So Trump Axed the Iran Deal

So what? A big ho-hum from the American public, reason being that Iran has been a bad actor all around the world, showing its behind all the time to neighboring countries and expressing its desire to destroy the United States and everyone living here. I think Trump is probably right that the time has come to nix the deal. The deal was worth a try. In theory, Iran could have accepted the olive branch and changed its ways, modernizing its economy and its system of government. Certainly, Iran would have been welcomed back into the community of nations, after establishing trust. Instead, Iran has chosen poverty, ignorance and backwardness. And that is what they will get. Time to stop hearing about Iran, it is just another horrible, backward country that no one would ever want to visit, where oppression, censorship, torture and misery are the norm.

As for nukes, if Iran goes nuclear, so do the other countries in the Middle East. It was only a matter of time anyway. The dam was sure to break. If North Korea has nukes, then Iran was sure to get them, one way or another, quite possibly from a North Korean submarine, sold in exchange for oil, food, and gold. Of course, the Iranians would pay just about any price for the weapon they so desire, billions, even. It is rather precious to suppose that a treaty and inspections can prevent a massive, well-funded intelligence apparatus from obtaining nuclear missile technology. I have no doubt Iran will eventually get nukes. Then catastrophe is simply a matter of time. The Iranians can always rationalize that Allah will reward the faithful after pressing the button. That's how the Islamic terrorists think, before they blow themselves up.

In truth, the most likely scenario is global nuclear war at some point in time. Everybody seems to want to jump on the nuke wagon. All these stupid boys have to play with dangerous toys. For the same reason, real boys play with firecrackers. Just the desire to make things go boom. Stupid, mindless leaders in North Korea, Iran. What bigger boom than a nuke?

The key is to prepare for the Apocalypse, to salt away knowledge and learning, that it not be forgotten, and, if desired, to try to survive what comes next--probably, nuclear winter, a mini-Ice Age, as Carl Sagan predicted. At any rate, most of the Earth's surface will probably become radioactive or otherwise uninhabitable for a time. It may even be that H. Sapiens will die out, and there will be no intelligent life left to blog about the state of the world. In which case, you know, too bad. I rather think a degenerative mutant species will dominate composed of individuals somewhat resistant to radiation.

As for me, I had my time in the Sun, and it was fun, for the most part. My hope is that I live out the remainder of my days before the end, but if I do see the end, I imagine there will be a certain satisfaction in knowing I'm among the last to know the civilized, modern world as it once was in all its glory. Luckiest of all will be the really old folks. They will have savored a complete measure of life before the catastrophe.

Republicans Have No Class

Honestly, some Republicans are acting like trash. McCain is dying, and they criticize his guest selection for his own funeral? Zero compassion. That explains Republican ideology 100%.

Platinum Can't Keep Its Trousers Up

As the internal combustion engine gradually gets phased out from worldwide usage in motor vehicles, platinum's trousers keep falling. I anticipate $600/oz., or about where we were in 2000. From there, it could decline further. After all, from an aesthetic point of view, it has nothing over silver.

College is Worthless

The four-year university track is another symptom of chronic stupidity. Perhaps some deserve crushing debt, being jobless and not having anything, while being highly educated at the same time. One can purchase book-learning, but one cannot purchase true merit, courage and work ethic.

NPR recently published a report on the shortage of trade workers in the United States. The truth is, people are lazy, and would rather go into debt drinking alcohol and popping pills for four years than actually get out there and work. Mom and Dad will buy the story, right? A four-year degree. Oh yeah, going to climb up that corporate ladder and be a big shot executive type, right? Yeah, sure. Just like all the other millions.

The best plan is to learn what is termed a "blue-collar" trade and go immediately to work, not after high school, but during--at the earliest age humanly possible. If, later, one is compelled by the desire for higher education for its own sake, then sure, that option will be readily available to one who has already paid for a house, set up a comfortable retirement and accumulated hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings. Blue collar workers are making $30 - $60 an hour, which dwarfs the salary of most college professors!

