Iran and Rouhani

I'm pleased Rouhani, the supposed "liberal, women's rights reformist" in Iran, won. But he's held back by the same forces that hold back the U.S. in the thrall of Trump and the Republicans. Conservative, ignorant, lazy, do-nothing, learn-nothing, never-crack-a-book folks opposed to education, opposed to ideas, opposed to thinking, opposed to anything that does not involve delusional religion, alcohol, sex, or sugar. These people just want to kill, maim, torture their perceived "enemies", and if they win, then America and Iran will go to war at some point in the future.

Whenever I get down about the U.S., I just browse the information we have on Iran, and that scenario is far more depressing. In Iran, suicide is justifiable, even rational, given the prognosis, a nuclear holocaust, and the current state of affairs, a police state where torture is the norm. To procreate in Iran is evil, and only an evil person would want to have children there. Death is moral and ethical in Iran.

Automation Nation

Driverless cars, driverless trucks? Pilotless planes? There aren't going to be many jobs left for our ever-increasing population. Which means warfare must decimate the people. We are going to have to kill every third person, some way, some how, in order to maintain the standard of living. Perhaps the government can mandate a cyanide pill lottery. If Americans can't stomach forcible birth control, then people are going to have to die anyway. The Republicans have signaled at every turn, they're for people dying, so that's probably where we are going to go. Can't pay a minimum level of taxes? Cyanide pill for you. Either that or forcible organ donation and medical experimentation on the one thing left with any value--the human body. In the end, we will just be livestock for the rich, the Trumps and Trump-wannabes of the world.

Ubuntu Going Public

Understanding arrived for "Rocketvalue" that he doesn't really know what he's doing, based on Unity's flop, Mir's crash, and the mobile phone fiasco. That's what happens when you close your mind against those that have seen a thing or two in their day and go off half-cocked thinking you're going to change the world. Change nothing, except your bank account for the worse. Sure, with today's overheated stock market, cash out. You're guaranteed to claw back those losses, because there are fools a-plenty buying stocks these days, with about 40-to-1 being the average P/E ratio among the Mid- and Small- cap U.S. stocks, as though disaster never occurs in human history.

You may be too late, though. A crash could happen any day now, with Trump's amateur hour, and you're still not public. Should have done this months ago. I completed my migration from 100% stocks into balanced, 60-40 funds, but feel that bonds might even be the better choice. I'm just not sure the moment is right for bonds, with their low rates. Maybe in late 2018?

Prescience

When we arrived at T.J. Maxx, a thought formed of a crystal ball. Sure, I had seen them there before. Soon I found a really nice big one, perfect really, at a mere $30. Now it lies covered upon a blue table with other artifacts for proof against dust.

It is beautiful, beside its utilitarian features, and even if were never used for anything in particular, it makes a good shelf piece. I intend to use it, but not now. Later, maybe even many years from now.

Indonesia

Indonesia is a sorry fanatical Muslim country, which sentenced a Christian governor to two years for merely giving an opinion on a passage in the Koran. No immigration should be allowed from Indonesia. Goods from Indonesia should be taxed at a rate of no less than 100% to reflect the cost of terrorism, which Indonesia exports. Trump is definitely right about the need to wise up about hostile foreign countries. A large number of Muslims have committed their lives to murdering or converting all non-Muslims. To pretend otherwise is willful ignorance, in the face of a stream of media reports that prove the intent to do harm. Indonesia is by no means the most radical Islamic regime, it is merely the one with the least excuse for being so, because it is outside the Middle East.

Four Things About Me

1. I believe that sex is O.K. and also "no big deal," which means, we should not make a big deal out of it. Homosexuality, heterosexuality--neither is very important in the grand scheme of things, and the gods do not care. We can take it or leave it. In the future, it is likely that the human species, barring some catastrophe, if Progress continues and the Zombie Apocalypse is averted, will procreate in the laboratory rather than the womb. Romantics shudder, but realists rejoice. Sex is rather inefficient and problematic, if one is honest.

2. I believe that it is possible to love and understand most, if not all, human beings, and to pity those that one does not understand nor wish to understand.

