Category Archives: Rage and Frenzy Politics

Turning frantic argument into constructive debate with historical context, facts, and solutions.

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All, Global Carbon Transfer

Heat Capacities of the Atmosphere and the Oceans

Volume
  • Volume of the atmosphere: not really meaningful.
  • Volume of Earth’s oceans: 1.335×1018 m3
Mass
  • Mass of the atmosphere: 5.15×1018 Kg
  • Mass of the oceans: ~1.4×1021 Kg
    • Average salinity: 0.035 Kg salt per Kg water, so 3.5% by mass.
  • The oceans are 272x the mass of the atmosphere.
Specific Heat
  • Specific heat of “air” at 250K is 1005 J/KgK
  • Specific heat of ocean water is ~4000 J/KgK
Total Heat Capacity
  • Total heat capacity of the atmosphere: 5.2×1021 J/K
  • Total heat capacity of the oceans: 5.6×1024 J/K
  • The heat capacity of the oceans is ~1,077x the heat capacity of the atmosphere.

I think it’s interesting that the ocean is only 272x the mass of the atmosphere. That is knowable intuitively if you know the approximate pressure deep-sea subs deal with or know that 10m of water is equal to about 1 atmosphere of presure.

Another interesting scale to put in perspective is that the hydrosphere is about 0.023% of Earth’s total mass. So the Earth mass is about the mass of 4,300 oceans.

All, Rage and Frenzy Politics

Snitch Lines

Citizens in Delaware Ohio and Columbus Ohio are encouraged to snitch on each other, even anonymously, for not covering their face or for large gatherings. Fact.

Delaware Ohio

To snitch in Delaware, go to this address:

https://delawarehealth.org/covid-19/

or call the hotline at 833-427-5364

Delaware is seeking mask snitching specifically:

Columbus Ohio

To snitch in Columbus, call 614-645-3111, or go to this address:

https://311.columbus.gov/311_main.aspx

and submit a service request.

Columbus is more concerned with gatherings, both indoors and outdoors, which are “violations”:

Gathering and mask snitching is currently the #10 service request in Columbus:

All, Comfort and Convenience Plagues, Rage and Frenzy Politics

No Mask Zone

This year, being polite requires being a bit forceful. As I have said from the beginning along with most people I know, there is a no-mask zone around me. Under no circumstances, directly or indirectly, will I be the reason you are required to cover your face. Breathe free, friends.

That said, there are many people who support wearing masks. We have to have a way of dealing with it consistently. My responses all year to even an allusion to mask support have been harsh. I have even been harsh if I perceive a failure to actively resist. After having had time to cool off, my only regret is the herd mentality stampeding to “safety” behind face underwear.

Being a divisive subject, I have decided the best course of action is active listening. Therefore I will directly quote the mask support I have heard and repeat it as best I understand it.

Active Listening 1

Mask supporter: “Masks are polite.”

What I hear: “Cover your face – and I do not consider it impolite to tell someone to cover their face.”

Very well. You will be safe. Do not come within two meters of me.

Active Listening 2

Mask supporter after I suggested that businesses post whether they require masks or not: “Of course businesses can post a requirement for shirt and shoes, ‘no shirt no shoes no service,’ but masks?!? … Obviously the government has to step in and mandate that everybody wear masks in public.”

What I hear: “My fear and belief in masks supersede a business owner’s right to operate with open faces. Cover your face.”

I hear you loud and clear – so now don’t come within two meters of me.

Active Listening 3

Mask supporter during a discussion about the various prevention measures: “Come on man. Masks aren’t political. It’s science. Of course governments have to require masks.”

What I hear: “No discussion. We have all agreed that all security trumps all individual rights. Cover your face.”

Loud and clear. Keep your distance from me.

Active Listening 4

Mask supporter admitting that outdoor masking is probably a waste: “OK yeah, they probably don’t do anything outside, but we need to show we’re all together in this.”

What I hear … ? “Join my cult. We cover our faces everywhere. Cover your face if you are near me. My government will require it.”

