I Violated the Hate Speech Guidelines

Today I got a surprise shot from the blue from Blogger.com regarding a dusty old post from years ago entitled "ISIS -- Ambassadors for Islam," the title of which, by itself, may even by a violation of the Hate Speech Guidelines, for all I know. At any rate, the title tells what was considered offensive about the post. Back when it was written, years ago, the U.S. was engaged in war against ISIS--still is, but ISIS fails to command the attention it once did. Now the focus is upon Russia and China, once again. What is amusing is that the Hate Speech was tolerated when ISIS was the big bad guy of the media, but now that the bogeyman of the month club has selected a new bogeyman, the old post must be removed. I find Blogger.com largely irrelevant nowadays and was surprised to find a post flagged, in fact that has been the only time I have heard from Blogger in years. Here are my stats as of today:

Now you may ask, why is techlorebyigor a hotbed of Hate Speech on the Internet? The answer is, it is not, in fact most hits are on technical pages such as:

However, the irrelevancy of this blog cannot be overstated (understated?). There are few if any comments in the last five years and very little activity. Probably the greatest number of hits comes from bots. I have also noticed that over my last ten years of Google searches, I have not turned up any results that include any page on Blogger.com at all. In other words, the search algorithms are simply not choosing to promote Blogger for whatever reason. There is just not much traffic. As to the "Hate Speech" accusation, that does not bother me, because my feelings about this blog are rather ambivalent. If it is removed altogether, then that just tells me where we have come in this country. The Progressives these days are just as bad as the right-wing Christians back in the day and the McCarthyites, there is no fundamental difference in their believes other than they target different groups, have different bogeymen that they think need to be punished for misdemeanors and negligent acts. In the end, the Progressives will inspire the same sorts of reactions that the McCarthyites and the right-wing Christians did, and so the pendulum will swing once again, even if it takes generations to do so. The Liberals of today embrace censorship, force, compulsion and propaganda, the same dark arts that formerly were employed against the Liberals of the 1950s - 1980s, so it seems that they have learned all the wrong lessons and decided to emulate their oppressors. It is amusing, except for those caught up in the nonsense that is Left Wing brainwashing, propaganda and double-speak. I doubt any Liberals would actually fight for the U.S. in the event of any type of serious war or conflict with a powerful country such as China. They hate their own country so much, most of 'em would flee to overseas and just let things go, and in fact one can see a number of Americans becoming "Ex-Pats" to enjoy a higher standard of living overseas with better health care in particular and a lower cost of living. A good learning experience for the crypto-communists of the Progressive Left would be to relocate to China and live over there for a couple of years. Now, China enjoys a lot of advantages today, and seems to have high levels of patriotism as well, which is lacking in flag-burning places like California, that find grave sin in our country's history and believe that America is the originator of slavery and every other form of evil in the world. They can over to China and learn about life in a totalitarian country. I suppose it is all right most of the time, it is only when something out of the ordinary comes up, like the pandemic, that the bad things happen. I see that Blogger.com mislaid all the text I wrote above, as well as the pictures I uploaded, but this is because Blogger.com has degenerated over the years, as the developers decided in their infinite wisdom to dumb the service down. It takes too much of my precious time to struggle against Blogger and format the paragraphs in a proper manner, so here you are with a massive wall of text, courtesy of Blogger's inadequate text editing capabilities. As for the photos, let them be truncated, as they are. I do not really care about Blogger or this blog.

Conditions Where I'd Vote for Trump

I'd vote for Trump if the Democratic nominee came out against the Trade War and against tariffs or against Trump's immigration reforms.

Trump did a lot of housecleaning that was overdue. When he came into office, immigration policy was foolish and just basically sat back and waved people in all day long. There were a lot of ne'er-do-wells and opportunists from all kinds of countries flooding in, taking the jobs and driving wages lower. The reason wages are going higher is that that floodgate has been partially closed. There is no other reason of any importance. The mainstream media won't say so because the mainstream media has an agenda set by corporate America. Common sense dictates that an illegal from Guatemala is going to work a lot cheaper than an American born and raised here. Anyone who denies this or minimizes the importance obviously does not care about lower wage workers and prefers their elite friends and elite mindset. I really have a hard time wrapping my head around putting a bunch of Syrians, Iraqis, or whoever on a plane, and flying them all the way across half the world to the U.S., then granting them asylum based on, well, things are tough where you live. Why can't they go next door? Why is it they have to come to the U.S.? Because we are considered a rich country, that is why, and economic opportunism is the motive.

As for the trade war, China is getting too powerful, and that's not a negative in itself until you consider it is not a republic, not interested in peace and coexistence, but an authoritarian dictatorship and not all that much better than other authoritarian dictatorships in history. A world dominated by China will be very different and a lot closer to George Orwell's 1984 dystopian vision. Chinese leaders have no ethics, they are ruled completely by fear and greed and nothing else. For that matter, Russia is no better, and rather worse.

In the first place, Americans have been relying on cheap Chinese goods, often slave-made, for decades, and it's time to stop. Americans lost good factory jobs, and now we have the opioid criss and meth crisis. Opioids were never such a problem until Americans began having hopeless lives with low-wage jobs and no benefits, then you might as well get strung out on something because there is no hope and no future. Pop a pill, get a thrill, why not? Because there's nothing to look forward to. We need tariffs on a permanent basis, and 100% tariffs sounds like a great idea, until American companies get a clue about the cost of betraying the homeland. Companies like Apple should be taxed punitively, assets seized to compensate the homeland for all the jobs they stole from the American working class in order to reward China's dictators for slavery. All these American companies profit off slave labor in China, they try to hide it but the truth gets out.

Biden to me seems like a fool, I would definitely support Trump over Biden.

Warren, I would give a second thought to. I'd like to hear what she has to say about the trade war and immigration. If she is against all Trump's policies, then I go for Trump. I am afraid Warren, like any Democratic nominee, will be compelled to tow the line and support all the stupid and thoughtless policies that have deprived the U.S. of jobs, driven down wages, and let in just whoever, whenever. I don't see how she can buck the Democratic party and still make it as a candidate. Only someone like Trump can buck his own party. All the Democrats have to do what they are told to do by their corporate sponsors, or else the Democratic Party disposes of them, just like it disposed of Bernie Sanders back in 2016.

One thing I never liked about Obama is every foreign policy seemed to the detriment of the U.S., and it seemed like our country had to pay financially for everything. And for what? Gratitude? From whom?

Trump is right to point out to the European countries that they need to cough up more for defense. The only reason Europe has the big social safety net is that America pays for their defense. You know who ultimately pays? The American worker, that's who, the American worker that has no health insurance or crappy and confusing health insurance. It is time we withdrew all our troops from Europe and let them face Russia on their own. I bet the merest hint of that, and suddenly the European governments would be eliminating all the tariffs against American products, and subsidizing American products. They would pay 25% for their people to buy American. They would pay the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars every year. Better than Russian troops invading, eh? At any rate, there is no reason or need for the U.S. to foot the bill for Europe's security or for that matter, security anywhere else. There needs to be more focus on the homeland and on providing health care to the U.S. voter, who is going to consistently vote for the person who has his interests in mind.

All too often, the Democrats just play the race card, but there is no racial law remaining on the books. America is pretty fair to people of color, about as fair as it can possibly be. You can point to unpleasant incidents that happen every day, but they will always happen in a country of three hundred million people due to human nature. You can't legislate every remaining trace of racial preference away without coming across as oppressive and ridiculous and spawning a whole new generation of political opposition. The only thing that is real is classism, the way that the poor are treated. Life is hard for the poor. The most ethical way to achieve less poverty is provide lots of good-paying jobs with benefits such as vacation and sick leave.

Donations to NORML

I donate to NORML indirectly, or rather I influence others to donate, namely AMAZON. I received this note this morning:

This is your quarterly AmazonSmile donation notification. Your charity, The NORML Foundation, recently received a quarterly donation of $2,535.56 thanks to customers shopping at smile.amazon.com. To date, AmazonSmile has donated a total of: $43,812.06 to The NORML Foundation $134,890,393.33 to all charities Thank you for supporting The NORML Foundation by shopping at smile.amazon.com.

Perhaps it is ironic that I do not now use marijuana and tend to associate with those that do not use it either. Indeed, I have grown to like and respect several narcotics officers on the local police force. But in my view, and this is an important distinction to make, the narcotics officer is just doing his job. He is told what to do by the boss, that is, our elected representatives. It is not as though he has a choice--he does not. If he does not enforce the law, there will be somebody else who will. And the truth is, there may be some good that derives from Prohibition, even of marijuana, if it takes hardened criminals or hopeless addicts off the street, if it manages somehow to also bite into crime, although that is all debatable I suppose. There are many fools that drive around while smoking weed--they need to be put in prison. Driving while stoned is rather more common than I ever expected. Those who do so, need to go to jail before they kill someone.

Yet, if our elected officials were to legalize marijuana, then I feel that would make the narcotics officer's job easier in many ways, by narrowing the scope of what they do, and removing much of the general public from suspicion. You see, marijuana is and always will be popular, whereas the other, harder drugs--people will cooperate and collaborate to see such things as meth and heroin eradicated. Marijuana gains the sympathy of the reasonable person, but addictive hard drugs, in general, do not.

In my view, marijuana should never have been made illegal in the first place, by virtue of the fact it is less harmful than alcohol by any measure one might care to apply. NORML seeks to amend that historical injustice, and I will always support NORML for doing so. People should have a right to grow their own, smoke their own in the privacy of their own homes, and generally live their lives the way they want to. They should not be fired or lose custody of their children by mere association with marijuana.

