GREAT, innovative article on Gold, Money, & Banking

 The info in the article at the link below is NOT the standard fare found regarding the title above.  I would venture to guess you haven't heard or seen three-fourths of it anywhere.  It's truly ground-breaking.

 https://steadystate.org/money-and-the-steady-state-economy/

The author, Herman E. Daly, died just recently at 84.  He was a giant in Ecological Economics, & pretty much ignored/suppressed by the Establishment.  One of the reasons for that:  he believed "money" is a public utility, & should not be created out of thin air by private banks (which it is, via fractional reserve banking).

R.I.P., Prof. Daly.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

"...a clear and present danger to American democracy", AND MORE - REDUX

 I first published this piece about four months ago.  It applies today as much, or perhaps more, as it did then.  [It's slightly edited - our median income is added near the very end of the essay.]

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The title above is how retired Judge Michael Luttig described Donald J. Trump and his followers.  The kicker is this:  Judge Luttig is one of the most respected conservative judges in the USA.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/16/trump-clear-present-danger-to-us-democracy-conservative-judge-warns

This should mean all Main Street people still in the Trump Cult will re-evaluate their mistaken beliefs, but I'm not holding my breath.  Cult members rarely ever are rational in any sense of the word.

It also should mean the hijacked Republican Party finally will come to its senses and dump Trump.  Politics being as irrational as it is, again I'm not holding my breath.  In general, the two major Parties of the current era appear to care little about honor, principles, ethics, the Law, and especially, the Constitution.  Instead, their number one priority is re-election...at any cost.

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The entire political scene in the USA is an embarrassment to the country.  It's also a danger.  Plus, it has caused most of the world to lose respect for us.  Finally, it's not really much of a stretch to say our political scene is an existential threat not only to us, but to all life on Earth as well.  Why?  Simply put, the actions or lack of action on the following "fronts" are a threat to the existence of our species & all others:  nuclear weapons & nuke waste; unprecedented ecological damage; societal disintegration; economic chaos; perpetual war; a belief in unlimited economic growth; corporatism; corporate globalization; and politics lacking common sense & ethics.  We must get off that path if Life is to survive and thrive.

p.s.  Biden touted the new jobs report yesterday (10-28-22).  He was gleeful, & said it was "great news".  Perhaps, but this should be added:  the current median income in the USA is $36,080, which means HALF our workers make LESS than that.  Source:  usdebtclock.org  (far right side of the page).

In this day & age - not so great.

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Here's my contribution to a paradigm shift:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-beginning-of-the-path-to-human-extinction-and-how-to-get-off-it-scott-haley/1141364431?ean=2940160947181

or

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Z4QL6NB

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

There are almost ZERO genuine "conservatives" in the present-day USA

The title is one of my hypotheses.  It's based on long experience as an ardent conservative back in the 1960's, and on my continuing interest in all major political and economic philosophies up through today.  From Edmund Burke to Russell Kirk to William F. Buckley, Jr. and beyond, I'm well-versed in the personalities & principles of conservatism.  I haven't been a conservative for decades, but remember it all.  Some people have said, "But conservatism has changed since back then.".  No, and here's why:  the bedrock principles of a philosophy do not change.  The "change" is as follows:  conservatism has been displaced & co-opted by neoconservatism and neoliberalism (there's not a lot of difference between the two), and they have principles totally different from those of conservatism.

The term, "conservative" or "conservatism" once stood for honor, duty, conservation of high values, integrity, truth, acting in a civil manner, and minding your own business.  That's why the co-opters of the Conservative Movement retained the label rather than owning up to their real identity.  They wanted the (mostly) good reputation of being a conservative.

Russell Kirk (R.I.P.) is well known as the Father of American Conservatism.  His iconic book, The Conservative Mind" (1953), had seven editions with total sales over one million copies.  I doubt there are even ten so-called conservatives today (under the age of 50 of so) who know much of anything about him, or about the principles he espoused.

 From Kirk:

"When every person claims to be a power unto himself, then society falls into anarchy. Anarchy never lasts long, being intolerable for everyone, and contrary to the ineluctable fact that some persons are more strong and more clever than their neighbors. To anarchy there succeeds tyranny or oligarchy [emphasis added], in which power is monopolized by a very few."