I’m a bit confused to be honest, but you said it. Keep your distance.

Active Listening 5

Mask supporter relating mask wearing to health codes in restaurants: “So you believe people should ignore the mask mandate, which is a health code, and not wear masks? Isn’t that a slippery slope of people not following health codes?”

What I hear: “I think I’m clever. Cover your face. My government will require it.”

You are a real threat because people really will buy that line if the TV says it.

Active Listening 6

Mask supporter: “Science says cover your face.”

What I hear: “The TV says cover your face, so I do.”

Take your “science,” your science, your TV, and your mask, and shove them all up your ass … and keep your distance from me.

Mask Etiquette

Having considered, the following categories apply for me:

People who actively respect a human being’s right to show their face while interacting, including whatever “risk” is involved: I appreciate your friendship more than ever.

People wearing masks. Depends who, where, and why.

People who fail to actively resist masking: I strive to be stronger. Writing about it is a form of resistance, hope this helps.

Any indirect support for any mask mandate: you are a mild threat. I am actively planning to avoid falling victim to any government you vote for.

Direct support, any enthusiasm for masking, or any in-person social pressure to wear a mask, even out of a perceived sense of duty: I will do my best to maintain two meters from you for the rest of my life.

All, Defund DC, Rage and Frenzy Politics

President Biden’s First 100 Days

Trump’s First 100 Days

https://nathanruffing.com/president-trumps-first-100-days/

I tried to follow Trump’s first 100 days. I made an effort but alas I let it slide. Now when I read again what he actually said, I am reminded of how much the media distorts what he actually wrote.

My Post on Trump’s First 100 Days

I notice at the end of my post I said the same things four years ago that I’m saying now: turn off the TV and be local. Four years later I believe I can truly say I know a few people who have completely eliminated TV from their lives. That’s some success.

Biden’s First 100 Days

https://buildbackbetter.gov/

(Build Back Better? Tripling down on the slogans with not-so-hidden negative implication I guess: MAGA, BLM, … now BBB)

To Biden’s pledges. I guess two things stand out.

First, masking. I will continue to use masking as an indicator of mental illness and an indicator of people and places to avoid. Biden has declared himself the leader of the mentally ill.

Second, what little I saw from the media about Biden’s first 100 days looked like open provocation. I have to admit, this contrasts with what Biden has actually written, less dramatic, so once again the media is distorting and provoking.

Media quoting Biden: “I’m coming for you! Retaliation!”

Biden himself: “Washington DC plans to return to the usual half-truth thievery at the pace Americans are used to (plus masking attempt round two since a surprising majority of Americans seem to not value showing their faces).”

Solution to Immigration, Not a Wall

Marco Rubio nails it in 56 seconds, starting at 0:43 in the video:

https://youtu.be/6aq8OnyDeAw?t=43 

  1. Prevent visa overstays.
  2. Reform immigration process to more merit-based less family-based.
  3. Process the current illegal immigrants with the normal process.
Solution to COVID, Not Masks

This paper remains the best of 2020 on COVID:

https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa939/5867798

Focus on fresh air and ventilation.

Solution to Washington DC

Defund DC. Repeal the 16th Amendment to the Constitution.

30 April 2021

I’ll give myself a little more realistic task this time around since I failed to follow the details on Trump. It will be interesting to see how long Biden lasts.

Will Biden still be president on 30 April 2021? (100 days)

Probably.

Will Biden go the whole four years?

Probably not.

All, Defund DC, Rage and Frenzy Politics

Storming the Capitol, War Movies, and Defund DC

I have always thought war movies are stupid. Now that I have seen what Americans think war is, I can accurately identify why.

My Glorious War

I have been to war. I spent a total of one year in Afghanistan as a transport helicopter pilot. This is how an infantry Marine would politely describe my experience for me:

“Sir, you lived on camp cupcake. You slept in air crew air conditioning every night and had a hot shower most nights. You ate like a king three meals a day and shit on a toilet whenever you wanted. You never made the decision to pull a trigger to kill, you were ‘shot at’ one time and the enemy didn’t have snowball’s chance in hell to hit you. In four deployments, nobody in your unit was killed and only a few were hurt badly enough to be sent home. Nobody received so much as a scratch from the enemy. Thanks for the lift, sir, but you didn’t really see war.”

