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ADHD: Hunter in a Farmer's World
Thom Hartmann has written a dozen books covering ADD / ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.
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Thom's Blog Is On the Move
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Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
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Thanks Hal!
Sick and tired of it all, the drama, the game.
Outback & PD,
I'm from PacNW -- N. of SEA in fact. Just pondering the geographic distribution of this forum, LOL (Woops, sorry AIW).
IMHO = In My Humble Opinion -- a self depreciating attempt to avoid getting flamed.
What are Billionaires? What is Wealth? Not necessarily just goods or stuff. in fact wealth today has become a score, a number in a game. Wealth can be accumulated by individuals, by groups of individuals, or non human entities (governments and organizations).
Can anyone even comprehend what "$1000000000." means? Or what "$1000000000 at 7%/year" generates as income? It's beyond comprehension on a personal human level. Bill and Melinda Gates have to hire people just to "spend" the wealth they accumulate. They are not unique.
And yet one of the greatest achievements of humans over other species is the accumulation of capital in large enough agregations to do large things. Consider the Pharoahs of the Nile, building the magnificent Piramids. Persians building Universities along the Silk Road, Or others building the first network of Astronomical-Observatories. Merchants building international networks of commerce. Romans building civil roads and waterways. And armies or religions spreading and expanding information and influence. And more recently, Industrialists and corporatists creating industries and global commerce. Eisenhower's Interstates and Kenedy's Trip to the Moon. Corporate organizations creating structures and organizations far far beyond what any one human (or most, certainly) can comprehend or imagine.
In deed the complexity of a single oil-refinery, is beyond few if any human's comprehension -- yet they are comonplace. Same for the smart-phones in our pockets. And these are both the results of managed wealth.
Wealth no longer has substance. My boss's computer e-mails a bank's computer, that email's another bank's computer; and in the end of some networked process, my account's bit-pattern on a disk changes up- while my employer's account's bit-pattern changes down. A few micro grams of ferric-oxide on some disk-drives change state -- the sum-total of our "wealth."
Wealth becomes a scorecard. A digit followed by a number of digits -- important only when added or subtracted from others -- leaving more or less in reserve, loss or growth. Wealth is important in what others can be influenced to do, and in the process changing their score. Wealth becomes valuable to society and to the individuals who use those cyber ones-and-zeros in accounting computers somewhere for deciding how those numbers get manipulated, distributed.
So it is the accumulated decision-making power, measured by the cyber score-keepers, not necessarilly the houses, factories, cars, yachts or jets accumulated on any individuals charm-bracelet. It's who is in control of deciding how those bit patterns are re-allocated, what projects get done. Will those allocations go to social infrastructure, pyramids, Education, Food or expanding empires? Will decisions be made by small groups of individuals claiming power by divine-right, patent-right, might-is-right or democratic majority?
These numbers today are beyond most mortals' comprehension; yet by shifting the decimal-point scale, individuals make bigger and bigger decisions. "A few billion here, a few billion there; soon you're talking real money." And generally bigger and bigger capital-projects have greatly benefited human societies as a whole.
The question we must face today is how we manage this score-keeping process. How has it infact worked in the historic past, in the relatively recent past, and is working today. Have changes occurred? Have the mathematics of compounding-growth or inflation, or economic management actually changed anything -- or is it just more of what has served our species well? Does our greater understanding of the process; does the increased magnitude of the bit-patterns translate into better or worse results for the species, or all species?
Wealth is not the issue; it's what wealth can do, and who and how wealth is managed that are the questions we (or some humans) will answer.
Palindromedary (alias "Ugly Fluffy") says "Other 'social' programs are important too but they, IMHO..."
Could you be so kind as to translate that for me? What does "IMHO" mean?!
Drives me friggin' crazy how people are so into acronyms these days. I am constantly trying to de-code those stupid things and it gets old, folks. Sorry to gripe but this is has become a pet peeve of mine. It seems to be a 21st Century trend, this habit of cutting corners on everything; even in how we communicate. C'mon, people- is it really too much trouble spelling things out?! - Alice I.W.
