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the intellectual is extinct

not intelligence – intelligence is a complex topic. I adhere to Howard Gardner’s 6 intelligences work (note that my spell checker “corrects” me for making “intelligence” plural). intelligence, as we humans understand it, easily extends to primates, dogs, cats…

intellect, though, is another thing: intellect is to intelligence as musician is to music (kind of – because what is music? what is a musician?) on a basic level, intelligence is the mechanics of solving problems, problems here meaning situations which one wants to alter, to be distinguished from whining on the potty with kleenex about all your “problems”. the mechanical intelligence is essentially unalterable, biological, and every creature possesses it, without acquiring it.

we acquire knowledge, which augments or supplies intelligence. the acquisition of that knowledge is widely varied in its method: some go to endless college, where they intake that which they think will augment their intelligence in beneficial ways – in ways that will allow them to solve specific problem sets. doctors want to solve medical problems. for this, they require medical knowledge.

but of course, intelligence, as Gardner tells us, is not generic – its variance is myriad. you could use a word like “aptitude”, if you fear intelligence types. So, a doctor with tons of medical knowledge, can be terrible at solving medical problems even worse, a doctor can substitute problem solving (intelligence) with sophisticated application of knowledge blocks – not unlike modern AI “RAG” retrievel mechanisms, where by questions are answered by retrieving appropriate text blocks from articles, rapidly, and collating them into actionable from. in AI, this uses vectors – long chains of similarity of ideas, from which the machine chooses “the best”. not to be too esoteric here – you know these people: they are great standardized test takers. there are legends of people who run a racket of memorizing huge chunks of written data, in preparation for competitive tests – even sell their skills on the black market.

But worse yet are those who flood the professions today, completely unequipped to apply intelligence – critical thinking, analysis, synthesis – all words gone by the wayside in modern times. This is the doctor who, in 15 minutes, discerns the type of cancer you have (this, discernment, is indeed a type of intelligence), but then skips the deduction, and jumps to sophisticated code matching, to produce the cause and the treatment of this type (“label”) of cancer that you have. and then they proceed to kill you – because the human body is so complex, as is a modern pathology like cancer, that text retrieval is highly likely to pick the wrong similarity. this is also compounded by the nature of the the texts which are produced today – also flawed by the industrial nature of research and research writing – there is no money in finding the needle in the haystack – in fact, that needle is usually the thing that disproves your whole thesis, and hell, you don’t have time to truly follow the scientific method!

I’ve wandered again. got hung up on widely diversified intelligence, battling with highly specialized knowledge storage and retrieval. what I was aiming at was a dinosaur – the intellectual; the intellect. a dying or dead breed of person who, through rigid social structure, was forced to learn a raft of non-specialized knowledge, for some unstated reason. the opposite of OBE (objectives based education). The “objective” was to become an intellectual – something pretty esoteric, but supported socially. It was part of social selection in the intelligentsia to regularly quote esoteric Heraclitus, in the context of rhetorically complex argumentation, to “win” a likewise intellectual point. mental masturbation, in its most common application.

to this end, one learned Latin, Greek, plus a modern language, and, not just at the SAT level. there were aged task masters, whose claim to position was exactly their pedantry. because you can’t really learn this shit without repetition and rote memorization.

I could take a moment here to talk about Picasso – this painter who is famous for abstraction. Picasso started out in the grueling, pedantic system of classical painting – did hundreds of non-abstract drawings of tables, flowers, etc., with no hope of abstraction – because he was the germinal inventor of abstraction! at some point, he began “cubism” – whereby you abstract simple geometric shapes, from those rigid “classical” 3-point-persepctive drawings. this process evolved into his ultimate abstractions. but none of this could have happened without his being inundated with the entire history of rendering, and forced to replicate it.

so the intellectual is the product of excessive education, an acuity to problem solving intelligence, and, of course, a wild spirit longing for freedom.