Infantry Marine, thanks to God, the US government, the USMC, Chesty Puller, good logistics, effective leadership – and most importantly your efforts on the ground, your description is absolutely accurate.

A year flying transport helicopters out of “camp cupcake” was my experience with war. It was no World War 1 trench, but when I see a riotous, frustrated mob walk into the capital building thinking they are starting some conflict, I see a bunch of soft, pampered, TV-saturated fatsos who barely have the attention span to bring a cooler and sunscreen to their picnic conflict. From what I heard, three of the five deaths were attributed to heart attack or stroke … ? Is this true? Some preparation.

War Movies and Video Games

“You have to see Saving Private Ryan, the bullets whizzing overhead are so realistic.” – If the movie didn’t make you physically cringe uncontrollably and say a spontaneous prayer, then no. One training throw of a hand grenade or close proximity to a 50-caliber machine gun being fired are the cure to believing that Saving Private Ryan is realistic. No speaker in the world can imitate the explosive concussion of a single hand grenade or a 50 cal. It is not a “sound,” it is an emotional experience bordering on religious. Trust me.

“What do you think of Band of Brothers? Is war like that?” David Schwimmer looking stupid is about the most realistic part of that show. Plan and enjoy a week-long camping trip with three friends or your family and you’ll know more about war than David Schwimmer and his merry band of whiners ever will with their endless strings of ironic one-liner complaining.

“Braveheart … Freedom!” William Wallace’s wife was beaten and then executed. His friend’s wife was raped. In the end he had his guts ripped out in public. Scotland voted to remain in the UK in 2014. Glorious.

Waste of time, and worse, now we have mobs of people who believe violence is an end in itself.

How many Americans have now grown up spending thousands of hours playing first-person shooter games? Required military officer reading literally references violent video games as training to commit violence:

On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society, by Dave Grossman

On Killing is recommended reading for officers in the US military. You want to know what violence and war are without going camping? Read it.

The Greeks fought violent hand-to-hand combat and logistically supplied themselves with their own families behind the front lines. That was war in ancient Greece. Tough people indeed. They had “cry sessions” after battles to overcome the trauma of close combat. They strictly forbade the depiction of violence in their entertainment.

What About the Various Anti-Police BLM Riots?

Also dumb. You want to be like them? Have those movements made any progress? Achieved any goals? You want to live in Seattle?

Work, Dedication, and a Cause

There are many frustrated Americans right now. Violence is not the solution. This is a good thing. Nobody has to be hurt or killed to get what we want.

We are frustrated with a central government that has grown too powerful and does not listen to you or care about you. You directly fund bloated Washington DC and the corporations that support it with your lifestyle, habits, money, and data. This is what you do to “fight” it:

  • Go outside. Go camping. Get in shape.
  • Cut all entertainment subscriptions including cable and Netflix.
  • Save money.
  • Support local food at farmer’s markets.
  • Learn a trade at a technical school.
  • Start a blog.
  • Lifetime boycott all social media.
  • Recycle your TV. Lifetime boycott all television.
  • Support local sports. Join a league. Join a gym. Occupy basketball courts. Occupy golf courses.
  • Lifetime boycott pro sports. They sold out. Sports are not television. Sports are not fantasy leagues. Sports is not ESPN. Support a minor league baseball team in person. Support the local D-3 student athletes and inspire your kids to participate like that. Life lessons.
  • Lifetime boycott college sports unless you or family are participating. D-1 sports never really represented university academics and universities folded with the rest during the pandemic.
  • What will you do with all the extra time? Learn to play an instrument. Start a garage band. Learn painting or photography.
  • Learn to cook healthy food.
  • Start a garden or organize a community garden.
  • Hunt. Support the humane lives of animals we eat. Stop supporting processed food corporations.
  • Like guns? Connect at the local shooting range. Support the local FOP. Learn who your sheriff is and what he stands for.
  • Prepare to home-school your kids as necessary. Organize with other parents around youth sports.

