Longer Step: Ideas for Justice and Sustainability

Watching " Outer Range" triggered these thoughts: Some of us watch a show as spectators...we watch and are entertained. But others watch and participate -- we are drawn in and play 'what if' we were a part of that world. It's not a psychosis...it's not delusional. But it is a deeper level of imagination and interaction. It is like we (imagine that we) project ourselves into the story, and see what we can feel, what we can learn, from that perspective. I think this is an important way to perceive any story. The Greeks perfected comedy and tragedy, in order to allow spectators to project themselves into a portrayal of the story, in order to feel as if the story was happening, or could happen, to them. It allows an emotional catharsis, a cleansing or reboot of the soul. Storytelling, whether it is Greek plays or fiction books or movies, is virtual reality. It is a way to expand your mind by imagining yourself in a different sort of life. Maybe the Metaverse wil...

April 12, 2002 :  This is a great time to support worthy causes. The economy is running hot, with low unemployment, and thus many of us have the means to help, yet there are so many needs. We've recently volunteered at the Vancouver Food Bank, and also donated to Chef Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen, which is feeding refugees from Ukraine.    Until we can figure out a better way for our governments to care for everyone and everything, using tax dollars, we all need to do what we can to help private efforts meet that need. Our friends are each, in their own way, helping others. Whether in dollars or in service, it's a great gift! Service (providing time, skill, or knowledge) is amazing: We have teachers who present their knowledge to us, so that we don't have to invent calculus, or discover sentence structure, or learn how to think, by ourselves. You might shovel snow from your elderly neighbor's sidewalk. We have doctors and nurses who can help us learn to care f...

  I keep wondering if we will see, this November, in some purple states like AZ and GA, whether the higher frequency of vax-denier COVID deaths results in some unexpected Democrat victories? Just asking in a neutral way; not gloating. I expect this November to be a disaster for the Dems...but when one side is killing itself off disproportionately and needlessly, we may see a weird voting pattern as a result, which actually favors the Dems. It will never make sense how the same Republican politicians who got the damn vaccine, nevertheless pooh-poohed the Coronavirus and encouraged their constituents to resist mask mandates and vax programs. Sure, that would make sense if the mask requirements and vaccines were flawed, but they weren't. The fax is 99.99% safe and incredibly effective at saving lives. The incredible arrogance of refusing to mask and refusing to get vaxxed, when the benefits are so plain, is astonishing. We had healthcare workers slaving away at all hours, to help us...

 A. Macro level : What happened? We have inflation because our government has printed too much new money, compared to the size of the economy and its growth rate.* Recent giveaways (to virtually all taxpayers) have put more money in the hands of consumers, and when they have more money to spend on a limited supply of goods and services, the prices will go up (that is demand-side inflation). And if those goods and services are scarce (because of recent supply chain issues**, then prices go up more (this is supply-side inflation). We're seeing the worst inflation rate since the 1980s.  *The US government has spent itself into a black hole from which there may be no escape: We punish any politician who even timidly suggests a balanced federal budget, and therefore we continue spending more on federal programs than incoming tax revenue can pay for. So we borrow the difference, creating a burgeoning mountain of unpayable debt that will destroy the lives of our future generations. F...

  Here's a good article addressing Russia's many surprising failures in the Ukraine assault, including poor-quality equipment (due to corruption), poor training, and poor communication/planning at all levels, including, in stupendously bad planning, lying to the common Russian soldiers that they were only going on maneuvers! Soviet soldiers are reduced to abandoning their armored vehicles and trucks, and stealing food. This, coupled with Ukraine's energetic, brave defense of its homeland and its access to good military tech from the West, explains how the Russians have so far mostly failed in their goals, despite overwhelming "on paper" advantages. And Russia has all these troubles, even not considering the economic sanctions, which should, over time, prove very troublesome to the dictator there. If you champion peace, you want to believe that economic sanctions will work, that international pressure on Russia from almost every country will hurt Russia so much ...

  I periodically warn how dire the US debt situation is. For something without significant news coverage, it is incredibly dire. Look at the simple math: 1. The US govt is spending $6.8T ($6800 Billion) a year. 2. But its revenues from taxes are only $3.8T. That is a mega-shortfall! 3. So we continue increasing the debt, to fund the difference. That accumulated debt is now larger than our GDP (and the World Bank says that's past a tipping point for disaster). US govt is spending about $600B on interest each year, which is about 8% of its budget, and rising. If interest rates rise, interest payments will go much higher, and will crowd out other spending on stuff most of us want the government to provide, such as Social Security, Medicare, food assistance, police, courts, roads. Imagine a US with only half as much spent on those programs. It is wrong to assume we can just "grow out of it," as the debt is growing faster than economic productivity gains. The fix is to raise t...

  Listening to the confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Thoughts: 1. She is so obviously incredibly bright and well-qualified, far beyond some of the recent appointees. 2. She'll bring insight to issues of criminal justice, that the Court has never had. I admire that, as a criminal public defender, she didn't want defendants to feel bitter, to feel like the system treated them unfairly, so she took special pains to make sure they understood how the system works, so that they would be more likely to know how they screwed up (if they screwed up), and therefore be more likely to rehabilitate themselves in prison. Honor! 3. It is outrageous that some Republican Senators, who supported her for the Court of Appeals, are now mischaracterizing her commitment to the rule of law and to the Constitution. We can only conclude that they are against justice. 4. This candidate is strongly supported by the country's largest crime enforcement organization (chiefs of polic...