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because it’s morning noon and night

When the Spirit moves you. Can be any time, and a great chance that the time will be inconvenient.

yes, we need to be watchful – inspiration chooses its own time, and as it comes, it goes. you won’t remember.

and so what? will generations suffer from the lack of my little musings? my little music? it’s all tolled just a drop in the cosmic bucket, and not a drop will influence the course of the Grand Scheme.

But for the people on earth, for the weak and heavy-laden, your creativity will have a profound effect.

So do it.

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When did we lose control?

I suppose you’d need to admit that you have lost control, if you intend to read farther…

And what is control anyway? It was always fake, right? I mean, you get the house cleaned, balance your checkbook – and you sit back and say, boy, howdy, I am in control! But on another day, when you don’t get that stuff done, have you lost control? Or, even though you get that stuff done every day, something comes along, like my current favorite – RTO (return to office) – and now you’ve got an hour’s worth of commuting, which you used to use to balance your checkbook, but now, there’s just no time!

So, you say, with exasperation, “there is just no time.”. And so now, you’re not in control?

Well, the Hindus would tell you that’s samsara – it’s a cycle of chasing control, by doing things, setting goals – all the things your society tells you to do to get ahead. But you don’t get ahead – you get further behind.

Last night, couldn’t sleep, and I was reminded of a valuable truth: the reason you are unhappy is because you look for happiness in the future, not in the present. Luckily, at that moment, in the deep dark of night, I was sleeping with my warm furry dog by my legs, and my warm and loving wife by my side, with my beautiful and vivacious daughter asleep in her room down the hall. And so, I was easily able to recount all the happiness that was around me, in my immediate present. And so, was happy, and went to sleep.

Now, there have been times, I tell you, people, when I was totally alone in the night, with no money, no heat, no lovely wife, no dog, and no daughter. So don’t be fooled, or, better yet, don’t be dismayed. Happiness is not counted by the number of blessings. Instead, it’s a kind of contentment with what ever you do have, no matter the number or quantity. Because in those destitute times, I did have a warm bed, and I could feel the world around me, full of wonder, and full of love. But I had to open my mind and heart to feel that, and I had to let the material wants melt away. Not an easy task – seemingly impossible for many.

And again, at my worst times, without even the warm bed, I could always remember that my mother loved me, when she was alive. And that is not the future, nor the past. It’s ever-present.

Hate to put out a spoiler, but, you never had control, if you were busy counting up the things you controlled in your life. Without your knowing, the number of things you will NEVER control loomed like a zeppelin above your resting head. Control is a losing game, probably planted in your mind when you were very young, unintentionally, by a society locked in a battle for control – control as the carrot on the stick, which you will never taste, but always yearn for.

Looked at a different way, as long as you can know the peace of the present, as long as you can feel it, know it, and live in it, then you are indeed in control, and will always be, as long as the contentment with what (little or a lot) you do have is apparent and tangible to you. Peace.

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the question being…

Do I need another – yet another – writing tool, like FreeWrite? Answer is likely NO. While it is critical to write all the time, for many reasons, this is not dependent on the tools. People have written entire novels on the floor of their prison cell.

But this is more easily supported by a common psychological construct of deflection: when a task is difficult, for any reason, or rather, when a practice, involving not-so-diffiult tasks, is difficult to establish, the human (21st Century Western Human) will tend toward buying something, rather than just doing something with the materials and tools at hand. We see it in everything from yoga to music – buy a yoga mat, a towel, special clothing, etc., instead of just getting on the mat, or the floor, or the grass. All these have been done by great masters.

Deflection is the killer. Will swamp you in a boat in a moat circling with a single oar.

Not to say that equipment – finely tuned, correctly engineered equipment – is the problem. It is not. Once deflection is ruled out, good equipment is essential. In music, great players can play well on shitty equipment. Beginners can play on shitty equipment, but can’t overcome the physical barriers on such equipment, as can the masters. The key here is positive reinforcement, because we are talking about the practice, more than the product. In order to establish the practice, the human needs rewards – even the most advance bodhi, no matter what they tell you. We are all creatures, and will remain so until we are liberated by death. Further, there is no shame in being a creature, no merit in disdain of motivation.