I am not at all fond of the surging commercial interests in marijuana. I think it is loathsome and base, all of these merchants rushing late to the scene to profiteer by inflating the price of an easily grown weed. Sadly, our elected officials that have chosen to legalize marijuana were motivated less by the civil justice aspect and more by the prospect for profit and taxation, because human beings are ruled by fear and greed, and have precious little in the way of virtue in them.

Now we see the ugly aspects of commercialization of marijuana, the over-pricing, the crime, the taxation, the regulation, the competition pushing smaller business owners out, and so on. It is because people always want things easy. They do not want to grow their own, but instead buy a finished product in a nice shiny wrapper. Everything is a shiny product these days. That, to me, makes marijuana less appealing, not more. I liked pot when it had outlaw status. Now that is it becoming an item found in a store--bleh.

Recovery

Humans tend to be quite poor influences upon each other, actually. They lead one another, not to wisdom, but to materialism and its brothers, anger and greed. That is the main problem with socializing. Recovery time is needed after exposure to some humans, who are toxic. Even the mere sight or sound of some of them can be toxic. Drinkers, addicts, full of arrogance, anger, contempt, greed, lust, and cool indifference to anything except triggers for greed or anger. One creates buffer zones, shelters away from others. Facebook, et al are not very interesting because they inflict people upon one another, when people are already getting more than enough of each other. Who really wants or needs instant updates of every Joe, Dick, and Harry, or chat mode for that matter? What is lost to people of this era is communication with that which is eternal, and it is best expressed in silence.

Drinkers

As I complete my first full year of abstinence, I have been struck by the prevalence and tenacity of drinkers. Everyone I know drinks, friends, acquaintances, family, co-workers--and they are quite aggressive about drinking, as though it is a tribal rite, a custom enshrined in religion, and indeed it is in the Holy Eucharist.

I perceive among them the psychic force that enslaved me for so many decades of my life, to my detriment. It is black magic, demonic in nature, although few accept this, because the world views alcohol in a benign light, as it does many forms of evil. Evil approacheth with a fair face and speaketh with a silver tongue, laying an arm around thy back as if in friendship, while clutching a poisoned dagger.

As the months have passed, and many friends have offered me free drinks that used to be my favorites, I wondered whether I would fold. Not even. I am not even tempted. I smile.

No one knows my secret. Almost a year ago, I performed an I.O.B., half-thinking "what am I even doing?", but it worked just as certainly as the earth keeps me on her surface. Of course the groundwork was already laid down. There had been a welling of resistance to alcohol building up in me for many years. Read this blog and there are numerous posts against alcohol.

It should not bother me that other people are trapped in the clutches of this old ugly demon, but they are, and it is a cold satisfaction knowing I enjoy the better way. I would prefer they be better, too, and be stronger and brighter. I will be dead before too long, and the people I observe are the ones who must carry on. England's whole problem is drink, nothing but drink, and they drink because they lost their spirituality, as all people do. Those who reject Spirit embrace spirits to fill the void inside them. In doing so, they open up a gateway into their lives for demons to talk through them and to use them for purposes of malice. Is this so very hard to see?

Of courses, atheists aren't alone in tipping the bottle, although they are the lion's share. Have never known any atheist to remain sober for any great length of time, certainly not more than a month. As to Christians and Jews who drink, I have to wonder what kind of relationship they have with religion, what kind of understanding. Diminishing the Will and inviting any and all comers to enter does not seem like a very wise move for one who professes to believe in the Unseen. The Muslims have it right on this issue, I regret to say. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Darkness. It's a Good Thing.

I'm back for one simple reason. Blogspot allows my Firefox plug-in to render the background black, as I prefer. Wordpress, on the other hand, forces, compels the user to accept a bright, blinding white background. No one in their right mind should stare into the bright lamps of a modern monitor for longer than 2 seconds. I can only conclude that the Wordpress developers are complete buffoons. At any rate, I'm no longer a Wordpress cheerleader. Their editor is excessively complicated and their software is just not easy to use, not well-designed at all. Maybe for 2008, not for 2018.

Adieu

I like some of the posts in this blog, but they are fairly well-hidden by a deluge of not-so-great posts. In the past, I used to curate the blog, deleting posts that I felt did not reflect my higher self, those posts that seem inspired by lower impulses, base fear, greed or anger. Anger seems in plentiful supply now-a-days, served up by the media, and the flames fanned by public figures, who should know better, but they are just there trying to make a living off of the process. It seems to me that communication is a double-edged sword. There is much good that comes, much positive potential, but also there is a negative potential.

At any rate, I am rather bored by this blog and can't imagine anyone really finds anything of merit in it, beyond the occasional google search of a technical conundrum in, perhaps, some old version of Linux, which probably could have been fixed, had they merely upgraded to a newer version or better hardware.

I have ideas for new beginnings and want to leave this one behind, but I will not delete it. Instead, let it remain as a memorial to a period in a life, reflections on various political and social currents of the day.

One thing to bear in mind at all times is Heinlein's law: the two more plentiful substances in the Universe are Hydrogen and Stupidity.

Am I stupid sometimes? Without a doubt. My immune system does not annihilate all microorganisms of Stupidity. I am sure there are colonies thriving within me, and rogue cells, and the like. I regard myself as one example of a large population of an early model, an early breed preceding that which will come after us. Perhaps in the future, if H. Sapiens does not manage to mess everything up, which we do tend to do, perhaps in the future, there will be a better race, but I hope it will also be better from the moral perspective, most of all, and not merely more intelligent, stronger and fitter. The saddest outcome would be a race of supermen that had no scruples, bloodthirsty, cruel geniuses always at each others' throats. It remains to be seen. Hopefully, the process will be taken quite out of the hands of H. Sapiens and guided instead by a higher intelligence of some kind, artificial or else spiritual and natural. That is the prediction I leave with.

Share? Nah.

In the beginning, everyone found sharing and baring on the Internet to be fun. Share information, that others might see fit to offer information in return. Bare one's soul, to receive praise and consolation from an admiring audience.

Now, there are always the dark thoughts, who is making money off my content? When will this site be hacked, and all my personal information stolen? Who is mining this content of mine for nefarious or unfriendly purposes? Who is stealing it and pushing it off as their own?

Of course, on this blog, I have a sophisticated security system that defies anyone to steal my content. The security system is known as Low Quality. I post crap on here, because I know several things, which I will share with the Internets:

1. The first law is that no one cares. This law, people tend to forget, but one should keep reminding oneself that ultimately, no one cares. We are animals seeking to fulfill innate drives, and all the ideas and art are interesting but a bit of something in the background.

2. The second law is that all original content will be stolen, but this becomes more likely the better the content is. If you harbor a desire to feed thieves, sure, post your best work. Your reward will be to see another take credit for all your work.

3. The third law is all sites get hacked, because no one cares about security, people only care about making money. Review law #1 for clarity.

4. The fourth law is that occasionally, crazy nutcases get involved, and will find some way to hurt or harm anyone that they notice, and getting out there on the Internet gets one noticed.

With all these brilliant rewards awaiting you, aren't you just thrilled to post all your best art and ideas on the Internet for everyone? Don't you just get a warm fuzzy feeling about that?

The Difference Between Democrat and Republican

The biggest difference distinguishing the Democrats is they believe in democracy. One person, one vote. The Republicans believe in kleptocracy, stealing elections any which way you can, and then stealing from the public trust, once they are in office. Idealized by the Republican Party are Russia, North Korea, and China, "heaven on earth" as far as they are concerned, because the elections there are done the so-called "right" way, the Republican way.

Words

With the prevalence of gadgetry that focuses upon videos and images, words have declined a great deal. Most people are most unwilling to read or, if they do, to read carefully or closely. I have noticed that many replies I receive on Reddit consist of a single sentence, or two or three, at most, and reference the pop culture, such as Game of Thrones. Often, people make no remark at all upon the gist of my message, but seize upon some tiny detail and exaggerate it. There is no search for meaning and no desire for meaning. People use stock phrases, jingos and acronyms, lingo and just so much nonsense, one really gets the feeling that the living have nothing to offer. And this is the truth, they have nothing to offer.

I prefer the dead--authors, that is. Their words do have meaning and power. The living seem chained to the machine, receiving all their thoughts and impulses from the pop culture--YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, memes and so forth. The dead actually learned, struggled, worked and thought about things before putting pen to paper, and when they wrote, they chose their words carefully. So, give me a good book, and I am happy.

I conducted a little experiment on a Reddit forum, known as a subreddit. I crafted an original meme, an image, in a humorous vein. As expected, it proved popular, with over 300 likes. Yet when I then followed it up with replies in text, the likes were few and far between. My sense is that words just are not wanted. People lack the patience to digest words. They have grown accustomed to images and video. They are visual, not verbal. They cannot visualize things in their mind, they must have things graphically displayed before them. That is quite a handicap, when it comes to the subtle arts that rely upon visualization.

Sex

I read today that people are having less sex, at least in the civilized world. I think that sex was overemphasized, beginning in the 1960s or thereabouts, and the Western world, at least, is resuming the historical norm, in which sex was relegated to an occasional necessity for most people, although in truth, there is no necessity, the human population being what it is. Perhaps, in time, reproduction rates will drop off, and a gradual decline take hold, which would be preferable. The human population probably needs to drop about 50% in order to realistically cope with climate change. Governments need do nothing. Nature will take everything for else. Probably double-digit losses in the global population will occur every twenty years or so, brought on by droughts, fires and other natural disasters, but also in the inevitable world wars that will break out, and of which we see glimmerings already.

