvious when I say society can't go on like this but society continues to be whatever the media tells us it is, thus the mask (of comparative normalcy) has carried the feckless this far.

If experience teaches us anything this whole situation could turn on a dime...and it probably will as the mid-terms approach.

What do you think is going to change even if both houses turn blue?

They still take their marching orders from the people who fund their campaigns...and both sides get their money from the SAME PLACE.

Sing it children: 'What kind of fool...'

Thanks for stopping by and opening your mind/woodshed/outhouse,

Gegner

Decline

Greetings good citizen, as our schizophrenic society alternates between interventionist and isolationist policies nobody is drawing attention to the fact that the U.S. has become a 'legend in it's own mind'...just like all of the other 'was-been' countries.

The U.S. WAS (and likely always will be) the planet's laughing stock because it's citizens are DELUSIONAL [largely due to our substandard education system and our corporate owned media the rest of the world has dubbed 'The lie machine'.

Zero irony that the current POTUS whose campaign slogan was MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! has shirked just about every leadership position that made the US the 'Leaders of the free world'. [Despite that designation being 99% propaganda since the Conservative revolution/bloodless coup.]

Really should have been more emphasis placed on educating the public to the teachings of John Jay, who, er, infamously opined 'Let those who OWN the land, RULE the land.' [Thus our Democracy in name ONLY!]

And since Mr. Jay's OTHER claim to fame is setting up our legal system it goes a long way towards explaining why those running the government are criminals.

So we arrive full circle at 'laughing stock' despite few of us finding any humor in the entire situation.

No need to remind the working classes that what they 'think' is of little concern to those who 'own' this place they allow us to call 'home'.

There's a big difference between 'owning' and renting in perpetuity, which is all a mortgage accomplishes.

You'd think that would have been part of Making America Great but remember who we're talking about here, butt-head was referring to his Television ratings and his election to the presidency is testament to that fact that NOBODY watched the Apprentice or they NEVER would have voted for him!

[Anyone paying attention knows this guy has NOTHING up his sleeve AND NOTHING between his ears, he's 110% EGO!]

Um, how sad is it good citizen that most of us know this...begging the question of how this man got into the White House and WHY did the oligarchs, er, appoint him?

But I digress, again.

The topic for the day is the downward spiral MOST of the planet's population is suffering and the amazingly buoyant stock markets that are used as evidence that everything is alright. [Like money, the stock markets are a lie too.]

Which is to point out that the US isn't the only nation in 'decline'. Capitalism is failing planet-wide and the capitalists have no clue what to do about it.

Perhaps the bone-heads thought El Trumpo could save it by re-branding it (although anybody paying attention knows the Trump label is TOXIC!)

Maybe it's those of us labeled as his 'base' that are missing the larger picture, the capitalists are out to destroy the markets and they are using El Trumpo to 'poison the well'...

Brilliant on both points because most of us are still clueless when the media tells us Trump's base still supports him. [Do you suppose most of us think Trump and W. claim the same base, the HAVES and the HAVE MORES because the media is actually referring all of us that didn't revolt when they told us Trump won...]

Remember 'the Lie Machine'?

Whatever you're willing to 'tolerate' becomes 'normal'.

It takes a united front to resist...anything!

But you knew that, right?

Thanks for letting me inside your woodshed!

Gegner

Civilization

Greetings good citizen, since our civilization is predicated on the division of labor and it's difficult to think of ourselves/species as 'one trick ponies' there is the very real probability that humanity was 'created' for a singular purpose, mining.

The trouble with using autonomous, biological mining units is they need to be able to feed themselves so some remained above ground growing crops and tending animals to feed the miners.

Then there's the 'defense' part of the puzzle. because starship fuel is so valuable it would fall under that most ancient of rubrics where it's easier to take it than to make it and 'piracy' must have been a very real danger.

Developing autonomous, self-directed biological units must have been a formidable undertaking and 'customizing' them to specific tasks probably didn't make sense to the creators who were using the 'one size fits all' approach.

Due to the dangers inherit in mining, expendability was paramount. Then there was the tendency for these self-directed units to make a break for it considering their intended purpose could be hellish even when things were going smoothly. [In this respect, piracy was probably the least of the builder's concerns.] So a 'class' of operators were trained to capture runaways and return them to the mines. [Again, one size fits all.]

Probably doesn't help that the builders used their own DNA to craft these 'servants' but if they were going to 'conquer' space they had to use every resource available to them. [So it's likely a vast human empire exists out there and they lost interest in this place once the fuel was mined out. We, the miners, were abandoned in place...sadly, the 'overseers' were abandoned in place too and they took it into their heads to 'keep a lid on things' until the 'creator' returned...knowing full well there was no reason for them to return.

Just saying...and I haven't heard a more 'plausible' explanation coming from anywhere else...and nobody has found the 'missing link' so this ISN'T the planet of origin that the overseers want you to think it is. [Now I'm skating on 'heresy' and it is ideas like this that endanger the freakishly selfish.]

Um, what's this have to do with 'civilization'? Yesterday I touched upon one of the fragile threads that keep our species living 'communally' and that's healthcare...but truth be told, food production and habitation are also responsible for our unique situation. We couldn't return to the 'hunter gatherer' model the overseers preach we 'evolved' from, too many moving parts and not enough 'wildlife'.

We need only look at the starving Alaskans on reality TV for proof of theorem.

We were created to live in support of one another...even if it wasn't for our personal 'enrichment', it is how we were designed to SURVIVE but the overseers are stuck on the concept of expendability and their original 'mandate' of 'comply or die'.

This is why we lack sympathy for the 'unemployed', for millenia we witnessed tools that didn't 'preform to expectations' being...eliminated.

Again, in yesterday's reading I hit upon an article concerning a 'master algorithm' for bringing AI to, er, 'self-awareness' but in this article the author went a step further and posited that once we had created 'self-aware' robots, deactivating them without the robot's express permission would be considered murder.

