Kirkus Reviews, the Meta-Crisis, Trump, and More REDUX

NOTE:  This essay was first published about six months ago.  With Trump's re-election, it's even more crucial now.

 Kirkus has been around for decades, is number 2*** in the USA for quality book reviews, and is known for being tough on authors.  They have reviewed my second book, 

CHOICES & CHANGE ON THE PATH TO A SUSTAINABLE EXISTENCE -

BEST CHOICES FOR NAVIGATING THROUGH A MONUMENTAL CRISIS.

It's a pretty good review, fair and insightful.  

[***Publisher's Weekly is number 1, but their waiting list is way too long.]

"A straightforward and useful guide to better living.

Haley offers a short handbook for more ecologically sensible living..."  

~ Kirkus Reviews

The full review can be found here:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/scott-c-haley/choices-change-on-the-path-to-a-sustainable-existe/

My three books can be found here:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0BVJMMWLG/about

At the link, click on "All Books" (above my name, near the top of the page).

Please hear me:  I don't care one whit about the piddly revenues received from book sales.  If I could afford it, I'd pay for any purchases myself; but I live very modestly (by Western World standards), and can't do that.  What I do care about are these two things:  1) the crucial concepts in the books (and elsewhere) have been rigorously researched by expert scientists in their respective fields (not by me, I'm just the messenger), and need to be spread far and wide if humans are to survive & thrive; and 2) gaslighters and serial liars like Trump are poo-pooing those concepts, and too many people seem to be believing the lies.  That must change quickly.

The Meta-Crisis we're in is real, and the threat is existential - the very existence of human civilization is under grave threat.  The key to navigating through the Crisis is SOCIO-ECO-EDUCATION, and then peacefully pressuring the Powers-That-Be to take significant mitigating action.  Without such, I fear for the quality of life my grandchildren and all younger generations will have to endure.  Help out:  become an informal educator whenever and however possible.

.................

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Kirkus Reviews, the Meta-Crisis, Trump, and More

 Kirkus has been around for decades, is number 2*** in the USA for quality book reviews, and is known for being tough on authors.  They have reviewed my second book, 

CHOICES & CHANGE ON THE PATH TO A SUSTAINABLE EXISTENCE -

BEST CHOICES FOR NAVIGATING THROUGH A MONUMENTAL CRISIS.

It's a pretty good review, fair and insightful.  

[***Publisher's Weekly is number 1, but their waiting list is way too long.]

"A straightforward and useful guide to better living.

Haley offers a short handbook for more ecologically sensible living..."  

~ Kirkus Reviews

The full review can be found here:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/scott-c-haley/choices-change-on-the-path-to-a-sustainable-existe/

My three books can be found here:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0BVJMMWLG/about

At the link, click on "All Books" (above my name, near the top of the page).

Please hear me:  I don't care one whit about the piddly revenues received from book sales.  If I could afford it, I'd pay for any purchases myself; but I live very modestly (by Western World standards), and can't do that.  What I do care about are these two things:  1) the crucial concepts in the books (and elsewhere) have been rigorously researched by expert scientists in their respective fields (not by me, I'm just the messenger), and need to be spread far and wide if humans are to survive & thrive; and 2) gaslighters and serial liars like Trump are poo-pooing those concepts, and too many people seem to be believing the lies.  That must change quickly.

The Meta-Crisis we're in is real, and the threat is existential - the very existence of human civilization is under grave threat.  The key to navigating through the Crisis is SOCIO-ECO-EDUCATION, and then peacefully pressuring the Powers-That-Be to take significant mitigating action.  Without such, I fear for the quality of life my grandchildren and all younger generations will have to endure.  Help out:  become an informal educator whenever and however possible.

.................