Repeal the Sixteenth Amendment. Defund DC.

Not easy, but the right thing to do.

Defund DC

Defunding is a strategy. The closest war word is “siege” and it is an effective strategy, especially long-term. Cutting off supplies is extremely effective.

Amateurs talk strategy and tactics. Professionals talk logistics and sustainability.

I support Americans for Tax Refrom: https://www.atr.org/about

Repeal the Sixteenth Amendment. Defund DC.

All, Defund DC, Rage and Frenzy Politics

BRIC-US

What do Brazil, Russian, India, China, and the United States have in common? We all have capital cities that are geographically isolated from the populace by sheer size.

BRIC-US account for five of the seven largest countries in the world by area.

Brasília, capital of Brazil. Brasília’s population of 4.3 million is just 2.1% of Brazil. Distance to other major population centers: 16 hours to Rio de Janeiro / São Paulo, 30 hours to Salvador, 28 hours to the mouth of the Amazon River, more than 30 hours to Recife, Natal, or Fortaleza.

Moscow, capital of Russia. Moscow’s population of 12.5 million is 8.5% of Russia. Distance to other major population centers: 8 hours to St. Petersburg, 45 hours to Novosibirsk. Notable quiz question: how many cities in Russia are there with population over 2 million? Just two: Moscow and St. Petersburg. Wow.

New Delhi, capital of India. New Delhi’s population of 26.5 million is just 2.0% of India. Distance to other major population centers: 24 hours to Mumbai, 36 hours to Bangalore, 28 hours to Kolkata.

Beijing, capital of China. Beijing’s population of 21.5 million is just 1.5% of China’s population. Distance to other major population centers: 12 hours to Shanghai, 22 hours to Guanzhou, 28 hours to Xinjiang.

Washington DC, capital of the US. DC’s population of 6.2 million is 1.9% of the US population. Distance to other major population centers: 7 hours to Boston, 10 hours to Atlanta, 11 hours to Chicago, 21 hours to Houston, 39 hours to Los Angeles.

Social Programs

What happens if you administer education out of Brasília? Favelas. Brasília does not care.

How is Beijing on human rights? Xinjiang, what do you think? Concentration camps. Reeducation. Dystopia. Beijing does not care.

What are the chances of a fair election against Putin? Alexei Navalny, would you say Moscow meddled in your election? Dictatorship. Moscow does not care.

How is Washington DC doing on health? Multi-generational obesity epidemic feeding a bloated, confusing wealth care system that even the nurses don’t respect. We have a disease management system that profits from chronic illness and lobbies DC to continue poisoning Americans with high-fructose corn syrup, GMOs, sedentary lifestyles, and television advertisements for unnecessary pills whose side effects require more pills. Washington DC does not care.

Political Science

Want to give me a dissertation on why some large isolated capitals are okay and not others? Want to lecture me on why Washington DC is actually just fine? I am not a poli-sci major because I studied when I was in college and stuck with a real degree. Poli-sci graduates, your four years education is a bunch of details that cloud your common sense.

Common sense: sending tax money directly and automatically to a capital isolated from more than 90% of the population by more than an 8-hour drive is a horrible idea.

Follow the Money

What happens if I send my tax money along with millions of other people to a city completely separated from the population it “represents,” specifically designed to distribute tax money? Corruption. Cesspool. Swamp. Career politician = dictator.

In the US, people got frustrated and elected a reptile to fight a swamp full of reptiles. The professional thieves in DC have now ejected the foreign reptile and they think their swamp is safe to continue misrepresenting Americans and selling out to corporations.

BRIC-EU?

Hell no. Europeans from Dublin to Madrid to Berlin to Athens are not stupid enough to send 20-30% of their income directly and automatically to Brussels. They are paying attention. We need to.

Drain the Swamp

Sounds like I support the storming of the capitol, doesn’t it? Sounds like I support Trump maybe?

Absolutely not. Debacles both of them.