Education means nothing in today's world. It used to mean something, but people need to get their head out of the 1900s and get with the times. This is 2018. It is all about finding a niche in the global economic jigsaw puzzle. The fact is, skilled trades are what are needed. Not more entitled folk clutching worthless degrees. Get in line at the McDonald's and see whether you can impress the shift manager with your mad skills. "Would you like Fries with that?"

Young people should spend their teenage years working in fast-food jobs, like McDonald's. It would do them a world of good. In high school, if the pool of teachers is no better than what it was in my day, then bad habits are being learned, like vaping and nonsense with their phones and pointless, mindless obsessing over social media. Four hours an evening, working the grill at McDonald's, would demonstrate the value of money in a meaningful manner, conveyed to tired muscles.

My first job was at the age of 15, and I worked at a fast-food restaurant, grocery store and also did odd jobs around the neighborhood. I learned the value of money and to treat it with the utmost respect. If a dollar costs tired arms, legs and aching back, well then, that dollar is not something to be tossed around lightly, is it?

The problem with our university system is that it has not changed since the 1800s, and really, people need to get work much, much faster. College teaches charming little nuggets of knowledge, the bulk of which goes unused or gets forgotten. It is basically something people buy as a ticket into the middle class, except it doesn't work that well anymore as a ticket into the middle class, because everybody and their brother already has a degree, and degrees are handed out to pretty much anyone with a pulse, anyway. Grade inflation is more than a thing, it's a fact of life, and professors are scared to death to flunk a student, because the professors are making peanuts with peanutty benefits anyway. Most professors get no benefits and earn less than $40k a year; they are called "adjuncts." By the time a person is 22, a lot of good years are already behind them, years when youngsters were quick and agile with technology. So, what college does in effect is actually reduce the effectiveness of workers, by ensuring they are older before they start work, while conveying zero benefit.

Tyson

I suppose this can be classified under the "celebrities" category, although most people reading this particular post will have no idea who I am talking about or will think of the boxer. Well, to me, he is a celebrity, how about that? If one publishes a popular book that can be found in every major bookstore, then that meets a basic criterion.

In my studies, I have been reading books by my favorite writer of the moment, Donald Tyson, taking in not just what is written in black and white, but also some of what was concealed, not too artfully. To work on the public stage one must give of oneself, so he is blameless. Perhaps there is no choice, no "artful" alternative, when seeking to produce good art. His main objective was philosophical and scholarly, rather than material. He chose a subject which cannot be popular, not today and not even within his lifetime. Such a choice speaks of honesty, and I think that he is very honest and does not lie with self-awareness, although that does not mean he is always right. I have found an instance where he did lie, about a trivial matter, for a good and valid reason, but his ruse was transparent, speaking to his unfamiliarity with the practice. Indeed, the lie cast him in a positive light, because it showed that lying is foreign to his nature.

Little bits of the puzzle come together in my mind, things he alludes to, just touches upon in passing, achieving meaning. I wonder whether it is a kind of magic or mere deduction. Some might prefer the former, I prefer the latter explanation. One thing about Tyson, and he is by no means alone in this, he's a superstitious gentleman. I do not read him in isolation, but by my side are the many works of Richard Dawkins, Carl Sagan, Robert Heinlein, these mighty scientific and literary giants, reproving me for my credulity and harshly criticizing the book in my hands.

Although my criticism could be equally applied to others in the genre, he is my favorite, the most coherent, intelligent, and, ironically enough, respectable, so I single him out, not of negativity but as a kind of compliment, because it is a compliment to receive any attention at all, positive or negative, in our crowded, busy world, where so many people do not even bother with books anymore. I think he granted too much to the spirits, in importance and relevance. One should hold one's own territory with fierce possessiveness. Credulity should be opened just a bit. Too much, and there is the risk of gullibility, of self-deception, or deception by others. Occam's razor and all that. So much of what feeble Man believes is bunkum, wishful thinking, vanity, narcissism, and much of what is written in the occult literature smacks of the grossest OCD and superstitious folly. There is little reason or rationale to offer the time of day. What mind of ancient time could contend with the mighty giants of today? Dee pales before the greatest of our scientists, the noble class that Tyson has no time for. There is a danger as well. By believing, by allowing spirits to consume one's thoughts, a certain power is granted to these entities, whether they be within, as Tyson maintains, or without. Ask first, should I grant belief? What is the objective? What is the cost? There is always a cost.