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

The Earth System Treaty, a Positive Step

Anyone can take this step toward raising awareness of what scientists know about the current human predicament AND the known, scientific, potential solutions.  First, though, read the article at this link to gain perspective:  

https://mahb.stanford.edu/blog/mahbdialogues/earth-system-treaty-a-mahb-dialogue-with-julian-cribb-council-for-the-human-future/

If you agree with the concept, sign the Treaty.  After you sign, you're asked for a donation.  Should you prefer not to donate, there's something else which will help raise awareness.  You're given the means to post the "sign the treaty" link on social media.  Every little bit helps.  https://www.change.org/p/save-a-habitable-earth-for-our-children?source_location=search

Undoubtedly, several powerful forces are/would be/will be against the Earth System Treaty.  They seem to prefer the Status Quo:  ecological overshoot; exponential, infinite economic growth on a finite planet; the delusional belief that the Laws of Nature do not apply to humans; and the pipe-dream that Technology can solve any problem whatsoever.

Other people recognize the human predicament, but seem to feel there's nothing beyond what can be done in their own personal behavior patterns which will have any impact.  In other words, only the public and private Powers-That-Be can make any difference in the Big Picture.  There's some truth in such a view.

Here's the thing, though:  when massive numbers of everyday people make a statement, eventually those in Power pay attention.  The history of many social Movements supports that contention.  The need for an Earth System Treaty (or something akin to it) is obvious to many people around the world.  Make a statement.  Sign the Treaty, and promote the concept.  Join the Movement. Grandchildren everywhere thank you for your effort.

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Not only my opinion.  Happy Trails

"Minerals and Materials Blindness"

Here's another case of speaking Truth to Power:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0pt3ioQuNc&list=WL&index=70&t=11s

Prof. Nate Hagens and Prof. Simon Michaux address the human predicament re energy, the economy, fossils, renewables, recycling, minerals, materials required, and the present & future.  It's highly informative and down-to-earth...and a must-see interview.

The following points are obvious to ecologists:

yes, we must get off fossil energy;  yes, we must transition to renewable energy; but Green infinite economic growth is an oxymoron.  Conclusion:  we must start to reduce economic throughput ASAP.  In other words, we must embrace degrowth if we are to survive and thrive.  Economic development does NOT require constant economic growth.  Many books and articles have been published which explain how such is done.

To put it another way, we must move from high energy use to low energy use.  A paradigm shift.  Because all the foregoing is politically unpopular, we are being told by the Powers-That-Be:  we can eat our cake and have it too, if we just "Go Green".  If you believe that, then please watch the piece at the link above.

If you can't (or won't) watch the entire interview, at least start it at about 45 minutes in and continue to about the 60 minute mark.  Just those fifteen minutes will show you why infinite economic growth must be abandoned.  And again, yes, we must "Go Green"; but it's folly to believe we then can still pursue infinite economic growth without catastrophic consequences to all life on Earth, including us.  Hagens and Michaux explain why with great specificity.  It's a dynamite discourse.  Most politicians would  hate it (if they ever bothered to see it).

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well 

Complex Systems appear to be a complete puzzle to almost all Powers-That-Be

 Elected politicians, appointed administrators, business leaders, and other policy-makers seem to have little to no knowledge of the concepts in this short video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp8v2Udd_PM&list=WL&index=88&t=1s

An understanding of complexity, synergy, feedback loops, emergence, etc. is necessary if Homo sapiens is to survive and thrive in the Anthropocene.  Currently, Spaceship Earth appears to have way too few people in power who grasp these crucial concepts.  To compound the problem, those in power usually have as advisors mainstream economists, attorneys, and other linear thinking specialists.  Perhaps there are some, but I've not seen or heard of any advisors who think comprehensively on the level of, let's say, Bucky Fuller, Carl Sagan, Barry Commoner, Jeremy Lent, Suzanne Simard, Richard Heinberg, Jennie M. Ratcliffe, Paul R. Ehrlich, Anne Ehrlich, Brian Czech, Nate Hagens, William E. Rees, and many others.

Without embracing nonlinear complexity, I'm afraid those who "run the world" are doomed to continue tinkering around the edges of the solutions to our ongoing socio-eco-econ-ethical Crisis.  The good news is that in many places, peaceful pressure from the ground up is beginning to nudge our Leaders out of their dogmatic, stuck-in-the-past slumber.  Let's hope that continues.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Hypothesis: It's likely the Powers-That-Be (public & private) in our Land have no intention whatsoever of...

