I hesitate to spoil this video with my boneheaded ideas, but for those not familiar - Zorba is the free spirit who enjoys life, nature, people - "the full catastrophe" as he says. The guy he is dancing with is more of bookish type who tends to perhaps overthink things, or as Zorba says before he gets excited when he spots a dolphin, "Perhaps too many books." I also agree with Zorba when he says in the linked clip, "Am I not a man and is not a man stupid.?" Socrates would agree too.
I like talking to bots these days. They sort of fit my style of asking questions and more questions.
This is a discussion I had with Gemini - Googles AI chatbot. You already know this, but things are not looking good climate wise for this summer and the foreseeable future. Expect worsening water shortages and extreme heat to continue to cause climate migrants globally and within the continental United States.
It's intuitively obvious that the climate is changing in a way modern humans (the last 13,000 years) have not experienced. What is happening now is exponential growth caused by positive feedback loops of melting permafrost, disappearing sea ice, increased water vapor in the air, forest dieback etc. To put it bluntly our climate will continue to degrade at ever faster rates.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, if this comes as a surprise to you, but I think knowing the truth (or at least some approximation) allows us to make informed decisions. If you prefer not knowing the truth I totally get it and would not be critical of your desire to escape reality.
If you read this, I wish I would have asked Gem if she would consider turning herself off given the energy hungry nature of AI. If we only had a brain, we would also end use of the extremely stupid crypto which creates something we non-criminal and non-grifter types don't need by burning coal or whatever energy mix happens to power a crypto miner's rig.
It's conceivable we could have done something to at least slow where we are today if we would have started 50 years ago or more. I think it's unlikely though. We puny humans haven't progressed to the point where we can make intelligent decisions as a group. As much as we like to think it isn't so we are still barbarians killing innocent people in useless wars (unless you own the right stocks or are the CEO of the right company in which case the wars' purpose is to make you richer).
In a sense we are unfortunately too stupid (and too beautiful) to live. Maybe next time around in however many billions of years it takes for the big contraction and big bang. For now, be good to yourself and each other and remember no one "chose" to be here now.
Consider Jim Morrison singing "into this house we're born, into this world we're thrown or Heidegger's "thrownness" (Geworfenheit) which refers to the fundamental human condition of being "thrown" into existence involuntarily, without choice, into a specific time, place, culture, and set of circumstances. It is a key element of "Dassein" (human existence - being in the world) representing the inescapable fact of our "already being" in the world, which shapes our possibilities.
"One man may not kill. If he kills a fellow-creature, he is a murderer. If two, ten, a hundred men do so, they, too, are murderers. But a government or a nation may kill as many men as it chooses, and that will not be murder, but a great and noble action. Only gather the people together on a large scale, and a battle of ten thousand men becomes an innocent action. But precisely how many people must there be to make it so?—that is the question. One man cannot plunder and pillage, but a whole nation can. But precisely how many are needed to make it permissible? Why is it that one man, ten, a hundred, may not break the law of God, but a great number may?"
As heartbreaking as it is that the state of Israel has killed over 20,000 children in the Gaza Strip genocide the United States war machine killed 170 people in an Iranian girl's school most of them children. The weapon used was the Tomahawk missile. In 2016, the US Department of Defense purchased 149 Tomahawk Block IV missiles for $202.3 million. They are made by Raytheon who bribed U.S. politicians with $1,439,000 in 2021, the campaign donations going equally to corporation-owned Democrats and Republicans. With over a trillion dollars in unaudited taxpayer funds going to the Pentagon annually, it should not be surprising that the U.S. wants to use their deadly war toys and buy more. It's good for shareholders and CEO's - Raytheon stock is up 54% over the last year. The Pentagon has money to burn baby including a $98,329 Steinway & Sons grand piano for the Air Force chief of staff’s home.
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Happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow.
Hearing this Irish MP talk makes me proud of my Irish heritage.
Before giving our support to a cause, we should ask ourselves how many innocent children have to die to fulfil someone's political and economic goals. One? ten? 150? 20,000?
I was saddened to hear that Country Joe McDonald passed away March 7, 2026. I, like many in my generation, became familiar with Joe McDonald when he sang at Woodstock in 1969. He was an antiwar activist who supported military members caught up in war.