Simply, if the music sounds good, or, if the asana feels good, the mind-body will blossom, and motivation will be achieved. A poor instrument will cause psychological pain; an instrument capable of beautiful sound will inspire the player to hunt down the optimal physical application that produces that sound. But this beauty must be experienced at least once, and acknowledged by the player. Oftentimes, this is just a miracle – a happy accident. Indeed, in life, we don’t summon g*d – we are summoned; or, we stumble upon it. We commit a generous act, and get surprised by the return flow or reward – the sensation of oneness with the Lord.

So yes, by all means, get a wonderful Lamy ink pen; get nice paper; and get the FreeWrite. But be prepared for these tools to just sit there and gather dust; be prepared for the ink to dry up. Because the tool is not the maker. The spark, the holy spirit, the tao – whatever you have felt as the origin of creativity – is the maker. Sadly, the maker can’t be bought, and can’t itself be made. We often call it a gift – which must be given, and received. And no amouunt of money or hard work can make it. It must be found.

So much for equality or equity. Creativity is outside the purview of social order. Can’t be legislated into existence, the same way no law or social injustice can quell it: the more the artist is chained and beaten, fingers broken and tongue cut out, the louder the outpouring of creativity.

So, what to do, Dad? I don’t know. But I say: begin with the tools you have, to create the practice. Struggle with the limitations at the beginning. Find the spark, even in the dark. When the flow ultimately smacks up against a technical wall, afford yourself the next-level tech, and see if that re-opens or re-ups the flow. If it doesn’t, it wasn’t the blocker. Back to square one.

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Why G*d doesn’t answer your prayers.

Because G*d isn’t a business. G*d is not an old man with a beard, unless that’s how you imagine him. G*d is omniscient – knows everything; omnipresent – everywhere; omnipotent – all powerful. Surely you’ve heard this before. But even the priests, ministers, pastors, who say this in one breath, in the next breath tell you to ask G*d for help, for favors, Christmas presents… The two notions just don’t match.

You don’t need to tell an omniscient consciousness your needs or wants – because “all knowing”.

You don’t need to pray “to” an omnipresent being, because “everywhere.”

G*d is responsible for everything everywhere – your cell mitosis and your cancer diagnosis. “responsible” does not equal “cause.” As far as we know, we exercise freewill. So if you pour garbage into the clean body you were given, G*d lets those cells do their thing. Don’t pray for that to change.

Then there’s G*d’s plan. G*d is also ineffable. Sorry we’ve lost that word through our poor educational system. It means it’s not possible to explain G*d. Doesn’t mean we just don’t know how to explain G*d – it means there is no human with the capacity to explain the Creator of Everything. So, might be smart to stop trying. Anyway, what good would it do you?

These are the building blocks. But the best building block is this: Jesus actually told you how to pray! Jesus didn’t really leave us a lot of information – or, you could say, he left us just enough. First, he pared down the 10 commandments – they weren’t his, and were probably made up by Moses, or the politburo that represented Moses – these “commandments” seem a lot like human laws, and coincide neatly with the Jewish norms at the time. Always gotta be suspicious when some guy says “G*d agrees with everything I say.” Convenient for an authoritarian system.

But totally the opposite of what we said above: free will. No, G*d doesn’t tell you not to do anything. Go for it! And for sure, the human machinery – the way humans work – will deliver to you the consequences of your actions – not G*d.

Jesus said you only need two “commandments”: love G*d with all your heart, mind, spirit. Any questions? And then: “love your ‘neighbor’ as much and in the same way as you love yourself.” And then the kicker: “on (just) these two commands hang all the law and the prophets.” The Jewish Torah is divided into the Law and the Prophets (so is the old testament: Deuteronomy means the (second) law; and all the books with names on them are Prophets). So, this is also a hard thing for us modern dummies: it’s called (in math) a “discreet system.” Means you don’t need ANY MORE RULES than the two I gave you. All other rules you could think of derive from those two, so you don’t need to add them.

Jesus told you how to pray. The Lord’s Prayer. That’s the only thing you need. There are no other prayers in the New Testament – except for a couple of little ones, but again, they are connected with the Lord’s Prayer.