With a minor edit, my latest email is below.

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I've studied human impact on the environment for 50 years, and watched our "transition" to renewable energy for a tad over 20 years.  We've made a little progress in renewable energy, but fossil fuels still rule the roost.  Except for a reduction in the use of coal, and except for oil cartels reducing production once in awhile to manipulate the price, and except for lower demand for gasoline during the 1st two years of the pandemic, fossil fuel use has not been significantly reduced in the USA.  Plus, renewable energy production has not been able to meet even the annual increase (the increase only) in energy demand here and worldwide.   https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/04/gap-between-renewable-energy-and-power-demand-oil-gas-coal.html

So, I propose the following hypothesis.  "It's likely the Powers-That-Be (public & private) in our Land have no intention whatsoever of transitioning to renewable energy.  Instead, the plan is to kick the can down the road while having renewables complement the dominant fossil fuels".  [Of course, sooner or later, fossil energy either will be too inaccessible to extract affordably, or it will be gone.  But that won't be anytime soon, or soon enough.]  Meanwhile, a bunch of politicians (funded by the short-sighted fossil industry) have assured the proverbial kicking of the can down the road with the recent Inflation Reduction Act.  Said law is somewhat good for the complementary renewable energy industry, and even better for the myopic fossil fuel cartel.

I imagine others have come up with this hypothesis before me, but I suspect most of Main Street still believe the elites are sincere when they claim to be transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewables.  Thus I fear pressure in favor of accelerating the transition will abate.  Such would be extremely detrimental to Homo sapiens and all other life on Spaceship Earth.

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

http://individualsovereignty.blogspot.com/ 

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

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

896 Million Dollars PER DAY

That's how much our Fed Gov't pays in interest on the National Debt...every day.  And yet, DC politicians of both major Parties say the Debt doesn't matter.

http://fortune.com/2019/04/10/the-deficit-is-growing-far-faster-than-predicted/ 

By the way, the overwhelming bulk of Personal Income Taxes goes to pay that Interest.  That's the main purpose of Personal Income Taxes.  Central Banks, other Mega Banks, and other Mega Corporations are the primary recipients of those monies.  They hold the vast majority of Bonds & Treasury Notes.  ["Bonds" have maturities greater than 10 years, while "Treasury Notes" have maturities from 2-10 years.]

Gov't Services are paid for by Corporate Taxes (such as they are...Amazon paid zero Income Tax in 2018), excise taxes (highway/gas, liquor, tobacco, firearms, etc.), fees, imposts, duties, and more borrowed money...on which you pay the interest...$896 million per day this year.

Alan Greenspan once made these statements (paraphrased): the USA will never default on its Debt because when we need money, we simply print it; we can guarantee no default, but we cannot guarantee the purchasing power of those dollars.  [Right, Alan, and that's the catch or rub, isn't it?]

Every fiat (or debased) currency in history eventually failed.  The "money" became essentially worthless because the issuing government wound up printing too much of it.  That's currency inflation; price inflation is the result of too much currency inflation.  The more dollars there are, the less each dollar is worth.  Prices then go up in order for producers just to keep even, never mind get ahead.  Compared to the 1913 Dollar, today's Dollar is worth about three cents.  That's why the pair of Levi's jeans I bought in 1961 cost me $3.95, and the Levi's jeans I bought a few days ago were $49.95.  The cost of production (per unit produced) didn't go up; that cost has gone down over the years due to automation, essentially flat wages, foreign factories, etc.  Prices on everything have gone up because the Dollar becomes worth less & less every year.  That's how fiat currency operates.

Currently, we're at the tail end of today's world fiat currency system.  The whole thing (worldwide) is based on so much Debt that's it's unsustainable.  All fiat currencies in circulation today are becoming more & more worthless... because each year they are worth less.  Hello.  Global Debt is now close to $250 trillion; the entire world's GDP is about $84 trillion.  Do the math.  Such a system will fail.  DEBT will kill it.  Governments cannot simply "print" currency to get out of horrendous Debt because the result would be hyperinflation of prices; purchasing power would drop to within a micron of zero.  That's the rub.