As to causes for the decline in popularity of sex, one need only consider the many pitfalls and liabilities to sex in today's modern society. There is little to gain, but much to lose, by getting naked with another human being. Disease ranks the highest, but after that pregnancy, then too, financial hardship brought on by blackmail, divorce, or crime. Emotions and drama seem to get involved wherever sex is concerned. Mainly though, today there are simply many more alternatives to sex, other ways to occupy one's time that are safer, cleaner, and arguably more fun. In the end, then, sex is just too much damn trouble for a lot of young people, and who can blame them?

Yep, Alcohol's Bad

In what should come as a surprise to no one, scientists are discovering new ways alcohol wrecks the body and mind. Every day I scan the headlines, and almost every day a new horror is uncovered with alcohol as the author. Either new research, new disease, or some new crime from an inebriated loser.

Yes, those who get inebriated are losers, because they are losing this world and lowering themselves to a lesser spiritual plane than this one, and this one is not all that great, to begin with.

One of my life's regrets is that I ever got habituated to the drinking of alcohol. Unfortunately, I found myself at a vulnerable age unprepared to cope with the stresses and pressures of school and sought solace in the bottle and to a lesser extent marijuana, which was always hard to come by and extremely risky to indulge in, because the entire nation was hysterical over "The War on Drugs," not the least my parents, who waged constant war over the use of marijuana. I think the wars and conflicts only exasperated the problem, by making it all seem like an issue of freedom versus totalitarianism. The irony, of course, is that now I do voluntarily, and with great zeal and enthusiasm, prosecute the strictures of complete and total abstinence from all inebriating substances, whereas before, when every punishment was levied and endless battles, physical and psychological and spiritual, were waged against me, I prevailed to continue in what I perceived as my own prerogative. Forever, people suppose they can control others, and perhaps they are able to control slaves, those without a strong spirit. But not everyone responds to the cycle of endless punishments.

The question arises, why did not anyone care to give me guidance or instruction, as to alternatives to drinking? Well, that is a complicated question. Of course alternatives were given from many directions, but an adolescent mind filters out almost everything quite effectively except for the ignorance prevailing among peers. It is probably not such a good idea to herd people of the same age group together all the time, because there is a lack of wisdom and a prevalence of ignorance.

At any rate, the result is not one I can fully understand. I do not know how exactly my life would have turned out any differently, had I never drank. Probably, I would have been more successful, if even slightly so. Maybe I would have merely performed better from time to time at various tasks and in various roles. Maybe the difference would have been slight. I did not drink to great excess, but I have found that even a bit is bad, definitely bad. The main problem is that the lower thoughts are allowed to surface, rather than remaining checked as they would be under normal sobriety.

Certainly, drinking is not the worst vice. I find Trump remarkable by his abstinence from alcohol, because he acts like a man that downs a quart of whiskey a day. Some people just are attuned to the lower impulses by nature. Just imagine Trump if he did drink.

Normal people find it difficult or impossible to give up what they view as light, moderate or occasional drinking. They only have a few glasses of wine at a party, what's the harm? Well, if that is the case, continue on, I say, and don't worry about me. If however, you do perceive to be lessened by your consumption of alcohol, and wonder how it is possible to give it up, then my secret is well-known. As a matter of fact, it is revealed by Alcoholics Anonymous. I am not a member, because I do not gain anything by joining groups of any kind. The secret is merely to have something in the way of spirituality, to replace one irrational practice with another. I find that this is not difficult, and why? Because I feel joy in the spirit. Great, blissful, mind-expanding and soul-expanding joy. Now, those who have not tried it or who have tried it and not felt anything like this will wonder what I am talking about. One just has to find the right practice that suits one's spiritual needs. The human race has laid out a rich and varied buffet with many aromatic dishes consisting of religions, philosophies, and various types of belief systems. So, examine what is offered by our forefathers, and choose one that suits. Be slow to choose and careful to evaluate.

I rank religions in terms of their appeal to me. Some are at zero, no appeal at all. Others are close to a "10". There are many in the middle. Very likely, the first choice is in the middle somewhere. Later, you may grow disenchanted and drift to something else. That happens sometimes, and it is okay. Not every faith is for everybody. I think that many ways are intended to suit many different personalities. The trouble with religions has always been when they try to control other people, including people that are not even a part of their religion. That brings trouble. But otherwise, if coexistence is possible, then everybody can be happy, or as happy as human beings ever can be.

Some religions, particularly those described as "conservative" or "strict", require life-long adherence, and when I say require, I mean that sanctions are imposed against apostates. Indeed, the Muslims in many countries are known for killing, harming or otherwise censuring those among their faith that stray to other belief systems such as atheism. I regard that as a spiritual crime and oppose compulsion in spiritual matters. Using force to control others points to spiritual emptiness, because if there was anything of spirit in a practice, no compulsion would be necessary at all. In many Muslim countries, people are killed or tortured for insignificant and irrelevant infractions against the majority religion. This is due to barbarism and ignorance, and I point it out because so many writers avoid doing so. If evil is not pointed out, then it becomes assumed to be good, and human beings can easily get things wrong. A religion becomes debased and wrong when it is used to justify acts of evil, this is what ultimately discredits a religion--not the apostates nor the atheists, but the ones harming the apostates and the atheists, because by harming, they make a lie of all that is in their religion.

Maud Gonne I Skipped

I had read long into the book on the G.D., but skipped the final epilogue concerning Maud Gonne, a historical figure I do not admire. She spurned the poetic genius, Yeats, for another man, who proved to be an alcoholic that brutalized her and raped her sister and young daughter. Just atrocious judgement, and in addition to that she advocated violence for political ends. I suppose this yearning for blood turned on itself and entered her own life in a frightening way. Such is often the case with those that want to marry the dark forces of nature.

Aristocracy

Aristocracy survives and thrives today, although titles have evolved from "Baron" and "Duke" to Vice-President and CEO. Humans repeat the same basic structures. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Little Innovations

Tiny innovations that may seem insignificant make all the difference in spicing up activities that have become routine, chore-like. One of the wonderful aspects of Donald Michael Kraig's book is that he opened the door to precisely that. He invited the reader to innovate, to experiment. This is the way to avoid the boredom and mindlessness that is spiritual death. The mind has to remain engaged, because it is so accustomed to being so. It must be given something to do. If not, daydreaming or otherwise wandering of attention ensues. The practice loses significance, meaning. One might as well not practice at all in that instance. Creativity must be employed, given the green light. There is no one right way.

Reading about the foibles and little failures of the originators of G.D. practice was at first disillusioning and disheartening, but then upon reflection, liberating, because it means there is no one formula, but there are formulae, and the human beings of a hundred years ago were just that, human beings, not that much better on balance than any of us, and certainly less, now that they are dust. I think there is more room for innovation than many suspect, and that hidebound adherence to tradition has pitfalls. A framework helps, but upon the framework, many different colors can work.

Celebrities' Cluelessness

I read that Myley Cyrus's house burned down in the fires sweeping California. I also read that these fires are periodic in nature, a natural feature of the landscape, and that they have been happening for hundreds of years. Perhaps the thought is not charitable, but I wonder why the hell these fancy big-time celebs did not know what time of day it was before they went investing millions of dollars on a palace destined to be incinerated? Why do human beings fail to perform due diligence? I will tell you why. Due diligence is something that highly sensitive individuals perform. Careful, cautious, detail-oriented, or quite the opposite of many of the world's celebs and needless to say, our President, Donald J. Trump, who is about as sensitive and detail-oriented as a lump of clay.

No one is glad for any disaster nor delights in the suffering of others, but I wish humans would get real. Study the earth, do not build in zones prone to earthquake, hurricane, fire, or similar natural disasters, and do not build in zones likely to be attacked by other countries. This is all self-evident, not rocket science in any way, shape, or form, and bi-partisan. I was against rebuilding New Orleans, because I believe New Orleans has a destiny that lies below the sea level, as do many of our coastal cities. We need to make peace with the fact that global warming will continue, even accelerate, unabated, and that the coastal cities will become underwater monuments to a civilization that once was. In reality, no federal or state funding should be allocated to coastal regions subject to flooding. If the locals want to waste their money, that is their own prerogative, but the money of others should not be wasted.

The Desk and Florence Farr

I dreamt I was working on a desk, trying to sort out a problem with its configuration, much as I had been out at work just yesterday. In my dream, a lady with long blondish hair tried to help, but she kept getting stuck inside the desk. It was a big desk with a complicated mechanism for adding and removing components and crawlspaces in which people were supposed to maneuver. I don't really remember much more than that, just struggling to work on sorting out a desk with a helpful lady, not too dissimilar, I might add, from the ladies I have been reading about in "Women of the Golden Dawn: Rebels and Priestesses: Maud Gonne, Moina Bergson Mathers, Annie Horniman, Florence Farr" by Mary K. Greer.

Mary K. Greer is quite the scholar, no two ways about it, and here I had been formerly impressed by Donald Tyson. Well, Tyson's adulation of Mathers is now called into question by all sorts of revelations. Mathers does not seem like such a great character really in this book.

I think the lady in my dream may have been a thought-form of Florence Farr, who impressed me the most. She died of breast cancer in Ceylon in 1917. Mathers on the other hand died of the Flu epidemic of 1918. It would certainly seem that the practice of magic has no power against physical maladies such as cancer and other diseases. I think the evidence is overwhelming that if you want to be healed, medical science is the first stop and the last stop.