Now think about that one for a minute. We murder with abandon all day every day but some nitwit is going to press charges if you turn their machine off? WTF?

Nor did that (apparently) ever occur to our creators [who considered us tools.] (Zero irony that the overseer class retains this disturbing point of view.)

Since this is the plot of my 'work in progress' I'd be interested in feed back regarding whether such a theme would be of interest to my readers.

Spoiler alert: I am taking an unusual twist with my 'aliens in the backfield' approach you will hopefully find captivating...but if you're blinded by the legend of 'Spirit in the Sky' you won't be amused.

So yeah, life is more than a little 'pointless' and that's a damn good thing! [Now all we have to do is get that darn monkey (overseers) off our back!]

Thanks once again for stopping by and opening your mind...

Gegner

Crisis

Greetings good citizen, today's topic is brought to you by 'Ask a Prepper' and addresses the delicate subject of our morals under Crisis conditions

Um, first a word about the 'source'. I mock Fox TV's 'Doomsday Prepper series mostly because it would commonly demonstrate EXCELLENT ways to get yourself killed during a real crisis. Even the scores provided by their panel of know nothing experts were useless.

I came by my, er, subscription to Ask a Prepper via a book this blogger wrote titled 'The forgotten ways', things our great grandparents did to survive the wild frontier.

Should civilization go to shit, what's available naturally is what you're going to have to 'work' with so mistake number one would be living in an area with few natural resources or remaining ignorant of what those resources are.

Commonest mistake number two is relying on the net to provide you with this crucial information after TEOTWAKI. If you haven't got the book and you're not Sheldon Cooper (gifted with an photographic memory) good luck searching out wild edibles because 90% of what grows wild will kill you and a goodly percentage of that slim number of wild edibles have poisonous doppelgangers, making KNOWING what you're looking at a critical piece of information. [Depending on your metabolism, some plants can kill you if you handle them so you'd best KNOW what you're looking at as you wander, starving through the woods.]

Unlike the Fox TV Series, Claude offers some helpful insights in the chaotic topic of social collapse.

Today's offering is written with the mindset of if there aren't personal 'limits' then civilization won't return until desperation rears its ugly head and people find themselves suddenly in the need of the talents those educated in medical science to save the life of their loved ones.

Not to put too fine a point on it but medicine is the single strongest argument in favor of 'socialization'.

The healthcare crisis goes much deeper than most of you imagine...because most of you don't even think about healthcare until it becomes a 'personal issue'.

Well, in case you were wondering why Dr's and hospitals are so important, now you know the answer.

But I digress.

Claude asks the question of what becomes permissible in the struggle for survival when we all know it's the 'law of the jungle'. Kill or be killed. In this respect living communally {like we do, in your face, haters!} goes against the, er, 'laws of nature' but the laws of nature have nothing to do with civilization and it is that difference that sets us apart from the 'savage mindless beasts', that kill because they can.

Depending on how you were 'raised' (I am treading on some mighty hallowed ground right now and a good half of you are confused.) Why is this? Because most of you were raised to give lip service to the sanctity of life while being taught by your...'realist' parents that the truth is 'anything goes'.

The average 'make it up as they go' knothead has zero appreciation of what separates humans from the savage beasts [in fact, the question makes a, er, 'curious' parlor game if you want to learn how your peers were raised [although when confronted, the parents will deny teaching their progeny the doctrine of ruthlessness that many low intelligence types regurgitate as 'gospel' (sadly the two are closely related.)]

What surprises are waiting inside the woodshed/outhouse most people call their mind?

(Sometimes blogging is its own reward...)

But I digress yet again.

Rather than focus on the limits, let's look at the first part and see if we can reach a consensus on what constitutes a 'crisis'.

One thing is without doubt, society, planet-wide is in crisis mode right here and now!

Despite the media's 'happy talk' [Where the media literally tells us who is allegedly 'happier' than everyone else for any number of reasons, our entire planet struggles to survive under the yoke of economic slavery and staggering inequality.

Don't have it so bad?

We're all just a lottery hit away from living the good life? What about 'until then'?

Most of us don't look too hard in the mirror because we don't like what we see. Worse, most of us blame ourselves for a situation, something we have little to no control over.

[Most people who take the 'ruthless route' to riches end up in prison.]

So what constitutes a 'crisis'? Is it like our morals, we'll know it when we see it? Or is there some more definitive feature that causes people to hit the panic button in unison?

Several come to mind but most of us would remain ignorant that our doom was but moments away. It's only in drama that the media gets out ahead of a crisis. If you are watching a disaster on the small screen it's because YOU weren't THERE.

So our definition of the term crisis (just as our definition of the term 'legal' suffers greatly from 'misinterpretation') those who are 'living the life' [at your expense/misery] do not consider the current state of society to be in 'crisis' despite the whole edifice being balanced on the point of the finest needle.

That's why true crisis in never far away. Have you picked up on the headlines relating to the woman killed on that Southwest flight? Now Southwest was asking for more time to inspect the engines on ALL of it's craft because the whole fleet is now in danger thanks to dollars and cents trumping what used to be a rigorous replacement schedule. MOST of the engines and airframes currently in use should have been scrapped a long time ago but no, the shareowners put profits before passenger safety and let safety concerns [all while letting strangers grope your nether regions in the name of the same concerns] slide so they could wring more profits out of engines and airframes past their 'use by' date.

But hey, life is a craps-shoot under capitalism. Besides your other choice is rail lines that haven't been properly maintained for a hundred years for the exact same reasons!

So WHAT constitutes a crisis and when do we DO something about it?

Don't look at your politicians, they take their orders from the people responsible for the crisis...this is all YOU!

Thanks for letting me inside your woodshed...(or is it an outhouse? It's hard to tell...)