  1. “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” This is Jesus choking up just before he is nailed to a crucifix, saying, “skip me on this one.” But – and this is the big but – he adds the clause from the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done.” He doesn’t expect G*d to not go through with the great plan, which requires a sacrifice – but, never hurts to ask.
  2. “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” A prayer-lite for the sake of the Love of the Neighbor. Also – directly from the Lord’s Prayer!

That’s it! No “please give me that bike for Christmas”, or “please let my son get into Harvard.” Zero (0) requests! It’s not Oprah! Not Grant a Wish! It’s like this

  1. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done. Do what you intend to do – not what WE ask you to do. On earth, just like in heaven. Even if you escape earth, the same deal is in heaven for you.
  2. Give us today our daily bread. Ok. Maybe this is an “ask” – except in the original language – Aramaic (remember Jesus was not a Hebrew) – it’s not “daily” – people argue about this a lot, but mostly about the translation from Greek – which is not the language Jesus said it in. Give us today maybe our last meal – ever. Remember, it’s ok and entirely possible that we will die TODAY, and that’s a good thing. “Daily” is really the wrong word, and confuses the whole meaning. Look at what follows: 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them… 34 Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself…
  3. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Again, back to the “commandments.” First thing is to US: You there! You forgive everybody. Forgiveness is the rule, thy neighbor as thyself. But we can and should ask G*d for forgiveness.
  4. Lead us not into temptation. Again, this is more you talking to yourself – don’t let yourself be led by something else – into something that will harm you.
  5. Deliver us from evil. Not sure on this one. Reminds by of George W. and the “axis of Evil.” Not sure that this was passed down correctly. But ok. G*d does indeed have the power (all-powerful) to quash “evil.” The main point is, it does not mean ” make that car swerve out of the way of my child in the street.” That’s not evil: it’s freewill – your child knows the rules, and still goes out into the street. Something painful might happen. Not G*d’s deal.

That’s it: 1) let it happen 2) get me through today 3) let’s forgive one another 4) let us choose wisely 5) let us choose wisely. It’s a “personal oracle” – a conversation with everything around you, that echos back to YOU. You are G*d, as long as you are Love.

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JD Vance (and the polar society)

I don’t think many people (Democrats, and a million other American moochers who don’t vote, don’t’ give a fuck) really know who JD Vance is. I don’t really know either, except that I read his book, Hillbilly Elegy, and saw the movie – and really like them both.

Also know:

Investing

In 2017, Vance joined the investment firm Revolution LLC.[63] It was founded by Steve Case, who also cofounded AOL.[63] Vance was tasked with expanding the “Rise of the Rest” initiative, which focuses on growing investments in underserved regions outside Silicon Valley and New York City.[63]

So, in the world of sound-byte knowledge, I am a genius! A know-it-all, because no one wants to know-it-at-all, right?

Now I have also been to Appalachia many times, and not as a sight-seer. I’ve hung out with them hillbillies, drank, and played music. I know ones who died, and many who will die from inhaling heroin, for example. Last year I attended Healing Appalachia, and got my Narcon certification. Talked to a hundred junkies, all of them despised by the elites of our country, ’cause of the way the talk and jes’ lie around all day (sarcasm – it’s hard to spot these days).

Here’s my point: there is no doubt who will vote for JD Vance – lots of poor busted people from the hills, who finally see a guy that could understand him. Will there be the same amount of poor, working class people from Scranton NJ voting for Joe Biden (well, moot point now – but not totally). Will the poor working class people of Scranton ever going to vote for Joe Biden? Did Joe Biden write a book called “Scranton Elegy”, to honor “his people?”

But here’s the other side of the coin: JD Vance is a millionaire now, who went to Yale. He’s got a bit of Southern accent, but, he ain’t going back to Appalachia any time soon. And, while he may take their votes, greedily (why Trump chose him, of course), those people aren’t paying for the campaign, vis-a-vis paying for the Presidency. So is JD Vance disingenuous? I think (my opinion) that he can’t be completely disingenuous. Watch the movie.

