A world that has been buffeted for more than two years by a manufactured pandemic is now witness to a military assault on a neighboring country with full-blown invasion, bombings, heavy weapons and classical military pincer-movement on the neighbor’s capitol. People and troops are dying, children are screaming and the citizens of the attacked nation are proving their mettle in the face of overwhelming force arrayed against them. It is happening in the midst of what the World Economic Forum, an assemblage of ultra-wealthy bankers, actual and would-be dictators and global merchants, are hoping is the correct time to execute “The Great Reset” – a globalization of governance and finance and production that will cement the oligarchs into power, while redistributing some wealth to all the less-fortunate denizens of the planet sufficient to keep them from rising up against the idea of perpetual second-class-ism.
Given that the perpetrator is the dictator of Russia, an oligarch and grand grifter in his own right, it is likely that the military assault he is so proud of is happening with at least tacit permission of the “WEF,” if not its approval. “Why? And why now?” poorly informed Americans are asking. Of greater concern to those same questioners: “What will this do to gas prices?” And so it goes.
Russia is smashing Ukraine, one of the former Soviet “republics” that gained freedom upon the Soviet Union’s dissolution 30 years ago. Dictator-in-fact, Vladimir Putin, an old KGB operator once stationed in East Germany, is redressing grievances he believes the Russian people have with an independent Ukraine. The current U. S. leadership has not only hamstrung itself with ideological bindings that, so far at least, severely limit the options the U. S. has for countering or defusing this hottest stage of a war we barely understand. There is danger at almost every direction we might go.
In other words, hobbling American oil and gas production to accomplish some fallacious climate modification, has exposed the utter “boobishness” of our foreign policy establishment. The ability of these dopes to risk everything and surrender everything in Afghanistan, should have opened the eyes of those who engineered certification of Biden’s election in 2020. In a just world, the people, including voters, who put the Biden administration into office would be begging forgiveness from their fellow Americans and from most of the Western world. Elections have consequences.
Russia’s economy is not proportional to its geography, and it is heavily dependent upon oil and gas exports. By reversing America’s energy independence and surplus, President Biden provided Russia with both increasing revenues, propping up Putin’s preparations for war, and with increased leverage over western Europe’s need for natural gas. In short, kow-towing to ultra-leftists and believers in the Climate-Change faith has yielded utterly stupid national and international policies. Can we hope that the Biden administration might reverse its worst ideas? We can correct mistakes; it is more difficult to fix stupidity.
President Joe Biden speaks about his domestic agenda from the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021, as Vice President Kamala Harris looks on. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Thousands of independent truck drivers in Canada have coalesced to protest their government’s Covid-19 “vaccine” mandate. Many are “vaccinated” (have accepted the weird injections) but are demanding freedom to choose what goes into their bloodstreams. Their Premier, Justin Trudeau, has scurried off to hide from them, claiming exposure to Covid – what else? He’s a heroic figure by his own account. He looks more like an asshole, but that’s subjective.
In all likelihood truckers in the U. S. are going to form their own convoy in protest of our government’s denial of freedom, too. Canada’s convoy was up to 45 miles long as it descended upon Ottowa. The Americans will try to exceed that, one suspects. Either way, the Canadians have inspired working people around the world to organize against the soft, yet hardening, tyrannies of supposed pandemic suppression; this applies mainly to the Biden Administration.
President Joe Biden has imposed an odd case study of how strange, long debunked theories of leftist governance, can screw up a large nation in a matter of months. Still, we have to go back further than January 20, 2021 to appreciate the impact of leftism on a supposedly Constitutionally limited democratic republic, particularly in reaction to a national “health emergency.” Covid-19 was such a perfect foil for destroying freedom and personal responsibility, that leftists have almost rejoiced in the opportunities to show how much better life can be under the firm hands of government control. It has fit their dreams so well that the creation of Covid-19 might appear to be a gift from the great leftist in the sky… or in China – same thing to some.
All of this brings us to contemplating how many left-ward changes POTUS (Poop-head Of The United States) has made in slightly more than one year. Among them are a host of UN-Constitutional, EXTRA-Constitutional and ANTI-Constitutional actions and policies. A number of them will, patriots hope, lead to impeachment and conviction of Mr. Biden. One glaring example is illegal immigration, one of the first “orders” POTUS issued on January 21st, his first full day in office. Biden reversed every Trump administration border policy, stopping virtually all deportations and virtually all arrests of illegal entrants. By so doing he ushered in one of the great travesties in U. S. history.
Since the end of January, 2021, nearly 2 MILLION illegal entrants have crossed the southern border – by the hundreds and thousands – and Joe Biden has forced the Border Patrol and I.C.E. to allow them in and then to provide various articles of clothing, cell-phones, prepaid for a year, hotel rooms and rides, even flights, to wherever the illegals want to go, or wherever Biden wants them to go. This policy requires the specific subversion of U. S. law. It forces expenses upon the sovereign states that created the FEDERAL governing system, completely subverting the Tenth Amendment. There is no pro-American value to it. Indeed, beyond unfettered access to public welfare programs and illegal residence in our country, illegal entrants are afforded more rights and far fewer legal constraints than are U. S. citizens! In fact, the federal government bends over backwards to provide Constitutional rights and protections to illegal aliens, including providing attorneys to every illegal entrant to defend their spurious claims to asylum. Many bleeding-heart liberals consider that it is the duty of the United States to feel sorry for, and provide welfare to, every unhappy person in the world. While that’s a sweet opinion, it has almost nothing to do with the purpose of nationhood: survival.
Every nation on Earth has a reason for being. For some, for most, actually, it is ethnicity. That is, nationhood typically has sprung from tribal identity, although most countries have also been fought for against neighboring tribes, and often expanded thereby. In too many examples nations have been cobbled together through domination and war. Commonality of language and / or religious belief has proven just as nationalizing as ethnic tribalism. Many factors combine to establish – and maintain – successful nations. Only one nation has survived because of a set of principles, almost despite ethnicity. It is exceptional.
To cement its unique reasons for being, the founding Fathers – and Mothers – of the United States of America, established an ageless covenant with the people of their recently fought-for states: The Constitution, the most respected and “copied” foundational document in the world. Every President, commencing with George Washington, and virtually every other elected state and federal official since, has sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. One might think that failing to do so would be justification for removal from office.
Every nation, however it justifies its continued existence, recognizes and passionately defends its borders… and its culture. For a nation to be led by a person or group of people who take actions to NOT defend its borders or even its culture, would seem to honest citizens sufficient reason to remove him or them from power. Back to Covid-19.
There is a large cohort of ostensible Americans who are charged with the vital task of conveying the culture and heritage of the United States to its children – to our future, in fact. Unfortunately, teachers and the overarching public education industry, have, over the past fifty years, been co-opted by ultra-leftists and virtual communists. Teachers’ unions have established themselves as the operators of schools, rather than the parents of children or the local, elected, school committees or boards who, presumably, answer to their constituents. It all results from political – and financial – corruption, with most of the finances being tax dollars… tax dollars extracted from real property owners, primarily, under the threat of police powers.
As a consequence, anti-American ideologies are taught to students in schools of “education” and then taught to elementary school students with the knowledge of their parents. This is changing, but decades of damage have been accomplished, reflected in a general malaise infecting 5 to 21-year-olds, noted in rates of drug use, lack of religious education, hyper-sexualization and suicide rates. Many of our youth believe they prefer socialism to capitalism, and if it’s the form of monopolistic, oligharchic wealth concentration we have allowed to date, they are right. Our Constitutional Republican form of governance and freedom is designed to allow for hope, imagination, joy and attainment. Our schools and attendant politics have produced less and less capable or independent young adults, and a lack of hope so profound as to destroy institutions like marriage, motherhood and fatherhood. If a primary purpose of nationhood is survival, America is failing. Illegal immigration won’t fix what ails us.
Covid provided thousands of incipient fascists with a perfect opportunity to push people around. The three most destructive effects of government “emergency” powers are the destruction of thousands of small businesses and millions of jobs, destruction of what was left of American economic freedom and budgetary strength, and destruction of the education and development of millions of K through 12 students. “Educators,” so-called, in teachers’ unions and administrative positions in virtually every school system, learned to exercise powers they’d only dreamed of prior. Parents, their schedules and economies and their precious offspring could be controlled in ways never imagined under our Constitution. As the truth has been spilling out about actual Covid threats and effects, schools are the largest remaining poisoned well of fascism – including pushing these dangerous injections onto kids as young as five years. It all constitutes a crime against humanity. Australia, New Zealand and, now, Canada, have enjoyed practicing new-found fascistic powers, to the point of mobilizing against freedom. Many of those same teachers are envious.
Naturally, parents have rebelled against the cloying, sticky blob of indoctrinators, and have succeeded many areas. Covid helped to expose the rot. But the lerftist, Democrat power structure will not relinquish its attempts to replace the American system with global socialism, readily or cleanly. Its members are clever and cunning, albeit not wise. The Biden deministration is happy to sic Merrick Garland and his DOJ thugs, so to speak, on parents who resist the wasting of education time on critical race or gender theories. What the Hell are we doing with the American dream bequeathed to us over the centuries?
Americans like to believe that we can work hard to elect this or that person or set of persons, and thereby change the direction of freedom, opportunity and of government, itself. It barely works anymore. Elections come and go, but the direction of government is inexorably toward higher pay and benefits for government officials and employees – higher than for average citizens – toward increasing benefits and rights for non-working welfare recipients, toward increasing benefits and rights for illegal entrants, toward increasing controls over individuals’ rights and freedoms, and toward perpetual, unredeemable debt.
Two things must happen: 1) voters must become smarter, hopefully wiser; and, 2) candidates for office must become smarter and better principled in terms of commitment to our Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.
Are we wise enough, collectively or individually, to stop electing anti-freedom, anti-American officials and “representatives? Do we actually believe that we can ignore the Constitution and just vote ourselves benefits from government much longer? Please.