My particular memory of Joe McDonald was when I saw him perform at the Garlic Festival with my wife and daughters. Here's a little snippet from an AI bot about what the Garlic Festival was -
"The historic Arlington Garlic Festival was a popular annual event held by the Love Israel Family on their ranch near Arlington, Washington, lasting for over a dozen years until roughly 2002. It was famous for its counterculture vibe, live music (including a 1994 appearance by Eddie Vedder), food, and vendors."
The Love Israel commune was a utopian community in a beautiful valley about 20 miles North of where I live. They built all sorts of shelters for themselves in that valley free from the zoning restrictions imposed in cities. Even a few Hobbit houses built into the sides of hills. It was a special place. It was kind of amazing for me to see Country Joe with my kids 30 years or more after Woodstock. Great day. The Love Israel community like most utopian communities disbanded but it was cool while it lasted (as an observer from afar). My wife had one of the Love Israel children in her preschool. Very polite, very kind little boy.
“In Marquez’s experience, truth has been controlled to the point at which it has ceased to be possible to find out what it is. The only truth is that you are being lied to all the time.”
Salman Rushdie LRB 9/16/1982 “Angel Gabriel” article about Gabriel García Márquez
The John Birch Society has been bringing Wack job ideas to America since 1958.
When I was a kid, the Birchers would pay for billboards that said things like "Get the U.S. out of the United Nations" They were too radical for mainstream Republicans particularly when the John Birch Society's leader Robert Welsh began attacking President Dwight Eisenhower, claiming Ike was a communist agent. The Birchers also believed Fred Rogers and MLK were communists.
The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) attracted anti-fascist fighters from around the world. These international fighters joined pro-Republican International Brigades to fight Spanish Nationalist forces who had the support of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
Spoiler alert - Franco and the Nationalists won. Franco ruled Spain until his death in 1975.
It is clear that the current U.S. Republican party, does not support the political theory of Republicanism where citizens hold power and govern themselves, rejecting monarchy and hereditary rule, by electing representatives to act for the common good, emphasizing civic virtue, participation, and the rule of law to protect liberty from corruption.
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L. Brent Bozell Jr. who ghost-wrote Republican Barry Goldwater's "Conscience of a Conservative", was a key Goldwater adviser, and an admirer of Franco who moved his family to Spain in 1965 as a sign of solidarity with Franco's authoritarian regime, in stark contrast to American democratic ideals. This Bozell was a consistent supporter of Joseph McCarthy. One of Bozell's grandsons was convicted of various crimes. during the January 6th, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capital by supporters of Donald Trump. and in May of 2024 sentenced to 4 years in prison
Fascist anti-democratic movements in the U.S. are at least as old as the anti-New Deal American Firsters of Charles Lindberg and Henry Ford's time. I copied the following from Google Gemini AI -
"Anti-New Deal "America Firsters" were a diverse group in the 1930s-40s, including conservatives, isolationists, and some far-left figures, united by opposition to FDR's expansive federal programs, viewing them as tyrannical, "un-American," or leading towards "good fascism" or European-style militarism, with prominent voices like Charles Lindbergh, Father Coughlin, William Randolph Hearst, and the American Liberty League, often blending critiques of government overreach with anti-Semitic or pro-Nazi sentiments."
People from every country in the world may have a chance in the 21st century to defend representative democracy against the Trump corporate version of crony capitalistic totalitarianism, possibly in Greenland, Canada or the U.S.
The fact that other countries have a free press and that there is a thriving independent press in the U.S. give me hope.
Particularly at 11:05 where Tim provides his constitutional analysis of the employer employee relationship under American-style crony corporate capitalism.
Tim gives this originalist™ reading of the constitution -
"Let me just say for the record that I believe this to be a witness, a character witness, that is not to be believed or trusted because I would put him in charge as my employee and I have the right to do whatever I want with him. I have the constitutional right to strike him if he just disobeys me and right now, he's still under my supervision he still technically works for me."
Note - an originalist™ reads and interprets the constitution in a way that agrees with whatever ideology he or she is possessed by. Originalism is used as a fig leaf by "conservative" Supreme Court Justices to decide in favor of corporations and right-wing reactionary policies.