Robindell says "I am disappointed in the show for the following reason: you often and rather redundantly talk about Social Security and Medicare as if these are the only federal programs providing assistance to people in need of resources."
You sound like someone who's paying attention and knows the score, so to speak. Generally I'd be hard-pressed to find much if anything to disagree with in your entry. But I've a problem with how you chastise Thom in your opening statements. I've listened to his show enough to be certain there's not a thing you point out that Thom's not already well aware of.
From my perspective it seems the reason Thom keeps emphasizing the Teapublican/Blue Dog/Corporatist/Oligarchic assault on Social Security & Medicare is due to two factors, shared in common by these programs: the fact that they actually work, and work very effectively; also the fact that they have already been paid for by their intended recipients. These are the marks of distinction on both Social Security and Medicare. It also happens to be a thorn in the side of the Plutocrats, who would be satisfied to let us workers die in the gutter once our working lives have ended, when we're too old to work anymore.
I'm not saying this to minimize the importance of offering a helping hand to people who need it and are down on their luck. I believe this is what it means to be truly civilized. And in a system this predatory and hostile to us "ordinary" folks of ordinary means, it is an inevitable outcome that so many would find themselves marginalized and left out by no fault of their own. However I see no reason to begrudge Thom's emphasis on those two particular programs.
For legislators to cut Social Security is a form of theft. They are stealing from us, from We The People who have paid into it all our working lives. That is our trust fund, our ticket to some semblance of security in old age; and yes, an ENTITLEMENT. (There! I said it... that dirty little word... ) Legislators have no right to dip into it or pick it apart, because it isn't theirs to take. It's really that simple. Anyway I've said my peace... - Aliceinwonderland
Hey PD, that's pretty freaky! I'm an old Seattleite myself. Moved to North Idaho 33 years ago where life is a lot simpler, living on acreage as I do. Rule 1: If it's not game out of season or invited, shoot it! Rule 2: see rule 1....
Yaay! Ugly Fluffy's back!! Thank you, PD. - AIW
Karlmarx says "We have the best higher educational system in the world though which is why we know so much about our backwardness."
That is one of the most brilliant statements I've read on this blog in a long time. Take a bow, Mister Marx. - Alice I.W.
Mercury retrograde = 'confirmation bias effect' and 'passive avoidance conditioning'.
Social Security and Medicare are two major programs that people have contributed to all their working lives. They expect the government to follow through with their obligations. Other 'social' programs are important too but they, IMHO, seem more like 'charity' granted to people who have never really contributed directly to specific programs. But paying income and sales taxes over the years could count, I guess.
But, I've known people who have never had a 'work ethic' and lived their miserable lives never trying to better themselves...just parasitic themselves on a system that pandered to them. We need something like a National Work Force...people are expected to work, in any capacity they were deemed medically fit for, and those who refused to work would just have to accept their fate without government help.
Of course, many of these people are in the sad positions they are in largely because of the aggressive and unfair advantages that has been given to a few people who were born wealthy. And the wealthy have been steadily working to maximize their wealth by stealing it from everyone else. They were born wealthy because their parents, perhaps, inherited lots of wealth as well and used their advantage to get even wealthier. When you have a lot of money to begin with, you have more leverage, in education, in societal positions, in opportunities...more than the majority of people without that wealth.
The reason why these few wealthy people have gotten even wealthier is because they have gamed the system. And now, they are too powerful to jail. The honest politicians (if there are any left) are too scared to prosecute....putting up (if we're lucky) a 'slap on the wrist' show in an attempt to pretend they are working for the people. And, of course, these fines just get passed on to the people anyway.
The wealthy have acted like predatory parasites and have conducted what really amounts to an economic war against their hosts. It's time for the hosts to fight back. Break out some 'RAID'!
They've been stealing from us...now it's our turn to get some of it back. The question is, will it take a new kind of "French Revolution"...the kind that made M. Guillotine famous? They went after not only the heads of state but the wealthy people who refused to pay their fair share of taxes.