I read about Florence's troubles and travails in the above book. It seems to me she had a rather hard life, short on money much of the time, and although a successful actress, once she got into her fifties, no theatre was interested in her anymore, which is the usual case in acting. The young are what people want to go to see, the young and the beautiful, for their intensity and energy. Of course, the same is true in every profession.

I would have liked to have known Florence Farr. She had an affair with William Butler Yeats as well as Bernard Shaw, led the G.D. in London, and fought with Mathers and held her own ground. She was interesting and powerful in her own right, but also seems to me to have been gentle and kind.

Look Beyond the Human Factor

The most distressing thing about religions and other spiritual systems are what I call the human factor. Get humans involved, stuff gets messy. I just get nauseated thinking about some of the shenanigans I read about from time to time, done by erstwhile "spiritual" leaders supposedly in touch with their "Higher Selves" and/or divinity. Just a big "Hmph!" comes to mind. Self-delusion, more like, than divinity. But I imagine that Republicans must get nauseated too, if they ever examine their Republican idols up close. Trump, for instance. If I were a Republican, Trump would give me great unease.

I've suffered heartache learning all the backstory to the Golden Dawn in its various incarnations and revolutions throughout the last century and up to the present day. I wish I could read about calm, wise, mature leaders, but instead I read about petty, vindictive, selfish drama queens just striving for power and control over others. But you know, humans will be humans, and in point of fact, the early organization was composed of actual drama queens, that is, people involved in theatre. Of course they would opt for drama in every facet of their lives. That is their bread and butter, their chosen mode of living. So, those that followed appear to have been cast in the same mold, no?

I think I have to separate the system from the people espousing it. The people are often bickering, fighting among themselves, because let's face it, that's what we humans do. Maybe that's what we humans do best, is to fight among ourselves. The idea of cooperating is really strange and foreign, isn't it? Some liberal, hippy nonsense brought on by marijuana, right? So let's compete, why don't we, argue, fight and be at each other's throats all the time, because we don't really want to get along, do we?

For my own part, I think spirituality is best kept private, even secret to an extent, because it is at risk of great disillusionment and disenchantment when other people get involved. Always and forever, people strive to make a damn living out of spirituality, and that's where all the problems come in--with the money!

Racism Turns on Its Own Race

WW2 killed off more white people than the Crusades. White racism just never made any sense at all. White racism is just about hating other white people that don't believe the exact same thing.

If You Gave These Guys a Million Dollars

It is demoralizing to read about these pointless mass shootings in what is otherwise a wealthy, strong and wonderful country. Our people do not deserve to be exposed to such horror. If these amok angry white male shooters were given a million dollars and left on a deserted island with all the supplies and equipment they might ever want, they could never in all their lifetime put together anything approaching the killing power of a modern handgun. They are cavemen, stupid and desolate evil-doers that always gravitate to the tools of destruction and chaos, demonic spirits predestined to cause pain and suffering wherever they go. The best solution really would be to round them up and place a bullet through their head before they do the same to others. The trick lies in identifying them, like a needle in a haystack. For that reason, once a shooter goes amok, their parents should be seized and DNA forcibly extracted from their blood to determine genetic markers that might identify worthless murdering scum in the future. Also, it would be as well to sterilize their natural parents, and possibly extended family as well to the fifth generation, to prevent further calamities down through the generations. The human race has a problem of hygiene, in that anyone with functioning genitals procreates and then lets society nurture their offspring. Society did nurture the worthless shooters everywhere and paid the price. What needs to be done is get wise about human procreation and stop the shooters before they are even conceived. Stop them being born. Quality control. Just as we want quality control in manufacturing, so too is there desperate need for quality control in human procreation. Worthless scum cause 99% of the problems in the world.

Spirituality, Why?

One big reason, seldom mentioned, for belief in God/gods, spirits, and other entities not corporeal, and the desire to communicate with them and nurture relationships, is that our fellow human beings prove, in the long term, unsatisfactory in one way or the other. Who among us has a friend that is trustworthy in all matters? Reading the biographies of famous and not-so-famous folks from a hundred years ago, I am struck by how much treachery, deceit and backstabbing is commonplace. Confide in one's closest friend, and those confidences become marketable. Little or nothing is kept secret, people always look to what can profit them or cast them in a better light on the stage. The truth is probably closer to the observation that no one has any friends at all, only acquaintances that find one useful for one purpose or another, for a temporary period of time in the present.

Humans being faithless and fickle, the thinker turns to the nonhuman, divinity or at any rate higher emanations from the Universe that can instruct, enlighten and ennoble. One can analyze such practices ad nauseum, but in the end, if they are useful, then common sense councils practice. Perhaps a great many things that humans say and do are not based upon reason or upon anything that can stand up to the cold light of scrutiny, but we do them anyway. Humans are animals facing down approaching pain and death not far off in the future.

In regards to religious and spiritual practice, I repeat the Wiccan creed, "An' if it harm none, do wot thy will." That is a mighty and comprehensive moral code compressed into a few words. Harming none includes self, of course, and all human beings, and some Wiccans even include animals, and some extend the "franchise" further to plants and even the planet Earth, although I do not know how we can harm the planet. Harm ourselves through pollution, perhaps, but the planet cares not, I think. Even if all life perished, mighty Earth would still be around.

I think if everyone abided by the above creed, then the human species would come out of our present problems all right. I love the simplicity of it, so much better than a weighty book or complex moral code. Nine words. An excellent litmus test for any decision. I think where other religionists would dispute would be that they have additional Commandments, and want to redefine "harm" to mean more complicated forms of harm. I suppose there is a lot of room for debate over the meaning of that word. So much argument boils down to semantics. What does "harm" mean? Then, too, what is "will?" How does one know what one's will truly is, and is one competent enough and well-informed enough to make decisions? I suppose no one sentence will ever satisfy, nor any one religion, but the human race demands a buffet of religions, lots of variety to choose from at all times. Some people change religions like they change clothes.

At any rate, I feel at peace in Churches and with Christianity, but also with the Wiccan and related practices. I am more at peace with spirituality and religion than I have ever been. I think it is due to being exposed to so many good people that really believe. One judges by one's experiences, and I have known many good believers.

America's Voting Quagmire

The U.S. learned nothing from Florida's voting fiasco in 2000. Our voting process is still antiquated, inaccurate, prone to lengthy delays not just for voters but for counters, and prone to corruption. Apparently, the corrupt politicians in Washington, D.C., don't care because they profit from the corruption. I don't see much momentum from either party to fix voting, and it has been broken for decades, probably forever. The U.S. could do a lot better where voting is concerned. Every time there is an election, it seems to devolve into a finger-pointing contest with lawyers, lawsuits and protests.

Don't Know Much

I read, see and hear, sometimes with envy, other times with admiration, folk that are doing much better than I, in the sense of achieving. More eloquent, more beautiful, more intense, stronger, smarter, or more skilled, or perhaps (Heaven forbid!) all of the above. Well, there's a ranking system everywhere, and no one is exempt. Even the strong must, in time, compare themselves to the stronger and come up short. There are comparisons to be made, not just among the current cohort, but with the dead greats (not to be confused with the Grateful Dead) such as Shakespeare and so on. There are comparisons to be made, finally, with computers, with other animals and finally, with the Divine, besides which no mortal can truly compare. This, then, is a meditation on Humility. 'Tis well to be humble, because even the finest form among us pales before the Divine. Then, too, there is the annoying fact we are dust, most of us, before we reach triple digits in years. I expect to be joining the boneyard in about the next thirty years or so, if I'm lucky.

Avoid Local Stores

At this time, quality can be found online. Local stores stock garbage, price it exorbitantly, and hope against hope that clueless know-nothings will buy the garbage. When, on rare occasion, by accident, an item of quality somehow finds it way onto the racks, then the local store charges twice the price of the online venue. That is why all purchasing must be done online by anyone with sense. If you want to stock your life with junk, then sure, buy from one of the retail chains. Watch your money go bye-bye as the cheap trash reveals itself for what it is in time. The retail chains hope to prolong their unnecessary survival by cheating the most vulnerable consumers out of their money. They have no plan at all for long-term survival, and it is only a matter of time before they all suffer the fate of Sears and K-mart.

Best Dream of 2018

I had my best dream of 2018 last night, best because it was vivid. I was at a party, and by that I mean a pleasant social gathering with good and gentle folk, and I was seated beside a large and talkative, crafty woman with many ideas and much wit, who was talking to me about things I no longer remember upon waking. It is often the case, that I dream of being talked to, even at great length, and when I awake, can remember naught but the faintest outline, or possibly a single phrase. I do recall one of her friends bringing me a good drink (non-alcoholic, quite naturally, as I no longer indulge in intoxicants), and then she turned to me and with some charming witticism, induced me to rise and fetch her a drink. She said she liked a soda called "The Bossman," which I recognized as a sweet citrus carbonated soda.

Upon waking, probably due to allergies, this being ragweed season, I thought she might be my boss, for one, a natural enough assumption, or else a thought-form based upon the detritus floating through my mind, and possibly an amalgam combining my boss with a charming personality I watched on YouTube not long ago, a young, black woman talking about her religion, Wicca, in mild, gentle and reasonable language. I liked her and thought she was smart.

I don't recall anything of deep or profound meaning in the dream, but I did enjoy a rather nice conversation with an interesting entity in my dream, even if I remember little more than a dozen words of what was said! (And of those words, some permutation of "fetch me a drink" was the gist!)