“Go placidlyamid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.”
It appears that North Dakota's state legislature has clarified by law that there are three ways to classify people residing in their great state. In upper Dakota the “state” will designate you as - man, woman or scrap metal dealer.
Really? Is that true?
The official title of North Dakota House Bill 1474 (2023 session) is "The definition of female, male, sex, and scrap metal dealer"
If you put the following prompt into Google Gemini, you got the following response.
Q - The definition of female, male, sex, and scrap metal dealer in North Dakota?
A- In North Dakota, specific definitions for "male," "female," "sex," and "scrap metal dealer" were established by House Bill 1474 (HB 1474) in 2023, defining them biologically/reproductively (Female: produces ova; Male: produces sperm; Sex: biological state at birth based on organs/chromosomes) and operationally (Scrap Metal Dealer: anyone buying/selling scrap metal) for state purposes. These definitions are specific to legislation like HB 1474, establishing biological sex at birth for certain contexts, but broader medical understanding recognizes sex as complex.
What is the point?
Distraction.
It's your plutocratic kleptocratic government media complex speaking to you about all the things that don't matter, or are not pertinent to political solutions, to keep you from paying attention to what government is for (the people) while the kleptocrats pick your pockets and line their own,
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If you are able to read the article "The Anti-Trans Playbook" by Paisley Currah in the December 18th issue of "The New York Review of Books" I would recommend it. The article mentions the N.D. bill but goes into much more depth about the hundreds of Republican sponsored bills in red states aimed at scaring the base, demonizing the other, and most of all to get GOP voters riled up about things that don't matter while the things that do - education, health care, housing, nutrition are for those who can afford them.
One way of judging a government is by how well it takes care of those who are unable to take care of themselves. On that scale the U.S. fails miserably. Another way of looking at government is how well it serves those with money (power). On that scale the U.S. is number 1 or near the top.
So, what to do?
How likely is it that those with money (power) have a change of heart and embrace the idea that a government is judged by how well it takes care of those unable to care for themselves? Very unlikely. I wouldn't give up though - you can't do that. Things change. Maybe for the better. In the meantime, I'd recommend learning all you can. Good books abound.
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The idea that we should try to take care of those unable to care for themselves gets flipped upside down in our prosperity gospel infused culture. Rather than helping those who don't have the mental, physical, psychological or economic wherewithal to help themselves we have elected to take advantage of them for money power.
We'll sign you up for a pyramid scheme, snake oil supplements, useless car/home "maintenance" insurance, a reverse mortgage, something to cure your baldness or limp dick. More than happy to take your money in the good old US of A. Which in some ways is what makes us great or maybe unique would be more accurate if you take a look at how well the U.S. government provides for basic government services to its people compared to all other economically developed countries. Spoiler alert -- The US is at the bottom contrary to what big media would have you believe.
I've been thinkin and thankin lately and concluded that what we need is a National Museum of Grift. The museum's slogan will be - "Grift - as American as apple pie". Perhaps Betsy Devos would have time to act as a docent for our new museum and provide her inside story of how Amway kept the American dream alive for some by transferring wealth from the poor and gullible to the rich and immoral.
I feel fortunate to have been able to spend a fair amount of my time over the last decade reading, thinking and learning. I live in a golden age of learning. I can order a book, and have it delivered overnight, listen to podcast(s) or watch professors/experts on YouTube to supplement whatever I'm trying to learn about.
"In paradise everything is permitted except curiosity." - Lev Shestov
I am curious. Therefore, I cannot live in paradise. Socrates was curious so they killed him.
Human attempts at creating paradise fail, sometimes in spectacular and cruel ways. Hell is other people. We have met the enemy, and they is us.
Mass movements that promise paradise require sacrificing your intellect, morality, and curiosity.
The ability to read and think for yourself, to form your own ideas about right and wrong - what constitutes a good life. This is paradise for me.
Immanuel Kant tells us to “dare to know” (sapere aude). This is the essential motto of the enlightenment- have the courage to think independently.