The Presidency is indeed paid for. If you think that’s conspiracy theory, you are very, very confused about the fundamentals of American politics, or, you think that Mickey Mouse is not an actor inside a costume at Disney World, or you think that Disney Corporation is all about kids. These are not cynical conspiracies – this is America.

The question you need to ask yourself is: are the Democrats or the Republicans going to change America, to loosen the stranglehold of corporate greed?

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Why we don’t want to mimic bee society

Since I was a youth, I have heard philosophers, “tree-huggers”, and the like, extol the virtues of a bee colony, as a model for human society. Here. for your review, is the basic social organization of the typical bee colony:

Queens

Queens are the only members of a colony able to lay fertilized eggs. An egg-laying queen is important in establishing a strong honey bee colony, and is capable of producing up to 2,000 eggs within a single day. Queens mate early in life and store up millions of sperm within their bodies. While they are capable of living up to five years, they only often only live two to three years producing eggs.

Workers

Worker honey bees are the largest population within a colony. Worker bees are entirely female, but they are unable to produce fertilized eggs. If there is no queen they do sometimes lay unfertilized eggs, which become male drones. Worker bees use their barbed stingers to defend the colony, but after attacking, the barbs attach to the victim’s skin, tearing the stinging bee’s abdomen, resulting in death.

Workers are essential members of honey bee colonies. They forage for pollen and nectar, tend to queens and drones, feed larvae, ventilate the hive, defend the nest and perform other tasks to preserve the survival of the colony. The average life span of worker bees is approximately six weeks.

Drones

Drones, or male honey bees, have only one task: to fertilize new queens. Drones mate outdoors usually in midair and die soon after mating. Some honey bee colonies will eject surviving drones during fall when food for the colony becomes limited.

Swarms

Honey bee swarming is a natural part of a developing their colony. Honey bees swarm as a result of overcrowding within a hive. To create a swarm, an old honey bee queen leaves the hive with about half of the hive’s worker bees, while a new queen remains in the old hive with the rest of the workers. In the wild, honey bees swarm most in late spring and early summer, at humid times of the day. While swarming is part of the healthy life cycle of every honey bee colony, beekeepers often attempt to reduce the incidence of swarming in domesticated bees.

A honey bee swarm may contain hundreds or thousands of worker bees and a single queen. Swarming honey bees fly temporarily, and then cluster on shrubs and tree branches. The clusters rest there for several hours to a few days, depending on weather conditions and the amount of time needed to search for a new nesting site. When a scout honey bee locates a good location for the new colony, the cluster immediately flies to the new site. https://www.orkin.com/pests/stinging-pests/bees/honey-bees/honey-bee-colony

NOTE: I have seen Google’s AI alters the name “drones” to “unmanned aerial vehicle”:

Unmanned aerial vehicleAn unmanned aerial vehicle, commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. Wikipedia

The bee colony/human society thing is an allegory.

noun

noun: allegory; plural noun: allegories

  1. a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.”Pilgrim’s Progress is an allegory of the spiritual journey”

Our US society has, unfortunately, lost, or never gained, the understanding or usage of literary/philosophical tools, like allegory and metaphor. So, I see the need to review such structures when I write about them – otherwise, Amerikuns will fight and stab each others’ eyes out!

An allegory is not a metaphor – I not saying “bee colonies are similar to human colonies.” An allegory is much more a passive, i.e. left to the reader, tool: I describe the bee colony, and you, the reader, make inferences or comparisons, in your own minds and hearts. I do reserve the right to make metaphors, however, like…

Queens are clearly the rai·son d’ê·tre of the colony – not at all the “leader”; rather, the source of purpose for all the other members. If our society has a “queen”, it could be argued that the President of the United States fills this role. The President, currently, is in no way a “leader”. The President doesn’t really do anything, except serve as an icon for debate. Like the Queen, the President has only a short term – 5 years for the Queen/ 4 years for the President. The Queen is a gluttonous “feeder”. The dangerous aspect of the Queen is that she produces the eggs – the germinal members of the future society.