The King of Cups in his kingdom by the sea built a bridge over the waters of material poverty to the Kingdom of Pentacles, pursuing in his titles the latest fad, be it the Norse fetish or the Necronomicon. Now it is interesting that all his hard-earned knowledge is offered for peanuts. With little expense, one half his age acquires much of what he knows. Is this charity? No, it is the depressing reality of the book market, nothing more than that. Scholarly effort toward the mastery of magic proved to have been of little value in this material world. He does what he can, pursues the avenue that is open to his indisputable skill in words. Writing was not the only avenue to prosperity. His esoteric art assisted in certain acquisitions from time to time. I have two opinions. One, he offers his knowledge to strengthen the practice of magic, because he fears it has decayed in the modern world, and he seeks to reform certain popular errors, nailing his letter to the door like a kind of Martin Luther of the Occult. Two, he wants to be recognized for his attainment. The ego is strong in him, an overriding force in fact, as it must be for any writer in any time. To be recognized, admired, he finds empowering. Everyone wants to be loved, the King of Cups most of all, and in order to be loved, he must be just a bit more agile and industrious than the others that strive, so he advances in his studies, gathers more knowledge, acquires more experience, and seeks with his skill to put it to better use than they.

Like Crowley, he appears obsessed with the dark side. Lilith and the Necronomicon speak for themselves. Lightness and joy, he is not about, but I suppose that is rather inevitable, given our culture and the heavy influence of Christianity with its diametric view of the world. Lilith appears the most disturbing of his books. I do not know why he chose that subject, but perhaps it is due to his focus on the Qaballah, or however one wants to spell it. Why not focus on an angel instead? And why does he accept so much of the Bible literally? In many ways, he is no different than a fundamentalist Christian.

I wonder what his views are about gays. He is always harping on about sexual union between man and woman, and how powerful that is, and never once mentions any other possibilities save spirits, and pretty much quotes ancient homophobes without comment. The ancients speak for him, which is why he quotes them. There is a passage in Ritual Magic where he denigrates shamans as freaks, listing qualities such as epilepsy, homosexuality or mental instability. He would have got on well with the alt-right and may indeed be in bed with them with his Norse runes. Gays he consistently refers to as "homosexuals," citing the classic pretext that the precious word "gay" has been led astray over the course of history. Well, he does know his dictionary, doesn't he? Of course, old and obsolete meanings of words are more important than people's feelings, at least to a misanthrope. At length, Tyson's old time religion and antiquated notions seem threadbare. But that is just as well. No author must be placed upon a pedestal. All reveal their essential humanity before the intense light of scrutiny. Tyson gets sloppy with anything outside his zone of interest.

In "The New Magus," we get the unfiltered Tyson, spouting all his political beliefs, which seem confined to a narrow range of social issues. He seems a fairly typical conservative Catholic and all his opinions can be predicted based on the teachings of the Church, although he would prefer the Church of five hundred years ago to the one of today. That is, he is more conservative than today's conservatives. Also, I doubt he would accept the authority of Pope or priest, because he wants to be the same, and negotiate with the Deity on his own terms without any intermediary, hence his interest in magic. His conservative beliefs are convenient. He looks down on and disapproves of a host of people and practices in today's society (they fill him with "revulsion," he says), which serves to justify his innate misanthropy and dislike of other people. Perhaps if he had been nice to other people, a friend might have taken the time to proofread some of his books, which have a fair sprinkling of grammatical errors. Maybe the "homosexuals" in the publishing business did not take as much time working on Tyson's output, and who can blame them? Tyson likes the Kaballah, but hates the Jew. Basically anything that is an idea, he likes, but the people in the world, he has no use for, regards as sinners, inferior to him and possibly dangerous.