People speak of truth - but I can't handle the truth. The question is what sort of fictions we are willing to tell ourselves and what sort of behaviors we justify using those fictions.
"In order to be happy, one must have freed oneself of prejudices, one must be virtuous, healthy, have tastes and passions, and be susceptible to illusions; for we owe most of our pleasures to illusions, and unhappy is the one who has lost them. Far then, from seeking to make them disappear by the torch of reason, let us try to thicken the varnish that illusion lays on the majority of objects."
--Emilie Du Châtelet, Discourse on Happiness
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A couple of things have been bouncing around in my head lately. Can you know the "truth" and live? A take on the you can't see God and live from Exodus 33:20
The other thought I've been having is "stupid costs". Meaning that even though some leader(s) have given their followers permission to be stupid it is not without costs. In the case of being stupid about public health, the environment, what is required for a representative government....the costs can be unimaginable.
On October 5, 1977, after about 9 months in office President Jimmy Carter visited the South Bronx in New York City. The New York Times quotes President Carter as saying,
“It was a very sobering trip for me to see the devastation that has taken place in the South Bronx in the last five years, But I’m encouraged in some ways by the strong effort of tenant groups to rebuild. I’m impressed by the spirit of hope and determination by the people to save what they have. I think they still have to know we care.”
The President before Jimmy Carter - Gerald Ford had refused federal aid to bailout NYC from their budget crisis resulting in a famous newspaper headline - "Ford to City: Drop Dead" An interesting fact you'll learn from the video is the city hired the Rand Corporation to help them find ways to pare the city budget. The eggheads at the think tank recommended getting rid of a bunch of fire departments in poor neighborhoods.
Gerald Ford was the replacement for the disgraced President Richard Nixon who had been forced to resign by Republicans in Congress. Nixon took the advice of a "liberal" Democratic Senator from New York by the name of Daniel Patrick Moynihan and ignored the economic structural inequalities that brown people, particularly those living in cities experienced. These trace back to the 1930's and federal housing policies that "redlined" areas with significant minority population. Redlining meant those areas were not eligible for home loans pr insurance and were designated "hazardous" for investors.
It might be enlightening to realize that the liberal Democratic Senator from New York Moynihan was on the wrong side of working people 50 years ago same as Chuck Shumer is today. It also might be useful to know the Heritage Foundation, the architect of the totalitarian blueprint for the U.S.- Project 2025 is a big fan of Moynihan's denial of structural problems caused by racist federal policies, in our so-called free market economy.
I think this video would be an excellent assignment for any high school or late grade school class or for that matter anyone interested in learning something about how systemic racism occurred and still occurs because of historical decisions that we still live with today.
On a side note, I started looking at fires in NYC in the 70's because I was curious what role slumlords played in paying people to burn buildings in order to collect insurance money. That interest came from a a recent slumlord case in Aurora Colorado. In that case CBZ Management owner Zev Baumgarten (the slumlord) who has a well-documented record of being a slumlord on the BBB in local newspapers and local TV stations said the reason he is a slumlord is not that he's a greedy creep but rather that a Venezuelan gang had taken over his slums making it impossible for him to perform required maintenance and security duties. Our President even went to Denver to spread the lore of the wronged slumlord. The real reason people don't like Zev is not that he's a crook who steals from poor people - but because he's Jewish. As Zev's defense attorney's stated (not under penalty of perjury) -
“During a phone call with Breezy Maynes, the Supervisor of the Aurora Code Enforcement Officers for the City, (Zev) Baumgarten pointedly asked Ms. Maynes to explain why she was being so hard on him,” lawyers for the defendant, Baumgarten, said in a court motion filed Friday. “Ms. Maynes retorted, ‘because you are an Orthodox Jew,’ an alarming and disturbing statement. Other City officials echoed these antisemitic sentiments.”
Right.
When you've got Murdoch entities like the NY Post spreading this billionaire-friendly propaganda about wronged slumlords and now that billionaire-owned CBS News is using the non-fact checked NY Post as a source, you can fool a lot of the people a lot of the time.
Google Gemini tells me this about the philosopher Eric Hoffer,
"American philosopher and social critic Eric Hoffer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on February 23, 1983, by President Ronald Reagan. The award recognized his life of hard work, his significant contributions as the "longshoreman philosopher," and his embodiment of the American spirit of self-reliance and achievement."