This is the year. 2022 has been forced by the left to be the fulcrum of history. The perception of the left in 2020, faced with the likelihood of Trump’s re-election, was that the field was finally fertile enough to sow Communism (under a variety of euphemisms) in the sharply divided and guilt-ridden, formerly United States. Cities were collapsing in 2020, “Black Lives Matter” had coordinated with thousands of weirdos, “antifa” thugs and students and other youth who had been taught to hate our nation and history. The time seemed right to pull the trigger on revolution… besides, the media and a strange congress had many municipal leaders so consumed with hatred for Donald Trump and the Americanism he represented, that they too, agreed with “BLM” and allowed rioting in the name of myriad hatreds to destroy their communities.
The demise of George Floyd provided the spark as if written into a script. If Derek Chauvin had not been so incredibly stupid, some other event would have happened, some other black man would have conflicted with police and drawn fire while unarmed. Then his family would have become millionaires and Nancy Pelosi and a bunch of other dopes would have kneeled in the rotunda in that man’s memory, while the same cities – and hopes – burned.
The left engineered the answer to a big wish of theirs: dumping Donald Trump. We can begin to grasp what leftists really have for an end-game, when we dissect their hatreds, and their hatred for Trump – and trump supporters – is instructive. Trump, they decry, is a “populist,” which is to say, he only goes with what is “popular.” “Populist,” however, actually means being a member of the “Populist Party,” which gained traction in the late 19th century over issues like initiating an income tax, public ownership of utilities, support for unionization to counter the power of large corporations and banks, and support for fair returns for farmers. As a “people’s” party, the Populists were seeking to balance economic freedom for small business and workers, against the explosion of industrial growth and price-fixing power of industrial and financial trusts. Many of these issues were assumed by Progressives and the “Trust-Busters” in the first decade of the 20th century.
The more meaningful approbation of Trump is that of “Nationalist.” This is supposedly terrible, and likened to Nazism, ostensibly because Hitler was a nationalist. “America First” became pejorative in the view of leftists. So, what is the alternative goal? Globalism: the dissolution of national identities and, therefore, national heritage and culture. Destruction of American culture was the primary effect of 2020 lawlessness. It seemed to have many allies, one of whom is now president. What were/are they thinking?
Anti-nationalism has only one goal, globalist, one-world government. Is there any reason to expect that one-world government will be based on the American, Constitutionally limited model? We can learn a lot from the last 50 years of United Nations “enlightenment.” The vaunted U. N. was a creation of liberals and leftists who sold war-weary Americans on the image of diverse peoples all getting along to spread peace, democracy and the end of hunger around the world. Communists never accepted those premises, nor did other kinds of tyrants… nor Nazi-enflamed fundamentalist Muslims. To poorer nations it was a way to get money from the United States; to Communists a way to weaken the United States, to Muslims, a way to get the U. S. to pay for oil for poorer nations while weakening Christianity.
Within a very short time the U. N. became an excusatory congress for the U. S. policy of containing Communism, and we were thrust into the Korean Conflict for that stated purpose, but at its heart that war was an excuse to pit the U. S. against the Soviet Union and, ultimately, against communist China, while weakening the only super-power. It was the first war we won by losing: a new experience for the greatest generation.
Right on its heels the globalist C.I.A. and State Department leftists concocted what became the Viet-Nam War, the scars of which have never healed. Still ostensibly “containing” Communism, the U. S. consumed about a $Trillion dollars (back when a Billion dollars was a lot of money) and destroyed Americans’ faith in their military. So many lies were told about the conduct and success of that stupid conflict, that the Army had to hire hundreds of paid dissemblers to keep up with the flow. Again, we lost by winning, and were shamed.
Since Viet-Nam we have embarked on numerous military adventures, most of which are unknown to Americans and better grasped by other nations, including our enemies, of which there is a considerable list. At the same time we have exhausted our credit line with policies of welfare, corporate, family and personal, international and more. Nine administrations and 18 Congresses have seen fit to overspend – not at declining but at INCREASING rates. We now have commitments that cannot be met, and devaluing the currency is the final effect. Americans are seeking a political solution to a philosophical deficit: we have accepted the blandishments of socialists and communists for 60 years and mismanaged our industrial base so badly that we can barely afford to defend ourselves, much less project power to constrain tyrants. Freedom is shrinking, everywhere.
Americans have swayed from responsibility to licentiousness, forswearing God and religion, turning instead to the perpetual debt-creation of government. We are not able to sacrifice for a better future as our parents and grandparents did, automatically. We have a plethora of foolish rights… and fewer freedoms. The freedoms remaining are under assault, now that we have elected a tyrant of our own.
So, 2022 poses a host of problems that took a long time to gestate, but which need to be corrected in very short order. It will take sacrifice on everyone’s part. America has never been invaded, discounting the War of 1812, and we have not felt the devastation and losses of war. But a war is brewing, here amongst us, and a welfare check won’t stave it off. What do Americans have to do, now? Learn Mandarin?
More than once over the past eight years we have considered our ballooning debt. For the past two years elements of our deep state, agencies of the National Institutes of Health, elected leftists, George Soros’ minions and Communist China, have conspired to hobble capitalism about as rapidly as has ever been done – our hobbling of ourselves not having proceeded as quickly as they’d liked. Brutal lockdowns and debt-defying welfare payments to locked out workers and free-loaders, fearful school closings and now mandated injections of ersatz vaccines or firings – even in the military and emergency domestic personnel – have stripped our workforce and businesses of the people needed to produce our goods and productive surplus. We are broke and rushing to become poorer…, well, except for a few multi-billionaire-global merchants and money manipulators. We have given up the capitalist opportunity society for an oligarchy of wealth and severe stratification into the rakers, the makers, the takers and the fakers.
Even more effectively, we have turned the “vaxxed” into haters of the “unvaxxed,” while formerly trustworthy doctors and hospitals, in thrall to the pharmaceutical manufacturers, have started denying medical care to those who choose to not be injected with mRNA poisons, whose safety and efficacy have been unknown, only now being revealed as neither safe nor effective. Our barely recognizable “government’s” only offering is dissolution of the constitution and further expansion of the debt by another couple of $Trillion. God save us.
It appears that a massive shift in political alignment is in the offing for the mid-term elections, but so what? We are teetering, contemplating a preposterous war1 and swearing at one another. Society is rending itself as it awaits the next free-delivery of goodies and gadgets from Amazon Prime and GrubHub, no longer even bothering to cook for ourselves. We’ve demonized smokers, and glorified tokers. Will changing control of Congress mean a tinker’s dam? What do we expect a powerful new Congress to do?
Will a Republican congress cut the federal budget? Will it use its “power of the purse” to force enforcement of the Constitution and of laws? Will it impeach scurrilous Joe Biden? Will it pursue exposure of the deep state and various collusions and corruptions that seem to have happened? Will it force a complete house-cleaning at the Department of Justice? Will it impeach Merrick Garland on Constitutional grounds? Will it stop raising the debt “ceiling?” Will it undue a host of bad laws and regulations? Will Republicans eliminate clearly racist distinctions in the application of laws? Will it pass a budget? Will it resist any legislation of more than say, 30 or 40 pages in length? Will it prevent the back-door passage of unrelated “wants” that certain Reps or Senators want to attach to true “needs” legislation? Do we think either House will reform itself for the benefit of citizens or in defense of Constitutional rights and freedoms? Given the last 40 or 50 years of congressional history, all these hopes… indeed, ANY of these, seems like a long shot.
We saw, upon the surprise election of both leftist and somewhat questionable Democrat Senators from Georgia, that the Democrat party was poised to push through utterly radical policies. Indeed, their virulent attempts to “reset” American Constitutionality would lead patriots to accept the plausibility of concerted efforts to steal the presidential – and other – elections in 2020, in order to get the “reset” underway. It, the rabid intensity for replacing the American system, seems to not be politics, anymore; it is no longer based on how to best represent the needs of the American people, but rather a mission to undo the last bastion of freedom in favor of a Chinese-led global tyranny.
The question, then, aside from “will we descend into war over Ukraine,” is how radically, how rabidly will the Pelosi-Schumer Democrats breach the bounds of law, custom and ethics to achieve victory in the mid-terms? They have shown, repeatedly, that free and fair elections cannot be depended upon to maintain their majority in either house.
Consequently, given the building expectation of a Republican sweep of the mid-term elections, the threat to a Democrat majority anywhere is also building. Watching the criminality guiding the Biden administration along our southern border, and the willingness of Merrick Garland to abridge the Bill of Rights, the threat to the survival of the United States will likely be experienced in 2022. There is no one to our West who will save democracy for US. We must save and defend it ourselves… right now.
1 There is really only one solution to the Ukraine standoff. With consequences for invasion on the table, the U. S. must reach out to Putin and President Zelensky, not at the same time or place, but close, to commence negotiations. Ukraine deserves respect, but not American blood. Biden or Blinken or one of their apologists must make clear to Zelensky that neither NATO, or an assemblage of European states is going to risk everything to defend Ukraine from the Russian juggernaut. Russia holds the military cards and killing thousands of them and more thousands of Ukrainians is not going to shift that balance materially.
Russia also must be respected, and assuaged. The U. S. must assure Putin in no uncertain terms that war will not ensue over Ukraine IF an acceptable condition of neutrality for Ukraine: neutrality with sovereignty, can be established that is acceptable to Ukraine and Russia. That may involve special trading status between those two nations, and sufficient flexibility for Ukraine to trade elsewhere as well. It will have to recognize the special status of Crimea as a military enclave for the Russian Navy with some rights of veto by Ukraine for other than agreed uses and operations there, perhaps with a 99-year “lease” of the peninsula. It could include a pact within which neither nation would take sides with any 3rd party against the other. It must also recognize the cultural distinctions of ethnic Russians resident in Ukraine, and possible changes in the acceptance of the Russian language within Ukraine.
There is a diplomatic path that the U. S. could broker and cause to be recognized by the European Union and NATO itself, including NATO’s firm rejection of membership by Ukraine and agreement by Ukraine to cease negotiations with or appeals to NATO. The U. S. should agree to recognize the neutrality of Ukraine and to lead the effort to have the rest of the U. N. similarly recognize the new status. Russia must agree to exercise no military provocation or threat to Ukraine and to recognize, unequivocally, its independence, neutrality and sovereignty. It’s possible. All alternatives to this framework are disastrous.
Fewer and fewer people understand capitalism, despite every, single, one of us being a capitalist. This is an odd distortion of knowledge and understanding, and it has taken a lot of work. There are two kinds of capital: earned and unearned. Figuring out which is which will make clear where each of us is on the spectrum.