Some sort of Great Re-Set is coming, and with it, most likely a worldwide Depression.  Can't say exactly when, but it's virtually guaranteed...all because of the massive Debt Bubble caused by fiat currency and reckless Powers-That-Be.

Not only my opinion.  Be prepared.

The Plutocracy and Politics in the USA

Below is an edited version of my email response to a friend.  He had written that our economic and social ills overwhelmingly were caused by the Republicans.  [Parts of this piece didn't copy/paste properly, and I don't have time to correct them.  It's all readable.]
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You'll never convince me that somehow Repubs are bad and Dems are much, much better.  Neither will anyone convince me of the reverse of that.  At the highest levels, those old labels don't matter anymore... they all (at the very top) subscribe to the Neoliberal agenda.  In developed countries, that agenda is sweeping the world with its Corporatist, Globalist "vision".

Pard, you appear to be completely misunderstanding what I've been saying.  Apparently, I haven't made it clear.  [All that is no surprise to me because humans are the worst communicators of all species on the planet.  We jump to conclusions, assume things not in evidence, fail to fully describe things, etc., etc.  Even honeybees communicate better than we do:]

I agree with your "facts" about certain people in politics.  What I'm trying to tell you is that, at the highest levels, it doesn't matter anymore if they are Repubs, or Dems, or Druids.  The Powers-That-Be don't care if Schumer is a Democrat, or if Ryan is a Republican... all they care about is whether or not those Corporatists support/promote the Neoliberal/Neoconservative, Corporatist, Globalization, Oligarchical agenda.  Anyone who doesn't support that agenda either never makes it to the top of the Power Pyramid, or if they do, they are completely marginalized.  [Ron Paul & Dennis Kucinich are good examples.]  That means, at the highest levels, Parties don't matter anymore.  At the top, they're all on the same team.  At the level of Main Street, Parties simply are used to distract, divide, & conquer us... and make us think that at the top there are significant differences on issues other than hot-button topics such as gay marriage or abortion.  There aren't.

There are little to no differences (at the highest levels) regarding war, the economy/jobs, High Finance and Monetary Policy, privacy & the Surveillance State, free speech, the Fed Reserve, the Police State, socialism for Mega Banks & Mega Insurance Corporations but no one else, USA Hegemony, and Corporatist Globalization.

Those of you who keep working in the old political paradigm are playing right into the hands of the Plutocracy.  They want us to fight with each 

other.  They want us to think "it's the other side's fault".

And that's working great for the Powers (public & private) at the top.

Trump isn't a "Conservative" OR a Republican; he's an apolitical opportunist.  He's nothing but a Corporatist.  So is Obama, who became 

a multi-millionaire while in office.  They're both Crony Capitalists.

Neither one of them cares one whit about any political Party.

The Powers-That-Be, regardless of political affiliation, are in a whole 

different world than we are...and they don't care about political Parties.  

They only care about power, position, money, and their own security.  

That's why young, relatively poor men are sent off to war in order to protect the lives & property of the rich old men who started the war for 

economic/financial reasons.  Parties have nothing to do with it.  

While not all Plutocrats are bad apples, their group/Class is ruining this country... primarily via Crony Capitalism.  In the first full year after the 2008 Crash, 93% of all wealth in the USA went to the upper one one-hundredth of a percent of our population.  That's not Free Market Capitalism, or a Republic, or a Democracy... that's a Plutocracy enabled by Crony Capitalism.  Russia has the same system--- the merging of State and Private Power.  It's the result of what one author called The Conservative Nanny State.  That's welfare for the Super-Rich... at the expense of the rest of us.  So far, it has amounted to trillions & trillions of dollars.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well 

Carroll Quigley on Our Government

[This piece was edited at 9 AM, Mountain Time.]

