My Parents Taught Me Not To Waste. Television, Not So Much.

 We noticed our kitchen garbage was smelling pretty bad and needed to be taken out. So right away my wife and I looked around the house for any waste paper baskets we could fill up the bag with. After that we went through the fridge to clear out any old food containers. It was only once we had a full garbage bag that it occurred to us: we could have just taken out a mostly empty bag.

 But it hadn’t occurred to us. That’s not how we were raised. A garbage bag had to be crammed full before you took it outside. It was just…the way.

A while before that happened, I found myself doing something I realized my parents would be proud of me for. I wasn’t accomplishing anything that would bring renown to the family name. What I was doing was making a peanut butter sandwich. But the part I felt they would approve of was that I was using a spatula to get the last bits of peanut butter out of the jar. Because that’s what they taught me to do when I was young and it was something I at that time resisted. Because it made extra work for me. But that was the reality they grew up in, both of them being raised during the depression when waste was not an option.

 Thrift was an inconvenient idea for people of my generation. We had so much in the way of material possessions and cheap goods it really was easier for us to throw something away and just get a new one. We were a generation torn between an older way of doing things and a new one.

 I don’t know about people younger than myself, but anyone my age or older experienced it: that moment when you brought an appliance or an electronic device to a repair shop to have it fixed, only to be told that it would be cheaper to buy a new one than repair it. We all felt the wrongness of it. But in the end, we were all taught to save a buck wherever possible. But we knew, we knew, that it shouldn’t be this way. We knew we were participating in a system that didn’t make sense. And yet we trusted the system, trusted progress, trusted authority…we trusted something. Because up until then it made sense to trust, because the system was working and it seemed like we were progressing and those telling us to trust didn’t seem all that scary.

  But that trust we had in a system has led us to where we are today. We live in a society where half the food we grow is wasted while the great lakes are being turned into dead zones due to the extensive fertilizer used to grow food we don’t even eat. We live in a society where people rent storage units to hold the possessions they don’t have room for. And the real cost for all the waste we engage in is finally becoming unavoidable.

 If I could tell one thing to young people today it would be what my parents told me. And their parents told them and so on, back into prehistory. Do not take what you do not need, do not take seconds until you are sure everyone else got a first serving. If you put something on your plate, you eat it. Do not waste because there are others in the world who do not have enough. Do not throw things away that are still good just because you want something better. The Baby Boomer generation hated the “There are kids starving in China” line, but that is only because the television spent more time raising them than their parents. An entire generation was hijacked by Madison Avenue to go against everything every adult ever tried to instill into their young.

 We have had it drilled into our heads that individual decisions and actions do not matter, but they do. They matter because values matter. This was never in contention until radio and television and the internet ushered in a new value system that served advertisers. It was a value system that was in direct opposition to what every parent tried to instill into their children until the time when advertisers had more influence on children than their own parents. That shift happened about the time when I was a child and television had established its place in American households. Let us be clear that what was established was an usurpation of corporate values over human values. It is the difficult but necessary task of each of us to overturn the values coup and reassert human values once more.

 The values we live by in our everyday lives have a ripple effect. They change not only the way we live our individual lives but also the way we perceive how society should be run. We need to live our values in order for them to be translated into society at large. The big changes society needs, which we know it needs, will not come about of their own accord. They will not come about when the right people are elected or the right technology becomes available. And it sure won’t come about through the media. It will come about when people live out simple but timeless values.

 It’s time to take the stinky garbage bag of corporate values to the curb.

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We Are All Melania

 

 A rich old man and she won't have to worry
She'll dress up all in lace and go in style

Did you ever wonder what it’s like to be Melania? I mean, on one hand she has just about everything a woman can ask for, doesn’t she? She can go anywhere in the world whenever she desires. She can go to a Broadway play or attend the Cannes Film Festival. If it were her thing, she could get courtside tickets to an NBA Finals game or ringside seats to a championship fight. She has everything she could possibly want at her fingertips.

 Undoubtedly such wealth and luxury and privilege has a price, though. I won’t go into it, but since I asked you to imagine what it would be like to be Melania, I’ll let you ponder the price she pays. It’s not merely the love she has to give to her golden-haired benefactor, it’s the life she might have lived and the love she might have had but was forced to abandon in order to be Mrs. Donald Trump. We all have our choices to make in life, best to think about them carefully before diving right in.