Consider a newborn baby. He or she will cry and fuss until he or she receives food and/or comfort – often the very same things. There is no sense of sacrificing for greater rewards an hour or two later, or of “saving up” cries in order to obtain a larger portion at a later time. Babies exhibit raw capitalism: pure barter. I won’t make your motherly instincts feel the discomfort of a crying baby if you will provide what it takes to comfort me and put enough food into me so that I will sleep… like a baby. We all start out as capitalists.
We might also note that a baby doesn’t save any food or comfort for later, nor does he or she offer more quiet alleviation of motherly guilt in exchange for food than it takes. Everything is on the expense accounts as “current” – no accrual.
It takes a while for infants and toddlers to figure out that kindness and caring can be “banked,” as it were, for increased pleasure and happiness any time later. It’s a big concept. If lovingly raised, however, children do learn to avoid punishment for “bad” or costly actions, and to express love and kindness toward parents and others when they are not hungry or uncomfortable… and even to share possessions. At some point they learn to trade possessions for perceived “profits.” Something Tommy has seems more desirable than what Jeffy has – and vice-versa – and both parties “profit” from an exchange of goods. Also a big concept.
Like all human “isms,” even incipient capitalism requires regulation and “institutionalized” bounds. Almost every child learns that simply taking something of Tommy’s is extremely profitable: nothing is given up in exchange. Parents or other adults are, at that point, obligated to punish – or dis-incentivize – that practice. Jeffy’s taking, or stealing the possession of Tommy’s, must be made costly enough that Jeffy learns as immediately as possible, that there is no advantage or profit in that act or acquisition. And, it must be a cost that exceeds the simple return of the stolen property. Whether it’s a period of disfavor from a parent, or deprivation of a desired activity, a slap on the hand or something else proportional to the “crime,” there must be a cost that the perpetrator, Jeffy, will do his best to avoid going forward. Otherwise, stealing becomes a habit and will be perceived as profitable and worthwhile. Several big concepts.
It’s easy to imagine the fairly short-term consequences of the lack of institutionalized sanctioning of “bad” actions. In this case, the “institution” is the “law,” or, at least, the automatic and swift punishment (let’s hope, by parents) of theft in addition to retribution. This is the fundament of civilization; capitalism is woven amongst all the threads of civilized society.
Now let’s assume that our properly guided and sanctioned child grows up, essentially according to the Ten Commandments. People of faith attempt to obey all ten, there being nothing negative about any of them, which is to say: nothing that hurts social cooperation and quality of life, or the raising of new adults with civilizing self-control. Strictures against creating and worshipping graven images instead of God; taking the name of God in vain (cursing involving God’s name or power); keeping the sabbath day holy is also a good idea, albeit one that we in America have cleverly set aside; honoring our fathers and mothers is both logical and essential to the health of society; not killing one another; not committing adultery; not stealing; not lying about our neighbors; and, not coveting the property of our neighbors. These are essentially society-protecting strictures that we attempt to talk ourselves away from only at our peril. The hate-based riots of 2020 are the clear and clarion proof of the fragility of civilization in the absence of “the Commandments,” whatever their source.
Our new adult decides to start a business. Having been raised “with a conscience,” Jeffy plans to sell his skills as a carpenter, and he recognizes that he’ll need a partner with similar skills in order to keep his contracting promises and to help avoid mistakes. He makes arrangements with a local lumberyard to establish an account with sufficient credit to do significant renovation or add-on projects. The account is based on Jeffy’s reputation as an honest person and, in part, on his father’s equivalent reputation. The lumberyard considers the potential of a growing business customer as a worthy risk of a certain level of credit, or debt.
By virtue of hiring Aaron, a friend he knows from High school, who also loves building things, Jeffy takes on a remarkable burden of employer obligations, including various benefits that must be paid, including health care and liability insurances, and, of course, meeting “payroll.” As owner of the business, Jeffy also is responsible for legal contracting with customers, and for other tax consequences of success. He and Aaron still believe in their abilities and respective roles. and business commences.
“Jeff’s Construction” finds itself busy and able to pay both the owner and his employee reasonable wages while gaining assets in the form of two trucks and several power tools, and while accumulating some money in a local bank. In other words, “Jeff’s” is profitable. Knowing that his little company was facing taxes on his profits at both the state and federal levels, Jeff decides to make a donation to his church’s Christmas Food Drive. With profits on the books of about $12,000, Jeff donates $2,000 to the food drive. He and Aaron get their picture in the paper handing over a big cardboard check to the chairman of the Drive committee. The minister and several other key people are also in the picture. Jeff makes a handful of new connections, as a result, a couple of whom later contract with “Jeff’s Construction” for renovations of their homes.
As the years go by, “Jeff’s Construction” becomes “J & A Builders, Inc.” incorporated and no longer a proprietorship. They grow to 6 full-time employees. Each summer J & A work with the regional technical high school to provide summer jobs to budding carpenters. Aside from income taxes to state and federal government, J & A’s building and garages plus the property taxes on the two partners’ and their 6 employees’ homes total over $100,000 per year, while excise taxes on their vehicles kick in another $26,000. Donations to the Food Drive, the Boys and Girls Club and to the local “Y” for Summer Camp sponsorships plus support of a local Little League team, amount to nearly $25,000. J & A also matches 401-K contributions up to 5% of income for all 8 personnel.
Those who misunderstand the immense values of honest profit are always looking for “businesses” and “business owners” to right non-business wrongs in society, perhaps because they are “fortunate.” But that is not a business obligation. The business is obliged to operate legally and honestly, delivering what it promises and not cheating customers, and to do so at a profit so that all legal obligations to employees and suppliers are met. By providing multiple streams of tax revenue, businesses provide for all that civil society is relied upon to provide for residents. Charity is in addition, and a blessing, not an obligation.
Of course, everything is different for those small businesses that have a room in the back that’s full of cash… cash they’re just too greedy to share with their oppressed workers and every poor person in town. But, there are damned few of those.
There are many ways to add new wealth to an economy and to a nation. The first of these was personal manufacture, in a sense, where the best tools or weapons compared to other groups or tribes created an advantage in terms of safety, hunting and survival. Next came agriculture, permanent villages and cities and the need to defend them, which latter need spurred invention, metallurgy, and more. Along with agriculture, fishing also introduces wealth and spurred marine technology. In the presence of defensive pressures came a third major source of new wealth: mining. Everything, of course, required managed labor and the necessary efficiencies that make ever-larger projects, whether construction or war-fighting, possible. Indeed, it all made the Roman Empire possible – a success of management and leadership that taught some lessons to all of today’s successful – and failed – governments. Religion, particularly in terms of Judaism and Christianity and the economic and familial ethics they spread across Europe, led, eventually and often unpleasantly, to the enlightenment and the explosion of technology, which made intellectual invention a new source of wealth and source of medical advantage, which is another form of civic wealth.
Today, virtually pure intellect is like a global form of mining. New products are “manufactured” from a raw material of electrons, bringing new wealth into existence. Construction, of homes or factories or office towers or highways and bridges, adds new wealth, too: fixed assets, from which use is derived for years and decades, enabling other wealth and our gigantic “service economy.” Still, no matter the type of business in which one engages, the obligations of businesses and business owners – including stockholders – are the same.
What are they?
Operate legally (but don’t hesitate to challenge regulations and laws that are irrational and which amount to unequal application of the law)
Earn a profit legally, without cheating customers
At best, manufacture a product (best way to create new wealth benefitting the most people)
Next best, grow a product and/or improve the growing process
Treat employees equally and provide appropriate training and safe conditions for work
Provide real services that add value to products and their use or availability
Deliver what is promised, never less than promised, and more if you can
Do not employ false advertising or sales tactics
Maintain honest accounting, pay applicable taxes
Do not dirty your property, the air or the waters
Individuals, business owners or not, are always free to be charitable and to take part in politics or social issues they believe in. But these should be personal decisions and personal resources. A business owner fails his or her basic obligations to a community , to customers and to employees, by diverting business resources that should be enhancing working conditions, or providing insurance against future threats to the business. Otherwise, if this sense of purpose and obligation to the health of the business is being weakened for any number of reasons, the business should be sold to those who will work to meet the listed obligations, or folded, having fulfilled, or no longer fulfilling, its mission.
Dr. Anthony Fauci responding to charges of lying about origin of Covid-19 virus – Jan. 11, 2022 Senate hearing. (Greg Nash/Pool via AP)
SUPREMACY IN QUESTION
America’s faith in the ability of the Supreme Court to figure out difficult issues of constitutional law, has been shaken over the past couple of years, and at no point more than during the first week of 2022. Facing the Court is the question of the Executive branch’s authority to incorporate OSHA rules on workplace safety into its (the President’s) desire to mandate the taking of an injection by a major fraction – although not all – of the U. S. workforce (those who work for employers of 100 or more employees).
Justices Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayor, managed to demonstrate unimaginable ignorance about Covid-19 and the purported vaccines available to fight it, and so much so, that other ideas they may hold could be judged troubling for those who rely on their cognitive discretion. They believe some weird things.
A fair question for all 9 Justices is, “What research do you do to prepare for evaluating testimony?” Don’t they have staffs to help them prepare? They were all aware of this case reaching the Court… what is the source of the false ideas and statistics that these three Justices espoused from the Bench? It’s scary. What on earth do they listen to?
Breyer, for example, stated that the vaccines are unequivocally the way to “stop” Covid and the pandemic, itself. Yet, increasingly, the very opposite of that impression should be drawn from the latest Covid statistics. He stated that “750 million” people had tested positive the previous day, which is about two and a quarter times the population of the United States. Rather than enter the Courtroom with knowledge, Breyer appears to have entered with only beliefs. What sort of penetrating questions would he ask plaintiffs?
Justice Sotomayor shared her “knowledge” that there were 100,000 children in hospitals, seriously ill with Covid, many on ventilators. In fact there were about 3500 in hospitals across the country, many of whom were in hospital for non-Covid reasons and tested positive for the virus. She then questioned why the federal government didn’t have police powers similar to those of states, to enforce health-care mandates. The Bill of Rights should inform her. Where did she get her ideas? What sort of preparation to hear testimony on the federal “vaccine” mandate, did she do? Leaves one nervous.