I certainly like the idea of our government putting a $1billion ceiling on wealth in America. But, I'm afraid these people would just find ways of avoiding it..they'd just do what they do now....hide it in offshore accounts...or set up accounts in dummy corporations...or distributing their wealth to all their relatives before they died instead of after.
I am starting to see the results of our criminal economy when the lower classes start to feed on their neighbors. I don't really live in a lower class or crime ridden community...about average, I guess. But I see things going on that I would miss if I didn't have surveillance cameras all over the place around my house. Razor wire is next, maybe! So far, I have caught one woman trying to steal mail out of my mail box....another guy sneaking up to my mail box looking for packages...and another guy, just the other night, checking my car door in my drive way. It was locked...and by the time I got to the front yard...he was down the street. And there is a lot more frightening things going on all around in neighboring communities. My community, near Seattle, is becoming very scary to live in. Time to move to Canada, I guess.
Yes! And Obama will give away the farm, again.
When fascistis attack
In CA both houses in Sacramento had a super majority after the election last november. I was hoping we could start charging an extraction tax for the oil the corporatists are taking out of our commons. CA is the only state, out of 26 with oil in the ground, that does not charge an extraction fee. I guess Chevron was thinking the same thing. The hired one of the senators (Rubio of CA) to eliminate the super majority in the state senate.
While sequestration presumably cuts uniformly across all departments, I suspect that it will do more damage to programs that Republicans already want cut. So much of the Military-Industrial waste, "Inteligence" Meddling and Tax-Loophole Corporate-Welfare are "off-budget" -- will they not be cut? Somehow the Right's crocadile-tears don't convince me.
Fortunately, actual implementation of cut specifics, will be by our democraticly controled Executive Branch -- perhaps the impact can be mitigated and directed towards true waste and marginally effective programs? The problem is that most of us simply don't have specific details, just the usual half-dozen sound-bite issues. We're ignorant-on-purpose about what's really going on.
Robindell writes: "If the housing of citizens is threatened by the greed and incompetence shown mainly by the Republicans in Congress, this should be publicized greatly, . . ." -- And that is one of my #1 problems with our entrenched two parties. Democrats seem unable to hold Republicans accountable for (it seems to me) outrageous obstructionism.
Our progressive comentators do well, and the "neutral" media does blame Democrats for playing the "blame-game" -- so some Dems must be attacking Repubs for their part in this dance. However, Republicans seem to have so much better control of their message, spinning the reality inside-out, blaming Democrats for Republican Obstructionist sins.
If sequestion cuts really do hurt lots of people, I hope (but have little faith) that the Rabid-Right gets it's full share of the blame. We'll see. At least we do have some pundits and comentators getting some of the message out -- at least in a few of the media-markets and Internet.
Outlaw Billionaires!?! Hells bells...I say round them up, take away their cell phones, PDAs, weapons, and body guards, and dump them on the streets of our most impoverished areas (starting with the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation)...let them survive on their own. I'll bet most of them wouldn't last 3 days!
The Republicons cant fool me..... They want to destroy Obama and anything he does!! The Republicons want to bring the working class to their knees..... it will not work here in Colorado!
Rand Paul is Ignorant and Faux news is a farce!!!
Keep up the Great Work Thom!!
I am disappointed in the show for the following reason: you often and rather redundantly talk about Social Security and Medicare as if these are the only federal programs providing assistance to people in need of resources. It seems to me that familiarity with federal programs other than these two alone is not only necessary but would be expected of someone who is a commentator on national politics and on federal domestic policies. The sequestration or automatic budget cuts are across-the-board and will affect programs that people rely upon and need, other than Social Security and Medicare. In my opinion, there is a need for a substantial increase in funding for housing for low-income or homeless citizens. The politicians in Washington decided long ago not to fund any new public housing units, but instead to place people in privately owned apartment buildings by helping with the rent. These rent subsidies are necessary so that low-income people can be secure in their housing and so that they don't have to pay a ridiculous amount of their already scarce income toward one expense, namely housing. People need money for other items such as food, health care, and in many cases, expensive transportation costs. If the housing of citizens is threatened by the greed and incompetence shown mainly by the Republicans in Congress, this should be publicized greatly, because it would show that the U.S. is becoming a third world tin pot dictatorship rather than a fair and open country with concern for its citizens.