Workers are only female. They protect the hive, and do all the work. This could remind us of other females in nature – fiercely protective of the “nest”. At some point in US society, women/mothers worked at home – worked themselves to death, were responsible for guarding the children, “ventilating the hive”, etc.

Can’t help the comparison of drones to US males – again, not a generalization here: this cannot be applied to all American men, or American Males. But for the bees, their only purpose is to fertilize eggs. Very tempted to make that into a generalization, but leaving it up to you. Note that they do not fertilize the (female) workers – they only fertilize the Queen, which tempts me again to make the comparison that American males only serve to fertilize the Führer – serve the fertilize the ideals, but not the progenitors of the race. The other sad thing is that “Some honey bee colonies will eject surviving drones during fall when food for the colony becomes limited.” This reminds me more of our corporations nowadays – the employees (not necessarily only women, clearly): when the profit margin gets squeezed, you just eject them. What the little article I am citing does not mention is that it is the female workers who do the “ejection” – by stinging the drones when the try to enter the hive.

The last bit – that of the swam – is painfully reminiscent of most human societies I see in this era – whenever a culture “feels” cramped, they swarm out. The major difference is, in bee swarming, they seek out uninhabited locations, which they gain without conflict. Since the human population is essentially over-populous, there is nowhere to go without extant populations, or, because of the avarice which seems inherent in humans (although it is, IMO, learned from the Queen), human swarms focus on inhabited locations – urban sprawl, gentrification – these all are swarms.

For your consideration: are we comparable, allegorically, to bee society? Do we want to be?

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Cathartic

We constantly advise our friends to accept change as positive, empowering – there is a cottage industry with signs, mugs, hats, all extolling this, essentially a Buddhist philosophy, that wasn’t available to the masses, when I was a kid.

And it’s getting all the dirty corners of human existence – cancer, divorce, death, re-location – as it should. It is a wonder that we Westerners didn’t catch on earlier. Well, we did actualy. My parents went through the Great Depression – had to accept that, and the shitty life that it brought for regular humans – and even Wall Street stock brokers. My parents also went to World War II, after their parents returned from World War I. So, if they were still alive, they would chastise these new “generations lost in space,” telling them to get over it.

But that’s all just kind of folk wisdom, used as an alt propaganda (who generates the alt propoaganda? the self help cult?). There is always Reality, within easy grasp. If you have evern lived through cancer, or death, or all the real Horsement of the Personal Apocolypse, you did accept it, because it didn’t offer any choices, any placatory respite from the onslaught. The question is, how did you emerge on the other side? That’s what “self help” really means – can you survive with your soul and mind intact, or, will you be filled with hatred of those great mystical beings who seem to toss us mortals about like playthings?

I don’t believe that the Gods control our lives. That’s just a manifestation of our deep-seated belief in the higher power of Justice and Rectitude, both of which are flavors of Kompliance Kool-Aid, not borne of natural experience. We know that in nature, the domestic dog laps up a full nest of baby bunnies, leaving their tiny heads, as inedible. And that’s not Justice – or, it is Justice. But it’s not the created Justice that we hold dear, even though it is a lie.

Let’s separate the Natural and the Inevitable, from the man-made for a second. Just because Nature will ultimately provide us with a fate, doesn’t mean we have to accept the same from human-made Justice. This is where religious morals come in. “Rage, rage..” says John Milton. I don’t know if he was talking about his going blind – in which case he was another mortal fool – or, human injustice, which he definitely struggled with in his Big Book. To be clear, humans create misery and pain for one another, and that is optional, not inevitable. So there is the fight. Just don’t get confused by “inalienable rights”, or other philosophical shit. You are NOT safe, your rights are NOT protected -by God or your Government. It’s up to you, alone, or, with your community, to change what you can, and accept what you can’t (see the Serenity Prayer)

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Watergate, and the -gates that were opened

From Wikipedia:

The Watergate scandal resulted in 69 indictments and 48 convictions, involving several high-ranking officials from the Nixon administration.[12] The term “Watergate” has since become synonymous with various clandestine and illicit activities conducted by Nixon’s aides, including the bugging of political opponents’ offices, unauthorized investigations, and the misuse of government agencies for political purposes.[13] The addition of “-gate” to a term has since been used to denote public scandals,[14][15][16] particularly in politics.