~  The Russell Kirk Center

[Yes, I also had to look up the definition of "ineluctable".  It's an adjective meaning:  unable to be avoided or resisted, inescapable.  Kirk was an intellectual of the highest order, hence the fancy language.  He laid the philosophical underpinnings for American Conservatism, and did so almost singlehandedly.]

Kirk on civil society and change:

"Conservatives are champions of custom, convention, and continuity [as in the peaceful transition of power] because they prefer the devil they know to the devil they don't know... necessary change, conservatives argue, ought to be gradual and discriminatory, never unfixing old interests at once."

From---

https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2021/07/ten-conservative-principles-russell-kirk.html

No time to go through all ten principles from the link immediately above.  Just from the quotes cited so far, it should be obvious that Trump & Crew (and many others who claim to be Right-Wing) are not conservatives at all.  Some of them think they are, but that's only because they are completely unfamiliar with the founding principles of American Conservatism.  For example, such principles do not support threatening violence to election officials, or to those of us who are exercising the freedom to wear a pandemic mask, or those who believe a woman should have control over her own body, or those who believe human rights violations by Saudi Arabia, or Israel, or any other country disqualify them from being our ally.  Such principles do not support initiating violence or "first strikes" of any kind.  They do not support egregious lying or fraud, nor do they support wanton destruction of Nature in the name of capitalism.

True conservatives conserve good things rather than destroy or damage them for little or no reason.

So, what's my point here?  To those few of you who still are genuine conservatives, I suggest the following.  Politically and philosophically, get as far away as possible from the unprincipled, unethical, uncivil, phony "conservatives" who have co-opted the Conservative Movement.  Their ideology is much closer to fascism than it is to conservatism.  In the long run, History will judge them as either fascists or precursors to such.

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Not only my opinion.   Be Well

Here's EXACTLY how to defeat corporatist/fascist/xenophobic/unAmerican GOP candidates

 https://www.democracynow.org/2022/10/25/ralph_nader_mark_green_midterms_2022

Poo-poo him all you want to, but Nader is the most dedicated & brilliant friend of Main Street this country ever has had.  He shows precisely how to defeat the Party which has co-opted the Repubs for years.  Details are in the link above & the one immediately below.

https://winningamerica.net/

I'm not a Repub or Dem, but even a goose could see that the Dem Party is orders of magnitude better for the country than the unAmerican, criminal tragedy which calls itself the Repub Party.  Both major Parties are corrupt, run by the Super-Rich, & damaging to Main Street; but the Repubs are so much worse than the Dems in so many respects it boggles the mind that even ten people would vote GOP in a Fed election.  How are they worse?  Listen to Nader at the 1st link above.  He's right on the mark.  

If the Dems don't take his advice, they're dumber than a wooden post & deserve to lose next month AND in 2024.    The Repubs are just as dumb if they choose & support Trump (again) in the next Presidential election.  After his performance in January 2021, the gaslighting criminal should be popular only with cult members who are both propagandized to the hilt & ignorant beyond redemption.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

This might be the beginning of the end of Corporate Globalization

More & more, people with influence  are recognizing the destructiveness & failure of neoliberal globalization.  It's about time.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrEI2-7Ubiw

  The solution offered hearkens back to E.F. Schumacher's "Small is Beautiful"; at least, it's akin to that.  Again, IT'S ABOUT TIME that happened.  This could be the beginning of the overthrow of global corporatism.  Let's hope so.  Perhaps policy makers will start seeing that all those "cheap" goods have social, economic, & environmental costs which have not been taken into account. 

Incidentally, the goods coming from Asia are not cheap in price.  Why?  Because the quality of them is so poor that they have to be replaced about ten times more than those made with durable materials, quality assurance, & quality control.  And, as has been shown over & over lately, with great distances come monstrous supply chain problems.  Suddenly the price of an item jumps up because it's scarce.

Finally, corporate globalization must go because mega companies (in general) :  a) don't really care much about customer satisfaction; and b) often evade accountability when they farm out manufacturing overseas.  International Trade can be responsibly done, but the WTO & the so-called "Free Trade Agreements" are an utter disaster.

https://rethinktrade.org/toolkit/hyperglobalization-and-supply-chain-failures/

Small is beautiful.  Let's have an economics as if people really mattered to the Powers-That-Be.  How about that?!