Gegner

Worldview

Greetings good citizen, part of the reason nothing gets...not a good word again so I'll punt and insert 'fixed' is 'worldview'.

Why does the media take the widest possible view especially after rapacious capitalism causes a fatal incident like the failure to properly maintain the jet engine that exploded, killing a passenger and injuring several more.

We could explore the world of subcontractors that bid competitively on the lucrative contracts to overhaul these critical pieces of infrastructure and how the tendency to let certain factors slide because they 'almost never' fail and have a significant impact on operating profits...which most management compensation plans use to measure manager's compensation.

[In case you were wondering why jet engines blow up and what 'capitalism' has to do with it...] It's the same thing that drives a capitalist to add melamine to baby formula (to boost profits.)

Do I need to remind you again that ALL money is 'funny' and profits can only be measured in 'benefits to society' because dollars and cents are MEANINGLESS!

Se habla mismanagement? No comprehende? Figures...

Well, your worldview is broken and as an adult there isn't much that can be done to repair it because the 'refusal' to correct ignorance is the precise reason stupid is permanent.

Watched an episode of Nova last night that spotlighted the 'feud' between Bill Nye (the science guy) and Joe Bastardi, a Penn State meteorologist and the darling of conservative climate deniers.

While I believe global warming is being driven by the build up of iron in the sun's core made worse by carbon sequestration, the climate alarmists wrongly believe we can do something about it and the truth is we can't. As has been repeatedly demonstrated, one feeds the other [the gradual warming is releasing previously sequestered greenhouse gases, which the burning of fossil fuels is 'contributing to'.

At BEST we can slow it down but we can't stop it and it's a fools game to even try. Even the far side of a temporary condition like nuclear winter would result in 'scorched earth' that nature would NEVER recover from.

Supposing the, er, 'thaw' we are experiencing is being driven by 'cosmic forces' such as increased cosmic radiation as our solar system moves through it's quarter of a million year long orbit around the center of the galaxy [during which, as far as anyone can tell, the polar ice sheets both melt completely at least twice...and it's the ice sheets that provide us with 'proof' of global warming [if they melt completely your 'evidence' disappears, although not completely. The fossil record tells us that the ice caps disappeared at least twice...but they don't tell us conclusively WHY.]

We DO know that for most of it's existence our planet, when it wasn't bleeding lava, is actually just OUTSIDE the fabled 'Goldilocks zone' and has spent most it's history partially covered in ice.

[Unlike conservo-whackos, I'm not telling you what to think, I'm just giving you something to think about. The Galactic year is too long and civilization is too short to know ANYTHING for certain. What I point to above is what the evidence suggests. [Newly discovered 'Dark Matter' may play a larger role than any of us suspect in our highly politicized battle over 'human caused' climate change.]

So we return to the subject at hand, worldview.

In particular, yours.

Que sera, sera, am I right? What happens, happens and I don't sweat the details because it ain't up to me! That's how most of you pass your time here...it's also why this place is a stinking cesspit. [YOU may have found a 'pleasant-ish' corner to watch the world go by from but it's been getting seedier and grimier with each passing decade, hasn't it? Will YOUR kids find such a place? Not likely and what then?]

I know the answer is the same as it ever was, 'not my problem'.

I'm not going to throw stones because I'm no better than you, I sit here stirring the pot but nothing more...and when it's time to act I might even sound the alarm [as I have been with frightening regularity] but I am guilty of actually doing nothing besides belaboring the obvious for the not particularly observant.

Since this is a slow motion train wreck, pulling the trigger too early would be catastrophic...for all parties involved. I'm not in a position to actually change anything [with the minor exception of minds, that I do have access to, albeit limited.]

It is here we face the age old conundrum of the horse, you can lead one to water but you can't make it drink.

Now I leave you with your own conundrum, horsie...

Thanks for letting me take you to the river...

Gegner

PS: your 'worldview' matters more than you think!

Futility

Greetings good citizen, some day's you eat the bear and other day's the bear eats you. Today I couldn't get the fire hot enough to burn all of the green wood that fell off the trees in my yard [yesterday's torrential rain didn't help matters any...but She wants it burned [NOW] so who am I to argue?

Anyway, snow tomorrow so it's not going to happen then either. {I think you're starting to see why I chose that particular word for today's title}

Naturally nobody [well almost nobody] expects things to go their way 100% of the time. If at first you don't succeed there's always later [beginning to look like next year for that dang brush pile, only a couple of weeks left to this year's burning season!]

Eventually we shall succeed in everything we do, given enough time...which is the mother of all stumbling blocks. When your starving (or suffocating) time is something you don't have a lot of.

Every day when your eyes pop open and you become aware that you're still here you unconsciously wonder if you're going to make it until the end of the day [that's how 'uncertain' time is.] Making it that much more ironic that your last thoughts before you, er, 'move on' are regrets over what you'd wish you had done before the buzzer signalling the end of your life sounded.

Maybe later when you've had a moment to absorb and digest the event you'll be flooded with relief that this, er, 'trial/ordeal' is over. Will the next phrase be more dreadful? Hard to conceive but not impossible.

The wise know they are here to learn while the fools listen to those who preach we are here to 'worship god' (and the semi-fools believe it's a combination of the two meaning that they 'learn' nothing.)

Let's pause here for a moment while we examine the two terms of today's piece, life itself is often 'equated' with 'futility'. There is a widespread belief that life is pointless, making the whole exercise of learning anything 'futile'.

Some will even insist that futility IS the lesson life teaches [but the wise know this is not true.] (Sort of blows your mind to consider how few people are wise...)

So many live believing money is real and god will/must forgive them of anything if they just ask for it...[can you say psychopaths?]

Um, probably bum you all out if I point out that LIVE spelled backwards is EVIL...but it seems none of you make the connection between Santa and Satan either.

What kind of school is this anyway?