There is one fundamental aspect about America that feeds the corruption. The professional politicians in the swamp of Washington DC know it. Direct income taxation. Americans’ income gets siphoned directly from our paycheck before we even see it to get mad about paying it. The professional bureaucrat thieves from DC set it up that way purposely. Even state sales taxes do not have such an insidious arrangement – we see the price we pay and then the state sales tax gets added and we notice it and bitch about it. Even foreigners visiting the US complain about sales taxes.

$3.9 Trillion

$3.9 TRILLION per year quietly, voluntarily, automatically gets directed from Americans to far away Washington DC to fund the embarrassing circus of corruption that we show the world. It needs to end.

To put $3.9 trillion in perspective, which is just the income tax revenue of the US government in Washington DC:

$3.9 trillion would rank fourth in the world as a country’s GDP behind only the US (of course), China, and Japan. That means $3.9 trillion is more than the entire GDP of Germany. $3.9 trillion is more than the entire GDP of the UK. $3.9 trillion is more than the entire GDP of any individual European country. $3.9 trillion is more than the entire GDP of India.

$3.9 trillion sent to one city causes corruption: Washington DC really is a swamp.

The Solution

There is only one way to fix Washington DC. The bad news is it is difficult. The good news is it is straightforward and effective. We must repeal the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Do this and America survives. Do it not and we continue to directly fund the DC swamp.

Defund DC. Repeal the Sixteenth Amendment.

The money does not disappear. DC does not disappear. The money gets directed to local and state governments where real people are paying attention. The taxes get managed by people who are not separated from their constituents by a continent that allows them to thieve at will. The taxes get managed locally by mildly shady local politicians who have to consider what their neighbors think. Local politicians are shady but get the job done. Career politicians are criminals.

Republicans, you want to drain the swamp? Do it. For real.

Democrats, you want representative socialism? Do it – but pay attention. Administer it from Boston Massachusetts, Austin Texas, Saint Paul Minnesota, Columbus Ohio.

Bernie followers, you want free universities? The systems are already in place. California public universities are already free. In-state tuition is already low in most states. Make it lower, but do it from that list of capital cities that are within a morning’s drive from all of their people who pay for it and benefit from it.

The US Versus BRIC and MORE Government

What separates the US from the BRIC countries? One thing has historically made the US the world leader and not among a list of huge countries that remain in the third world (BRIC). The one thing is our public schools. Our public schools are locally-funded and give the vast majority of Americans at least a chance at college prep. Our public schools are effective local government.

You want to tell me the US is becoming a third world country? I know. That’s the point. This is why and this is how to fix it.

You want to complain about the US and compare us to Brazil, Russia, India, or China? Sign up your 7-year-old for an exchange program to swap with a kid in any of those countries. Millions of 7-year-olds around the world would be signed up for the exchange. The exchange 7-year-olds would show up ready to wear the most restrictive uniform you could find, no cell phone, and starve his / her way through school for a chance to be educated in America. Their parents would put their 7-year-old on a plane tomorrow not to be seen until they are 18 if their kid had the chance.

Local funding works. Fund local social programs. Organize locally.

Replace DC.

Counter-Examples

Canada is probably the best example (besides the US so far) of a successful large country with a geographically isolated capital.

Australia finishes out the global top seven and might be a good counter-example but most of the population is on the east coast together with the capital. The Aussies have to stay united or they risk becoming a province of China.

Look down the rest of the list beyond India. Of BRIC-US, except for India, each is more than 3x the size of Argentina, the eighth largest country in the world. BRIC-US countries are huge. Our scales do not compare to any other countries in the world.

Argentina is the largest country in South America besides Brazil. Buenos Aires contains 34.7% of the Argentine population. If you include Córdoba and Santa Fe provinces, you already account for 49% of the Argentine population. Easily more than half of Argentines live within 8 hours of Buenos Aires. The rest of Argentina is Patagonia.

Kingdom of Denmark is high on the list only because of Greenland.