He rejects global warming because, you know, those silly scientists! What do they know, eh? The spirits say everything's O.K., and that's what's important. It is amusing to observe the verbal gymnastics Tyson engages in to explain various occult phenomena throughout the ages, hardly ever conceding an instance to pure human gullibility, delusion and mass hysteria. No, these factors are explained by spirits. I suppose everything, in the end, is explained by spirits. If global warming exists, it is due to spirits. If gays exist, it is because they are possessed or influenced by spirits. That's what causes a gay, apparently. Spirits said so.

Tyson may have been unduly influenced by the ancient and medieval texts he consumed. Spending so many nights in the company of enforcers of the Inquisition, wizards, charlatans, artificers, seers and alchemists from olden days, naturally they exert from beyond the grave an intellectual and emotional influence upon his thoughts, ideas and expressions, reinforcing certain habits and discouraging others. Some of the ones he fills his mind with have the capability to quite overwhelm whatever defenses he can muster.

Perhaps many folk do enter the odd, strange world of serious esoteric studies due to a sort of aversion to the modern, mainstream pathways and to modern people in general. From what I have observed of this author, I think he is not shy, but averse to social interaction unless it has a stated goal in harmony with his immediate needs. He is results-oriented, goal-driven, and would not go to a party just to be with people, because people fail to impress him, about ninety-nine times out of a hundred. Why else scorn the world of man in favor of the world of spirits? I cannot imagine a Tyson that likes people, with rare exceptions, but it is easy to imagine a Tyson with an eye for pelf. As I said before, bits of the puzzle come together. Aye, he would walk into a store, and if it were a big chain store, impersonal and corporate, he would not feel any compunction against helping himself to whatever items he happened to need, and it is within his power, or so he says, to escape detection--such a useful capability.

So one reads Tyson with a grain of salt, because he offers the other side, the Yin to one's Yang, and offers useful observations. I like the way he expresses himself, even if I don't always agree, and his books are worth keeping for their many ideas borne of practical experience. As with any source, one absorbs and improves upon, if one is wise. He encourages the same, and I think his books have the potential to be useful to many different practices. Everyone has their bias, and opinions are the mark of high intelligence. To be without any opinions would be boring, and there is no doubt Tyson wants to sell books and get some Pentacles moving his way. Time to monetize all those years sacrificed to esoteric studies. Magic is useless to get money in any but the most indirect ways. As RuPaul put it, you got to werk.

Silver Bullion

Confession: I love silver.

It's probably all psychological poppycock revolving around vampires-and-werewolves' bane, and magic, but nonetheless, the heart wants what it wants, and blood will out. You know that, don't you? Blood will out. That simply means, that the blood has a Will of its own, quite independent of the mind. Perhaps in ancient times, silver had more purchase, and spirits of old treasured it oh, so much!

At any rate none of the bullion nor the U.S. Mint's productions moved me, but the Silverbug line beguiled me. It is some kind of Reddit community I know nothing of, but whoever did it, for whatever reason (lucre), fired their arrow true.

The only bullion worth more than its weight is the Silverbug line. The rest seems pretentious or vulgar. And who exactly is Amy Brown, and why should I study her name on a coin for the rest of my life? The masters, DaVinci and the like, were content with tiny scribbles, or nothing. Amy Brown needs a quarter of the coin surface to establish her brand? Bah! And why are her fairies heroin chic?

So yes, silver is probably a poor investment, in general, but at least in the Silverbug line, it is more pleasing to the eye than stocks in Wells Fargo or whatever.

Desecrate the Saints

When I was young and foolish, I placed the basest rascals upon silver pedestals, superior to all other mortals, elevating them to an exalted God-like status in my stories. I remember writing, night after night, deluded obviously, with even self-awareness of being so due to my Guardian Angel, but defying the Angel and creating demigods, Saints clad in white, mimicking in my fevered reverie the romantic poets like Tennyson, Shelley, Byron. Mortal clay cannot withstand such elevation; laughter, derision and mockery are the inevitable result. In the first place, I was mistaken. Those I thought were High were Low. In the second place, they loved no one but themselves, and to worship such as they is to place a crown of thorns upon one's head. There is no percentage in making oblations to an ambivalent or indeed hostile Deity. This Truth, if accepted, solves half the world's problems, but remains unseen by most, and so they persist in self-destructive behaviors, the mindless infected of viral memes. We do see in this world as through a glass darkly.