 Did she get tired or did she just get lazy?
She's so far gone she feels just like a fool

 And it’s not like it’s an entirely loveless marriage. While she may have married her sugar daddy only for the wealth and security he provided, at least he loves her, right? Until the day she realizes that the person she married doesn’t love her, either. Because billionaires who marry young women for their appearances aren’t capable of love. They’re just an object to them, an acquisition. I’d guess that realization has occurred to Melania already.

 Melania is not the first woman to sell her love for wealth. I remember the Anna Nichole Smith marriage to an octogenarian billionaire some years back. I’m sure I could name a lot more if I had spent more time watching ET, but countless men and women alike have cashed in their integrity in order that they might have an easier life.

 I confess to having been one of them.

 At first it all seemed so simple. At first I didn’t even realize I was giving up anything at all. I was able to see the world, was able to see many truly great concerts. I got to see Spock’s Beard perform their concept album Snow live in Nashville, Tribute perform New Views in Sweden, Magma perform in Paris, Black Widow in London, and Paul Robeson sing before coal miners in Scotland. I saw all of the most memorable boxing matches and I got to listen to Russell Brand, Aldous Huxley and so many others engage in intimate conversation. I was spoiled and I knew it, but I was only dimly aware of the price to be paid.

 My sugar daddy was YouTube. My relationship permitted me to see many amazing things I never would have seen otherwise. But like any relationship of this sort, all of the power resided with the sugar daddy. And the longer we hung around, the more I realized the price I was being asked to pay.

 There had always been the commercials, but in the beginning there weren’t that many. And It would be foolish of me to believe there wouldn’t be some cost for the wonderful gifts I was being provided. But then the commercials started coming more and more often until they started following one after another. And suggestions started being less helpful and searches more difficult. And videos just led into other videos instead of waiting for me to choose one.

 But even this was merely a dream relationship experiencing a bit of a coming down to earth. My sugar daddy still let me see whatever I wanted to see.

 Until one day he didn’t. One day I awoke to hear that Graham Elwood, Jamarl Thomas, and others had been demonetized by YouTube. Soon, people I greatly admired, amazing people I was introduced to by YouTube, were now being poorly treated by YouTube. All of the classic symptoms of an abusive relationship started revealing themselves. And I felt ashamed because I had been foolish enough to allow myself to enter into a relationship where I had none of the power.

 It wasn’t just Google. I had come to realize how so many of my relationships were unhealthy ones with rich and powerful entities who gave me things. And in turn I surrendered the healthy relationships I could have pursued even as I distanced myself from the idealism of my youth.

 She wonders how it ever got this crazy

 We’re all Melania nowadays. In an age and a country where Donald Trump can become president, it’s very hard not to be. We have all surrendered our youthful aspirations for comfort and luxury. And while we ooh and aah over each trinket we are given, I think we’re all getting to that point where we’re realizing they’re coming at a cost. At a cost to our integrity, to our innermost desires, our happiness, our sense of self. More than anything, we are starting to realize that our sugar daddies don’t really adore us the way we foolishly believed they did. We are coming to realize they are incapable of normal human emotions.

 For the record, it has been 54 days since I watched anything on YouTube. Furthermore, since Google owns YouTube, I got rid of Google Chrome and Google search engine, as well. Is this merely a symbolic gesture? Perhaps. But when you realize you’re in a loveless relationship, it’s time you start asking yourself if you need the luxuries that drew you to it in the first place. And while you might not be ready to leave your comfortable but soul-crushing situation, you better start planning an eventual escape. Because before too long, the golden-haired sugar daddy is going to creep into your bed at night and demand some payback for all he has given you.

 I love you, little yellow bird,

But I love my freedom, too.

So good-bye, little yellow bird.

I'd rather brave the cold

On a leafless tree

Than a prisoner be

In a cage of gold

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*Lyrics are from Lyin’ Eyes by The Eagles and Goodbye Little Yellow Bird W. Hardgreave

An Evening Watching MSNBC

  MSNBC Host: Intelligence officials today said they have determined that Russia did undetermined bad things. For more on this, let me bring on a guest who has spent her entire career in the intelligence community. Welcome Josephine McCarthy. Josephine, can you confirm for me that Russia did unspecified bad things?

 Josephine: I spoke to someone in the intelligence community today and he confirmed for me that Russia did indeed do unspecified things that were bad.

 MSNBC Host: Well, I guess that question has been answered. Could you give the audience any example of a thing the Russians did that was bad?

 Josephine: The agency cannot confirm any specific thing happened, but they have assured me that things were done, Russians did them, and the things done were bad things.