Finally, Justice Kagan stated that “We know” that vaccines are the best way to stop the virus and the best way to stop serious illness is also the vaccine. The next best thing to do is to wear a mask. All three ideas are wrong according to the latest data.
Other justices did not add to Americans’ concerns about the understandings of Supreme Court Justices. We can hope that most were prepared CONSTITUTIONALLY, to issue opinions based on that document. Supremes’ opinions based on “talking points” or CNN and MSNBC commentary, or on comments from Tony Fauci, should have no place in that hallowed Court. See: http://www.prudenceleadbetter.com/2021/12/29/in-pharmas-fields-the-rumors-grow/
No one really looks forward to what others think may happen in a 12-month period when the calendar changes to a new year. Given the past couple of strange, guilt-ridden years, many just say or think something on the order of, “Please, just let it be more ‘normal’ or ‘stable’ or ‘American’ than it was in 2021.” Of course, the question is, Who’s doing the “letting” we’re hoping for?
When we think about it, we are asking some undefined “force” that (also hopefully) permeates all of life and reality, waiting for our entreaties to effect a needed change or “alignment” that will turn our pleas into pleasure, even if it is simply making a handful of traffic-light changes go green when we are running late.
Sometimes we question our very “right” to ask for help from the Universe (if that is where the help emanates), as though our own worth were questionable at that moment. Perhaps we were really snippy with someone we love and said some regretted words as we were running late, leaving us unworthy until we have a chance to “make up” for the hurt we inflicted. As that moment of opportunity approaches, we automatically ask the same “force” to put our loved-one in a good mood and able to accept our apology or peace-offering. Is this religion? What if we’re not particularly “religious?” What if Sunday School was our last brush with Biblical things. Chances are, when “things” seem out of our control or when a tragedy has struck someone we may not even know, we automatically (it seems) turn to a form of power outside of ourselves to adjust or rectify conditions for the better.
So, is there a Who? Let’s hope it’s not the government.
2021, and 2020, for that matter, are examples in stark contrast of how government power can destroy the lives of millions, perhaps billions, in multiple countries while other millions, perhaps, billions, are pleading with the “government” to make life better, safer, more prosperous and less guilt-ridden. Doesn’t seem like too much to ask. After all, government has the money and power to do what needs to be done. This attitude may not be the most Prudent: it exposes a feared failure of “the Universe” and the absence of hope.
Can’t the intercessor who changes lights from red to green also defeat a mere virus and balance the budget? We say “who” because humans can’t conceive of an omnipotent being or force without a personality and, to complete the package, a face. Whether it’s Jehovah or Jor-el, let’s hope the force is with us in 2022, ‘cause we’re running late.
Covid-19 was a creation of at least two governments and was released across the planet by government, as well, while governments insisted the fault lay within animals. So far no one has been punished for the largely avoidable deaths of millions of people. Is that the fault of us or of the “Force” itself? We know government entities caused the plague, we also know that simple treatments can stop it, yet we fret and worry and wait FOR THE SAME GOVERNMENTS to make everything better. This seems odd. It’s virtually a declaration of helplessness on the part of millions of people who, if they perceived their place in the “hierarchy of the Force,” could take dominion over their corrupt governors and set things in proper alignment. Is there a hierarchy? Are we groveling observers and pawns or do we have a role to play in the direction of life and hope?
At this point we’re all saying or thinking, “Oh, please let us not be groveling observers or pawns.” There’s that “letting” business, again.
We can’t avoid politics when discussing government actions and failures. Political parties – or “factions” – are amazingly inept mechanisms for effecting the “general welfare” of the whole nation. They must, by definition, serve themselves, first. That is, by some convoluted instruction set, or “truth table,” partisans convince themselves of the welfare of their party being synonymous with the welfare of the nation as a whole. It almost never is, although it might appear so in bits and pieces. In any event, more and more of what the party has achieved always appears to partisans to be better for the majority of people than a mere leaving of things as they are.
Troubles accumulate, however, because each party inevitably promulgates some evils that serve key (ie. Powerful) partisans’ very local, even as local as their wallets’ interest, and the opposing party accepts those evils in order to obtain some “goods” that, in the arcane legerdemain of partisan politics, somehow balances out against the evils.
When the levers of power change partisan hands, the pent-up desires for self-interest are unleashed and the immediate saviors of the nation transform into evil-doers, albeit, in their own minds, at much more rational levels than those foul denizens of the other (yuck!) party. And so it goes. The “goods” instituted by this or that group of partisans, are replaced, little by little – or, sometimes, in huge gobs – by evils of the other group. This fact of partisan life can be seen in the unimaginable mountains of debt with which the flocks of both producers and non-producers (who hope that bills are being paid in the background, but which are not, in fact) have been saddled while sloshing back and forth between partisan saviors.
It is most Prudent, going forward, that those of us who still have hope enough to ask for salvation from the What or Who that never employs evil, recognize that partisan politics and personages will never fulfill What’s or Who’s hoped-for intercessionary role.
Still, as with every New Year transition (many people revelers or not, miss the sound of the transition, which is a faint, barely audible ‘Ummm’ in low E) we have a “new beginning,” whatever that means for each of us. We have, by the good fortune of living into a “new” year, a new set of opportunities to “make up for” things we have done that may have hurt someone else or, often, ourselves. After all, as part of life, we also deserve to not be hurt or pushed out of alignment. If we are fortunate enough to still hope that What or Who is listening to us, as it were, when we hope for improvement, we might want to forgive ourselves for errors and omissions or direct injuries we have suffered at our own hands – or hearts. Perhaps our best hope is to adjust our lives so that we don’t “run late” in 2022.
What about the power we have to undo evils and effect good in the world? You may have fallen prey to the popular notion that only by doing evil, like burning, looting and destruction… and by hating properly, can humans bring about good, but in 2022 you need not believe that. If you know the difference between good and evil then 2022 could be the year when you agree to not support evil in the name of “progress.”
What if every adult in your town visited the city council or Board of Select Men and Women and stated, simply, that you want every act of vandalism, shoplifting and public drinking or drug abuse to be punished according to the law, including full restitution and public service by offenders. That’s it: no shouting, no anger, no hatred or petitions dropped off. Everyone appears and states his or her desire for good change. Is there any doubt that our “governors” or erstwhile “representatives” would effect those changes?
The same would work for bad and unfair laws that should be repealed or modified.
We saw this work before school committees in Virginia and elsewhere. There are no representatives who have as much power as their constituents; there are no elected officials who have as much power as their constituents. Gandhi showed us that there is no military/police force that has as much power as a people with a unified purpose.
Clearly we cannot allow our self-fulfilling governments to keep heading downward on the same paths they have taken us over the past two years. We are smarter than that – and smarter than they. The public good will be more perfectly realized when our government is again restricted by the Constitution, when it is as small as practical for the defense of our nation, and when it costs about a third of what it costs, now.
Over the past 6 decades it ought to have become clear that no government can ever provide sufficient “welfare,” as public charity is known. Nor is it really charity, since it is not given freely by anyone. It is taken from supposedly “free” people who never intended to grant sufficient power to the governments they formed to take their personal property under threat of loss or punishment (ie. Police power) so that it could be given to others who did not work for it or, to put it more starkly, who would be arrested if they took it from its owners, themselves.
Is governance so complex that it cannot be reformed? Is it our nature – or curse – that mistakes, once made by elected “representatives” of we, the people, cannot be undone amidst bountiful proofs of failure or error? What is it about Americans that we are hide-bound to repeat mistakes made by other Americans who were elected to some office or another? Why? Does the happenstance, no matter how dearly sought, of election perform some immutable purification that raises those so blessed above responsibility for their mistakes? Or, does it transform their mistakes into the most beneficial policy decisions, the perpetual financing of which confirms their near-miraculous properties?
Why is it that we, the people, who caused – nay, granted – the election of mistake-makers are perpetually bound to PAY for those mistakes, and suffer from them? Is there no means of correction?
One factor we have permitted and even encouraged is “career representation.” With a 95% re-election rate for federal representatives and senators, and similar rates for state-level reps and senators, the decline in governmental and budgetary quality – honesty – has to be reviewed through the lens of longevity. Connections and relationships among other denizens of capitol buildings become much stronger than the periodic and temporary connections to voters. Combined with influence over the spending of billions and billions of dollars – and billions of dollars’ worth of regulations – the personal, rather than representative value of elective office eventually outweighs the higher ethical requirements of representation. Soon, reps and senators at every level become elected bureaucrats. Their voters tend to ignore their work until an issue makes the news. When an opponent runs against a sitting (there is a lot of sitting) rep or senator, there is a desire to not “take away ‘Tom’s’ or ‘Jane’s’ job.” Can we change these attitudes?
If a thousand people showed up for legislative hearings do you think representatives could be tricked into representing, again? One of the key problems that inhibit citizen participation in their own government is the simple issue of parking. Boston, in Massachusetts’ case, has for a variety of reasons, not least of which is some ephemeral effect on global climate, made it more and more difficult to park in the city and most particularly anywhere near the State House on Beacon Hill. What if there were a 600-car parking lot reserved at certain times of the year for hearing attendees. It could be where people could take the “T” or commuter rail into Boston at low cost. With car-pooling there could easily be 1,000 citizens attending hearings.
Do you not believe that 1,000 testimonies about a topic would get “representatives” attention?
In days of yore (a term used here for the very first time in all of Prudence’ writings) DOCTORS were much revered and obeyed for their advice, in part for their licensed acceptance by their profession and peers, and just as much in part for their ethical standards to which they had sworn as had been their ethic for days and centuries of even greater yore. They also possessed various elements of arcane knowledge to which the average supplicant of their curative powers was not privy.
Those days are gone thanks, most specifically, to the Great COVID Reset during which the politicization of medicine… of MEDICINE… has been completed.
Inadvertently, President Trump fed this beast upon the advice of both good and somewhat black-hearted advisors, many of whom are now billionaires. Hapless Joe Biden has not only ridden the beast of politicization, but has whipped it into frenzy. “Politicization” can nearly be defined as the “monetization” of medicine, which has been going on for a long time, primarily, in the U. S., since the Johnson administration.