I was alive then. Every night the news (because there was only really one news back then, on three different stations) was about fekkin Watergate. As a nation, the United States was partially destroyed by Watergate – the revelation that political officials engaged in unscrupulous behavior was apparently never heard of prior to this.

Really? I mean, there had been unpricipled politicians before that, right? For some reason – maybe it was the 60s – I had a mistrust of any/all politicians. I think my parents did not.

But I have to say now – what was the big deal? The Republicans spied on the Democrats before an election? Wow. That’s kind of boring, isn’t it? But isn’t this just dirty politics between political parties – which are not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution, lest we forget. I mean, was the President impeached for his role in the illicit collection of data from the opposing party? That’s imeachable?

Just trying to put things in perspective.

Let’s consider “the misuse of government agencies for political purposes.”. Hilary Clinton’s campaign launched something called “Russiagate”, which led to a lenghty investigation of the President, but was later completely refurted, and Clinton was fined a whole $175,000 for perptrating an unfounded investigation – against a standing President. I know some of you are behind, but this is the truth. Pick your source. Here’s the WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-russia-collusion-hillary-clinton-2016-e341cd7d

I’d like to suggest that the Republicans and the Democrats have been at this for decades. By “this” I mean dragging the whole country, and the government, into generally childish squabbles, which are entirely politically motivated. Now the problem these days is that Trump said the words “politically motivated”, making thie phrase an instant disclaimer for ANY investigation that might actually be politically motivated.

Lookey here – in an election year, Children, everything is politically motivated. Do you need someone to tell you that? It’s always been about winning, and there have been the same two contestants, who behave in exaclty the same way – like liars, cheats, and babies. Or do you want this to be a conspiracy theory, too? Or is it just common sense.

The trouble is never with the investigation itself – the problem is with the freedoms that every American has to give up, unwittingly, which is party of the “freedoms grab” that is a fringe benefit of any of these political squabbles.

Back to Watergate (and Wikipedia):

Subsequent investigations and revelations during trials prompted the U.S. House of Representatives to grant the House Judiciary Committee expanded investigative authority.[3][4]

Think this through – the House Judiciary Committee, which belongs to you and me, is involved in an investigation of Republicans spying on Democrats, to gain an election advantage. But because at the time they could not get those famous Nixon tapes, they changed the law, so that they could get those tapes. Now, that law never went away. It’s still there, even though Nixon is long gone.

What about bimbos? We know that Trump is now accused of felonies, associated with the hush money for a porn star. Boy do we know it. Now maybe you didn’t know that, even though the actual trial featured a lot of sex talk, bribing a bimbo is not a felony. Instead, it was a legal technicality – do you like those as much as I do? – about the reporting of a hush money payment as a campaign expense, during the election campaign. It was couched in an improper reporting case. Because bimbos in the White House is not so new – let’s think about my hero JFK, and your hero, William Jefferson Cllinton, for two.

During Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential election campaign, Flowers came forward to say that she had had a 12-year extramarital relationship with Clinton, and that he had assisted her in securing a job as an administrative assistant with the Arkansas Appeal Tribunal. – Wiki

Again, is this impeachable? Well, he was a governor then, and he traded her a job for a job. Anyway, he got off. – because he didn’t pay her off his campaign books – of something. It was definitely politically motivated – no concidence that the investigation, and her coming out, happened during the election cycle.

I’m just stirring the pot here – the one that called the kettle black. I don’t care about inter-Party chacanery – until it starts to strip away my rights, allows me to be surveilled, etc. But it does piss me off to have to listen to people say that all this is not politically motivated. Just a personal gripe, I won’t go to the Supreme Court (or the Playground Teacher) to get my point proven.