 MSNBC Host: Shocking! When we return from our commercial break, we’ll talk to a security expert about how we can protect people on social media from hearing untrue ideas.

 Commercial: Raytheon. Making the world safe, one drone strike at a time.

Commercial: MSNBC, providing you in-depth news coverage to help you understand the world in which we live.

Commercial: Are you experiencing side-effects from the prescription medication Control, commonly used to alleviate the side-effects of the drug Pacifex? Ask your doctor if Neutrol might be right for you. From the makers of Zombien and Blissoquil.

 MSNBC Host: Welcome back. As of late there have been a lot of fake news stories going around, undermining the truth reported by establishment media. Here to answer our questions about how we can stop people from believing ridiculous notions, like Jeffrey Epstein not killing himself, is Spooky McSpookface. He’s an expert in propaganda with the CIA. Other people’s propaganda. Spooky, it’s great to have you back on again. If you could just start out, why is it that you think people’s faith in establishment media has never been lower?

 Spooky: Well, incredibly racist people, egged on by the genetically inclined to crime Russians, have been spreading information unapproved by the agencies that can be very damaging.

 MSNBC Host: Can you give us an example?

 Spooky: Yes. Some people on social media are suggesting the U.S. should pull troops out of Afghanistan.

 MSNBC Host: Shocking!

 Spooky: I know. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Some people are even suggesting we return Syrian oil fields to the Syrians.

 MSNBC: Barbarians! Do these people have any idea how dangerous to world peace that would be?

 Spooky: They have no idea. This is why people need someone to do their thinking for them. Why, it gets even worse than that. Some people are actually claiming that intelligence agencies are themselves spreading untruthful narratives.

 MSNBC Host: Rascists!

 Spooky: You know, there are many people of color who work for the intelligence agencies, and when I hear such accusations, it makes me think Jim Crow has never really gone away.

 MSNBC Host: I’m sorry but we’re going to have to leave it there. We have just received breaking news. Unnamed intelligence officials have confirmed that Russia has done further unspecified bad stuff. Stay tuned for Rachel Maddow, who will undoubtedly speculate about what sort of bad stuff they may have done.

  Rachel Maddow: Tonight…we have learned that Russia did bad stuff. Does Putin never sleep?I wonder. You know, Ted Cruz left the country lately, supposedlytogoonvacationwithhisfamily. But…it’s a little odd...don’t you think? I mean…leaving the country when a deadly Siberian storm was bearing down on his home state of Texas was not very good timing on his part. What if, and as of yet this has not been confirmed, what if he was making pee videos with Russian prostitutes? What if--

 (Click)

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The News Is What's Newsworthy

 

 Once again I was made aware of a current event and dove into a provided article in order to learn the facts about it. I’m not sure what the source was, I think it was something like The Daily Beast or Buzz Feed or the Cranky Turtle, or something like that. I miss the days when news agencies didn’t try to have hipster sounding names and stuck to names like The Post, The Tribune, or The Reporter. At least then you knew they were owned by establishment types, whereas now you’re led to believe they are led by hip young counter-culture types.

 The news of the day was that Disney fired Gina Carano for making controversial remarks on social media. I clicked on the link to read the actual article to find out what she said. I don’t think people are actually expected to do this, I think they are supposed to take their cues from headlines and have their opinions provided to them rather than making up their own minds. Nevertheless, the purveyors of news feel like they have to give the appearance of actual reporting by including an article to go along with the headline. It’s a time-waster for suckers like me who hope to find actual substance in it.

 It turns out that the headline these days is the frosting on a sponge cake. Made from an actual sponge. There is not actual “there” there, anymore, not in mainstream media. My experience with corporate journalism articles since Trump became president has been this: Enticing headline which makes me want to know more, followed by paragraphs that reassert the headline without giving actual evidence for the assertion, peppered with links that don’t provide the actual evidence I’m looking for, often ending in an admission that the actual assertions might not be true. Look at any Russiagate article you’ve shared with others with a critical eye and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

 Before going any further, I would like to point out that I am not and have never been a Republican or a conservative. I have always considered myself to be firmly on the left, which is why I’ve always been sensitive regarding the idea that people’s livelihoods can be ruined because of the way they exercise their freedom of speech. I always thought this was a liberal idea. After all, Joe McCarthy was a Republican who smeared and ruined the lives of many a leftist. But it is also worth noting that it was during a Democratic administration that the silencing of Paul Robeson took place. It was under a Democratic administration that Eartha Kitt’s career was derailed after she spoke out against the Vietnam War in front of Ladybird Johnston.