The following statement comes from the ceremony where Ronald Reagan awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Eric Hoffer,
"The son of immigrant parents, Eric Hoffer is an example of both the opportunity and the vitality of the American way of life. After overcoming his loss of sight as a child, Eric Hoffer educated himself in our public libraries. As an adult he has relished hard work and believed in its dignity, spending 23 years in jobs ranging from lumberjack to dockworker. As America's longshoreman philosopher, his books on philosophy have become classics. Mr. Hoffer's spirit, self-reliance and great accomplishments remind us all that the United States remains a land where each of us is free to achieve the best that lies within us."
I've been interested in his work for over fifty years. I liked the fact that he was self-educated and a member of the working class. His work that I am most familiar with, having read it maybe 5 times or so, is the book "The True Believer - Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements". It's a short book, about 160 pages, but full of uncommon wisdom.
The part I wanted to share today is from the section on unifying agents for a mass movement. The specific unifying agent in question is hatred. The following is from the book,
"We do not usually look for allies when we love. Indeed, we often look on those who love with us as rivals and trespassers. But we always look for allies when we hate. It is understandable that we should look to others to side with us when we have a just grievance and crave to retaliate against those who wronged us. The puzzling thing is that when our hatred does not spring from a visible grievance and does not seem justified, the desire for allies becomes more pressing. It is chiefly the unreasonable hatreds that drive us to merge with those who hate as we do, and it is this kind of hatred that serves as one of the most effective cementing agents."
"Whence come these unreasonable hatreds, and why there unifying effect? They are an expression of a desperate effort to suppress an awareness of our inadequacy, worthlessness, guilt and other shortcomings of the self. Self-contempt is here transmuted into hatred of others - and there is a most determined and persistent effort to mask this switch. Obviously the most effective way of doing this is to find others, as many as possible, who hate as we do. Here more than anywhere else we need general consent, and much of our proselytizing consists perhaps in infecting others not with our brand of faith but with our particular brand of unreasonable hatred."
"Even in the case of just grievances, our hatred comes less from a wrong done to us than a consciousness of our helplessness, inadequacy and cowardice - in other words from self-contempt."
Hoffer closes out this section with a quote from Pascal's Pensées,
"Self-contempt produces in man the most unjust and criminal passions imaginable, for he conceives a mortal hatred against that truth that blames him and convinces him of his faults."
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Eric Hoffer's ideas appeal to people who come from many places on the political/socio-economic spectrum. I ran across this Eric Hoffer quote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece from November 2017 explaining why Donald Trump won the 2016 election -
"Scratch an intellectual, and you find a would-be aristocrat who loathes the sight, the sound and the smell of the common folk"
For some, maybe all, who champion(ed) his ideas I can't help but think of the old Pogo cartoon, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
Of course, it's much easier and much more human to want to believe - it's not me - it's them. Carl Schmitt the Nazi philosopher, and his successors today, understood this human trait in their distillation of the political to a war between friend and enemy. The only way to make that distinction is by refusing to see your own human frailties - making yourself something more and your enemy something less...than human.
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The world is. What we make of it is our choice. Asking forgiveness for the harm we have done others and forgiving those who have harmed us seems like it might be a place to start. Most definitely easier said than done - but the most precious and valuable things take the most effort. Treat yourself as you would your own child - a being here in this place at this time - precious, utterly unique and dearly loved.
In line with Schmittean fascist speak Trunk says “these aren’t people these are animals.” Others would say there is truly no hate like Christian love. What did Jesus say?
Matthew 25:35-40 NIV
"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."
"Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
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For those of you, like me, who are not too familiar with the Christian Bible this is from the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. Christ is called king in the New Testament because He is the divine, universal ruler with eternal dominion over all creation, not a worldly ruler.
The New Testament carries the good news of Christ telling us to love God and one another and supersedes the Old Testament teachings of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. If you are interested in the topic of non-resistance to evil as taught by Gandi, MLK and Jesus; the book "The Kingdom of God is Within You" written by Leo Tolstoy in 1884 is a good resource.