I do think one of the most potent attractions in the practice of Wicca and other minority religions is quite simple and based in psychology. The mere fact that a religion does not have many millions of pushy advocates on its behalf is the attraction. That it can be practiced in solitary is quite useful. That it is adaptable and open to a certain degree of experimentation and improvisation is almost unique. Christianity and Islam have both become rather stodgy by comparison, full of rules and group-think and group-activities. The room for personal revelation and personal relationships to the Divine seems limited and dismal in those religions, which surrender spiritual power from the individual to the shaman. Where power and politics get involved, spirituality flees. Also there is the fact that, being new, Wicca has not accumulated, yet, such a large number of terrible scandals, and may it never do so, but I fear, in time, it too will succumb to human frailty, as humans do what humans sometimes do, which is to fail. Yes, everyone and everything suffers a setback once in a while, that is the nature of things.

I am more an admirer of Wicca than a practitioner. The ambivalence I feel for Nature is the main reason. Wicca is really tied to Nature, to the observance of days on a calendar and a rather sentimental and emotional regard for things living and dead. The great outdoors and to a lesser extent, environmentalism, both political and personal, are both key to understanding and participating in the faith. I have never cared a fig for the phase of the Moon and doubt I could start now. To me, the Moon and indeed the planets are abstract notions. I admire them rather vaguely and am aware they are there, and like to learn about them, but don't really see them as influencing me that much. After all, they are material. If the Moon could influence me, then how much more so could the floor beneath my feet, and perhaps I should study the phases of the floor, and learn what angle it lies at, and the composition thereof. No, I dwell in the realm of thoughts and really always have and never liked camping or spending too much time in the rough. I hated going camping in Scouts. I like all of the conveniences of civilization and the wondrous artificial comfort zones we have created with our science. Science is the magic of the material plane we dwell in, whereas magic is of the spirit.

Of course, another big attraction to Wicca for many women is simply that there are many female Wiccans, and the relatively smaller number (I imagine) of male Wiccans tend to be feminists or at least open to the notion of equality between the sexes. I do not know what qualifies a man to be termed a feminist in the eyes of a female feminist; perhaps no man could qualify. It is true that some feminists really are down on men, but this is probably because of the misbehavior of so many men, the brutish louts, who behave with reckless criminality and abuse and outrage the gentle sex. There must be some reason that all the wars have been waged by mostly men, and mostly men inhabit the prisons of the world and do the violent crimes of the world. That reason has to do with testosterone and the negative aspects to it that are reinforced by culture and upbringing. I am not sure what the solutions may be, but the best, it seems to me, is to evolve a sexless mortal, with neither gender, for what need have we of gender, if a laboratory offers a better option. But that is far into the future, when I have already checked out, I think.

Republican Hypocrisy

Every little thing that the long-aggrieved, much-complaining Republicans griped about the Clintons and Obama, Trump does a thousandfold worse. The list of his corruptions could fill this blog. Basically, when one wants to know the ideal Republican, study Trump, that is what the Republican strives to become. It is their very highest spiritual ideal, what they strive for in their fondest prayers, the summit of their aspirations. To become Trump: to cheat, lie and swindle on a grand scale, is what every Republican wants to do, in the secret truth of their soul. Failing that, they reach for the gun, go out and kill the innocent, acting out their fondest fantasies of murder, much-repeated fantasies that represent the summit of their desolate imaginations.

Stark Choice in 2018

Trump's victory in 2016 was the ringing of the bell of Hell, summoning up the infernal legions and gathering all evil unto him, awakening the criminals, murderers and all men harboring evil in their hearts, followed by the hand-wringing of angels. In 2018, the American people have been presented two stark choices for the November election:

-hatred, racism, murder, and political violence in the Republicans
-compassion, reason, ethics and moderation in the Democrats

It may well be that America choices the former, madness and violence. After all, Germany did once, and so did Russia. Is America better? That remains to be seen. Those who possess even a tiny ounce of goodness in their souls will vote Democrat. Those that have sworn in the darkness to an indifferent Master will vote Republican. Although, others may opt not to vote at all, which just means they are lazy in addition to being evil, perhaps a less virulent form of wickedness. Such people would abandon their country when their country needs them.

New problems? No, old.

With so many negative headlines about crimes, violence, corruption, cheating, lying, stealing, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, police brutality, incivility, and so on, one might be tempted to despair about the world, society, or the age we live in. Let me be clear, that is a temptation sent by none other than the Devil, if you will. Not that I really believe in a Devil, but he certainly is a convenient chap by way of conversation.

Resist the temptation! Our age is no worse than any other. Our society, rather better, I would think. Our nation, we have a right to be proud of, next to the likes of ugly China or rotting Russia. Be proud! I do not endorse the "bended knee" thing among NFL players for the reason that it just seems too trendy and not thoughtful enough.

Think back to forty years ago, to 1978, please. Back then, police did not wear body cameras, nor did their dashboards host cameras, nor did any of the rooms in the police department or even the courtroom. Judges, police and civil servants largely did as they liked, and sometimes got away with it. Criminals of all stripes got away with a great many things in 1978. Bullies could beat the crap out of weaker kids. I know, I saw it happen. Teachers could say whatever nasty thing popped into their little head and get away with it, and often they could slap, hit or fondle a student and get away with it. Folks got away with stealing, lying, cheating, even killing, and there are headlines and news articles about such things.

There is not more crime now, there is less. Crime has gotten to be far more difficult to get away with. Criminals tend to be apprehended far more often than in 1978. There is less racism, less homophobia, less xenophobia, less ignorance and stupidity in the public arena. Of course there are going to be exceptions, but one must remember, these exceptions used to be the norm.

You have to admit, things are getting better. They are getting better all the time.

Megyn Kelly

Megyn Kelly has had an interesting career, to say the least, and is an interesting celebrity. Long was she derided as a "dumb blonde" by leftists, but Jon Stewart was one of the first to acknowledge that she is actually bright, a violinist in fact. First she was at Fox News, then when the sex scandal blew up over there, she moved to Fox's nemesis, NBC, which has been a bit of a culture shock for her to say the least. Comments that would barely raise eyebrows on Fox are grounds for dismissal on NBC. It is true, there is intolerance on the left for certain words and phrases. I guess it is because the assumption is that highly privileged, wealthy, highly educated and well-informed celebrities should know better than to behave in any sexist or racist manner and that everything they do is calculated. Megyn Kelly earns enough money, she could hire a sociologist full-time to keep her informed about history, culture and society. I think, however, that celebrities remain like us--human beings. Generally, I would say, give the benefit of the doubt, and at least impose a three-strikes rule. Strike one, warning. Strike two, suspension. Only on strike three, dismissal. Something like that. However, in the celebrity world (as in the world of us little people!) enemies are always on the lookout for any sign of weakness, the slightest faltering, and ready to swoop in and replace you at a moment's notice. Ruthlessness and cuthroatery! There are plenty of aspiring young actresses that would love to earn twenty-three million dollars a year talking on the television. Wow, work for a year, you're set for life!

On a personal level, I am willing to overlook comments and phrases, in the first place because we all have to, as they are commonplace. I can't begin to count the number of non-PC comments I have heard in the workplace and everywhere else. Everyone is just muddling through this strange and complicated experience we call life. The people grope for simple answers, and what is simpler than black and white? A charming simplicity, as though skin color meant anything at all. For the same reason, people buy one brand of cereal over another, because the box is green instead of red, and they don't like the color red. On a similar level, many Jamaicans, who are black, discriminate against, even hate (!), LGBT individuals, even though they may not know any on a personal level. I read an article the other day written by a Jamaican lesbian who said she was scared to death to come out to her family, because she is certain they would disown her, as they disowned her lesbian cousin. So, all kinds of ignorance and prejudice are commonplace, and certainly white folk don't have a monopoly on it. What we all do have is a responsibility, as human beings, to strive toward the light, to try and get ourselves better, to understand more fully. Some people just don't make the effort, don't feel like it is worth bothering with.

Is it so, as often repeated, that "Love is the answer?" Or as is sometimes put, "Love is the law, the only law?"

No, I think love is overrated, myself. A lot of people don't want any love. They just want to be left alone. Perhaps there is a better word to choose, if one is crafting a law describing moral conduct. Noninterference? A Libertarian law.

Election Predictions

In the past, the formula has always held true that if the economy is good, then the ruling party remains in power. If the economy is bad, the ruling party is voted out. The American people are just like any other people in that they want to do well for themselves. If only nations could come together and realize that greater prosperity can be had through cooperation than competition--but leaders like Xi and Putin will never accept that, in a million years, because it is contrary to the place where their souls reside.

By the above formula, the Republicans should do well. They are giving themselves credit for the Obama recovery, and perhaps many people do believe that the Republicans, late on the scene, are responsible all of a-sudden for the booming economy. Certainly, tax cuts on business never hurts! Common sense tells as much. The deficit, which the Republicans worried about so much under Clinton and Obama, is abruptly a nonissue now that the Republicans are in power. Look at charts--spending always goes up under Republicans. They have not the discipline to keep their hands out of the cookie jar. One day, the bill will come due, and it may present a huge problem, and retirees are likely to bear the brunt, because in the end, retirees are expendable. The pattern for local governments has always been, screw the retirees out of their pensions.