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Major Flaws in Analyses by Mainstream Talking Heads Regarding Our Ongoing Socio-Eco-Econ Crisis

IIn addition to Alternative News sources (such as Democracy Now!), every day I watch or read at least a couple of Mainstream (corporate) News sources, such as NBC Nightly News or a news magazine article like this one---

https://time.com/6221771/stagflation-crisis-debt-nouriel-roubini/

Using the article above as an example, the following conclusions have become obvious.

It's a brilliant analysis (in terms of reductionism instead of holism) BUT there are two major flaws in it.  Because the author likely is a neoliberal economist (as opposed to an ecological economist such as Herman E. Daly, William E. Rees, Joshua Farley, et al.) he apparently can't see them.

1.  His analysis is strictly within the neoliberal framework of shooting for infinite economic growth (as well as overconsumption) on a finite  planet.  Such is eventually not possible because of the second law of thermodynamics (& other reasons), having to do with energy & entropy.  Without infinite growth - which requires ever more energy each year - mainstream (neoliberal) economics eventually will fail completely, regardless of anything the Fed does & regardless of any changes in monetary & fiscal policy.  The need for more & more energy will kill it.  According to Prof. Nate Hagens, in only the last 30 years we humans have used more energy than in the previous 5,000 years.  If we continue on that path, & with only 2% or so econ growth per year, in 50 years the energy required just to extract and/or capture the amount we'll need will make the whole scenario cost-prohibitive.  

Unknown, future new tech won't be able to help much because getting it always involves using more & more energy.  The solution to all this is adopting some version of a steady-state economy and dumping infinite-growth economics.  Much work is being done toward that end.   https://steadystate.org/ is only one of several non-profits which are dealing with it.  Have a look when you can.

2.  While he gives a slight nod to the Eco-Crisis, he doesn't seem to fully grasp the massive problems with not only climate change, but just as importantly, with soil degradation & erosion, desertification, fresh water availability, deforestation, worldwide toxic pollution, biodiversity loss, nuke contamination, over-harvesting and over-extracting of dwindling natural resources, overpopulation, ocean warming & acidification, the methane "bomb", and more in the eco-realm.  All of those together can collapse a society much more so than stagflation and supply shocks.  Without a sea change in our worldview, our ethics, and our metaphysics, they will...unless we overcome the neoliberal propaganda which has been rampant for the last 40 years.  

People say, "Well, it's deeply complex...it's all relative...it's complicated", etc.  All true, but none of that means we aren't facing multiple threats to our existence, or that Gov't is handling those existential threats well rather than kicking the can down the road, or that Tech will save us and preserve our pursuit of infinite growth.  

Bottom line:  it isn't just about politics, or economics, or climate change.  If we are to survive & thrive, almost everything must change.  People are anxious to "get back to normal".  The trouble with that is:  "normal" was/is the cause of the multifaceted mess we're in now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xr9rIQxwj4&list=WL&index=60

As a species, collectively we appear to be "energy blind" (from the clip immediately above) and wedded to the idea that the temporary "carbon pulse" will continue on for decades & decades more.

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Not only my opinion.  Take Care

How Industrial Farming is Destroying Us, & How to Avoid That Scenario

 Factory farming is not only shortening our lives, but also is poisoning our ethics, our generic spirituality, and a large part of the entire natural Earth System (the interconnected hydrosphere-geosphere-atmosphere-biosphere).  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYacqSge9OY&list=WL&index=88&t=113s

At least watch the first 35 minutes, or at the very least, the first 15 minutes.

A sample of topics in this clip from The Land Institute:  a brief history of "back to the land"; how we produce and distribute food; monoculture v. polyculture; the herbicide Roundup (glyphosate) now in our bodies; techno-utopianism; climate change & other aspects of the Eco-Crisis; the problem with corn; perennial regenerative agriculture's challenges; how factory farming is destroying the "free market" economy; politics; power; genuine populism v. fake populism; and the general solutions to all these problems.

All of the above is a large part of the current, ongoing socio-eco-econ-ethical Crisis.

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Not only my opinion.  Take Care