The Law is so. Think first upon serving thy Self. Then think of others. Because they will not think of you.

Now I am old and wise, I think of the same godlings with derision and contempt, and only feel wonder and amusement that I ever saw anything at all in them. In cold blood, the only right blood, I evaluate their decrepit ancient mortal forms and savor Time's rue, a punishment far surpassing any I would have contemplated. Surely some infernal spirit played tricks with me, led me far astray, and it was only Grace that kept me from getting entangled with these low creatures.

I think that rock-n-roll music is the culprit, the gateway that leads many folk to look for the divine in base mortal clay, so convenient, right at hand and so wrong. I hear some songs today and think, oh, that is a spell, and to listen too closely is to be taken.

Death for Drugs

I read with interest the WaPo's analysis of Trump's desire to impose the death penalty for drug traffickers.

Meth traffickers (just to name one variety) certainly have zero concern for the well-being of humankind. I kept reminding myself, while watching "Breaking Bad," that there were no heroes. It is improper to root for Heisenberg. He was as bad a villain as any of the others in the show, and in reality, it was a show about villains. Really the only good guy was the D.E.A. agent, Hank, a sympathetic figure.

I think the death penalty does have a spiritual component to it, though, and there is something ancient and venerable about a life for a life. If a crime does not result in death, then perhaps, the death penalty should not be applied. I suppose in the case of drug trafficking, the outcome of the crime is not fully known, and death might be assumed.

However, the law should not be promiscuous in assigning death for crimes. I think Trump reflects a widespread dissatisfaction with the current system, in which we have a large population of prisoners that are hard to manage and expensive to manage. That is a complicated problem, but not every complicated problem has a simple solution, as Trump and his followers would prefer. My own solution to the problem is prevention--prevent people who commit crimes from ever being born. Eugenics. But, that is politically incorrect, condemned by both left and right, and associated with the most unpleasant regimes. I think that society is certainly moving, rapidly and inevitably, in the direction of eugenics, however, and anyone paying attention must agree. Eugenics will come about, not because of politics, law, or force, but because people simply want what is best for themselves and for their children. Self-interest will ensure that eugenics is practiced--voluntarily. And that will result, hopefully, in a reduction in crime.

NPR Comedy

I heard a great comedy show on NPR yesterday. They were asking listeners to contribute money to NPR. I never laughed so hard. I tried to think back to a single show I have heard from NPR that in any way seemed interesting, and I couldn't think of a one. The entire radio spectrum is just a wasteland now. NPR has been taken over by relentless, monotonous knee-jerk liberal talking heads, hostile to science, hostile to history, and suspicious of anything remotely educational. All they ever want to do is talk bad about the Republicans and talk about how terrible things are, all the time. NPR should pay me for ever tuning in. I tune in out of a faint hope that NPR will revert, at some point in the day, back to the sort of public radio that brought good shows, about science or history, shows like what the BBC has produced. The BBC is an example of high-quality radio programming.

Assumed Racism

The brouhaha over two black men arrested at Starbucks seems much ado over nothing. It is well-known, at least by anyone with experience in the world, that coffee shop owners are not in the business of providing a free meeting space or, for that matter, free restroom facilities to the public. No, they are in the business of selling coffee. No one, black or white, who sits at a table without buying anything is going to be welcome, ever. Of course, the two black men, instead of acknowledging this obvious fact, have opted, quite naturally, to maximize their media exposure and, hopefully, profiteering over the whole incident, which was entirely their own fault. Had one of them simply purchased a $2.85 coffee, none of this would have happened. The manager would have perceived them both as paying customers and ignored them. Instead, they opted to freeload off Starbucks and exploit it as a meeting place, without paying a nickel for anything. Of course, their self-inflicted problems are all the fault of bad, racist whitey. Close 8,000 stores nation-wide immediately to scold the baristas and teach them not to expect blacks to pay for anything. Yes, that's the way to handle it. This is exactly the type of thing, incidentally, that causes white folk to vote Republican in large majorities. Punish white people for being human, for expecting paying customers in their store.