I predict that the Democrats will do moderately well, making a strong showing, but not a landslide. Certainly, Democrats and independents have been given enough motivation and presented with a stark difference in every kind of policy under the Sun. There is no reason for voter apathy. The irony is, Trump has some good ideas along with the bad, but anytime one unscrews a huge jar of marbles and pours them on the floor, sure, somebody is bound to trip and fall into Truth, and that is what Trump did. A lot of marbles also went and tripped up the poor, the sick, transgendered, and immigrants. Trump to me represents meanness, cruelty. He has resurrected racism and given the demon a powerful new lease on life. He has also resurrected fascism around the world. He is no different than his predecessors in spending entirely too much money on the military, fooling around too much in the Middle East, and not paying enough attention to the threat posed by global warming. It is not popular nowadays to talk about global warming, but it hasn't gone away, and in the end, poses a greater threat to the United States than these sock-puppet regimes in the Middle East. Losing the cities of our coasts may secretly please cynical Republicans, who see them as liberal meccas full of minorities, but it will also waste away the bulk of the nation's wealth, for without the coastal cities, we are Canada. If the U.S. does not lead on global warming, no one will.

I don't really see a monumental regime change underway in the upcoming election, but I could well be wrong. I don't feel inspired. The economy is really the main thing for most people. It is difficult for the average person to grapple with big issues like global warming, foreign policy or even national policy. What people want is a safe job, a way to make a good living. The rest is kind of icing on the cake. Republicans opted to borrow from tomorrow in order to throw themselves a nice big party today. Perhaps that will work out for them in the short-term. Not yet have they told the old people, no Social Security for you.

We Need an American President

I am voting American in the next election. All we have now is some guy that represents his own tribe all the time. Basically gives the middle finger to the rest of us. Everything has to go his way all the time, and the only problem he ever sees is Democrats. Well, he hasn't killed us all yet, we still have plenty of fight left. I think he is not an American and hates America with every fiber of his being. What he wants is for America to be like Russia. That's his fondest hope and dream. Either Russia, North Korea, or China. Sometimes he gets a little disloyal with Russia, likes to flirt with the other two dictatorships. Too bad, in 2020, he will discover, he does not live in North Korea. He lives in a place where there is an election. He never won an election before and just got in because of the Electoral College. He wouldn't have even won that without a lot of help from the media. Time to vote American instead of party.

Thieves, crooks, and liars. That's the kind of litmus test Trump set out as requirements for all his appointees. The reason turnover has been so high in the White House is that a lot of people have morals. That's a huge problem for the servant of evil. How can he fulfill his Master's dictates, when there are people following their conscience? It's a big problem for poor old Trump. Another Stormy Daniels he has to weather.

Stephen Hawking's Predictions

He predicts superhumans will take over. I agree 100% with the gentleman. Tough luck for all those folks fixated on pumping out babies. You will need a genius I.Q. to compete in the future. Otherwise, only occupation? Organ donor.

Thought I'd Seen It All

On YouTube tonight, I learned that the couple behind the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is for Trump (and even watch InfoWars/Fox News pretty regular). They went over the top, dressing as the Prez and the First Lady, although they didn't go to the trouble of putting wigs on. Political theater in a series of videos supposedly about the occult.

I guess they want to be timely and relevant and reach out to a market niche, right-wing, American occultists. I wonder how big that market niche is and how lucrative. I wonder if they are the occult's Diamond and Silk. Maybe that is how their prosperity spell really works.

I haven't heard them say anything I disagree with on magic, yet. I actually like them on a personal level. Charismatic, after a fashion. I don't like the emphasis on "war" though. Conflict sells, of course. They have launched a magical war to counteract some clown that practices black magic against Trump voters. Why give the turkey more attention, is my reaction. First I ever heard of the clown, and this couple are jumping up and down getting excited and angry about the absurdity. Just relax, such a poseur could not possibly muster the power of a mustard seed. Absurd, the whole thing. I also don't like their use of the term "war". It seems every other headline on Fox News has "war" in the title. You know, these United States have had about enough wars as it is. We could use peace to rebuild the country, with all these failing roads and bridges and poor Internet service. Certainly the last couple of wars we had have been total wastes. Even Trump himself agrees on that score. I certainly do agree with Trump that we would have been better off not getting involved in Afghanistan or Iraq. Another of Hillary's little failings, her support of these expensive wars. Siding with the Republicans brought her no benefits, no Republican votes. Bad move politically. Might as well have gone full Progressive and opposed the wars. No war would have placed the country in a better position to pay for health care.

Certainly, no one can fault their little ritual desiring freedom for all of humanity. They seem pretty open-minded. Certainly more appealing than the politician they support. I have to question their judgment in following Alex Jones though. I couldn't imagine quoting that guy in any context. I also find their histrionics tedious. Channeling emotion doesn't make one seem either sincere or powerful. More like, TV preacher. Calm down, Jethro.

I think they suffer from a case of overreaction. A constant diet of right-wing media, coupled with their lifelong focus on magic and their messianic desire to save the world, results in this street theater where they are "saving" Trump from bad witches and, I imagine, bad Hollywood. I'm not sure why Hollywood is so bad, or appreciably worse than other industries, I guess because Hollywood is a liberal power center that donates to Democrats, is why Hollywood is bad. Certainly a lot of television shows are not worth watching, but when has that not been true? Most books are not worth reading, for that matter. I suppose in their view, academia must be bad too, and of course unions and minorities--anyone that donates to the baddies, the Dems.

They do take great pains to differentiate "bad" witches from "good" witches. Well, to the average American, it's all nonsense or else dangerous self-delusion. You know what, Trump can protect himself, he doesn't need that much help, he is a pretty skilled magician in his own right, and I mean that in every sense of the word. I can think of a lot of other causes that are worthy besides helping someone rich and powerful. Which brings to mind the distinct possibility that all their theatrics might be serving their little prosperity spell. Nothing is ever spoken about the corruption and dishonesty so apparent in Trump himself. If you want to present yourself as fair and balanced, it helps to admit that which is true, and concede that your support of this or that politician is nuanced. Instead, they just play partisan politics, no objectivity other than a token objectivity, thin and dubious. Come on, you are Republican shills, trying to reach out to New Agers and flip them red.

In the end, everybody has to be taken with a grain of salt, even the supposed teachers.

On other levels, besides the political--which, I don't know why they had to go there in the first place, quite bizarre, as though they want to get on TV and are looking after their pet ambitions--I dislike their tendency to muster fake emotion. At any rate, it just rings false. They are mimicking these guys on TV. I guess that is the whole point of going on YouTube, because TV is where the money is. They get on Fox News, they get a lot of money.

Also, there is a tendency they have to repeat themselves. The broken record syndrome. Make your point, move on, don't keep harping on it again and again like Fox News. I really think they learned all their presentation techniques from Fox News. Same point, regurgitated fifty times over in fifty different ways.

The other thing that grates is a new tendency I have observed to employ profanity, like bulls--. O.K., that is not the worst profanity ever, but it is sloppy and brings to mind drinking and belching. I know everyone does it these days on both the left and the right. Everyone is wrong. I am like a lone voice crying out in the wilderness, few people hold to the old standard anymore, but I believe in a certain level of decorum, but this holds even more so when discussing the holy.

I'm pleased to note, however, that they seem to be O.K. with gays, which hasn't always been the case with these occult orders. Specifically on their web site, they state they do not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. That is a relief, because gays get enough heat from the various right-wing religions. They are also not racist, needless to say. That all sounds good to me. About damn time, too. Although, it may be that they just don't want to turn off potential customers. There is probably less money to be had in homophobia these days than in tolerance.

What's off-putting is that they are hardcore conspiracy theorists, joined at the hip, it would seem, with Alex Jones of InfoWars. Making a lot of outrageous claims without much in the way of evidence. You know, evidence is important. Without evidence, everybody can be guilty. I suppose astral, psychic thinkadees informed them of such things--well, one can be mistaken. It is important to retain the critical faculties when evaluating messages and information gathered from the astral. Our senses and reasoning are not lesser in value. We were gifted with reason ... for a reason.

Every show, besides the obligatory -New Age- -Magic- Golden Dawn- -Spiritual Work- -Witchcraft- ...there's this recurrent theme of, oh, how put-upon poor little old Trump is, the innocent one, can't the media lay off of all his lies, deceit and corruption? Let the goodly Saint Trump lie, cheat and steal all he wants, because after all, he is a Saint. The Golden Dawn has sanctified his horns. Oh yeah, Trump rides a Unicorn and farts perfume. Disgusting. They take the Holy, put it in the toilet and mingle it with Trump. Must be nice, finding a way to make magic pay in real cold hard cash.

Hopefully, one day these two will confess their relationship with politics and quit using New Age beliefs as a ploy to get attention. Religion is not your whore. If you are about spiritual advancement, then be about that. Sounds to me like they are just about padding their own pocketbooks by talking all the time about how put upon poor billionaire Trump is. They prostitute their knowledge in the service of darkness. They are not the first and by no means will be the last. This is exactly why many masters of old insisted upon secrecy and did not wish to share knowledge with everyone. Eventually some bright fellow figures out a way to commercialize, cheapen, use for base and tawdry ends. It always happens.

In the beginning, when I watched the two, I thought, ah, they believe what I believe, maybe I will learn something from them. Now, I think, these two buffoons believe otherwise, my beliefs are not at all like theirs, they wish to talk only about Trump and about Republican politics, that is their religion. They do not have any spiritual thoughts in their bodies. So in my mind they are no different than the televangelists and others that seem to make a business out of spirit. I suppose it beats working for a living, eh?

Butterfly

A butterfly shows the difference between human beings.

Some encounter a butterfly and admire its beauty.

Others rip the wings off to watch it suffer.

Prayer

I have come to the conclusion that a prayer-less world is not necessarily a desirable one for human beings. There is comfort and consolation to be had in prayer that cannot be gotten from other human beings so well and certainly not on the Internet!