I believe, however, that it would be difficult for the federal government to increase the amount of funding made available for housing assistance because of the size of the deficit. The possibility of increasing the number of homeless people through robotic, mindless budget cuts will add to the social instability of America, which may be more instable than many are willing to admit. People can see what is happening in their neighborhoods, a fact that the Republicans have forgotten.
The hatred of others is behind the contempt being shown toward the federal government. One thing I don't understand is why in a country with universal public education and so many supposedly high-quality colleges and universities are people so ignorant of history, civics, and basic economic and sociological facts. I am not sure that teachers deserve the automatic respect that many progressives assign to them, but the approach taken by conservatives with No Child Left Behind and standardized tests as the primary evaluation of teacher competency is does not address many of the major problems of having an educated citizenry, which Jefferson thought necessary for democracy to flourish.
Amen, the U.S. wealth inequality is at a level which is not that of an advanced nation. The only other developed country which is as bad or worse is Singapore, well run but a dictatorship. One can check wikipedia for details. The U.S. is 1/2 way between being 3rd world and first. Inequality homicides health data are at least way down amongst industrialized nations. Our polticial process is backward. We are more like the nation we once opposed Russia, a crony capitalist oligarchy than much of anything else.
We have the best higher educational system in the world though which is why we know so much about our backwardness.
Fiberoptic maybe unnecessary.
Thom suggested that fiberoptic cable be laid whenever freeway construction/repair is done. I don't know if the information is accurate, but I heard or read somewhere that cable is only needed the last 500 or however many feet from a hub to residences and businesses; everything else is done wireless or satellite so long runs of cable are unnecessary.
Cruz vs. McCarthy
I thought it was just me, but a week ago I noticed that there is a resemblence of Ted Cruz to Joe McCarthy.
NACHOS says "But the only reason he is alive and my Krissy is dead is because of good quality health insurance."
I need to remind you my friend- there is no such thing as "good quality health insurance". Why? Because health insurance is just one big-ass, bogus racket. Your boss was lucky, 'tis all... lucky the insurance hacks didn't say "Sorry, that treatment is experimental- claim denied!" Those two little words - "claim denied" - have translated to a death sentence for tens of thousands of Americans whose insurance companies refused to pay for the surgeries and treatments prescribed by their doctors. For millions more, it has lead to financial ruin, tantamount to a slower kind of death.
What we need is good quality health CARE, not health insurance. Because health insurers contribute NOTHING of value to health care. Their sole purpose is to present an obstacle to care so that they can rob us blind, which they have done for decades with our government's blessings. Even paying their premiums is no guarantee that you will get what you've paid for in your moment of need. Your boss is lucky to be alive.
Being an American is a curse. - Aliceinwonderland
Kend says "Alice why is it that liberals say they don't care about money but they work so hard to take mine?"
Get a grip, man, and take a deep breath. I assure you, there's nothing you or Global have that I would want for myself. - Alice I.W.
Global says "Most of the rich I know build wealth through savings and investments, and looking at the performance of the stock market during that period it is obvious that is how most of them got that 74 percent growth...." etc, etc, etc. (Y-A-W-N) Whatever, Global. All this talk about rich folks is getting very boring. - Alice I.W.
Sorry for your loss. I lost my neice about nine years ago to cancer as well at the age of 17. I have never said I like the health care system there, and I can't beleive that all children are not fully covered. I have always said let the middle east look after it self. Lets all get the hell out of there. Canada's troops have been there for 14 years. We have all the energy needs we need in North America. What I was saying is, if you can't afford these things now how will our future generation do it with a massive debt. Sorry again I had no idea. My neices name was Krissy to. What a shitty way to start the day. I hope yours gets better.