Wasteful capitalism

Stuart Varney of Fox Business Network (sorry) and his guest John Lonski were railing about a Fox News Poll where 34% of respondents think the rich do not pay enough taxes.

At some point Lonski said:

".....if you start taxing this wealth...may have the unwanted effect of reducing the incentive of people that are very talented and very rich to go ahead, expand their businesses, and make jobs and drive the economy higher."

My snarky comment:

But those very talented poor people... they're just pigeon poop on the sidewalk. There's no benefit to incentivizing them to work hard to improve their lives and the lives of their families and neighbors.

But I really want to emphasize how wasteful the American economy and culture really is. Amy Goodman interviewed Albert Woodfox a former political prisoner who spent over 43 years in solitary confinement in American jails. Watch and admire the dignity, grace, astonishing strength of this man. During his youth in the United States of America, it was more important to control this young man by locking him up than growing his strengths and talents; talents that could have advanced the nation economically and culturally. We are jailing young people in the prime of their life. Then our current 'Secretary of Education' Betsy DeVos actually claims American schoolchildren may benefit from less investment in their education. 

Now contrast the lack of investment in American youth to little gossip blurbs about Kim Kardashian's kid's lavish birthday party or Beyonce's kid at a fashion show. This encapsulates the problem with the current economy. It's a system that allows the largely poor population go hungry, uneducated and often imprisoned while the rich indulge in luxuries that add no meaningful value to their lives. And rich people are rich because they lie, steal and cheat the wages of the working poor.

So back to tour treatment of young people, I'm reminded of the slogan of the United Negro College Fund: A mind is a terrible thing to waste... we are and have wasted the minds of generations of Americans. We can do better.

Do robots serve us or do we serve the robots?

Amy Goodman interviewed Shoshana Zuboff who wrote: “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power”. Her premise is that the frontier of capitalistic innovation is capitalizing prediction of individual (and likely) group behavior. These themes have explored in science fiction and coming to fruition in reality. We need to decide if we serve the interests of our (collective human) creations or do the controllers of these creations control our destinies?

Part 2 of this interview emphasizes the role of information control/secrecy in these developments... a theme I've been writing about for years.

Biological Solution?

NPR has reported that photosynthesis has been hacked! Their story focuses on effects on food production... but there may also be a climate effect. These plants grow faster by being better at converting atmospheric carbon dioxide to plant matter. This is a more effective biological method to pull carbon dioxide (the climate change gas) from the air. The next step is long term storage of carbon based plant material in a way that doesn't release climate gases into the atmosphere - essentially 'fossilize' fresh plant material into fossil fuels and minimize its use as energy source.

Get to work scientists!

Reality Asserts Itself with Lester Earnest

Paul Jay at TRNN has a series of interviews posted with Lester Earnest, an early computer innovator. It is well worth watching.

Musings

(1) In the U.S. military there is a concept of a duty to disobey an illegal order.
(2) The United Nations has says that people under colonial and foreign domination have the right to use armed struggle against their oppressors.

This to highlight the point that governments do not always act legally *or* in the interests of people. We see this regarding climate disruption and massive resistance at the government and corporate level to not only taking action but to prevent others from taking action... so if people have the right to resist, can small local 'governments' in any form (HOAs, PTAs, neighborhood organizations, town councils, etc.) have the right to resist state/federal rules and laws? For example, can they retain tax payments due to larger entities to spend on local efforts to mitigate climate disruption (or any other local initiative)?

***

Factory farming of hogs has a stinky and environmentally damaging effect of hog waste lagoons. Setting aside the animal abuse inherent in factory farming, these lagoons are also hazardous to local residents and workers...

This is an excellent opportunity to implement circular economic flow where the by-product of one industry becomes the input or raw material for another industry. For hog waste, the goal would be to use bacterial remediation to (a) reduce toxicity; (b) reduce odor emissions and (c) generate valuable consumer product, such as methane and garden manure [cow manure and other compost is used by home gardeners and landscapers]. If toxicity can only be addressed by adjusting the hog diet, that may be healthier for the hogs, hog consumers and the environment,

Tomi Lahren says stupid things

Tomi Lahren says stupid things, predictably.


My comment:

She spreads propaganda and conspiracy theories like infectious diseases. The NY public health health authorities quarantined Typhoid Mary for spreading typhoid. White wing media, Tomi Lahren included, are a similar threat to the public health of the nation and planet.

For the sake of the nation...

My comment at an Alternet post:

IMHO, impeaching DJT is a necessary housekeeping for the sake of American democracy. Between Nixon (Watergate), Reagan (Iran-Contra), Bush 41 (Iran-Contra), Bush 43 (illegal wars, domestic spying, war crimes) and now DJT, there have been numerous egregious violations of the U.S. Constitution at the level of the Executive branch of the federal government. Every single violation has chipped away the founding principles of this nation. A presidential impeachment would do much to restore American and international faith in the rule of law. Unfortunately, our politics hates to air dirty laundry so it's not likely to happen. 

As to the Fall of the House of Trump, I'm stocking up on snacks to watch the action. It's small payback for his assaults on my psyche and our nation during his time in office. Let the show begin.