Many countries have provided “universal health care” while the United States has done so only stepwise, retaining as much innovation and private initiative as possible, resulting in the greatest industrialized health care system in the world even since Medicare, while the beast nibbled away, digesting philosophies and dollars with equal rapacity. There are vestiges of independence and competition remaining, which enables our remarkable responsiveness to medical needs in comparison to most state-run “health-care” programs. Unfortunately, competition and independent excellence are increasingly perceived as problems by the “nattering nabobs of negativism”1 whom we continue to re-elect.
The hitherto ethical boundaries that defined and protected our phenomenal medical care systems, have nearly disappeared. Where “doctors” in general were once automatically trusted because of their ethical standing, more commonly, now, doctors are forced – and their patients just as much – to provide certain treatments at certain rates of contact for costs dictated by federal agencies. The most egregious of these trends is crystallized by the Pfizer and Moderna and other injections purported to “protect” us from Covid-19 and variants thereof.
“Medicine” has attempted to protect itself through a principle known as “informed consent.” The old “Hippocratic Oath” was too close to a religious oath, for one thing, and, as the ability of medical technology has improved to a point of sidestepping many life-threatening conditions (ie. Heart bypass and valve-replacement surgeries) ever-larger medical consortiums have seized upon “informed consent” to reduce their liability for bad outcomes. Extraordinary promises require extraordinary defenses.
Consequently, patient-customers are presented with various forms of Informed Consent or “waiver” forms on even fairly simple procedures. Contained within each is the promise by the patient to pay for any part of the cost that is not covered by either government or semi-private insurance. Despite the fact that they have just agreed to the indemnification of the provider from bad results of whatever set of procedures are being ordered, what patients mainly recall about the forms ritual, is that he or she has agreed to pay. The “waiver” part, though, helps contain the costs of “malpractice” insurance for the provider(s). More on malpractice, later. Let’s look, first, at how governments, and politicians and political appointees, are mandating medical procedures.
It’s fairly clear, now, two years after the fact, that sloppy, or, God forbid, intentional procedures in the Wuhan, China Virology Institute caused the recently engineered SARS-Cov-2, novel coronavirus to spread rapidly in the city and across the Hubei Province of which it is the capitol, and from there across the globe. Sadly, the Dr. Anthony Fauci-led National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases – NIAID – funded gain-of-function research through research company, Eco-Health Alliance, a “non-profit” headed by British scientist Peter Daszak. Eco-Health remains non-profitable as it funds research in various places around the world, including Wuhan, from grants it obtains from entities like the National Institutes of Health, within which lie the NIAID and Dr. Fauci. That sentence means what it says.
“Gain of Function” means that a natural bat coronavirus was modified, or engineered in the Wuhan laboratory to enable it to readily infect humans and “humanized” mice for research purposes, but it is a matter of intent. If some Communist dictatorship intended to create a bio-weapon – just saying – it would cause the exact same engineering to go forward. Any outside source of the funding needed for such engineering or research would, if it had half a wit, deny any connection to such a sharp, 2-edged sword. This may account for argumentativeness on the part of the world-renowned Dr. Fauci during testimony in Senate hearings on the coronavirus. He certainly has half a wit.
For those Americans who carefully limit themselves to certain news sources, the participation of the NIAID in development of Covid-19 is just a rumor, nothing more.
Another rumor that is very widely known… and repeated by numerous official sources, is that President Trump’s “warp speed” regulatory changes and funding produced three very effective “vaccines” against Covid-19 in record time. Millions are convinced that the rumor is true. But how could modified RNA technology have been applied to this novel coronavirus so rapidly? Well, “Moderna,” a little-known Cambridge, Mass. Pharmaceutical company just happened to be working on such a rumored “vaccine” against the SARS-Cov-2 novel coronavirus IN THE WUHAN INSTITUTE OF VIROLOGY in late 2019 before the rest of the world had even heard of the disease. What a fortunate coincidence. Almost as if they had been preparing for the “lab leak” that put Covid-19 on the world stage, when the President called upon “science” and business to work together on an emergency search for a vaccine against the deadly worldwide pandemic, why they were more than halfway there!
Miracle of miracles, not just Moderna but Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson / Janssen were also able to develop “vaccines” in record time that were able to be “approved” by the FDA for emergency use, right AFTER the 2020 federal elections, since approval before November 3rd would have yielded bad optics.
Unfortunately, Trump was as much in the dark about the legal and illegal machinations of the NIH, CDC and NIAID as the rest of us. He simply recognized the need for a vaccine to stem the disease and believed that what the pharmaceutical industry and Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx and the FDA were calling vaccines actually were vaccines. Trump is a do-er, not a doctor, taking the best advice he could get. He had no idea how thoroughly corrupted federal health agencies were by “big Pharma.” Even the FDA whom we trust to protect Americans from bad foods and unproven drugs, is populated almost completely by former pharmaceutical-industry hacks. So, we can put that rumor to rest.
The other rumor we can finally bury is the “vaccine” status of the modified RNA injections that are, even now, being mandated by businesses and governments, willy-nilly. They’re not vaccines… they are stimulants. They stimulate one’s cells to create non-infectious “spike” proteins that are similar to Covid-19 spike proteins. There very quickly develops a flood of “foreign” spike proteins that the body does its best to get rid of. If, while the flood of foreign proteins are sloshing around, one is also exposed to the Covid-19 spike proteins, well the body will get rid of them, too, during its stimulated get-rid-of-foreign-spike-proteins-phase. It’s ingenious, really, and it can reduce the number of Covid-19 proteins (viruses) that are able to infect a person’s cells. This provides some time for the body’s immune system to finally begin creating defenses against Covid. For most who are exposed following an MRNA injection, the resulting Covid infection will be somewhat milder than it would have been if never injected. However, the MRNA injections do not cause the body’s immune system to create T-cells and B-cells that will confer virtually life-long responsiveness to Covid proteins, and rapid immune defenses to them. They do, however, practically guarantee the emergence of mutations – the dreaded “variants” – by mass-injection programs during a pandemic.
Since the body is good at filtering out foreign proteins, the MRNA injections wear off in a few months, leaving injectees vulnerable to future exposures to Covid-19, and with no built-up immunity or rapid immune defenses, possibly more vulnerable than if never injected. There is some evidence that natural immunity function, itself, and natural immunity to Covid-19 following infection and recovery, may be impaired by MRNA injections. Natural immunity to Covid is 5 to 25 times stronger than the temporary “immunity” conferred by MRNA injection, so it seems a shame to weaken it with future MRNA shots. Apparently our politicians know better than scientists and doctors what is “good” for us.
As part of “warp speed” development of the MRNA injections, pharmaceutical companies were granted immunity from suits due to bad injection reactions up to and including death. This is interesting. The same people who shy away from you if you are not “vaccinated” and who rush to get their children “vaccinated” with MRNA injections, want gun manufacturers to be made fully liable for the use of their products, yet many, many more people die from pharmaceuticals and bad reactions to them, and from bad drug interactions, than from gunshots – many more. The MRNA injections, themselves, account for upwards of 45,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of bad reactions that have yielded debilitating effects, including paralysis. “Give it to our children!” some people cry.
One of the greatest, life-changing effects of MRNA injections, is the creation of dozens of new billionaires from governments’ purchasing of these “free” shots.
Malpractice insurance is no problem for big Pharma, but it is for most treatment providers. Throughout medical school and residency, future physicians are schooled in the employment of “best practice” when diagnosing or treating patients both medically and surgically. Best practice is a doctor’s only defense against charges of “malpractice.” Hence, defensive medicine is the best practice: every test that might illuminate and inform a doctor’s next step or recommendation or prescription, must be employed lest a key piece of “best practice” be overlooked, creating malpractice vulnerability.
Throughout medical education, “best practices” are taught, tested, drilled and tested again and again. The advancement of medical knowledge is not as rapid as it may appear. It takes time and extensive trial and error: studies, “teaching hospital” trials, even for surgical improvement, before a new procedure among dozens that comprise complex surgery or cancer treatments and every other interaction with doctors and laboratories, may be accepted as a “best” practice. To a great degree, the defensibility of the procedure contributes to its “best” designation. Also crucial, however, is the predictability of result in the majority of patients.
When new procedures are finally tried and used, the old “informed consent” firewall is duly presented and signed. Progress is made, somewhat better methods and, presumably, results manifest, the patients recover, possibly faster. Because of testing and trials with careful analyses of results written up for peer review and duplication of results in similar patients, “informed consent” is genuinely “informed.” Insurance companies and their attorneys have been satisfied that coverage should, properly, be extended to cover the new procedure or device or development. What ever the patient now consents to has been deemed “safe” enough and effective enough that the overall risk to the insurors can be quantified as low enough – and, thus, to the patient – that they’ll “cover it.” The provider institution and every clinician who will be part of the new whatever, is also able to be insured, and PROTECTED so long as the insurable “best practice” is employed. Are MRNA injections a “best practice?” Who the Hell even knows? Evidence is accumulating that they are NOT.
The cost of progress is not small. Research and trials are financed, oftentimes by the pharmaceutical industries. Many changes require new drugs or new formulations of drugs, and their new aspects and applications must also be tested, whether under real treatment conditions or in research programs at medical schools, among other venues. Doctors are “educated” in large part by and thanks to pharmaceutical manufacturers. All of their professors have been, too. Best practice is as much best prescription as best action. And doctors and institutions like pharmaceuticals that have been “approved” by the “independent” Food and Drug Administration (FDA); they form a large part of “best practices.” If a malpractice suit is brought against any provider, his, her or its only defense, all things being normal, is that “best practices” were employed, documented, and witnessed by other professionals. Every medical student knows this: it helps cement their trust of “Pharma.” Their products are predictable in effect and “approved.”
Now and then, however, a drug is approved only for “emergency” use or for “last resort” use. This is because there has not been sufficient testing on enough populations to gain full FDA approval. Typically the emergency demand for such a drug is from a fairly small population, each of whom signs a quite different “Informed Consent” form that makes clear the experimental nature of the drug in question and its “emergency use only” designation.
Where does this leave all the brilliant people in the medical industry when the subject is the “emergency use only”-designated Covid-19 MRNA injections? Are they impressed or confused by the description of the injections as “vaccines?” Surely that can’t be so.