One where you are supposedly smart enough to figure some things out for yourselves.

Just a little hint from your old pal Gegner, it's never too late to start paying attention.

[Maybe next time around you won't sit there and do nothing while 'the teacher' steals your stuff!]

If there were a lesson to be learned right this minute it would be that things are as they are BECAUSE YOU HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING ABOUT IT!

Here's another 'thought experiment' for ya: Would you want to meet you in Space? Do you watch the science channel and think, damn good thing nobody from this generation is out colonizing planets because it would make for one hell of a war! [yet another thing we as a species needs to learn. How the hell are we supposed to 'share' the universe if we can't share a single planet WITH OUR OWN KIND!]

Mind blown?

That's for those of you who think you already know everything there is to know.

Thanks once again for letting me inside YOUR head,

Gegner

Burn

Greetings good citizen, I may post later but today I am literally burning the debris accumulated over the winter and shall be occupied watching the fire until 4 PM

Vote

Greetings good citizen, twice yesterday I encountered admonitions to vote when the cause of our current dilemma is 'voting' [on a stacked deck.]

We long ago ceased voting for candidates and the practice became an exercise in choosing the 'least worst' option. When asked 'who do you like?' in the contest between Bush and Gore I opined that I was for Gore, my 'logic'? I wanted someone who could spell 'idiot' rather than just be the poster child for stupid.

Turns out I wasn't wrong.

W. brought us war without end, the Patriot Act, 'Homeland Security' and the morons that make up the TSA. That's besides suspending habeas corpus and your right to a speedy trial...oh and let's not forget rolling back anti-usury legislation [he single-handedly made loan sharking legal again! only now they call it 'payday loans'.]

Let's reflect on the 'benefits' of voting when you have zero input on what is being decided. I'd like to point out that 250 years of voting hasn't fixed that situation, you have remained so far removed from ANY issues facing society and for reasons that aren't so mysterious, your bought and paid for 'representatives' pay zero attention to you no matter how much you complain! [It took 180 years before the 'invisible they' permitted females to vote!]

That's on YOU fella!

So after multiple revolutions it seems our self professed betters haven't learned anything...or is it us that has a 'handicap'?

The owners of commerce seem unable to break their cash addiction [it is through cash that taxes are avoided] and how they get first dibs on all of the 'good stuff' that falls off trucks, everyday, all day.

All the blue suits have to do is turn a blind eye to the plight of the masses...and if they don't the men in robes will make their lives miserable.

Direct connect AND EVERYBODY KNOWS.

To 'fix' this shitshow we need to return money to it's original purpose.

We also need to end 'do it yourself money'. [The fiction we call the 'stock market' anyone...which is no different than bitcoins, which is no different than the 'circle of gold' or CDO's. Money doesn't make money because IT CAN'T.]

Money isn't a 'storehouse of value' because ITS value is set 'arbitrarily'! [That's how the banksters created the cheaper there.]

We're living in a 'blighted nation' for a reason good citizen and that reason is the ballot box isn't connected to the real issues facing our civilization. [Starting with capitalist predation and moving all the way across the spectrum to the purposeful pauperization of the public so a few could be billionaires.]

Where was YOUR vote on either issue? How did you vote on the 'war without end?' You voted for it right because nobody wants to admit they are weak or don't understand why we are destroying peoples countries because they have resources we covet?

When viewed using biblical terms the entire global situation starts taking on the appearance of the End Times (but the same could be said for just about any period over the past century...which SHOULD tell you something about fictional god's 'return'...ain't nobody home!)

Is this beginning to look like a John Deere commercial, it's not how fast you mow, it's how well you mow fast!

It's not about going to the polls and checking boxes or flipping levers, it's about actually deciding the things that matter! You CAN'T be a stakeholder in civilization if you have NO SAY! [But if you can't crack 100 on an IQ test, you should sit on the sidelines and let the smart people do what needs doing.]

Our experiment in DEMOCRACY won't begin until we can vote directly on the issues! [That's what 'leadership' is for, to decide what issues are the most important and put them for a vote, then to act upon that vote. Leadership is about solving problems, not kicking cans further down the road.

I keep pointing to what a wonderful world it COULD be if people would just share what there is to share but NO, we let the feckless take the best for themselves and we fight over what they drop on the ground [mostly for their amusement.]

Civilization needs to be MANAGED or it will collapse as people lose interest in a system that only exploits them.

Put you life on the scale good citizen [few can do this objectively] and weigh whether or not society is something you want membership in.

Then try and figure out if you currently ARE a member and no, being on the voter's list doesn't make you a member; it simply provides the 'illusion of participation'.

Chances are you don't, er, not a good word for this because the people on the list didn't 'earn' it, they were born to it so if you weren't born with a trust fund, chances are you only THINK you are a member of a society that has ZERO USE FOR YOU.

[This is also the primary difference between the 'truly wealthy' and the rest of us and brings us full circle to the 'god' thing, which these people are convinced that they are 'god's chosen!'] Thus was heresy a capital crime. If you Rejected God then you also rejected the king's 'divinity'...

Sickness (mental) lives here.

This is the basis for Jefferson's declaration that every couple of generations a nation should 'purge' itself of the self-interested. [Preferably BEFORE they can become 'entrenched'.]

Naturally only one nation following this procedure would leave hundreds that weren't, thus the universality of A Simple Plan. It is a global system. Don't freak, it can be done...in fact capitalism is already global it's just not universally recognized. [Some nations still 'pretend' to be communist.]

I apologize to my readers but like you I am losing patience with all of the stupid people currently in the media thus have I been, er, 'critical' and assuming my readers are intelligent enough to know it's not directed at THEM (specifically.)

If I don't shake you out of your comfort zone you will remain too timid to act and soon it will be you or them and I most certainly want YOU at my side!