Racists used to be a really bad word, back in the day. When whites are castigated as racists on the national media every day for quite ordinary and common-sense activities, the term "racist" loses its cachet. In today's society, "racist" simply means human. What we have learned from Starbucks is that expecting people to pay for services rendered, that is racist.

The A is Out

For the gay male community, what was true in 1979 remains true today. The A is out.

Not a lot of intelligence is required to deduce that the HIV virus is something one does not want to get. It is survivable, perhaps---with money and a great deal of effort and inconvenience, but it is highly undesirable, both for the individual and society. Probably hundreds of thousands of dollars are lost for every new HIV patient.

The main reason the gay community was and still remains a favorite target of the HIV virus is due to the ancient and traditional practice of anal sex. Therefore, any intelligent and self-respecting gay must refrain from anal intercourse, even with a condom, even with a supposedly monogamous partner. This seemed obvious to me back in the day and remains so. Abstinence is best for gays, regarding that one act, although everything else remains on the table. This is a sacrifice that must be made by any living gay today that wants to keep on living and pursue serious goals. On the one hand, it may seem a humiliating concession to the misguided fundamentalist Christians, but so what? Survival trumps meaningless pride. Science cannot be defied by the wise. The A will be back again when an HIV vaccine gets mass-produced.

There was a case in the U.K. recently involving a sociopath that intentionally infected other gay men, then taunted them with the fact afterward. This insect is by no means the first and will not be the last. He deserves death, swift and soon, but was instead sentenced to a lengthy imprisonment, owing to the U.K.'s ineffective legal system that coddles criminals and saddles their taxpayer with enormous costs, that murderers might pick their noses for many decades. At any rate, there are some men that will infect others intentionally, out of malice, because they are wicked spirits. There are some that will do so out of negligence, because they are fools. There are some that will do so due to pure blind chance, because no condom will ever be entirely effective in all cases, no matter what. For all of these reasons, the A is out.

Culture Has Declined

In the past, the music world bestowed upon posterity Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms. Now they give a Pulitzer to a rap crooner (not musician and not singer, nor artist). Culture has declined a great deal since the 1800s.

So-called musicians of today merit no more than tavern singers of yesteryear: a meal, a drink, a few coins here and there for a good performance, if the audience is well-to-do. Anything more is pelf. Their stuff isn't likely to still be played a hundred years from now. Their frequent protestations about deserving more money are preposterous. What they need to do is work harder, compose and edit their existing compositions to be better.

Popularity is based upon sexual urges and aspirations, that is, what folks want to become. Rap deals with stealing, rape, and murder, so one can conclude what the listening public wants to do based upon that.

Rather than give a Pulitzer to a rap crooner, the award should be given to a teacher. Teachers work really hard and have to deal with all kinds of criticism, disrespect and long-term liabilities in today's society, one of which involves being underpaid for the work they perform.

Times Past

Used to be, the arrogant, stupid leaders of the world could throw a hissy fit, launch a bloody war, off a couple million folks, and call it a day. Now, all of a sudden, a world war results in Nuclear and/or Biological and/or Chemical Apocalypse. Are we to presume, that following the year 1945 and the advent of the Nuclear Age, H. Sapiens has evolved morally and ethically to the point where our leaders will abstain from world war and bloody conquest?

Not at all, not in the slightest; our leaders are just as stupid as before, if not more so, but their weapons are awesome and far beyond anything their predecessors ever dreamed of.

The only possible conclusion is that history will repeat itself, and world war must come again, and in fact, is long overdue. Putin wants war. He thinks he and a small group of cronies can survive the Apocalypse by hiding out somewhere far away from civilization, in the mountains of Siberia, deep underground, with plenty of food and medical supplies stockpiled, and even a generator or nuclear reactor to provide electricity. He figures he can repopulate the world in his own image: ugly, evil, and stupid; something along the lines of what Sauron wanted. Unfortunately for everybody else, his plan is just within the realm of possibility.