France is the largest country in Europe by area besides Ukraine. Paris contains 18.8% of the French population. Paris is not in the geographic center, and still the furthest major city is Nice at the southeastern extreme of the country, only 9 hours away. The European portion of France is the 48th largest country in the world by area. India is 6x the size of European France and Brazil is 15x the size of European France.

All, Rage and Frenzy Politics

The Pfizer Genetic Immune Boost

I posted this around 12 December and within a week my web host had a hardware failure on my server in which I lost data for the first time in six years of having a site. This is the re-write. Let’s see how long it lasts this time.

This is a summary of what Pfizer and the CDC themselves are saying about their own injections. This is plain as day on their sites and should be common knowledge with some basic informed questions they are not publicizing because they don’t know the answers.

Sources: Pfizer, CDC, FDA, Wikipedia

https://www.pfizer.com/news/hot-topics/the_facts_about_pfizer_and_biontech_s_covid_19_vaccine

https://www.pfizer.co.uk/behind-science-what-mrna-vaccine

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/8-things.html

https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine

The Word “Vaccine”

The word “vaccine” comes from the Latin word for cow because the first effective vaccine was to introduce cowpox to children to initiate an immune response. Most vaccines are a variation of this: give a weakened form of an infectious agent that triggers an immune response.

Vaccines are kinda natural.

Genetic Immune Boost

These injections are RNA. The ‘m’ in ‘mRNA’ stands for ‘messenger’ or ‘mod’ I have seen both. RNA is genetic. Fact. These injections are a genetic instruction to your cells to make protein. Making protein is exactly what genetics is. These injections are genetic instructions. Do they change your DNA? Not directly, but they are genetic instructions. Do they trigger an immune response? Yes, that’s the point in this case.

Genetic immune boost is not natural.

Injections, Plural

Why am I saying ‘injections,’ plural? Not just one or two – continuous. The truly effective vaccines that have given vaccination such a good name rely on our immune system’s durable immunity to an infectious agent. For diseases like smallpox, measles, etc. our immune system needs only see the infection once and it gains immunity for life, or at least decades. This is not the case for COVID-19. There have already been reports of individuals infected multiple times with COVID-19. Even Pfizer is not claiming the immune boost lasts longer than 6 months to two years. These genetic instructions must continue.

Note: Pfizer and the CDC are changing their sites fast. I can no longer find the “six months to two years” reference … The CDC is currently saying immunity after infection with COVID-19 is 90 days! 90 days, not even six months!

Effective?

Will genetic immune boost eradicate COVID-19 from the planet? Absolutely not. Smallpox was declared eradicated in 1979 and it is a miracle of modern medicine. Thank vaccines. Vaccines are great. However, the list of diseases for which we vaccinate that have not been eliminated is much longer, measles and polio for example. For those diseases, our immune systems have durable immunity. For COVID-19, we probably do not even have durable immunity to help out. Coronaviruses are here to stay.

Will this immune boost even continue to work for a few years with repeated injections? How long can our immune systems be forced into “high alert”? How many times can you inject RNA into an arm muscle and keep making and reacting to antigen proteins before the body stops reacting or starts reacting adversely? Long-term injection site scarring? Nobody is even asking that real question.

Synthetic and Cheap

One of the main advantages Pfizer lists on its own site is that the injection material is cheap and synthetic. Supposedly it is a good thing that they are injecting synthetic genetic material.

Side Effects?

We have all seen the list of side effects to pharma pills on the endless commercials especially in the US. Are we expecting these to be the first injections with few side effects? I am not. There will be side effects especially over time.

Pain at the Injection Site

Yes, of course pain at the injection site. What happens when we continuously instruct the creation of protein antigens and our arms get clogged up with extra proteins our bodies were never supposed to make? I would say “pain at the injection site” is a good start, yes. Now repeat every year or so indefinitely and see what happens to your arm.

Complete Unknowns: Autoimmune Diseases?

Will the injections cause these diseases specifically? I doubt it, but life is a finely-tuned chemical reaction. You mess with it, the possibilities are endless. Anything outside the norm is bad. COVID-19 is bad, sure. Continuous synthetic RNA injections? I’ll take the occasional COVID-19, thank you very much.