3. I believe that kindness is a better policy than cruelty, even for pragmatic reasons, let alone ethics.

4. I believe in the System, but realize that it goes berserk sometimes, like any machine. It is berserk against marijuana and prostitution. It is berserk against the Middle East. We have no truck with the Middle East. We have truck with North America and, to a much lesser extent, South America. Our interests are in the New World. Our leaders need to glue their eyeballs to a globe and ponder the wisdom therein. This is the United States of America, not of Afghanistan, thank you not at all. So why did we blow a trillion dollars in that dump?

The Failure of the Establishment

Putin-aligned governments arise in the West due to two key failures of asinine establishment governments. In a spasm of Kumbaya loving-thy-neighbor myopia, they opened up their national borders to hostile outsiders from alien cultures, inviting trouble, and neglected to take meaningful action on jobs. They had to do only two things. Close the borders and expel the Islamists by any means necessary. Stop importing cheap stuff from Asia, and start employing your own workers. It really is as simple as that. Due to the failure of the establishment to grasp these political necessities, Putin's dark star ascends.

In the final analysis, evil intelligence will triumph over good incompetence, ten times out of ten. The only reason good prevails is that is the only way that does not lead to self-destruction. Evil vanquishes itself--intelligent or not. The very nature of evil works against it.

If mankind is, on balance, evil, then the next conclusion is self-evident.

Love Versus Despair

Do I gloat over bombs dropped, souls lost? I acknowledge the blood of my ancestors and don't fight it because I think they were right in some wise, because I am here.

What I want is universal love in the final outcome, as conflicts cease and nations unite to resolve the real problems facing mankind: global warming, disease, poverty, pollution. Kim Jong Un barks up the wrong tree, lives in the 1950s, does not live in the same time we do. Whether he goes or not is irrelevant, but he must cease disturbing geopolitics and shut the hell up. When global media cease trumpeting his nonsense, then his prognosis for continued breath improves. That is my advice for the regime of N. Korea, and I hope they don't take it.

Universal love is not such a far-fetched hippy notion; it is achievable, even now, with Putin and Xi and Trump dominating the headlines. There is yet hope.

The Mother of All Bombs

I am rather pleased Trump permitted our military to bomb the hell out of ISIS. An 11,000 pound bomb sounds like perfect medicine for Islamic fanatics. Let them incinerate. That is what they crave, deserve, are destined for: annihilation. Worshippers of Thanatos, whom you name Allah, meet your god! If there is a representative of absolute evil in the world, then that is ISIS, which tortures and slays the innocent out of depravity. And compounding their evil is their usurping the name of an Egyptian goddess. I hope the ISIS bases get completely obliterated, with no survivors at all. The main imperative will be that there are no survivors and all of their equipment and infrastructure is reduced to rubble. It is the only way to eradicate a disease. Perhaps sending a strong message to North Korea is helpful as well. Kim Jong Un deserves death a thousand times over. The very stars sing for his death. Even if Kim did manage to lob a nuclear bomb, it may be worth the fallout to get rid of his regime forever and leave nothing to take its place, because North Korea will no longer exist as a habitable land, for the next thousand years. North Korea is the sorriest country in the world and a long-term threat to peace and stability in the world.

Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst

I hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. I hope that the U.S. economy improves, that the world improves, that humankind enjoy peace and prosperity. In the brooding hours of the late evening, I suspect otherwise, and am reminded of the old slogan, "what fools these mortals be." Look at Syria, North Korea, Iran, China, Russia, and even our beloved United States. There are many problems, and some problems are beyond our capacity, morally and intellectually, to deal with, such as global warming. We are neither intelligent nor ethical enough, collectively, to deal with global warming. What will happen, will happen. That, I feel, is a given. Also, nuclear weapons--I think that in my lifetime, the mushroom cloud will arise once more over a major metropolitan area. It strikes me as unrealistic, given our history, to suppose that feeble Man, given a mighty weapon, will refrain, out of mere reason, or ethics, from using it. We use the tools at our disposal, all the time, for a variety of reasons, with barely a thought to the consequences; such has been our history. Thus, Earth is going to be a pretty hostile place for living creatures at some point in the future, and I see that as a given, again based upon history. To know history is to gain the ability to predict the future. Earth's end as a happy, pleasant breeding ground for humans saddens me, because good planets like this are depressingly scarce. We can't just up and move to Mars, now can we?