Our intelligence apparatus, instead of wasting time on the ragheads of the Middle East, should be focused with laser-like precision upon Russia and China, the real threats, as opposed to the ever-reproducing ragheads, who should be contained, not by American forces, but by other ragheads. Resources spent upon policing ragheads are resources wasted. They will never amount to anything and will always destroy whatever is built in their region of the world, because that is in their nature. It is pointless to expect the raghead to do anything other than have a strong man operating under the cloak of Islamic legitimacy. The past several decades consisted of opportunities and resources wasted by the U.S. foreign policy due to the false expectation that the Middle East would have its share of Thomas Paine, George Washington or Benjamin Franklin. Fat chance of that. All they have is a bunch of lunatics with scimitars, grenade-launchers and automatic assault rifles.

Alexander is laughing at us. "Did you learn nothing from my war against Darius?"

But of course, the Americans do not read history.

Occam's Razor

In the recent Russian nerve agent assassination, Occam's Razor indicates Russia is culpable. The nerve agent was manufactured by Russia and is only known to exist in Russia. Putin is a liar; to lie is nothing to him. Putin controls Russia as a de facto dictator. Putin wanted the ex-spy living in London to die of spectacular and macabre symptoms. Thus, the simplest, and therefore most likely, scenario is Putin ordered the poisoning. Any other theory relies upon further complexity and far-fetched possibilities. All the lies being generated by the Russian state may be ignored without further consideration. Russia can be assumed guilty, under any circumstances, until proven innocent, because Russia under Putin is evil.

Putin is playing with fire, skirting along the edge of war. The fool may miscalculate at some point, to his peril. It is unfortunate that the rest of us have to live on the same planet as Putin. He is in a similar category as Hitler and Stalin, his two heroes. That such a fool is in charge of a nuclear-armed state is a big reason to be pessimistic about the future of H. Sapiens. The odds that H. Sapiens will survive the nuclear age are about one in a million.

Hand-wringing over Tariffs

It is amusing to watch the media's gyrations against tariffs and the looming trade wars. For years, the elite sat back and partied their butts off, enjoying getting rich off the backs of unemployed Americans. Meanwhile, working people in the U.S. suffered. Factories shuttered, towns got destroyed, whole cities like Detroit turned into hellholes, where homeowners were lucky to get any amount at all for their homes. Working people turned to the "gig economy," earning minimum wage or less with no benefits at all. The elite didn't care. They talked about "free trade," "the global economy," and gushed over the stock market's performance. Yeah, who cares about the working people? They can die, right? They should stop having babies, eh?

When I read that tariffs don't work and trade wars are all bad, I just don't believe it. I think that is a lie. The U.S. imports far more than it exports. We still have the biggest economy. So, any country having a trade war against us is going to lose financially. And, in the end, the U.S. does not need any international trade at all. We are an entirely self-sufficient country, with enough natural resources and people to produce whatever we need. Stop all trade, is a good idea, for several generations, and then automatically we will be a strong competitor again, producing anything and everything. Meanwhile, China can stockpile all the junk it produces and build a mountain with it and name it after their dictator.

Funny how otherwise liberal-minded folks cozy up to foreign dictators and think everything is just hunky-dory that we are letting them have so much wealth, while so many of our own people are just getting by working for Uber.

Asylum

The only folks that should seek asylum in the U.S. are those on our border. Canadians and Mexicans, logically, should have the right to seek asylum in the U.S. Maybe those in the Carribean, too, and that would include Cuba. Anyone else is just shopping for a better financial life. People in the Middle East need to look at the neighboring countries around that region. There is no need to fly all the way over to North America. That is a nonsensical stretch of logic and abuse of the asylum system. Anyone that comes here from outside of North America needs to be sent back to wherever they came from, if their only claim is based on asylum. Other countries are better prepared to assume immigrants. The U.S. suffers from unemployment and underemployment. When so many of our people do not even have basic medical insurance or retirement plans, then this is no time to take in more people.

Opinion Repository

This blog serves as a safe repository for my opinions. No one really wants to hear another person's opinions, so the best place for opinions is in a little-noticed blog that nobody reads (except bots). Loudmouths that share their opinions with others unasked aren't terribly popular. No one gives a crap about what other people think.