The brilliant historian, Professor Carroll Quigley, had this to say about our Gov't in 1966:

"The tragedy is that we no longer have a representative government in this country; the hope is that the little people will come to accept that...because there is nothing they can do about it."  

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No one understood the Power of the Shadow Gov't better than Quigley.

Bill Clinton thought so much of Quigley that he mentioned the good professor in his Inaugural Address.

Quigley considered himself a member of the Elite Class, hence his use of the phrase, "the little people".

The Shadow Government is much more powerful today than it was in 1966.

Not only my opinion. Be Well

The International Financial Coterie is Destroying Us

Below the dotted line is a recent email I sent to my son, other family, and a few friends.  It has to do with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Financial Coterie (IFC), the latter not being an "official" designation (it was coined by the late Professor Carroll Quigley).
First a brief Preface---
If not the most powerful, then the IMF certainly is one of the very powerful financial institutions on the planet.  Most of us have heard of it; but most of us have no clue as to exactly what it does.  I suspect that even fewer of us know much about the IMF's Special Drawing Rights (SDRs).  My son had sent me a piece from the IMF official website, a piece with a brief discussion of SDRs.  The SDR system basically is a "basket" of currencies that acts as an additional reserve to participating world central banks.  SDRs can be exchanged by participating members for freely usable currencies.  On October 1, 2016, China will join the elite SDR members.
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Interesting.

The IMF & SDRs = another Oligarchical racket.  The People never voted on this stuff.  The reason the SDR kinda faded away "a few yrs after" it was formed (in 1969) is because of the "Nixon Shock" (fiat $$$ in 1971).  Now it's just another way to manipulate fiat bucks among the International Financial Coterie (IFC).  [Google "coterie"; I had to.  Had only a vague idea of what it is.  Carroll Quigley, Bill Clinton's mentor at Georgetown U. & a well-respected macro-historian, wrote in 1966 that the IFC (his phrase) ran the world.  He was right, but very few paid attention.]  

The whole mess of politics is a fraud.  Repubs, Dems, Right, Left, etc. ALL (at the highest levels) are puppets of the IFC...sometimes called the "Shadow Gov't", which is recognized by many respected analysts such as Bill Moyers, David Stockman, Michael Hudson, William K. Black, & others.  Even FDR & JFK believed it (one has to dig a bit to find that info).  So do others on the "Right" besides Stockman.  Someday most Americans will wake up to this sad fact.  [The funny thing is, it's not any kind of "grand conspiracy"; it's just kinda an "organic" thing.  The IFC (I suspect) think of it merely as "good business practice".]

Thanks for the piece...revealing history, & straight from the horse's mouth (the IMF).

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I strongly recommend that everyone do a bit of research on Carroll Quigley.  He was a brilliant historian, and specialized in the influence of banking and money on the evolution of civilizations.  His book, Tragedy and Hope, is an in-depth examination of how the Powers-That-Be rule the world...regardless of politics, elections, and any well-meaning institutions.  For the most part, he liked what they did; he considered himself a member of the Elite Class.  That's why he was given access to their private papers while writing the book.  Far from being any kind of "conspiracy theory" nutcake, Quigley was a top-notch researcher who dealt in facts and empirical analysis.

Until we understand the Shadow Government---again, a concept well-accepted by reputable analysts such as Bill Moyers--we will never be able to properly oppose it and have a free and democratic society.  The Elites practice the "Golden Rule":  whoever has the gold, rules.  Currently, it makes almost no difference who is in political office in the so-called "free" countries.  They all kow-tow to the International Financial Coterie...regarding politics, finance, economics, social matters, and war.  [None of it is a "conspiracy".  It's merely some people with common interests, and who think they're above the rest of us, working at times together---but mostly independently or in very small groups---to attain their mutual objectives.  It has nothing at all to do with bizarre rituals, esoteric symbols, and all the other nonsense promoted by some "researchers".  Those people may be well-meaning, but all they're doing is helping the Powers-That-Be by turning off the rest of us to the concept of the Shadow Gov't.]

Not only my opinion.  Be Well