If one is atheist and places great value on being consistent, logical, and rational, and yet, has a habit of drinking or of using drugs, then an accusation presents itself. J'accuse! You are already engaged in an irrational habit, these twelve-ounce curls you do every day with a can of beer, detrimental to body and/or mind. Why, then, should you avoid prayer, which is equally irrational, yet not in any way detrimental to health? Indeed, there have been numerous studies indicating that prayer has measurable benefits to body and mind. That, to me, was quite persuasive when I read it, and I have found through direct experience that genuine, unforced, sincere prayer is extremely satisfying, wholesome and beneficial. The trouble with prayer and with religion when growing up was it was forced. Church was compulsion, Sundays were forced attendance, and even one of my high school teachers forced us to pray. Religion can become drudgery, tedium, an object of contempt. Some people take that which is beautiful and precious and twist it until it is horrible beyond recognition. They present God as a projection of their dark self, a Punisher, a Tormenter, a Torturer, vindicative, vengeful and ruthless. That reflects their own nature only, not the nature of the most high. Such lies and distortions get in the way of spirituality and must be discarded.

China is crazy, radical atheist, and seems bent on realizing the dystopia of "1984", with state surveillance of everyone and thought control. It is difficult to see the charm in a completely atheistic viewpoint. The fact remains, gods are fun, and not believing is just negation, it doesn't offer half the fun of believing or at least, suspending disbelief.

Spirituality evolved to help an intelligent, thinking mind adapt to the pressures and the stresses brought on by knowledge. Of course, knowledge is not all good. There is a huge downside. We know, for instance, quite well that we will grow old and die. That is a terrible knowledge to have. We know that we are bound to worry and fear from cradle to grave. We worry about health, first of all, our own and our loved ones. We worry about losing money, losing friends, losing loved ones. All of these fears, doubts and stresses are really brought on by knowledge and intelligence. If we were only stupider! It sounds funny, but if we were stupid like the animals, our blessed stupidity would make us perfectly immune to worrying about death or indeed, worrying about tomorrow at all.

Prayer allows one the luxury of working as a team, that is, in conjunction with that which is good, with God or the gods, whichever one prefers. No, I do not believe there is only one way, one correct doctrine or theology. I have my opinion, other people have theirs, but in the end, we are fallible, and may both be right somehow. That is not a very satisfying answer to rigid binary thinkers that want to know exact answers to everything. Learn to deal with ambiguity! The mysteries are all about ambiguity. That is why they are named such. The first and best virtue is to be humble. Every day, we are reminded, each of us in our own way, of our essential humanity, when we go to the bathroom to perform the necessary. So, live and let live, is the guiding principle, and I think God or the gods, howsoever one wishes to approach the Divine, both understand and endorse tolerance in religion, provided, of course, that YE HARM NONE.

The only real doctrine I think is mandatory is harm none, which seems to me quite a reasonable law to apply to all belief systems under the Sun. Nor harm thyself. Now when we see the radical Islamists go off and torture some poor wretch, for instance, that leads me to condemn radical Islam, and in general I don't like the punitive and oppressive laws that are found in many Muslim countries. I think sometimes religion gets a big head and wants to intrude into public and private affairs too much, and that is inappropriate. Each thing in its proper place, is the way to go. If the Muslims wish to worship a certain way, fine and dandy, but don't stop the selling of pork in the marketplace, or cut off people's hands if they shoplift a pack of gum. I would not wish to live in Iran or Saudi Arabia.

High School was a Low Point

Regular beatings and humiliation were a fact of daily life my freshman year at high school. It was just an ordinary high school, not a military one, but I think in many ways it was run like a military school, with strict rules and regimens. The main instigator was a twisted sociopath in P.E., and he was encouraged and enabled by the teacher. The drill-sergeant approach to education is claimed to work for some, perhaps, more or less, but didn't work out so well in my case. Does that mean that I was "weak" and another, ideal specimen was "strong" to thrive in a violent, abusive environment? Are regular beatings good for people? Some do think so, whether they will admit it or not, but perhaps they should try it out for themselves sometime, on the receiving end, that is. Then poll their opinion after they have received a good dose. I imagine that "boot camp" is meant to prepare one for war by lowering ones threshold for pain, lowering ones morality and reducing inhibitions. If we are at war, fine, maybe that is a necessary evil indeed, but if not, is it necessary? How much violence is really needed in the world?

I am reminded of what I endured by what some people are dredging up into the news media ten, twenty, thirty years after the fact, or longer. It seems to me that the only difference between these ancient cases and mine is that I was never confronted with someone else's genitals. That seems like a minor point next to a year's worth of physical and psychological abuse. Basically, abuse was a part of the system in school, it was normal and accepted everyday life for a lot of students. Survival of the fittest was the philosophy. No one really cared, the atmosphere was highly competitive and no one would pick you up if you fell--more likely, kick you in the ribs. The result, well, I think I have done about as well as I could with this life, given the sort of start I had. If I had to do things over, I would have set my mind to figuring out a way to avoid the dreadful high school I went to. It was a waste of time, not helpful in any way, and not educational in the slightest. I would have been much better off simply being locked in a library for eight hours a day. In a library, I would have absorbed the knowledge of the world and emerged in four years knowing a lot about a lot. School taught nothing, except people are morons, brutes and liars. That was the basic lesson, drilled daily, with tests all the time, and God help you if you forgot. Although, God wasn't around, because the Church just sold a whole load of generalities and called it spirituality. Whatever. Church never seemed satisfying to me and never made me feel even slightly closer to divinity.

Now, I finally know what education really is. Education is learning on your own, by yourself, at your own pace, fast or slow. I finally know what spirituality is. Spirituality is having a personal relationship with the greater powers, free of nonsense and window-dressing, just plain, straight-up communion, guided by common sense and a desire for that which is good.

The two criminals, that violent sociopath and the P.E. teacher that always turned a blind eye or, when he noticed, opted to blame the victim, succeeded in their objective, if their goal was to cost me a lot of suffering and lost time, lost future wages and lost prospects. They achieved their dark victory. If there is justice in the Universe, if Karma is real, as Donald Michael Kraig fervently believes, judging by his opinions in "Modern Magick," then their payback for their sins would be great. I myself rather doubt the existence of karma, based on what we know about various historical figures. Good does not always prosper, not is evil always vanquished or punished in any way. Sometimes good people are harmed with impunity, and evil-doers enjoy their lives to the very end of their days. I think rather that Karma is a useful construct, make-believe, that Kraig and many other would-be philosophers like to indoctrinate their students with in the hope and the prayer of spreading goodness and light through the world. But I don't really believe in Policeman Karma watching and weighing rights and wrongs and sanctioning wrong-doers. Would it were so, but alas, the Universe does seem oblivious to the cries of humble folk. I think we are regarded by divinity, if at all, in the same light as ants and bees, as pixels in a greater picture, and that what happens to us in this lifetime is not really evaluated, but kind of left up to chance.

I learned in high school, the villains seize fun and pleasure and get away with it, and those that harm none can suffer for a long time. It was kind of a reverse morality lesson, learning evil in school. My moral instructors were the bully and the P.E. teacher. It took years to unlearn those lessons. That is about the summit of what happened in high school. Not, in my opinion, a judicious use of taxpayer dollars. Did the P.E. teacher earn his salary? No. Where was karma? Missing in action. I did not even think about karma in those days, because I had a more traditional view of the Universe. I thought, where is God? I did not observe any hints of true Christianity in school. Maybe a number of students professed Christianity, that is, if you asked them, oh sure, even been born again and all that jazz, but it was like brand-name clothing they wore to boast and brag about their piety. Now P.E. was a pretty big class, over thirty of my peers, and they knew exactly what was going on, every one of them, they witnessed him and me. Not a word nor an action. Their indifference did not pass unmarked by me. Indeed it was taken into consideration in order to form a worldview. That is what happens in youth, forming of the worldview. Now, my worldview has evolved since then, for sure, for the better, I think. But then I thought, this world is evil, all are evil. In darkness man dwells. And many a time, I thought to open my veins.

What stayed my hand? Why did I choose to remain in this world? I think memories of happier times, a vague notion that "This, too, shall pass," and my inner optimism. Certainly I am pleased that my younger self did not take any drastic action. It was true, life did get better. I got out of that hell-hole school, did much better in college where I was freer and more independent and not forced to sit in assigned seating in some stupid P.E. class with a stupid know-nothing instructor. I was able to make a living and be independent, and that is good enough for me.

The concept of Karma does interest me. I really want to believe in it, a just Universe, but you know, setting my own personal hell-story aside, along with all my own personal experiences, just crack open a history book. What the hell kind of karma did the victors of every war receive for all their killing and destruction? Certainly plenty of generals and dictators have gone on to enjoy a cushy retirement. Look at Napoleon, for one. You can say Russia was karma, and I would reply, karma for his troops, while Napoleon himself went on to stir up trouble the next ten years and eventually idle his remaining days in exile.

Scanning the Headlines

On a daily basis, there is nothing to do but scan the headlines each day, just to check whether WW3 is breaking out.

There is nothing a poor, humble ordinary citizen can do until election-time rolls around. Then, I feel, it is one's duty to vote. The country does not ask terribly much in the way of duty. To vote is a small thing, denied only by the petty. I think personally it is a sin not to vote, to not have any engagement at all with representative democracy. That way opens the door to dictatorship. People do not realize, voting is new. We are one of the very few generations to have the privilege. Some people simply never paid attention in history class.