Thanks for stopping by and opening your mind,

Gegner

Conspiracy

Greetings good citizen, for a world filled with religious, racial and ethnic tensions they are all on the same page when it come to the source of all inequity.

‘They Eat Money’: How Mandela’s Political Heirs Grow Rich Off Corruption
By NORIMITSU ONISHI and SELAM GEBREKIDAN

Since apartheid ended, African National Congress leaders have siphoned off tens of billions of dollars. Will South Africa’s new government confront such epic graft?

Coincidence? Not likely. Without 'collusion' we'd be at war over money in almost every corner of the world.

But once again the name of the game appears to be 'go along to get along'...even here in the home of the world's 'reserve currency' [for the time being, gravity will eventually pull reserve currency status to its new home in People's Republic of China.]

(While were wearing our 'tin foil hats' what do you suppose this means for the 'free world' when the resurgent communists become the planet's bankers?)

Military might put England in the 'drivers seat' for centuries and WWII forced the 'golden crown' to migrate to the planet's only intact manufacturing powerhouse and newly coronated nuclear superpower...a brief moment in the sun but soon our 'allies' got nuclear weapons and the club has been growing ever since on both sides of the ideological divide. [Meaning the ideology is also a myth. The real divide remains the same, them that has vs those that don't.]

Inexplicably...not that a lot of the things that exist on this rock make sense or are even tangentially logical. [You are being set up to fight against your own interests by political puppets that want you subservient.]

'I want one' pretty much trumps logic or even anything resembling sense. [I WAS going to use the hackneyed term 'common sense' but like Spirit in the Sky, no such thing exists.]

In fact sensibility in itself is suspect because it's all relative to one's goals and capabilities.

Does 'conspiracy' exist? We once again bump up against a question the film Star Wars attempts to address, how many players constitute a 'conspiracy'?

Star wars teaches the answer is TWO...it also teaches the 'glue' these conspiracies use is cash.

In Star Wars the conspiracy of the two controls a vast galactic empire...but that's film for you. It doesn't look under the hood at the 'grease' that keeps the whole machine running.

Is the answer really One? Obviously not. But in the end the puzzle is solved when we look at 'mutual goals'.

Right now the 'status quo' is engaged in a all out battle to sustain itself and in order to do that they must put the brakes on global population growth as automation chokes out paid employment. [the commerce model is sucking pond water and will lead to massive riots in the not too distant future as the all important 'customer base' continues to shrink. Worse, who will continue to 'work' when most (of the surviving) population is 'paid to shop'?

Or will it all become a charade? Shopping (like unemployment) will move completely online. You'll never see if the stores are empty because there won't be stores to go to...and you'll only be paid enough to (barely) keep you alive so going 'out' will be a non-starter. You barely have enough food for yourself so you certainly can't afford to give it away!

Sound like science fiction? Things are headed in precisely this direction...all so 'a few' can remain rich.

Ultimately, once you're cut off from all contact with those troublesome others your 'stipend will vanish and you'll die eating your own excrement. Leaving the only people remaining those 'born to it'. [Clarification: the world is NOT YOUR oyster, it's THEIR oyster!]

Sound extreme? Consider the 'size' of your own 'world'. Pretty tiny when you can count ALL of the people YOU give a shit about on both hands and still have fingers left over [some of you quite a few fingers...nine in fact.]

In this respect the rich are EXACTLY like the rest of us...and it's difficult to find anything more frightening than that realization.

Funny how a certain constant keeps appearing in this equation and that is $, which is a total chimera. It's a legal myth, a fiction created to facilitate trade.

Remarkable is how it's whole reason for existing has removed itself from the puzzle! Now the purpose of money is money and NOBODY thinks that's insane...which tells you something quite important about your peers.

Is anybody else picking up on the, er, 'burden' of being 'clear sighted'?

So on a planet where we are ready to exterminate on the basis of race, color, nationality, sex or income level you have to wonder why there is no violence over 'money' and the people who rule it with an iron fist.

Revolt NOW while you still can!

When you start getting a check just to go shopping I'd be pretty wary of the prescription your free medical technician prescribed.

If the 'machine' makes a 'mistake' and that mistake kills you...oh well.

Take a moment here and assess just how gullible you've been in the past and how realistic you are now. What's the probability of such a thing coming to pass. How many of you foresaw the Trump presidency?

We all saw the juggernaut launch and we all laughed at first. Then all of the little Indians started to drop out and before long The Donald was the 'last man standing'...not because he was the 'best' but because he was the 'least worst'!

Now take this piece of recent history and consider where you are relative to this previously 'unthinkable' turn of events.

You're being taken for a ride and if you don't jump off you're going to die in a fiery wreck.

In this instance you have to weigh your options, burn in a wreck or die jumping to potential safety?

You may survive the leap (especially if you jump sooner rather than later) and you may not but one thing is certain, you WON'T survive the wreck, the infamous they will make sure of it.

On that cheery note, thanks once again for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

War

Greetings good citizen, as usual the news is confounding, just take a peek at today's headlines:

Top News

Pentagon Says Syria Strikes Hit ‘Heart’ of Chemical Weapons Program
By HELENE COOPER and BEN HUBBARD

Warplanes and ships from the United States, Britain and France launched more than 100 missiles at three chemical weapons storage and research facilities near Damascus and Homs, officials said.

A Hard Lesson in Syria: Assad Can Still Gas His Own People
By DAVID E. SANGER and BEN HUBBARD

The conflict in Syria has demonstrated a larger truth: While it is easy to blow up its chemical facilities, it is also relatively simple for the Assad government to reconstitute them elsewhere.

‘Mission Accomplished!’ But What Is the Mission in Syria?
By PETER BAKER

The strike on chemical arms sites reflected President Trump’s competing impulses: an effort to demonstrate strength countered by a view that involvement in the Middle East since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has been a waste.