 Here is one article on the firing of Gina Carano that serves as a template for what is wrong with journalism in general. Please keep in mind the title says Here’s Why Gina Carano Was Fired From ‘The Mandalorian’, the key word being “Why”.

 According to the article, “she reshared a post that seemed to suggest having a differing political view in 2021 was similar to being Jewish during the Holocaust”. A statement from Lucasfilm states “Her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”

 That’s a big stretch there. Taken on faith that Carano’s intent was to suggest having a differing political view was similar to being Jewish during the Holocaust, it does not equate to “denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities” In fact, it implies that Carano is identifying with the Jews, not denigrating them. Nor is the post intended to equate Republicans with Jews so much as it is to equate the current political climate with something capable of becoming comparable to Nazi Germany. Her crime is one of hyperbole and a demonstration of Godwin’s Law, but I do not see it as a denigration of people based on their cultural and religious identities.

 The comparison of one’s political opponents to Nazis is overused, but there is some value to it. You don’t want to wait until eugenics is in full swing to start comparing people to Nazis. It’s the kind of thing you want to nip in the bud, so in my opinion, it is safer to compare bad behavior to Nazism than it is to worry about hurting people’s sensibilities.

 Besides, it’s not like Democrats have not been engaging in the exact same behavior for four years. Type in an image search for “Trumpler” and see what you come up with (Let me know how many pages of images you find).

 So is that the trespass she is accused of? Comparing the current political climate to Nazi Germany? I guess the way to prove her wrong would be to incite a mob on social media to demand she be fired from her job, right?

 There’s more, though, than just that one tweet, I get it. There was a string of unpopular things she shared on social media, this was merely the final straw. Apparently, she shared memes that “made fun of the mask mandate in California, compared former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial to Groundhog Day, and claimed Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself.”

 In terms of spreading the belief that Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself, few people believe the official story. I know exactly one person who implied he did. Virtually everybody knows there’s more to the story than we are being told, and many just shorthand the assertion that the media is lying by saying “Epstein didn’t kill himself.” Do I personally think he did? How would I know, the cameras that were supposed to be watching him didn’t work. But everybody knows that it’s fishy as hell. Even the media people whose job it is to silence discussion on Jeffrey Epstein know it, even if they can’t say it.

 As for her comparing Trump’s second impeachment to Groundhog Day, is this seriously a reason for getting someone fired? Seriously?

 Lastly is the issue of her making fun of California’s mask mandate. On this issue I personally disagree with her. At least I think I do, I’m not personally familiar with California’s mask mandate. And I’m not sure what exactly she said, though I suspect it would be nothing I would try to get someone fired for. Let us delve further into the article and get to the specifics.

 Except there are no further tweets or other social media shares to be found in the article. Let me correct myself, there are no further tweets found in the article by Gina Carana. Instead the article shares angry tweets by anonymous tweeters calling for Carana to be fired. Within one is the assertion that she has expressed transphobic sentiments. But the article does not go on to share any evidence to back up the claim of an anonymous person on Twitter. Let me be clear: this article includes the assertion of an anonymous person on Twitter, and then does absolutely nothing to say if that assertion is true or false.

 And this passes for journalism. Maybe it’s just me, but if I were paid to report on the reason why someone in the public eye lost her job for voicing her political opinions, I would do the work and provide the actual social media posts she made, rather than the angry tweets of anonymous people.

 I was introduced to this story by someone sharing another article. It was an article that told me how I should perceive the situation without providing me with the evidence I needed to make up my own mind. I responded to the social media post by saying I could not find the actual statements she made or shared. Someone else commented that I should follow the links in the article. That person had assumed that actual paid journalists would provide such information. But I had long ago discovered differently. There were links, yes, but nothing to anything that provided any evidence. Not unlike the Russiagate article I linked to above, which had no links even insinuating ANYTHING about any Russians. The article in question was shared with me by an intelligent person hoping to persuade me that Russian collusion was fact. An article that mentions Russia nowhere but in the headline.

 Journalism in our era is not there to provide you with information, it is there to provide you with opinion. But if you take exception to anything provided by establishment media, you are accused of not accepting the facts or reality. And arguing your case will never amount to anything.