Oldcastle is Oldfashioned

I'm going to single out Oldcastle, but they are by no means the worst offenders to incur my wrath.

I am talking about companies that torture the job-seeker/hunter/browser with endless questionnaires and tests, and topping it off by forcing the applicant to regurgitate the entire contents of his painstakingly crafted resume.

Dear Mr. Corporation. If you make applying for a job a fool's errand, you will employ fools.

I opted against Oldcastle because they want me to perform long thankless arduous work for free just to apply for a job. Make it easy, and I might grant you twenty-five seconds of my time. If you're lucky. Otherwise, I really don't see the point in applying for a job with a company run by fools.

Stockholm

The incident in Stockholm, where a man from Uzbekistan used a heavy truck to murder random Swedes, reminds me of the Muslim problem. The politicians that let them come over need to reconsider. Why is it the duty of Europe? How about the wide open spaces in Africa? Why is Africa not good enough for all these refugees? Why do the crowded cities of the West need to take on more people that do not share the language, culture or history? Certainly, the right in Europe is enjoying a resurgence due to the idiocy of the left's open door policy when it comes to all these Islamists that hate the West and want to kill the maximum possible number of Westerners. Every incident like this plays into the hands of the right and the nationalists. A single incident is enough to sway hundreds of thousands of voters, depending on the proximity of the election.

Ugh, Syria

I hate to say that there is an area of agreement between myself and the alt-right. I really don't want the U.S. getting tangled up in more Middle East shenanigans. It seems to me we have had our fill of that rot, ad nauseum. A trillion-plus down the road, and what do we have to show for it? I would rather stay the Hell out of the Middle East. If that means finding alternatives for fossil fuels, so be it. If that means developing fossil fuel production in the New World and elsewhere, so be it. I think that the countries in the Middle East are a mess, and we are not going to be able to make them any better.

Let's say we did overthrow Assad. Would the next guy be better? I doubt it. There is always going to be problems over in that neck of the woods, and it is unlikely that those people are going to love us. The best we can hope for is they forget us, after we stay out of their hair for about a hundred years, if our leaders learn wisdom, which I hope they do.

Prime Minister Theresa May is O.K.

How come the U.S. can't have Theresa May as President? She is well-spoken. Instead we get saddled with that ignoramus, Trump, the "businessman" who can't pitch deals, can't turn a profit, can't manage, can't lead, and does not understand the economy. One thing he can do is bankruptcy, and that's probably what we are looking at not too far down the road.

Low Expectations

The way to never be disappointed is to never expect much out of other people. That way, they can never let you down, because you're already there.

401(k)

We had a lunch-n-learn conference out at work explaining all the wonderful advantages of letting a bank nursemaid us through our 401(k) mutual fund investments.

No thank you, Mr. Bank, you charge 1% for the dubious privilege of your pedestrian expertise, consisting of what is the difference between a stock and a bond, and your mutual fund selection is full of funds with expense ratios through the roof, an astronomical 1 - 2%. I will stick with my IRA and the only good mutual fund family, VANGUARD, thank you not at all, except for the free lunch, which was basically junk food, by the way, just like your entire product offering. What, are you trying to give us a heart attack with the food?

Some doofus raised his hand asking what the expense ratios were. The saleslady replied they were what the bank pays the mutual funds, which was a bald-faced lie, because the customer pays the mutual funds out of his principal. Nothing but lies in this meeting. They were telling us 401(k) was the only tax shelter, ignoring IRAs altogether, because they don't make money from that. After the meeting, I considered calling up Johnny to let him know the real scoop. I know my way around investing. But then I remembered back when I first started at the company. One day, when I was green on the job, Johnny sneered at me because I carried a heavy toolbox to fix a little problem that required just a single cable. Well, hey, you know what, expense ratios are Johnny's toolbox. The expense ratio's on him. That's his heavy toolbox he's lugging around, looking like a fool. Me, I'm with Vanguard. Let him pay that 1-2% for the next ten years.