It's that last bit which I highlighted that is the topic for today's discussion. 18 years of war and what do we have to show for it? A burgeoning Police State with an increasingly militarized police force, trillions wasted in an overall situation that hasn't done either 'side' any good.

Proof in the pudding, there STILL isn't a justifiable reason why we're even there and NOBODY knows what VICTORY looks like.

Well, that's not true...puddin head knows. We'll win when all of the Muslims are dead.

Never mind nobody being able to define the 'goal' of the GWOT, it's been 2 DECADES and you can't name a single victory. We throw them out of here and they pop up again over there. Is this war or a never ending game of 'whack-a-mole'?

It's not war, it's the average capitalist workplace writ large : The beatings will continue until morale improves!

Just as you have no control over your work environment [if you don't like it quit.] nor can you do anything if your government decides to gas your dissenting ass. [Now there's something that never crossed half of you unblemished minds...what would you do if the planets largest terrorist organization decided to exterminate (gas) YOU? Call your congress critter?

The reason we aren't seeing rioting in the streets is because we have little control over the 'reaction' civil unrest might provoke.

We all know the illusion of civilization is a veneer that's only as thick as a hair. Underneath the veneer is a savage beast...something we are reminded of with every TV show we watch.

[Sort of stricken last night with just how violent the 'popular' films are...and naturally, the central character is either the luckiest stiff on the planet or he is being shot at by the blind because with that many bullets flying S/he was bound to get hit by a stray.]

But no, in all theater the hero can only get 'wounded' while still being capable of superhuman feats of both strength and endurance! (Damn those magic pens!)

But I preach to the people that believe in an all-powerful and all knowing entity that looks the other way when THEY lie, cheat and steal their way through their wretched existence.

Or should we double down here and point to the elephant in that room, all believers have unshakable faith that their 'loving god' will forgive them, no matter what!

Walk that one back and where does it leave you? [Can you say psychopath?] Didn't someone suggest this is some races floating mental institution?

Don't walk that one backwards because you REALLY don't want to know the answer. Bad enough the inmates are running the asylum.

[Full Stop]

Forgive me good citizen but it seems every topic we explore leads to the same place/conclusion [our society is being run by the insane and we are powerless to stop them...naturally left to your imagination is the daunting task of sorting the rational from the batshit whackos [although the political divide accounts for 25% of em, all conservatives are whackos that believe in 'magic/nonsense'.]

Of the remaining 75%, 50% are too cowardly to take a stand and the remaining 25% isn't smart enough to lead us to victory.

See how we end up with one tenth of one percent running things by 'rote'? [They don't know what to do either, all they know is how it worked before. Thus do they keep squishing the round peg into the square hole, making it fit.]

This is a pretty frightening path, one that leads to a cadre of the freakishly selfish whose only goal is to remain 'on top', which is to say they have zero interest in 'the public good'.

Look at what 40 years of conservative rule has done to this nation (and the rest of the planet!) It's no secret that conservatism (famous for it's unyielding commitment to dogma that has zero basis in reality [Cheaper there anyone?] If you aren't smart enough to understand that 'money' is a cheap parlor trick and YOU are the 'mark/dupe' well, you've been 'getting it' from the beginning...what you fail to appreciate is WHAT.

Now reflect upon what has come of nearly two decades of 'war' [with a huge unemployed contingent in the wings] and think what the employment picture would be if those few hundred thousand soldiers, living on Uncle Sam's dime were mixed back in to the labor situation...

Thinking really ain't your strong suit, is it?

We could solve this without another needless death but them insane folks running things have taken the now ancient point of view that the only 'good peasant is a dead peasant'.

Just a little cognitive exercise here but when you watched Hunger Games did you wonder where all of the Striker armored personnel carriers came from or were you like me and wondered where they all WENT after the film was shot?

Are YOU paying attention? That's the first step. Thing have gotten where they are because you aren't seeing what's happening right under your nose...and the Bozo they appointed POTUS to keep us 'entertained/terrified' declaring 'mission accomplished' is just as clueless as W was when he said the same thing.

Does the Mission accomplished declaration by El Trump have the same meaning as it did when W said it? Sure does if you look at it from the 'fooled those stupid suckers again' point of view!

Um, there isn't a nice way to back out of this so I'm just going to thank you for visiting and urge you to help yourself to all of the free mind-food I have put out for you!

Thinking makes your mind grow...something we could all use more of.

Gegner

Law

Greetings good citizen, today's topic is ticklish because many things that should be illegal aren't just as our prisons are exploding with people have haven't done anything 'wrong'.

Not really tough to figure out, the feckless make theirs [literally print it up] AND control commerce (as a way of controlling the rest of us) [whosoever controls your economic situation controls you...think about it.]

How do they achieve both of these, er, 'ends'?

They also control the Law [and by extension, law ENFORCEMENT!] Everybody knows you'll never see a 'rich man' jailed because the jailers work for the rich [and they aren't that smart, sending one of the people they have been instructed to protect to prison would confuse them.]

So as our society crumbles under the build up of 'contradictions' [big mistake appointing the billionaire loose cannon to the Presidency because it shows what they are REALLY like! Did you see yesterday? Numb nuts was all over the freaking map! [Rumors of his mental instability are proven true every time he tweets!]

The history books will call this an 'act' but you can smell the crazy coming off that guy!

Worse, now some of his previous 'stunts' look somewhat less playful then they were previously thought/passed off as being.

But I digress, back on topic!

Some, usually the feckless, believe the law is whatever they interpret it to be, 'under the current circumstances' while most of us take the 'broader view' that the laws are specific and mean pretty much the same thing ALL of the TIME.

Now a judge has schizophrenia in this because if a poor man stands before him [and no man should EVER stand before a judge, the law stands on it's own. It's not up to a 'judges interpretation'] and a rich stands before him he has two different minds on how to decide the case.