 They’ve got this down to a science. They have propaganda and manipulation of the masses down to a science. In the nearly one hundred years since the nephew of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays, began using psychological principles for marketing and propaganda purposes, think tanks and government entities have learned a lot. You have to be aware of how this stuff works if you don’t want to fall prey to it. Read everything critically, with the knowledge that there is always someone trying to manipulate your feelings and how you view reality.

 Again, I am not and have never been a member of the Republican Party. I am not writing what I am writing to defend them or Gina Carano or any particular position. I am writing this in the attempt to hold Democrats and the (alleged) left media to a standard that rises above FOX News or Alex Jones. Right now, I often wonder if they’re even capable of rising to the same sad standard.

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In Defense Of Slavery

(I have taken many of the arguments I am currently hearing and imagining them being employed by someone a couple of hundred years ago)

I’m sick of people saying slavery as a way of organizing an economy is bad. Have there been abuses? Sure. Is the system perfect? No. But we must remember that the United States of America was built on slavery. Our very culture of freedom and opportunity would not today exist if it were not for an economy based in slavery. No, it is not perfect. And yes, there are ways it can be improved. Nevertheless, slavery is the greatest economic system that has ever existed.

 Before you consider throwing out the economic foundation that our country was founded on in favor of some foreign system, take a long hard look at what the alternatives are. Take a look at the Native American tribes in the west who do not have an agrarian economy based on ownership of other people. Everywhere their tribes are failing, their way of life disintegrating. Instead of intelligent employment of slaves to produce what they need, they rely on buffalo for food, clothing and housing. And what is the result? A rapidly shrinking supply of buffalo. When will they admit their system does not work?

 Regard, also, our neighbors to the south. Why, it has been scarce two score years since Mexico has done away with slavery, and in that short amount of time, their ability to govern their own affairs has been so lacking that the United States was forced to take control of the territories of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Texas, clear proof that an economy based on slavery is superior to the alternative. In Central and in South America, too, once-thriving industries have suffered as the result of a transition to a non-slave economy. Their mining of precious minerals has plummeted, their rubber plantations a mere shadow of what they once were.

 What many regard as cruelty and injustice in a slave-holding economy is actually part of a self-regulating system. For example, many people are disinclined through experience with other forms of economies to climb underground to dig for emeralds. These individuals, lacking in personal ambition, must be induced to be productive members of a society. Likewise, there are many who are unwilling to do the work of picking cotton, ironing people’s linens, and slopping out the barn. It is the unfortunate burden of those better capable of understanding how the world operates to ensure others do their part.

 Of course, the tools employed to ensure compliance in a system based on slavery can seem harsh to those unfamiliar with the system. But it has been demonstrated time and again that the whipping and enslavement of workers has dramatically decreased the need for prisons. In many cases, sparing the rod is not ultimately the most compassionate treatment.

 And while the slave seems at first glimpse to be a tool and not a treasured member of society, nothing could be further from the truth. The slave is the most highly valued resource of the slave owner. The owner of a plantation is quite aware, believe you me, that all the wealth he has acquired could not be achieved without the labor of his slaves. That is why he will do everything possible to be certain his slaves are kept at peak operating efficiency.

 For example, slave owners have an economic stake in keeping their slaves well-fed. It hardly requires explaining that the better nourished a slave is, the more productive he will be and the richer his owner will be in return. Moreover, a sick slave is an unproductive slave, which is why a smart slave owner will make sure the slave who is sick, or injured due to corrective whipping, will receive adequate health care. Why, one could hardly imagine a worker taking as much interest in his own health as the man who owns him.

 Now, I won’t pretend that there aren’t flaws and imperfections in the slavery system. But most of these flaws result not from the practice of slavery but due to government interference in a pure slavery system. Well-meaning but ignorant do-gooders are always trying to improve upon the slavery economy, but in the end they only do more harm than good. The system works best when it is allowed to work as it was intended. Outside interference will only make things worse.

 Lastly, there is the racial component to slavery. On this subject, I must wholeheartedly agree with the critics of slavery. For too long, the racial identity of slave owners has been overwhelmingly white while slaves have been disproportionately persons of color. This needs to change, and we must do whatever it takes to make sure people of color have access to the ownership of slaves of whatever color, gender, or orientation. But it would be a foolish mistake if we were to, in the process of integrating the ownership of slaves, harm the very institution that has allowed so many slaveholders and slaves alike to experience a wealth other nations (the Cree Nation, the Navajos, and the Cherokee, just to name a few) can only dream of. 

We do not need to abolish the slave economy, we just need to ensure that it is allowed to work as it was intended and without bias as regards to race, gender, or sexual bias.

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