Are they blinded by the CDC’s daily recommendation to be “vaccinated” by these experimental chemicals, regardless of the mounting evidence of the rapid decline of such “protection” from Covid that they offer? Impossible. They’re all very smart, very careful professionals. Are all the providers of the injections offering informed consent forms to every guinea pig…. ahhm, recipient of the experimental shots? Well, no, how could they when the data from testing has not been released by the FDA? Clearly when people roll up their sleeves they are consenting to the injection, but not because they are well-informed of the risks. In fact, by calling the shots “vaccines,” they have been MIS-informed by every official health-care agency or department in municipal, state and federal governments, including the CDC, Dr. Anthony Fauci and the NIAID he heads, the FDA and thousands of Doctors nationwide and even worldwide. Even the President and his predecessor and a host of other politicians are on the same misinformation train: they all refer to these weird biologics as “vaccines.”
People fundamentally trust vaccines. Vaccines protect the recipient from diseases like polio, Rubella, chicken-pox, diptheria and tetanus. Vaccines can protect against pneumonia, tuberculosis and shingles. They confer “natural immunity.” Someday, we hope, there will be an actual vaccine that protects against Covid-19; people will want to get that shot. Unfortunately we don’t have one… not yet. We have Modified RNA injections that don’t confer immunity and provide only temporary protection from the worst effects of infection. They’re NOT vaccines. OMG. Is money a factor?
“Medicine” has crossed an ethical line, as if to catch up to the dozens of ethical and legal lines politicians and governments cross every day. Across the country hospitals are literally firing highly trained and experienced doctors, nurses and others who are declining to receive the experimental MRNA injections. This seems stupid, on the face of it. Why would smart professionals fire other smart professionals over an experimental shot the safety and efficacy of which the former group cannot describe to the latter?
Do you know who else is being fired? Police officers, firefighters, Army, Navy, Marine and Special Operations troops – all expensively trained and needed. What kind of idiots would do that?
Speaking of crossed lines, did you know that life-saving surgeries are being denied to people who are not the recipient of these weird injections? God save us. 1. With thanks to the late Spiro Agnew.
Time may not be on our side. One cannot overview the world and our political circumstances… and the calendar, without realizing a little fear for where things might go from here. Where is that?
Let’s look at some of the pressures building up.
First, the political time-line. Mid-term elections are the historic relief valve for sometimes hasty or confused political decisions made during presidential elections two years earlier. There certainly were those in 2020. Because the national conscience is so, well… impacted by beliefs concerning the 2020 elections – stolen or not stolen – the release of tensions in the 2022 mid-terms is a little harder to predict than what a lot of pundits are trying to foresee. Most are making judgements on “normal” political considerations and it doesn’t seem Prudent to do so.
The weird eminence that most have already discounted, but who is the key to millions of voters’ decisions, is Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House. She has been a unique Speaker, at least. For decades she has appeared to be simply a fierce partisan and has been appreciated, if not revered, by partisan Democrats who were happy to be “winning” barely-understood battles through her slick machinations. By rights, she should be at the end of her career, and she probably is, but it’s a career that descended into a previously unrecognized socialism starting under Obama and deepening with hatred under Trump. In those 12 years, Democrats became uneasy. While enjoying victories Nancy engineered, no matter how messy, Dems also became concerned about the leftward lurch, yet had no other port in which to seek refuge. Over the Trump years, leftist hatred for “America First” left many Democrats adrift. What are they going to do in 2022?
If “centrist” or “American” Democrats abandon the Pelosi-led leftists (not that Pelosi was elected to lead the leftists: she has run, skipped twisted and kneeled as needed to stay ahead of them) will they suddenly vote Republican? That doesn’t seem Prudent. Will they fail to vote in standard numbers? That question forces Prudence to wonder about what “the Black vote” might do.
Blacks have slowly been drifting away from their Democrat plantation, with an interesting increase in that trend in 2020. Despite Covid, Blacks did well economically under Trump since 2017. Despite, also, a perpetual anti-Trump media blitz accusing Trump of racism, Blacks could see that his policies helped all races. Like all underdogs, Trump was seen somewhat sympathetically by Blacks who understood too well how prejudice hurts. Have Blacks been treated better by increasing leftism? Were they advanced by BLM-led riots and Antifa hatreds that damaged so many black businesses and jobs? Have they been helped by Democrats’ union-led resistance to school choice? Has weakening public safety served Black families or neighborhoods in any way? Are they particularly likely to “reward” Pelosi’s weird coalitions with more power, more votes? That doesn’t seem Prudent, either. But, will they vote for anyone else?
So, on the backdrop of multiple failures of the “Biden” administration and severe economic news, what will be the “shape” of the change in fortunes for our two parties? Over the next 11 months, how virulent will the Pelosi Left become? Clearly their anger has been kindled by the loss of legislative momentum thanks to West Virginia Senator, Joe Manchin and Arizona Senator, Kyrsten Sinema. Even 3 counties of Maryland would like to become part of West Virginia.
In 2020 we suffered through months of cultural destruction and destructive rioting and looting and economic despair in numerous cities. Many strange, leftist mayors and governors have been exposed as feckless, ignorant and ideologically foolish. Americans are practically fleeing their jurisdictions for states that seem to honor the Constitution more. Yet the Pelosi House insisted on passing the enormous, so-called “Build Back Better” bill that would have transformed fundamental freedoms and democratic-republic structures created by the Constitution. Against the backdrop of systemic failure at the southern border and the flood of illegals swept into the country by administration policies, the congress spent inordinate time on the “BBB” plan and the pointless “January 6th” commission. Not a word is spoken in congress about what Americans are truly upset about, not least of which is the southern border. With that legislation apparently doomed, what will the 117th Congress do to improve Democrats’ re-election chances in 2022? Most options are likely to do damage to the republic at least domestically.
_________
Internationally, the Biden bindlestiffs have made a mockery of leadership and of honesty. Without fundamental honesty, there are no diplomatic maneuvers that will work, almost regardless of what’s at stake. In matters of war and alliance, conditions, tensions, and opportunities for gross, deadly errors, can spiral out of control quite abruptly. Let’s look at the simplest area of tension: Iran.
The postulate is the following: Iran hates the United States as much or more than it hates Israel. Iran is a theocracy determined to correct spiritual wrongs to the point of suicide. To correct those wrongs, Iran will use nuclear weapons. The inherent danger is that first the Obama regime and now the Biden regime DON’T BELIEVE THESE THINGS. That is, they’d rather believe that Iran is as rational as other nations, desirous of better living standards for its people, better economic conditions internally, and willing to negotiate to achieve those ends. All this talk about “death to America” and wiping Israel off the map is just talk, just posturing. Because they don’t believe the United States can be guided by religious concepts of good and evil, neither can any other nation. The United States can show them how love is better than hate and kindness and generosity will prove that the U. S. can be a reliable partner in seeking a better life for Iranians.
As the imbecilic John F. Kerry, onetime Secretary of State once said: “Would that it were, would that it were.” For a man who has but the mildest relationship with truth, he places a lot of faith in the words of Iranian negotiators. He apparently believes that Iran is enrichening Uranium purely for domestic power production… to improve the standard of living for Iranians.
Trump, to his America-first credit, had a sense of when he was being lied-to, and that extended to Iran. He recognized that the “Iran Nuclear” agreement (never proposed as a nation-binding Treaty because it would never pass the Senate) was a pack of lies, which, naturally, Biden has been begging Iran to renew under his administration. Iran has refused, so far. With all the cash and lifting of sanctions that Obama and Biden have given them, the Iranians no longer need to negotiate further concessions under the agreement – they received what they needed for free. Now it is merely a matter of time before Iran starts issuing nuclear-backed threats toward Israel, which the Biden regime will perceive as opportunities to go “back to the negotiating table.” To their credit, Israel (and other nations in the Mideast) will take steps to prevent an Iranian strike. The U. S. won’t, failing to realize that Iran will likely strike both the Little Satan and the Big Satan simultaneously.
PRUDENT JUDGMENT: VERY DANGEROUS UNDER THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION.
The next simplest, as in somewhat more complicated, problem area is the Western Pacific, including both Taiwan and North Korea, but also India, unfortunately. Here is the postulate: China intends to take over Taiwan; China virtually controls what North Korea does at any point; China will not move against Taiwan if it believes the U. S. will fight for Taiwan’s independence; China is beginning to think that the U. S. will not make any serious moves to stop China (the Biden family’s compromised position vis a’ vis China is a factor, here); and, finally, North Korea will make some sort of military moves against South Korea at the same time, seriously complicating United States’ response to the Taiwan crisis. There has been shooting along the frontier of China and India within the past 18 months. It is not inconceivable that China would stir that pre-heated kettle at the same time or before, that it moves against Taiwan. This feint would likely involve Pakistan, as well, another nuclear power that hates India. Every nation in the arc from the Arabian Sea to Qinzhou will suddenly be seeking a side in the conflict. The failure of the U. S. to decisively defend its allies will transform the entire region and its oceans… and world trade.
PRUDENT JUDGMENT: EXTREMELY DANGEROUS UNDER THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION.
Finally, of the 3 hottest spots, Ukraine and Russia are preparing for some level of shooting. The U. S., thanks to Obama and Joe Biden’s family, has meddled in Ukraine for years. Ukraine is a big country that encompasses wide swaths of fertile land, great waterways, warm-water coastline on the Black Sea, huge coal deposits and iron ore, manganese ore, and other ores, which yield a large steel industry, heavy machinery manufacturing and, its greatest political weakness, a natural, relatively unimpeded pathway for oil and gas products to be transported to Western Europe. The same can transport armies, too.
For more than a thousand years the Russian people have had strong cultural and religious ties to Kyiv, now the capitol of Ukraine, and to Crimea, Odessa and Sevastopol. Strategically, the naval value of Crimea is perceived as so crucial to Russia, as with the USSR, that taking the Crimean peninsula “back” from a recently independent Ukraine was worth the international condemnation. It’s a done deal and will never be negotiable.