Type 1 diabetes is a known autoimmune problem. Our immune system can harm us. There have been outbreaks among children who live in the same location that were never explained.

We still do not know what causes autism. Is it autoimmune related? We do not know, but Japan did a study to test it and did not MMR immunize a test group of children for three years to see if the autism disappeared. Autism did not disappear and therefore it was not shown that the autism is related to vaccination in that small study, but we still do not know and it was suspected.

Just look at this list of autoimmune diseases. Rheumatoid arthritis for example. You recognize them and we do not know exactly why they occur. We just know that our immune system causes them.

Bell’s Palsey? Maybe, we don’t know. No definitive connection established but it’s openly a possibility on the FDA website. Read, people. It’s not complicated.

There are many things we do not know. What will happen if we start injecting RNA instructions en masse? How long will it take for problems to emerge? We are not talking about allergic reactions here. Many months? Years? Do not tell me COVID-19 is an emergency. If this were an emergency, we would go outside and ventilate.

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All, Brazil Now What Migration Series, Industrial Change Surfing, Rage and Frenzy Politics, Real Estate, Travel, Ventures Quarterly

Gone Sailing

On 2 November 2020 I decided to depart the corporate career path (energy engineer) for the rest of my life. My knee-jerk solution was to learn to sail and make sailing my occupation somehow. Regardless of what I do, I made the decision because of a fundamental idea: I am convinced that true progress in the next several decades will not be in new technologies, but in learning to use the existing technologies in a more wholesome way. As I went down the list of categories on my blog, I realized my decision affects almost every category.

Brazil Now What Migration Series: I once again do not know where I will go.

English Lessons: language is basic. Will I teach English from a sailboat?

Industrial Change Surfing: Industrial Change Surfing is about decisions – this was an enormous decision based on industrial changes.

Rage and Frenzy Politics: I believe the current polarized divisive politics partly arise from frustration with the diminishing returns of tech. (A pause for sailing is in order!)

Real Estate: boats are floating real estate. (the tax is maintenance!)

Travel: Sailing is the oldest form of long-distance water travel!

Ventures Quarterly: I have not been faithful to quarterly updates lately, but this obviously represents a ventures update.

All, Rage and Frenzy Politics

Evan Sayet on Modern Liberalism – OK Now What

2007: Evan Sayet – Regurgitating the Apple How Modern Liberals “Think”

Historical Context

The historical context I notice is that Evan Sayet presents himself as a New York Jew who would by his upbringing typically identify as a liberal, but due to events that were recent at the time of the speech – in 2007 – he identifies politically as a conservative Republican. He uses an analogous story – starting ~9:00 – to place himself and his own political conversion within the historical context of the points he drives home.

The Perceived Problem

Modern Liberals don’t think. Starting at ~9:30 Evan Sayet reasons out exactly why modern Liberals “don’t think.”

The Actual Problem

We are all considering issues nationally instead of locally. We are getting most of our information from impersonal national sources like television and the most popular participants on social media. We are imagining that our problems and their solutions come from national change.

Liberals usually think up change and drag conservatives kicking and screaming to a better place with national change while the conservatives filter the change with prudence. Now, Liberals are thinking up how to destroy what’s been created while both sides are distracted from important local problems with nationally-created mass media and consumer culture. Neither side will give up the comfort the system provides even while the system itself crumbles.

What the Mainstream Media Says

The mainstream media blasts entertaining political provocation like this at full-volume 24/7.

My Opinion

The idea that modern Liberals have arrived at a point where they can’t find anything to change is not new. I believe it is accurate. I believe the content of the video is a mostly-accurate description of what has happened to modern Liberalism. However, there are just a few words I would alter. Instead of saying modern liberals “don’t think,” he should have said, “liberals focus exclusively on how to make change nationally through government and mass media. In their fanaticism for change, near perfection has required them to consistently mess everything up.”