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Retirement, and other Western Myths

My dad retired when he was 62 – took early retirement, because he could. This was in the late 70’s, when my dad could go to the local car dealer, and buy, not one, but two new Toyotas – a Corolla and a Celica – with money he had saved, working as an elementary school Principal, in a small town in Iowa. That’s right – no auto financing was needed, because inflation – considered “rampant” at the time – was nascient, compared with its blood-sucking dominance today. His retirement package was 67% of his final salary, for 10 years following.

By the mid 2000’s (I’m guessing), the reality of a company-sponsored, extended retirement, was gone. Now, as with most myths, this one has taken a long time to be erradicated from the public conscience, mostly because the myth is ardently perpetrated by the headless “financial system”, with its attendant media arm. To what end, we can only guess, but it would make sense that it is tied directly to the profits invesment firms make on the corporate IRAs, which essnentially replaced the pension that my father had (and even I had, until the mid 2000’s). As you may know – although, again, many “believers” never cued into this – you put money into the company IRA, and it can be matched by the company. But where does it go? Into stocks – all of it. It’s not a savings account – it’s an investor/trading account. Your retirement dollars get whisked away into stocks, which perform well, or not. As a lot of people found out (surprise!), much of their IRA just disappeared in 2008! I know people who “called their company” to find out what the hell happened. Well, what happened was, your retirement account blew away with the winds of a market economy (yet another myth buster – that “supply side economics” they taught you in school, was gone from reality, long before they took it out of your textbook – along with the heroism of Christopher Columbus).

I don’t pretend to be an economist – as a rule, they have a pretty poor track record, anyway. But I do know that inflation hit 13% in 1980. To me, this is when the middle class (myth 3 in this post), left, and was replaced by the Debtor Class, or TCFKAM (making a joke at Prince’s expense). By this point, or soon after, every house had a mortgage and every car had consumer financing. Of course, people still thought that as middle class citizens, they should still buy several cars and sevreral houses. They just lost sight of the fact that all these things are now 10 times as expensive as they were 10 years before.

When you talk to a financial advisor today, their first quesiton is always “how much do you want per month, when you retire?” What a funny question – of course, I want like $10 million a month! But they ask this only to lead you into a discussion of how that corporate IRA is going to be the answer. But the solution they offer is for you to contribute the max amount to the IRA fund – dovetails nicely with the Wall Street profit motive I mentioned above.

In the end, you don’t have enough money to be building the kind of retirement fund you would need, AND deal with the wild inflation. So, you end the conversation with some kind of compensation – you’ll do your best to contribute more, and wait until you are 70 to retire.

But the truth is that, when you are 70, you will retire with about 1/3 of your monthly income, assuming that’s even relevant in 10 years – and that includes Social Security, assuming that’s even relevant in 10 years.

Just open your eyes. Don’t listen to NPR, or your corporate financial advisor. Look around. How many elderly people do you see working at Walmart, WinDixie, etc. (just not Whole Foods – far too elitist to hire smelly old people). I have small jobs done by people in their 70s, I get groceries delivered by people in their 70s – the middle class is gone, and so is the working class.

There’s always the conflict with the “official narrative” that keeps using the inflation rate, which is heavily adjusted, rather than the cost of living, which is hidden, to judge the economy. The official narrative wants you to keep working, until you’re sick, and then when you’re sick, you can support the medical complex until you’re dead.

So, your retirement is going to be spent in the grocery business, greeting and helping people, along with millions of new immigrants to the US (which I welcome whole-heartedly). I just want to show the connecting thread in the economy: the “class system” that is preached, is really now obsolete. There is the Market Class, at the top (until the Wall Street “casino” busts), and the Service Class, which are minimum wage (indentured slave wage, by any other name), and the Debtor Class, which lives in blissful debt, counting themselves among the well-to-do, when in fact, they are a hair away from the Service Class, where they will end up eventually.

It’s all good. You didn’t want to retire anyway! You might want to consider a career change early though, since your corporate job is going to be taken away from you when you are too old and cost too much. If you cram your Library Science MA into the last two years of your job, you will end up with a decent salary, augmented by your meager retirement and Social Security, and live within your means (finally!), at peace, and in touch with real people.