Now, I think that social media is stupid, by its very design. Place your personal opinions and personal information on a public venue where anybody can scan them to learn all about you. In the first place, people underestimate the number of hostile eyes. They don't realize, people have bad intentions for gathering information. By giving away information, one serves one's enemies.

The beginnings of social media stretch back far into the days of BBSes. Even back in the BBS world, there was danger, but now the danger is ten-fold, because social media encompasses the globe, and everyone is in on it. I have known people to get in trouble on their job because of what they wrote on social media. It is better not to write anything that is attached to a real name. Everything you write or post goes directly to your current and future employers, friends, lovers, foes, co-workers, and so on. It never ends.

Censorship on Facebook and Twitter is a gift. Everyone should be censored. No one should post anything. That is the perfect ideal. Anytime someone is censored, they should write a thank-you note to the censor and mail a check for a hundred dollars. The censor is your friend.

I've never understood why they call it social media. People are sitting at home, alone, in front of a computer screen. How social is that?

National Public Radio

Every time I turn on NPR, I hear whining. I have gotten so that I can't stand NPR. All it ever talks about is politics, the latest Trump brouhaha or how awful white people are. Where is the science, history and culture? I thought NPR was supposed to be educational. Instead, it is just the liberal propaganda machine. And it doesn't work very well at the intended purpose. If racism is such a huge problem that it deserves all the NPR coverage, even in 2018, then it will never get fixed. I think the constant pointing of the finger at whitey is the main problem. The only real racism we see today is against white people. White people are presumed guilty, by mere fact of being white, regardless of their political beliefs, and never permitted to demonstrate their innocence, under any circumstances. Meanwhile, take a look at what has happened over in Zimbabwe, for an example of a black-majority country.

I think that NPR should focus more on science and education, because there is a real hunger and need for that. Just pressing the enrage button constantly makes people miserable and dumbs people down. I wonder what good NPR is, if that is all it ever does.

Amazon

Look at what people do, not what they say. For years, Amazon's CEO has been hyped as this great liberal figure, but in reality, Amazon treats its employees like dogs, skimping on air conditioning, salaries and benefits, and underpays the U.S. Postal Service, and gets away without paying taxes in most sales. Admittedly, the U.S. Postal Service is run by fools, all of whom should be fired for undercharging Amazon all these years. The price to deliver packages needs to be increased not today, but ten years ago. Bribery is the most likely reason the USPS has given Amazon such a princely gift, worth billions. Someone in management is being paid off. As for Amazon not paying sales tax, it should be charged, not just for future sales, but for all the past sales that it failed to charge sales tax. That would solve the financial problems of most local and state governments. Perhaps Amazon's corporate management can sacrifice their personal home and wealth to pay off the back taxes.

So this is the real reason that Amazon's owner is hyped as this great big genius. In reality, he is just a selfish, cruel tycoon very willing to take advantage of anyone and everyone. He is farther right-wing than Trump. Trump is a liberal next to Amazon. The only reason Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post was to use it as a tool against Trump, because he feared that the U.S. government might act against Amazon's selfish interests. Well, it should. Congress should pass legislation to make sure that the Postal Service is paid, not just what it needs for current costs, but to ensure that Postal employees are getting the health benefits and retirement savings that they need long-term. Postal employees are temps with no benefits, work long hours and suffer long-term hearing loss from their dilapidated jeeps. Congress should see to it that Amazon pays its fair share to local and state governments, who have been short-changed for years. How is the government supposed to get funding, when people are buying everything from Amazon and not paying a dime of sales tax?

Trump was Right about Africa

Africa is composed of s-hole countries. Are there exceptions? No, can't name a one. The latest news from the one supposedly advanced country, Kenya, is that their high court ruled they won't conduct forced anal exams of gay men. Wow, big progress. Just a bunch of savages in Africa. The amount of immigration from the blighted continent should be zero or negative. The only thing Africa contributes to the world is a hand. A hand out, that is, and always asking for more.

But I'm sure it's all the fault of whitey.