Little known fact is this is the SOLE REASON judges exist is to insure the poor man doesn't receive the IDENTICAL treatment the Rich one gets.

If found guilty the rich man will be fined and walk out of the courtroom with a blemish on his record [that his lawyers will remove later.] but the poor man will be given jail time to 'teach him a lesson'.

Back to our 'flipside' where the feckless take a more 'immediate and situational' approach to 'my way or the highway', if you upset their plans you're guilty of existing and the full weight of their wrath will fall upon you, the law be damned!

Herein lies the danger of speaking 'truth to power.'

You can be 100% innocent but still get screwed if the feckless continue to be allowed to interpret the laws 'as they wish'.

This is why ASP eliminates lawyers and judges from the courts. The Law and it's interpretation belongs to those who must live under them.

Can alcohol compete with a weed anybody can grow? Does it have to?

Not that it occurred to you but if you want evidence that what passes for our legal system is insane just look at the advertisements surrounding the monetization of 'pot stocks' and our 'for profit' prisons overflowing with people nailed for 'minor possession'.

This is 'justice'? [Or do you believe that if you just keep your head down, Satan won't notice you?]

Zero irony that our legal system is as fraught with as many contradictions as our religious beliefs are!

When you step back and look at just how much BS is packed into our culture we have to marvel at the scope of what needs doing to put our species back on track just to survive! [In this respect being 'aware' is a bitch and knowing our time is limited becomes taxing.]

Needless to say, just as there are several iterations of the Magna Catra [and the most recent one has been shredded by the royal wannabes] our legal system long ago ceased to be about the 'rule of law' and returned to being the 'rule of man' and if YOU don't like it' tough!

Yeah, the rule of law needs to be placed beyond the reach of the feckless [which is why ASP uses direct democracy to pass legislation and has/tolerates ZERO 'lawmakers'.]

The people can make or rescind laws but only as a whole. When it comes to determining guilt, the law will be 'interpreted' by YOUR PEERS and not by some robe draped chiseler seeking to maintain the status quo!

Understand the judge has to work with the cops not to maintain JUSTICE but to maintain CONTROL! (Justice be damned!)

Real people WANT justice, the feckless want FREEDOM and they won't have it long if they place justice first because the feckless are thieves above all else.

While politicians say they value 'justice' and often run on a law & order ticket, the proviso is they honor the law ONLY if they get to interpret it the way they want it.

And that isn't justice.

So tell me again about the 'just and righteous' god of yours and why he lets shit-holes like this exist? Oh to 'test' you...I see (but you obviously don't.) And this is justice, right?

Thanks for letting me inside your head.

Gegner

Flip-flop

Greetings good citizen, I guess nobody is surprised that El Trumpo has 'flip flopped' on the Trans-Pacific partnership.

Is it just me or is it beginning to look like the Republicans don't care about the midterms anymore?

You can pretty much put a fork in it when those elected to represent YOU start displaying a 'F-it' attitude.

Left to your imagination is how much worse can it get since they never had your back in the first place...and it's a question you don't want to know the answer to...because as I have been pointing out recently, it can get a whole shitload worse...almost instantly.

Gun rules have a huge downside.

If you haven't yet woken up to the social Darwinism you will soon be neck deep in it and your 'opponents' will be wearing badges and body armor and they will be shooting to kill.

Your crime? You're part of the 'surplus population'...and this is how they plan on 'managing' it.

What YOU need to understand is the human population has outgrown the prevailing commerce system so rather than alter the system they intend to 'right-size' the population!

For the few it benefits Capitalism is perfect. The elite under capitalism want for nothing, the rest are left to deal as best they can with as little as possible.

Perfect system right?

Nope because it needs to be 'culled' or the excess turns up on the doorstep looking for 'theirs'.

Don't seem to realize NONE of it's 'theirs', it's all ours but for some reason they seem to think they are entitled to it or something like that.

Next thing you know they will want to move in next door!

Yep, this world belongs to our 'betters' and if we don't like it...tough.

Actually, it is the mistaken notion that our betters don't exist that is causing all of the problems.

Nobody is 'better' than anyone else...until they are.

Can't walk around telling others that you're better than they are and (expect to live...without wearing power body armor) Then they are somewhat bolder in their declaration of superiority.

There are those who take it as matter of fact that they are superior to you and they will prove it by paying half of us to kill the other half.

Do you doubt they will find enough stupid people to pull the trigger?

Bad bet.

What a sad epitaph, 'we couldn't help it that they were too stupid' (to defend themselves OR run) but that's how it's going to go down, even with this warning.

The trick here is to not get shot while making up your mind...

When the gloves come off it's going to be a class A fuckaree.

Thank yourself for being smart enough to visit!

Gegner

"tude"

Greetings good citizen, today's post hopes to illuminate the connection between attitude and performance. While the POTUS famously denounced his predecessors for giving away their military intentions, yesterday he told Syria that the Missiles are coming [then re-tweeted later that they might not come right away, for whatever good that's supposed to do.]

Then, in typical politico style, he announced a 'crackdown' on prostitution while doing nothing to prevent these females from being trafficked by the rapacious.

But if you don't use you head for anything more than a hat rack then these things don't occur to you...(such is the case for a majority of the 'not my problem' crowd.)

This raises the decidedly unpleasant spectre of providing welfare so the destitute won't be out our mugging the workers for the meager contents of their pockets. It seems we allow [turn a blind eye to] back street prostitution because it is somehow viewed by our 'guardians' as keeping their daughters safe from rapists who don't have a clue how to make themselves attractive to a female...or aren't attracted to the only females that would have anything to do with them.

Did I mention poverty and destitution are a bitch? [So is having to pay for it but that's another topic entirely!]

So what's the 'attitude' here? How about 'Not my problem'.

Further down on today's front page we were given the happy news that we won't be going to war with our southern neighbors anytime soon because like his predecessors before him, El Trumpo is skipping the conference of the Americas being held in Peru this year.