In addition, the industrial heartland of Ukraine in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Dnetpropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhya, covers much of eastern Ukraine from the Dneiper River to the Russian border. Russia depends on many of the manufacturers in the region for not just machinery, but military and aerospace equipment. Not having complete control of them is a sore spot. Further, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson districts have significant Russian populations and Russian-speaking populations, which has formed an excuse for Russian regulars posing as irregulars or subversives, to create an enclave of sorts with a militarized line facing Ukrainian army regulars.
Sensing weakness and indecision from the Biden administration, and determined to not have Ukraine join NATO, Putin and the Russian Federation is looking for the opportune time to, in effect, take control of eastern Ukraine, if not all of Ukraine, by military force or forced federation. When they move, what will Biden do? Both Democrats and some Republicans have made tough-sounding statements about standing firm with Ukraine as if the status of Ukraine were a vital national interest. Perhaps it is. But setting up a line of U. S. troops to deter Russia seems unduly provocative. If the situation were reversed and the Russians were placing troops to deter the U. S. from taking over cartel-dominated Mexico, let’s just say, we would certainly not find that a reason to stand down, would we?
What seems “small” to most Americans, in geopolitical terms, could place us in a hot confrontation with a huge nuclear power, 4,000 miles from our border, where both the land location and the naval one make us the underdog.
PRUDENT JUDGEMENT: VERY DANGEROUS UNDER THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION, and more dangerous than it appears.
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The shift away from “America First” thanks to the 2020 “elections,” has caused friends and foes, alike, to re-evaluate their relationships with the U. S. The brutal withdrawal from Afghanistan, apparently executed by military idiots and a bumbling president, has changed strategic calculations by many nations. The English-speaking world no longer reveres the U. S. as the leader of their coalition, and certainly does not respect Biden as it did Trump. A strong, pro-national leader is not only respected, but understood by other nations, including adversaries. There is a profound logic to leadership that clearly is patriotic and who speaks clearly of his – or her – intentions. No nation likes surprises, internationally, nor confusing messages. Every leader can make clear judgments about clear leaders, even about those they view as opponents. This is not our current situation.
It has been said many times that the most dangerous circumstance is when other nations are unsure about what America will fight for; it is yet even more dangerous when America, itself, is unsure. God save us.
For all the efforts at controlling language and the meaning of words, new words and new lies, the actual purposes behind the “Great Reset” or “Build Back Better,” or behind “equity” and “anti-racism,” “social justice” or “vaccine” can be clearly seen and understood. Indeed, it is amazing how quickly actual Americans can grasp the truth should it be placed before them. We do have to overcome the problem of various media outlets – digital, broadcast, print – being so wedded to agendas, even “narratives,” that truths and facts that belie them must be suppressed. Some will literally purvey the opposite of those truths in order to defend their adopted positions.
The impact of a dishonest “press” is immense. The value of a “free press” in a republic cannot be overstated; a large part of that value is informed skepticism of those in power. Implicit in that value is honesty… truthfulness. The historic tendency of government types to arrogate ungranted (by ‘we, the people’) powers, is legendary. In the presence of tyrannical government an obsequious press makes good business sense; an investigative, “muck-raking” press is in danger. Our present circumstance provides a lens through which to view the nature of “news” and information-media, today. But a bit of historical perspective, first.
No functional constitutional republic has ever been successfully subverted by socialist tyranny, or fascism. There have been many constitutional republics by description, but they were, or are, responses to earlier military or revolutionary governance periods. Their populations never have shared beliefs in economic or moral philosophies; their factions have not been able to compromise for the national good. Some do exist today, having rejected mainly socialist/fascist tyranny –those for the decades since the Second World War.
The United States is the oldest and most successful of them, all. This nation grew from primarily Christian sources. Despite a history of conflicts in Europe, competing royal “houses” and kingdoms, the moral philosophy of Europe was part of every country, as was, essentially, economic philosophy. The greatest “inventions” to come out of Judeo-Christian Europe were democracy, banking, double-entry accounting, and civil structure like courts and republicanism. In other words, the means for civil order and dispute resolution among disparate peoples were imported to the New World. The concepts of the Magna Carta, parliamentarianism and private property, trade and profit, and of social welfare, were planted in America’s soil. Combined with a sense of freedom and individuality abetted by physical separation and insulation from Europe, all the components of a new way to govern and organize were here. Enter the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
However, like any contract or covenant, the Constitution is only as good as the integrity of its “parties.”
The “Founding Fathers” could never have conceived of the divisions that have been created since 1789. Divisions, or “factions” in the 18th century were more, well, practical than those that have erupted since the mid-nineteenth century. Madison and others were developing a people-up granting of power to a limited government. The alternatives were monarchy and militarism. The “world-view” was formed within a basically Christian belief structure. It was obvious – essentially unquestioned – that people would strive for freedom. It was equally obvious that individuals would exercise responsibility for themselves and their families. There were no alternatives and no concepts of alternatives. That a large minority of Americans might agitate and even riot FOR the imposition of tyranny, was an idea virtually no one held upon the ratification of the constitution.
No one should hold it today, either, but here we are.
Since the Garden of Eden, mankind’s ability to dilute the Thesis with Antithesis has proven artful, intricate and continuous… until Marxism. For thousands of years humans have managed to compare their individual sins to those of others that seemed worse, placing the former, psychologically, more on God’s side than the latter, yielding levels of tolerable civilization and sanction that enabled generally better conditions and real “progress.” Looking back, the wise observer can see that great evils were unleashed as monarchical and theocratic institutions grew in sophistication and military prowess. Each advance in technology enabled advances in control of populations and economies while fitfully improving living conditions. As communications became individualized and less architectural, via printing, so did the growth and refinement of grandiose theories of control. Theories of government, economics and philosophies spread from many minds, not just religious or powerful ones. Western civilization entered a period of revolution that has not ended.
The concepts of Communism represent the final step of antithesis, or opposition to the Word of God. Most avowed Marxists are too ignorant to know that Marx, himself, proclaimed the existence of God and his, Marx’, declared opposition to God. Marx was destined for Hell, in his own words. His mission was going to be realized through revolution based on economics and he defined “oppression” based on owners of production, as a class, and workers, as those oppressed, as a class. It was too neat and could not destroy freedom, either economically or spiritually. It did provide the basis for the death of 100 Million to 200 Million people – murderous enough to disprove Marxist theory, one might conclude.
The ability to subvert freedom, which is to say, to subvert the Constitutional Republic known as the United States of America, required a long-term plan on 5 fronts: education, religion, elections, law and communications. The means to accomplish Marxist subversion did not exist until the digital age, or, essentially, since 1980.
The “Press” had been transmuting itself since Watergate, moving closer and closer towards advocacy for leftist points of view. As leftists are wont to do, owners of leftist media became more concerned with the social/political change that would encourage more widespread leftism among the population, than about the business aspects of their publications. As a group they were ready for the ability to shift America to the left. Computerization and, since 1983, the internet, completed the needed toolkit. News and web-based information has both proliferated and become less-trusted since then. Indeed, Americans are divided, in one way, simply by the name of the news source we watch or read. News has become a matter of belief and, sadly, hatred.
Education has enjoyed over 100 years of subversive transformation, first as so-called “public” education and, as leftists and anti-Christians took over teaching and the certification of teachers, states’ licensing and teacher education at the college level, private education became infected, too.
We are reaping that whirlwind, now manifesting in the epidemic of transgenderism and public policies of removing parents from the education and even development of their children.
Our system of laws is the fundament of our successful survival as a Constitutional Republic. Further, EQUAL justice under the law, which is to say, equal application of the laws, is our basis for equality of individual citizens and for the basic honesty of our business and other contracts. Interleaved amongst all of our legal relationships is equal responsibility of every adult, parent, employee or business owner, public employee or elected official, to follow the laws and bear the consequences of their actions, good or bad. With the grossly tilted elections of District Attorneys who so disagree with law enforcement as to ignore crimes rather than prosecute them, and with elected officials, even Presidents, who blithely ignore the Constitution they swore to uphold, the rule of law has become tattered and misshapen and, now, only barely the basis for the protection of citizens or their civil rights. Watching riots and un-restricted looting in many cities, promulgated by a political hatred for a president and by communist efforts to dissolve society, and specifically NOT resisted by municipal and state elected authorities, leads any observer to wonder what directives or orders from elected authorities or their police forces even are worth. Mob violence and threats of violence, as in the weird case of George Floyd, penetrates into courtrooms and juries. When they cannot uphold the laws, then any citizen might wonder whether the laws he or she doesn’t agree with may also be ignored?
As for law, itself, we are staring down a steep slope toward social disintegration. Without equal application of the laws, there is only tyranny. When illegal aliens are not held even to the laws that govern citizens, but to looser ones, or where individuals arrogate the power to undo legislated legal codes and refuse to enforce laws of their own choosing, as many District or State’s attorneys are now doing, there is only tyranny or anarchy – sadly, the goal of militants amongst us.
Subverting elections became a science in 2020. The leftist media uniformly deny that the election could possibly have been stolen; “there is only the occasional error or attempted voting by a few ineligibles, but nothing of any significance.” Subverting elections is almost the perfect crime. Not only are there but a few weeks in which to investigate and examine “evidence” that has passed through many hands, and the same short period within which to files lawsuits against people who are only tangentially responsible for pieces of the evidence and who have no interest whatsoever in helping a complainant find evidence against their employer(s), but there is equally as much intransigence among courts and jurists who may have to run for their positions and who can’t / won’t avoid political realities.
Added to the built-in difficulties and limits to the ability to bring a case, are the media who have already proclaimed a winner, particularly when the winner is on “their” side. Immediately upon “calling” a race the media are aligned against a challenger who claims the election to be fraudulent. After all, everyone “knows” that claiming fraud is merely a right wing conspiracy theory. Who wants to be seen as helping those crackpots – or, in the case of Donald Trump, that crackpot above all? Careers are on the line, small and large. In a presidential election, cases must be brought in multiple states all within a 5- to 6-week window. Once an election result is “certified” by the state involved, the likelihood of proving statewide fraud or even fraud in a few cities, is essentially gone. If a state IS found to have certified a fraudulent total, there exists no mechanism of enforcement – or agency of enforcement – to require deeper investigation or recalculation or re-certification of its votes. A perfect crime, and all the criminals are hapless bureaucrats.
