Graphing It Out,
I apologize that the writing of this article is jargony, but it is still a good article, It looks at the decreasing proportion of total economy spent on energy following the harnessing of coal, then oil. Energy got cheaper, and food got cheaper in direct proportion. As long as food and energy were getting cheaper, people could buy more things with their extra wages. When "necessities" of food and energy don't get cheaper, economy stagnates, as 1970s and since 2001. Graphic examples are given, as well as specifics of the different time periods. This is another analysis which concludes that the end of cheap energy is the end of growth of consumer economy. A new economy will have to be created. (We can all do our parts by finding satisfaction in our human existence outside of purchases and energy use. Vegetable gardening and bike commuting are the low hanging fruit.)
Here is where the energy is used and wasted in America. Waste is inherent. Electricity generation wastes about 2/3 of the initial heat energy, for instance. (This does not reflect the satisfaction, or meeting of complex human needs.)
America was a somewhat more efficient system in 1970.
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Land Value Taxation was the proposal of Henry George, which made it through the House of Commons, but not The House of Lords, since the Lords owned land, and collected rent, which is like taxes. Classical Economic Theory disparaged rent-collection, because it was a drag on economic activity, and so sought to tax rent-collection, not tax production, so the economy would be more productive. Rent collection and debt service and taxes are all parasitic upon economic production. This article explains the concept of land value taxation, which would extend to all forms of rent-collection these days. The fact that it threatens rent-collecting interests, which control governance structures, and that it would need to be more complex, in our more complex economy, have kept this theoretical, not actual. This is what Neoliberal Economic Theory got rid of. Rent collection adds to GDP in that model. That's not real, though...
How decisions to go to war are really made in late-stage empire (US, f'rinstance)
First. Decisions are made based – not upon defense – but upon gaining economic and geostrategic advantage.
Second. A massive propaganda and demonization campaign is launched in order to drum up support for the war.
Third. We pull the trigger, reap whatever economic/geo-strategic benefits are to be gained, and ignore the rest.
Yes, Trump was right, and Susan Rice did order the unmasking of Americans related to the Trump campaign and transition team, and this did come outside of domestic chain of command-and-evidence from the UK intel. establishment, as a routine courtesy, same as we would extend to them.
"Since foreign intelligence services are intercepting every phone call from the USA outside the country and then share that information with the US intelligence agencies, this is direct circumvention of the Constitution and the NSA, CIA, and FBI can deny they tap people all the time, but they just get someone else to do it for them."
The top 4 candidates for President of France (poisoned chalice, right?) are within a 4 point spread. This is really close. It could literally be any two of them, based on this. (Criticism from lowest-rated-ever President Hollande may have helped Communist candidate Melenchon, who is seeing a rise recently.)
Facebook suspends 30,000 French accounts of supporters of Marine LePen, because that's fake, and racist, and it's not "free speech" to say what's so obviously wrong. (It's not a foreign corporation conspiring to influence French elections. No, it's not that.)
Is Putin Incorruptible?" is the title of this essay by Sharon Tennison, who has 30 years of experience in St Petersberg, and spent an hour 30 years ago with a youngish man in a brown suit who got right to works investigating her business proposal, asked an hours worth of questions, complimented it, but found it to be "not currently legal" and ushered her to the door, all without asking her for anything, the first time she had not been asked for anything by any Soviet bureaucrat. Many interesting stories follow. (It's impossible to determine if someone is incorruptible retrospectively, isn't it? No evidence that he has ever acted corruptly yet, though...) Thanks Eleni.
Children as young as 13 are being admitted into rehab for "Digital Technology Addiction", smart-phone addiction.
(Man, I'm glad we don't have that kind of problem in Texas! Huh,.. what?)
Smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices can be so stimulating and entertaining that they “override all those natural instincts that children actually have for movement and exploration and social interaction”.
Putting it Down