Nothing like re-enforcing the message that the third world exists to be plundered by the first!

Yeah good citizen, yet another thing that never occurs to you when you step into the ballot box to cast your vote. How that decision is being made for you without your ever being consulted.

How the feckless must howl over our collective STUPIDITY.

Good thing they think for us, eh? [Don't you just LOVE what they've done with the place?]

If you don't love it you know what you can do about it, don't you?

Ya know, not for nuthin we'd have a damn hard time convincing a visitor from elsewhere that this isn't some lost race's abandoned insane asylum.

Chew on that while you speculate on how we could turn this shitshow around.

Oh, that's right, thinking is above your pay grade. You're a 'do' monkey! You don't think, you just do! [Half the time whatever pops into your squeenie little head, doesn't matter what they tell you!]

Yeah, it's all about 'tude' and that you've got in spades! If you aren't smart at least you can be a bad ass. [even if you have no right pretending because there is nothing forbidding about you.

It's all about 'tude'!

Which, I suppose, brings us full circle to the insane asylum and what to do about it...

Paul Ryan has upset his GOP peers because he didn't wait until after the midterms to announce his 'retirement'.

What does that have to do with nut bins?

You'll figure it out. [unless your really simple an believe the GOP can be 'saved'...]

Thanks once again for letting me inside your mind,

Gegner

Speculation

Greetings good citizen, my home page for my online e-mail account tells me Paul Ryan is retiring from politics, joining the virtual stampede of GOP refugees as they decide to not seek re-election.

Are they trying to poison the punch bowl by flooding congress with neophyte legislators? What do you suppose Pollyanna will do if she suddenly finds herself holding the reins of power but has no clue what to do with them?

Will the oligarchs (that pretended they did't exist) burst onto the political stage and shut down the nation's industries because of their displeasure with the newly elected, self-styled Avengers? [No Strike today folks, you're all fired!]

How would YOU respond to such an act?

The reality of the situation is commerce needs YOU, it doesn't need THEM and would be better off without them!

Understand, the corporate owned media would be calling for the heads of the newly elected legislators because the media does what it's TOLD BY THE SAME PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR RUNNING OUR ECONOMY INTO THE GROUND REPEATEDLY!

And who are 'THEY'? The same oligarchs that pretend they don't exist. You don't know who they are [can you say 'corporate veil?] but they OWN everything, which is why they have more than they'll ever need and YOU will NEVER have enough!

If the dogs get too close [and I suspect the insiders like Ryan know what's coming] will El Trumpo resign rather than face the music? [All depends on his handlers. THEY might hold his feet to the fire when he has a demonstrated tendency to 'flee' and a decided aversion to daylight.]

Just like his 'handlers', the current POTUS is a creature of opaqueness. This legendary [in his own mind] 'deal maker' operates on quid pro quo with zero 'traceability'.

Just like his 'hush agreement' with Stormy Daniels, he doesn't believe in leaving paper trails.

Since Stormy and a few other bits of dirty laundry have surfaced since he's taken office, what do you suppose they REALLY have on him?

Why do you suppose Paul Ryan is heading for the exit door?

One thing is certain, the next presidential contest will overthrow this government.

The public is so frustrated with crumbling infrastructure and war without end [thanks mostly to stupid politicians!] that the voters will tear this nation apart for lack of a candidate that represents THEM.

Take a cold hard look, good citizen. Who on today's political stage has YOUR back?

My particular stage has been barren for quite some time but you know it is my opinion that what currently exists isn't even close to Democracy. I don't need no stinkin' representative. I'm perfectly capable of voting myself!

Did you see that thanks to 'kick the can' Republican's the teachers in Oklahoma didn't get their pay raise?

Is this the other reason Republicans are rushing for the exit door? [They give away the store to their campaign contributors and let the bills stack up, unpaid for everyone else...unlike those 'tax and spend' Democrats that no longer exist?

Nope, now the 'progressives' have adopted the same strategy they learned at the GOP's knee, 'mandate but don't fund' or borrow and spend [which, as you can imagine is even more expensive than tax and spend. [But the banksters are just fine with it...]

If we look at society from a 'check book' point of view [the same way we are 'taught' to misunderstand money] we will NEVER be able to pay back the trillions that the feckless have already looted from the treasury. [We do have the power to wipe that debt out with a 'stroke of the pen' and we will once we start teaching the public the TRUTH about money and its singular useful purpose.

Money is supposed to lift you up, not hold you back! Debt will be outlawed and there will be no way to transfer funds between individuals. Gift all you want but it is impossible to 'liquidate what isn't yours' because money is 'personal'.

Also ends the world's 'oldest profession' but since sex became deadly we're all better off 'handling' that ourselves.

There is a section of ASP that handles 'why money' and not a plain 'gift economy' where opportunists get first dibs on everything, which is why there will still be money. That and you'd never get a table at a restaurant [or find someone willing to work in one] if food were free. Same goes for hotel rooms. The entire hospitality industry would collapse without the regulating effects of 'money'.

For all of the conservatives screaming about being 'over-regulated' would YOU want to live in a 'first come, first serve' environment [where your access depended not only on being 'first' but on who you were related to and who you were sleeping with...capeche?]

Money isn't perfect but it's the best answer we've got...so far.

But I digress, is there a 'giant' we can all rally around? [Some will point at Hillary and others will point at Bernie but the world is beyond exhausted with 'retreads' of Wall Street's Proxies.]

Trouble with speculation is there are so many variables, if El Trumpo pushes the button to hide his, er, indiscretions, we'll all have bigger problems to cope with.

No speculation that the 'population bomb' is devouring society wholesale and it will continue to drive the 'refugee crisis' until Capitalism is brought to heel.

Probably more speculation than you can handle for one session, back to work!

Thanks once again for letting me inside your mind,

Gegner