Maybe I'm All Wrong

Perhaps I am impudent, but I dissent from Tyson and Duquette. I know, they are learned occultists with ump-ixty years of experience compared to my rather limited background, but I just don't like the numerological, Hebrew-centric approach. My blood rebels against Hebrew letters. I feel there is a better way, aside from cramming textbooks and following precise formulae based upon ancient culture that lacks relevance in today's world. If indeed, as Tyson and DuQuette appear to concur, magic is all in your head, then there are no rules, and they are self-confessed charlatans. Their books retain value, because they offer experience and guidance, but I think the solitary practitioner may, if he so chooses, forge his own way. The masters have already granted permission and left the door open, so I see no reason not to open it.

And I see no reason to add a "k" to the word "magic." Shakespeare didn't, so why should we?

Trump Would Rather Be Bombing A-rabs

Trump would rather be bombing A-rabs than paying for any medical care for the poor. Billions more for bombs, on top of and above the billions we already spend, but "Let 'em die!" seems to be the Republican motto when it comes to low-income citizens. Now, instead of Obamacare, the poor will discover that Trump-Doesn't-Care. I saw this one coming a mile away. What's interesting is that a lot of people that voted for Trump will be losing their health insurance. Contrary to Reason, I think Trump supporters will be O.K. with suffering and dying due to Trump, because he is a white man, and better yet of their own tribe. All they want is a white man of proper pedigree to call the shots, even if they and all their loved ones suffer and die. They will vote Republican in the next election as well, and this time they want to lose Social Security and everything else and hopefully get a world war out of the bargain. I recognize that Thanatos is a profound human need; people crave death, suffering, and resent those that want to forestall the inevitable. "Gxx-Damn Liberals" is what we are, communists, traitors, what-have-you. Thanatos indeed is the overriding impulse in some people. Human history is outlined by wars for a reason. Humans procreate and at the same time, find ways that they and all their kin might be annihilated; so the circle achieves completion. Reason ain't in it, only spiritual mumbo-jumbo that is hard to fathom.

As for Trump's increase of defense spending, although that sounds good in principle--we all want to be safe--the ugly truth about defense spending is that a huge amount goes to waste, up in smoke due to pure negligence, corruption, schmoozing, parties, kickbacks, gifts, you name it. Generals retire to become salesmen for the very firms they used to purchase from. In any case, this is the real reason that Trump wants to increase defense spending--to enrich his cronies the easy way. They don't have to work hard or think at all. They just collect checks from the government. Welfare for the rich.

I Didn't Approve of Stephen King

When I was growing up, horror was just becoming a thing. It was wildly popular, and Stephen King dominated the bookstores. He was described as a young rebel, an upstart taking over the bestseller list. My friends read his stuff. I was appalled. It seemed, well, horrible, all this talk of the supernatural and worse, the evil supernatural. But that is where my world went, and in time, I followed, although I was one of the late adopters. I later learned King drank mouthwash to get drunk. He was a chronic alcoholic, ready to down a case to finish a book. Perhaps, indeed, it is how he managed channeling the spirits that wrote his books; but that is speculation on my part. I do think King is a good man, probably a very good man, and a very gifted writer. His presence among the canon can be undisputed; no library would be complete without him. I have read most, though not all, of his books. Besides his tendency to dwell upon the negative, another thing I dislike about him is repetition. His books do seem the same. I think any author, after a time, repeats himself, because being human, he has a finite number of thoughts and ideas. In summary, I wish to clarify that I do approve of Stephen King, now; I didn't, when he first came out, because I'm a biological conservative, that is, conservative in nature, if not politics, or at least modern politics.

To Be Old in America

Did I ever imagine, in my wildest dreams, that a United States President, a right-wing, conservative Republican at that, would play the Manchurian Candidate? No... not even while under the influence of cannabis. In their totality and simplicity, the signs are damning, to anyone that watches and listens, to anyone that is not blinded by partisan fervor. No matter the outcome, there will remain a stench of corruption around Trump's dealings with Russia. It may well fall upon patriotic conservative Republicans, of which there are many, to impeach a conservative Republican President, only for the good of the country. If his whole Administration has to go, as indeed it may, the rot extending from the roof to the floor, including Pence and all the others, then perhaps we will have Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) as President.

One thing is sure. These United States cannot ally with Putin. Then we would be evil and so much worse for this poor old world.