I try to avoid getting too wrapped up in the headlines, the news buzz of the day. Much gets blown all out of proportion. Every politician gets criticized more than is their due, merely for acting in ways that would ensure they get reelected. It is human nature to want to succeed at what one does, to not want to fail, so it is human nature for a politician to want to get reelected.

Really, many disagreements over policy boil down to tribe A vs. tribe B, the two tribes simply not getting along, one desiring power over the other. In the United States, the whites fear ceding power to the browns, which really goes far in explaining the difference between the Republicans and the Democrats. The differences between the parties are complicated and numerous, but the similarities are greater than the differences. In reality, the Democrats and Republicans agree on far more than they disagree upon. Republicans favor a strong class system, rewarding both birthright and merit. An aristocracy is favored. Meanwhile, the poor are kept so, by and large, kept in their place and their numbers reduced through attrition. I think it is fair to say the Republicans believe government can't solve problems, and that evolution should be allowed to take its course among the poorer classes. Those that get an unlucky roll of the dice in health or birth should endure it or die, so that the rich may enjoy a better cake, with more gold and silver ornaments. I can't think why else there would be such opposition to health care, which is extremely expensive, there is no doubt. Perhaps they may even be right, that vast numbers should sacrifice and stop reproducing. If eugenics really took hold, then perhaps the result would be a healthier population, in the end. Getting to that end, there would be unhappiness. Does the end justify the means? At any rate, the national debt increases with no end in sight, so eventually, more sacrifices will arise. More than likely, if history repeats itself, the working class will have to pay all the national debt by sacrificing its Social Security, and all the aged and infirm will be told, "Go back to work. Become a Wal-Mart greeter or work in the Amazon warehouse," even at seventy-five.

I was hoping that the Republicans could really make health care better, which is to say more efficient, but they seem to work for the health care industry. I am afraid that the Democrats do, too. Both parties are sold out, unfortunately. I wonder who is representing the poor working American? Everything these days seems to be based upon how much money can be raised. I know that health care stocks in general have been rising by double digits every year. I think that if the Federal government took a strong hand, then much fraud and waste could be eliminated. That was my half-hope when Trump took office, that he would bully the industry into making needed reforms, but instead, he just sought to eliminate the government's involvement in health care altogether. I suppose if one is sick, that is not the problem of the government, but of the individual, and there is always an option to open an artery, rejoin the Earth and be replaced, like a malfunctioning robot. One day, perhaps there will be no need for workers at all, and the whims of the rich can be served by an army of robots, who need no health care or retirement benefits, and don't vote Democrat, let alone vote or express any opinion at all. Paradise?

Sing a Song of Sobriety

I am proud of being sober.

True, it is a modest accomplishment. People like my mother thought nothing of it. To her, sobriety came naturally, was a done deal, always active. Sobriety is not a positive good, per se. It is merely the absence of a vice.

H. Sapiens, including many people I know and many people we read about in the media, has a huge problem with drinking in particular and also other drugs. That is why I am proud to be sober, because other folks aren't. I can look at them and think, well, I'm better off, wiser, stronger, etc. In reality, perhaps, just a modicum. It is a small thing. Perhaps I have grown ambitious. I want to find more in this life, see more meaning, and I see no meaning in a bottle, none at all. I see the desire for death in the bottle, and it seems to me, so many people are weary of this mortal coil, and in their hearts wish to fade and disappear, to which end, drinking serves like rocket fuel. For the thinking mind gets retarded by the progress of alcohol, and base animals we become under its influence.

To drink is irrational. Upon accepting that drinking is harmful, the mind must solve a riddle, why drink at all? Everywhere, at many social functions, drinks are offered, and booze is easy to come by, plentiful. Temptation is everywhere. Yet to a mind armored in the magic of NO, there is no temptation. This enchanted armor protects me. My gratitude and love increase every time I emerge from a store without clutching cans of poison. I know that I am no longer contributing to my own demise. I am not actively working to harm the self. Indeed this is what drinking is, or any drug use really, and also many other activities engaged in by humans. I hate to say it, but folks like to self-harm. I don't know of a better word for it. The mystical term I borrowed from Freud is Thanatos. Human beings are in thrall to Thanatos, the inverse, perhaps, to Apollo.

One must accept a certain level of boredom. Coping with boredom is one of the first skills a newly sober person must master. How to deal with bouts of boredom, anxiety, mild depression, and worry. Finding new coping methods is a big challenge. For me, I found that in abandoning one irrational practice--drinking--it helped to embrace another irrational practice--spirituality. There is no logical reason to believe in X, Y, or Z, but I feel that belief is unnecessary, even irrelevant. How can such an insignificant, temporary accumulation of cells suppose that it has gathered enough data to actually believe in something? No, working hypothesises are quite acceptable, as we grope our way through this dark and misty veil of the world, where so much is unknown and unseen, and our sensory apparatus so limited, and our knowledge so small. Belief, bah!

If necessary, make-believe. Nothing wrong with pretending, really, either consciously or unconsciously. The main thing is to be positive, to be aligned with that which is good and wholesome. Kindness, gentleness. As far as theology or theory or doctrine goes, that sort of things gets rewritten and revised every Aeon, and who knows, really? Perhaps some things are quite beyond full comprehension by the mortal mind, but is comprehension really necessary in the first place?

I would rather spend time contemplating Light than digesting alcohol sugars (and getting fatter and slower). Simple as that. I think being a touch anti-social actually helps, because so many self-congratulating, very self-satisfied social people I see require the drinking of alcohol in order to be social. If alcohol is the only way to be social, then perhaps it is not worth being social with such individuals. Sober people offer better company, in general.

Climate Change

Doomsy Day, as I call it, has been a popular subject since before our day, going back thousands of years.

The Atom Bomb is the most popular and prevalent catalyst supposed to bring about Doomsy Day. Prior to the advent of the Atom Bomb, people had to deal with diseases such as the Bubonic Plague that threatened to wipe out, if not everybody, a whole lot of people. Then the Christians were always fretting about God's Apocalypse, wherein anyone that wasn't right with Jesus had to pay the price--or be forgiven all their sins, depending on one's spin of religion. Plenty of religions have apocalyptic themes, because our ancestors had a rough life, and wrestled with diseases, warfare (often incessant), starvation and malnutrition, oppression, and even meteor strikes, hurricanes, floods and other calamities.

In my youth, we only really worried about the Atom Bomb, and it's still a worry, and isn't going away but is actually getting worse. The likelihood that some fool or group of fools is going to blast his enemies away with nuclear fission has increased, if anything. At least with the Cold War, you had a restricted number of nations in the "Nuclear Club," and the technology was all so new, that the foolish leaders were quite in awe of the weapons and reluctant to experiment with them. Nowadays every two-bit ignorant-as-hell regime on earth is hell-bent on getting nukes, and that scenario isn't going away anytime soon. Part of the problem is that the U.S. invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, alarming all the other two-bit, ignorant-as-hell regimes, to where they reckon they need nukes to protect against U.S. invasion. But you know, China is no walk in the park either, and may well start invading other countries too, one day soon.

Nowadays, climate change is the big boogie man, and just like nukes, I foresee NO SOLUTION, only pain and suffering for the world's population, not only of humans but all living creatures. Drastic, rapid change is going to result in a whole lot of death and poverty, and the poor people are not going to be taking it sitting down either, they are going to rise up, but they will face armies of drones hired by the rich to protect property. That is my sober (and sad) prediction. When times get tough, instead of pulling together, people often pull apart.

Of course, Republicans are extremely concerned about climate change. Not.

China doesn't seem too bothered, either, nor India, nor many other countries outside of Western Europe, and Western Europe has been enjoying a free ride on America's back for the past fifty years. They get to tariff us, and we don't tariff them back, and they get free military defense, while the U.S. taxpayer bears the whole cost. Nice, I'm sure they can fret over global warming under such a great situation.

Anyone living on the coast has to be asleep at the switch at some level. Every year is a roll of the dice. Although, I suppose for people over fifty, the thought may arise, not much time left anyway, and the good years are in the rear-view mirror anyway.

I think that environmentalists are too harsh on their fellow humans about climate change. Really, climate change is not something that H. Sapiens evolved to cope with. We do not have such high capacity. We are indeed fools. "What fools these mortals be!" as Shakespeare put it. Asking people to sacrifice thousands of dollars for a payoff in the distant future, when all these foreigners are not committed to sacrificing anything, is too much. Should Americans pay, yet again, to save the world, when we already saved the world from Nazism and Communism? Christ, we're not Christ. Can't somebody else step up? How about China? Well, China's a greedy, ruthless fascist state that cares nothing for anyone or anything save the enrichment of Communist Party leaders. Russia's a mafia state. What else is there? Europe is a Tower of Babel, too many different languages, cultures and petty little regional governments, they could never come together over the smallest thing, and they make foolish decisions anyway, like letting in the Islamist terrorists and forcing member states to accept knife attacks and bombs blowing up in coffee shops. The general man on the street does not particularly want to watch his body parts blast across the street, just because some politician wants to score points at an international conference.

So, the world can't do anything, because there's no leadership, and the only thing H. Sapiens is interested in is individual wealth and power. The good of all is a foreign concept, kind of a liberal, hippy notion.

At any rate, the world is a-changing, and there's no stopping change. Even the strong and the wise will be impacted. There is a great deal of random on the way. The best one can do is get prepared. Abandon the coast, first of all. That is rather obvious. Other than that, move North, because North is cooler, at least in these United States. Living in a tropical environment has not seemed to be a good thing economically, if we survey the countries of the world.