All of the “new disintegration” of America is both abetted and celebrated by modern media. Even social media – ostensibly non-press – must be included in this wave of anti-Americanism and anti-Christianity. Because media companies have their butts on the scales, the information that screen-addicts absorb is tilted severely leftward and anti-morality. Social media, combined with the mostly leftward tilt of cable and broadcast “news,” leave large swaths of Americans receiving partial, yet “comfortable” information that need not threaten even the oddest beliefs.
So, on the 5 key institutional frontiers, while things look far from rosy, there are scattered bright spots. Disappointingly, churches are largely becoming more liberal, more “politically correct,” when what is needed is a more unified adherence to gospel. The jury is out on the mid-term success and survival of organized Christian churches. Because of this, the same question applies to Western civilization. The role of the United States of America and its citizens, is exceptional. As we rush to dis-avow that role, we seem oblivious to the consequences to the whole world and to ourselves. God bless us and save us, everyone.
In terms of money, economists measure the health or activity of an economy using “velocity” of money in an economy. There are a thousand measuring tools measuring the same parameter, whether it’s investment dollars generating new production or a change in policy like a tax cut or increase that either releases money to or sucks money from, an economy. Supply-chain snags can certainly reduce the velocity of money; building road, rail or air infrastructure can speed it up. If you’re seeking real understanding of this kind of velocity you’ll have to ask someone else: I know only how rapidly $20 bills move out of my pocket these days, converting themselves to a few coins in a blink of an eye.
Let’s talk about the climate… a place where velocity is never discussed as a “good.” It’s always “bad,” and it’s everybody’s fault, which means “climate change” by today’s – or this morning’s – definition, is going to increase a lot of financial velocities while slowing or stopping others. These effects will affect everybody and his or her $20’s like we’ve never seen. In any case, the velocity of “change” in the Earth’s climate seems to always be too fast, potentially the end of humanity, often in a very small numbers of years, and the result of conservative politics. That is, unless the “conservative” in question is neither European nor English-speaking. The Earth knows.
Very quickly, climate change discussion centers on carbon: carbon dioxide, carbon-based fuels, “carbon-neutrality” by 2030, 2050 or next week. Anyway, the other day, at a point when no other useful actions were possible, Prudence led to an interesting question about climate that we’ve never heard asked: “What is the velocity of carbon in the Earth’s climate-economy?” And this will be followed in most people’s minds with, “What the Hell is wrong with this person? There’s no such thing as carbon velocity.” Ahhh, but there is, my friend… there is.
The Earth has about as much carbon on it as it has ever had. A lot of it is buried deep underground, but a lot more is in the biosphere between, say, 20 feet below ground and, maybe, 200 feet above ground, although with 1,000-foot high rise buildings we’re certainly stretching those limits. Then, there’s the ocean – definitely part of the biosphere, so… cripes! We live in a gigantic biosphere! And, it’s carbon-based, which is to say that molecules with carbon in them are the fundamental building-blocks of life, including seaweed and us.
Now, the CLIMATE we all live in has been “changing” for billions of years, which is a very good thing. The simplest example of a climate-change “good” is the endings of ice-ages, of which there have been several. Humans were impacted by only the last couple of them: they’re not very frequent, thank goodness, and the impacts of the last one are still with us, even being enjoyed by us, like the Great Lakes, Cape Cod and so forth.
For the average ersatz vaccine-loving supplicant to climate-change fears, the movement of carbon from safety underground to horrific, polluting, crime above ground is a cumulative, onrushing white-man-caused threat to life. Why, the USGS (U. S. Geologic Survey) tells us that upwards of 36.5 TRILLION TONS of carbon spewed (probably, “spewed”) into the atmosphere worldwide in 2019! That is a hu-u-u-u-ge number, but there are lots of huge numbers involved when measuring worldwide things. A small amount was in the form of methane, other ethanes, ordinary “anes” and the majority of it from CO2 which is a lot heavier than average, breathable air. Fortunately for all concerned, plants “breathe” CO2 in and oxygen, O2 out.
“Oh, my Gawd! Everybody stop breathing!” Also, stop mowing your lawn, heating your homes, cooking, refrigerating, making plastics, driving cars and trucks and, for God’s sake, stop flying back and forth around the world on those terrible jet planes… just stay home.
Quite a bit of CO2 derives from cute little woodland creatures that, since Walt Disney gave them names, we must love and protect, along with every other sort of elk, antelope, bison, bear, reindeer, POLAR bears, for heaven’s sake, whales, dolphins, dogs, cats, protected tigers, elephants and, of course those evil cattle who do little but eat and fart, don’t you know?
Still more comes from rotting vegetation in the normal cycle of plant life and the bacteria and bugs, termites and ants that live off of the trillions of tons of IT. Government types, those who really like to apply rules for living to most everyone else – rules derived from superior intellects like theirs – hold, without fail, concepts of perfection for humanity and how humanity should live, among which are rules against eating animals that Disney may have named or which provide substantial amounts of nutrition for sub-perfect humans, nutrition those same humans may be “taught” to live better without.
Just the same, carbon in various chemical combinations moves into and out of the atmosphere at rates that could be measured, extrapolated, closely estimated, and measured again for more or less controllable impacts humans might want to have. Except no one asks the velocity question. There are no grant millions for calculating how fast carbon churns in what kinds of weather, over what kinds of land or waters. Or, in what levels of the atmosphere. Grants are plentiful if researchers – or advocates – can add to climate panic; only a level of panic enables political control, after all, which is a large part of making grant monies available: find out something that makes specific political or taxation controls possible. If you find out something else, give it a good leaving-alone.
No matter how carbon moves around, whether from volcanoes seen and unseen, or burning forests to yield cropland, or propelling planes at 35,000 feet, or burning trash at ground level, moving trucks and things, or, pushing ships with both vital and frivolous container loads, joy-riding passengers or militaries setting off to war, not all climatological consequences are of the same value. Some are just plain pollution, spreading dirt where we live in ways that we could control if the value were better understood. Others are “necessary evils,” tolerated, temporarily, for lack of cleaner alternatives. Over the past 130 years, say, humans have quite consistently moved away from “dirty” ways to improve life and living standards, towards much cleaner ones. Only a relative handful of people on Earth burn cattle dung to keep warm – too many, and a very controllable problem – but a handful.
Cars and trucks get phenomenally better mileage compared to 40 or 50 years ago, as do even those jet planes at 35,000 feet. More and more electricity is generated without coal, and “scrubbers” can mitigate particulates and sulphur compounds, which are actually bad to have in the air, along with some CO2, making even coal much cleaner. New buildings are built to be far more thermally efficient. New lighting and electronics are far more efficient, too. Watch for the impact of solid-state batteries in making almost everything electrical more efficient, including cars and trucks.
The point is, CO2 in the air is not, per se, a bad thing, but if you ask the average, fearful, climate-change crybaby what he or she is afraid of and the answer will be that we have to stop spewing CO2 or else the world is going to end… possibly even before illegal aliens and polar bears get the vote!
In a sense, we are constantly reminded that the CO2 from last year, and the year before that, and before that, and ever since the first automobile burned gasoline, is hanging over our heads ready to destroy the PLANET, including my daughter’s recycling science project! All it will take to tip the balance is for a few more Trump voters to drive through drive-up windows for a cheeseburger and some Freedom Fries, when they could have had a hand-picked kale salad. The time to act is now, now, now!
But it isn’t, is it? The CO2 building up in the atmosphere, I mean. It churns around, dissolving into bodies of water, like oceans, of which there are a lot, and if not dissolved right away, generally CO2 sinks down to near ground level because it’s quite a bit heavier than air. This, alone, is a good thing, because that’s where most plants that we can eat, grow. Whoever thought of this system was a very smart Dude.
Mankind, however, is both brilliant and ignorant, wise and foolish, scientific and superstitious, and clean and dirty. We used to think that God had provided convenient sewers in the form of rivers, but we have become smarter about that foolishness – we could be and will be much smarter about that. We used to think the atmosphere was a big river to dump effluents into, too, but we’re coming around quickly on that foolishness. Politically, however, we are being propelled to ever greater foolishness over CO2, not because we can “save the planet” and keep ocean levels and weather right where WE want them by limiting it, but so that we can, politically, control how people live, prodding them ever closer to the perfection models government-types have clung-to since Miss Hannigan’s 4th grade terrarium with the turtle in it.
Just like fraudulent COVID-19 statistics, if the government and compliant media focus on single numbers, a lot of fear can be ginned up, quickly modifying sovereign individuals’ actions, beliefs and willing abandonment of freedoms… like the number of COVID “cases,” as they “spike” from time to time. Most are simple positive results from testing, and what they have detected are remnants of spike proteins, mostly not actual infections. If you run enough cycles of PCR tests you can detect a lot of “cases.” Everyone can be made to change his life through the police-power of the state or municipality because of largely meaningless numbers like these. Fixating on how much CO2 goes into the atmosphere is much the same. That we should be happy it’s there, for the most part, is never part of the news. Do you have any concept of where we’d be without global warming?
Respecting our home planet by not dirtying its air and water is a noble thing to do – not from baseless fears but from purpose.
There are satellites watching the whole earth, now, measuring CO2 for places where it comes from and goes to at different times of year. These are fine data to have and will, little by little, improve recommendations for spewing less CO2 . Which we probably should… spew less, that is. But we never will, or never will fast enough, if we don’t adopt a worldwide perspective on being clean or dirty in how we live, prosper and move ourselves and things about, starting with how cleanly we can generate electricity. This will have to include nuclear power at its best, for urban areas, and solar collection and energy storage at its best in rural areas. Cleaning up the planet need not, and should not require forcing people into cities, for example, or forcing ever tighter regulation on freedom (quite the opposite) or directing whole economies from a dictatorial, tight-control top.
It does involve honest education and a recognition that fouling where we live is anathema to both God and to humanity. Economic mobility is prime in terms of balancing needs and wants and increasing qualities of life. That comes from freedom. Any “plan” for defeating – pick any – COVID, inflation, climate change, crime, ignorance, poverty in every other country in the world, that also includes restricting personal freedom or sovereignty, is the absolutely wrong move to accept. A political party that identifies with restricting freedom and which villainizes those who don’t, does not deserve any American’s vote.