Solutions

The core of the solution is to address our problems that appear national at a local level. The only way Hollywood and other national entertainment will improve is to be abandoned and replaced locally. The only way the federal government will improve is to be less by being challenged by local governments.

Evan Sayet gives the solution at 24:10. “We have to take back universities, schools, media, the entertainment industry.” I agree. This is best done with participation in local government, local decision-making, and local entertainment. If we must educate our own children because the Liberal-influenced education administrators will not do it properly, how can we get it done? Fortunately our schools are funded locally, but we must participate in their governance. How can we entertain ourselves locally? Live minor league baseball, youth sports, adult sports leagues, golf, live local bands, symphonies, plays, and concerts are the answer. Unfortunately we face the challenge to eliminate what threatens these things with complacency: TV and air conditioning. We must turn off the TV, open the doors and windows, go outside and socialize.

At 43:22 Evan Sayet says modern Liberals question authority and attack the ability to distinguish right and wrong, but we have not replaced the authority and morality with anything. We need to replace this authority locally. A return to dressing decent in public would help. Once we turn off amoral TV, what do we do? We will only know once we do it. If a state were to refuse federal funding in order to maintain sovereignty, what would be the effect? How would we fund local projects and infrastructure? Are we prepared to really challenge the power of the federal government? How can we prepare? Are we educated voters on these issues?

I list five “bad” items in my Industrial Plagues category that bring only comfort and complacency and should avoided to the max extent possible: TV, cars, air conditioning, sugar, pills. These five items are almost entirely new in our daily lives in the last century. They barely existed in 1900. Nationalism and the internet are equally as new as the “bad” five items, but they each have a good side. They bring more than just comfort and laziness. Nationalism keeps relative peace and the internet enables almost unlimited bi-directional communication. We must learn what these two things really mean in order to understand the solutions to the complete failure of national leadership. Nationalism is only effective if the large whole is made up of strong, healthy individual parts. We cannot outsource everything to the national specialization. Hollywood and Netflix cannot be our source of entertainment. The internet can enable local entertainment and I don’t mean friends on Facebook and YouTube. Blogging is a great way to experience the bi-directional internet. Blogging can be as simple as organizing your internet experience and sharing it with others in a positive way that you completely control. Pay attention to local events through the internet. The internet, unlike television and Netflix, is just as powerful locally as it is nationally.

All, Rage and Frenzy Politics

“Science”

“Science” is the labeling of what one feels like saying with the name science to give a conclusion credibility by association with real science through the word. The connection to science is often also established through implication by quoting whatever study or statistic feels like it supports a conclusion. Usually characterized by:

  • Using a personal survey of media headlines as evidence to support a conclusion.
  • Citing “a consensus of scientists” as evidence.
  • Using a correlation, however weak or even just perceived, to establish a cause-effect relationship.
  • Presenting a conclusion to an audience who mostly follows the same “science.”
  • Use of some form of the phrase, “They say…”
  • A religious adherence to a conclusion.
  • A religious dependence on what “they say.”
  • Accusation of the use of “science” by an opposing view.
  • Adherents to the religion of “science” almost always watch some TV and / or read mainstream media.
  • Reference to a well-known opposing individual or a story of a scientist who fabricated data in order to shift discussion to easier more familiar opposition.
  • Grouping complex issues into “two sides” due to low-resolution thought, short attention span, and inability or unwillingness to comprehend complexity / a continuum.
  • Reacting to a lack of evidence by shifting to a more extreme conclusion rather than adjusting hypothesis, level of certainty, or searching for objective evidence.
  • Claims of reading “both sides” to get a “balanced view,” under the assumption that the right answer is “in the middle.”
  • Misunderstanding and misapplication of the terms evidence, hypothesis, reproducible, correlation, cause-effect relationship, theory, objectively, confirmation bias, and other terms critical to disciplined science.
  • Lengthy discussions between disagreeing parties, both using “science” to support opposing conclusions.
  • Equating the opposition suggesting a bias with conspiracy theory.
Science

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science#Scientific_method

Religion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion

Both science and religion have their place. Mixing the two, or using one or the other to harm other people is bad.