BEWARE: Fake Near Death Experiences are FLOODING YouTube - Here's How to...

She speaks truth and it calls out those who try to sell the idea of a partisan God who demands purity rather than pure love. A merciful God is consistent. A judging God is not. God needs no justification to love. She shows the lack of integrity of those who counter program mercy.

More than that, having to actually experience how you affected others in your life review - with no dispensation or indulgence - must be frightening to those who want cheap grace.

The Collapse of Everyday Life in America Has Begun

Water bills are going up because lead pipe must be replaced by property taxes, water bills or homeowners doing it themselves - or all of the above.

Electric Bills are going up because for each of the last four years, each year has been the hottest ever due to climate change. Unless we park the gasoline powered cars and trade them in for tethered electric and shift to molten salt reactors, the Barents Sea heat sink will continue to destabilize the Arctic Ocean, as it has been doing at 7 degrees Fahrenheit every decade since 1958. What did everyone buy in the 1950s? Household coal has not been used for a while, but the explosion of gasoline use is the one factor that has changed,

Donald Trump needs to get behind raising the minimum wage as a first step. Government agencies, contractors and beneficiaries need to receive the same dollar amount per hour or month in cost of living increases - limiting what the top 10% get. Prices chase the median dollar of income, which falls at the 90th percentile. Half of AGI goes to the bottom 90%. Half goes to the top 10%,  Getting a COLA tied to income magnifies inequality. COLAs are not an earned benefit - there is no rationale for treating them like one. Giving everyone the same COLA ends the problem of inequality in a few short decades, while breaking the back on inflation. 

Unfalsifiable Astrophysics: 3 Kinds of Research with Nothing to (Dis)prove

In empiricist science, falsification means that you can only get it wrong once. In exploratory science, you only need to get it right once (and then repeat). The question is, when do we cross the line into engineering?  Also, did Rheinberger falsify Popper?😉🤣Of course, now I have to read Popper for my own research. I need to check on how Patreon works - and see my own page to see if I have any.

My work on the philosophy of science uses the tools of Jungian personality theory and of Mary Douglas work on grid-group cultural theory (which she originally came up with in studying the sociology of religion).  From what I have noticed from these is that science can be lots of things. Social science brings values (feelings) - rather than just reason - into the mix (making it more feminine). The harder sciences put reason (Jungian thinking) above whether it engages in sensory (individual) versus intuitive (communal) perception. Academy, as a rule, attempts to lionize shared intuition and reason - those being the key factors in what Mary Douglas called Hierarchism. Relying more on values than reason, but still using intuition is sectarianism (which some call egalitarianism - although reactionaries use the same methodology).  On all of these polarities, everyone does everything. One polarity is about 80-90 v 10-20, with the second being more like 60-40 - so that one can go either way on the second polarity. For example, I am an extraverted thinker - so I gather in lots of information, not concentrating one thing (introverted thinking) - and can go toward either organizing (sensory/individual) or consensus building (intuitive/group). Let's talk more.

On God and Aliens. In the world of exploratory science, if one person can be proved to have known something while in an NDE that he or she could not have otherwise known (such as someone dying or something happening that he could not have known), then that has to only happen once - which it has. Or we can think of this as falsifying the hypothesis that there is no God. Six on one, half dozen of the other.  My point is that, if NDEs are real, then the God question is pretty much solved - the only question is now how to deal with religious counterprogramming that cannot handle the concept that there is no Hell, which has led to lying in the space by injecting stories - probably lies - that claim only Jesus saves - which Jesus would have found abhorrent - as well as those of us who, using reason - cannot accept a personally vengeful God. In the Old Testament, God punished nations who turned a blind eye to the poor and abused the alien. (Comment on Gaza implied).

I mention Aliens because one way we know they are there is the reporting back of NDE survivors who say that this is not the only civilization in the galaxy - indeed, we are the primitives in a time out because of how we view sin as an opportunity to hate. The original sin is not eating the apple, it is blaming God for keeping the knowledge of the good and evil of others from us. In other words, we invented evil, rather than calling things unfortunate or dangerous. Until we stop doing this and calling it free will, we are unfit for galactic civilization. Finding faster than life travel is not the metric. Finding peace with ourselves is. Of course, once hooked into the galaxy, a whole lot of technological advancement will be technology transfer rather than a need for new science - until the youth of that period can catch up to the state of the art in the galaxy - then we can do science again.

Who Are the 144,000 in the Book of Revelation?

Among some Roma, there is a belief that - because our purity laws reflect Torah more than Hinduism, that we were among the lost tribes taken by the Assyrians and who moved east as time went on, until converted in India by Thomas, the brother of Jesus (although recent archeology shows that most were converted in Persia). Of the 9 tribes who were carried off, good luck finding 12 thousand celibates from each tribe. 

The view that Israel must be converted is an end times sign is to be ridiculed. What the text actually says is that those of us who are ethnically Israelite will return and convert BACK TO Judaism makes more sense given the text. Then the 12,000 reference might hold up.

Readers of Spinoza, Bill Wilson or Jesus (whose yoke is easy and burden light) as well as those who believe in the testimony of Near Death Experiencers reject this whole strict moral purity stream as both untrue and a reflection of the emotional maladjustment of most religious leaders (they believe G_d is a jerk because they are jerks). The world will advance when forgiveness, love and acceptance are the key virtues - and not going there could lead to universal war and the possible end of the species - where no one survives - although we still all go to heaven.

Happy Monday! in three parts

It's been a while since I posted. I've been busy with other projects. There are three videos in this series covering what is going on now and what to do about it.

1. Global warming: Still waiting for a good article on how we keep having the worst summer ever (since before the last glaciation). The temperatures then were great for dinosaurs (now birds), but not so good for humans - although humans follow the shoreline. It moves and we move with it. The impact on infrastructure is a detail (and most of our current infrastructure needs to be scrapped anyway). I am still working on climate change paper - the one proposing tethered electric cars, molten salt reactors and how to get there socially/economically.

2. SpaceX. Starship was scrubbed last night, look for a new launch window. SpaceX goes incrementally with only the visions of Elon to guide it forward. As a believer in both Spinoza and Jesus, I don't care about the loss of human thought - it is pan galactic and in the next life, we will keep it going. Getting to the Moon is still interesting and adding SRBs to the second stage of Falcon Heavy can get us to there - with a landing system aft of the main fuel tanks of the second stage inserted to get to and from the Moon - with that rocket coming back to Earth with fuel for near earth orbit operation - because that is how gravity wells work. The question is how to get SpaceX and the rest of the community to consider the option. Goddard?

3. A Russian Empire. Ukraine should be the seat of the Rus, not Muscovy. Nothing good ever came out of Moscow. Ukraine was always the brain trust of the Soviet Union. Now that they are destroying Russian infrastructure, they are the strongest part and should be the HQ. The Putin system, especially internal security, needs to fall and Russian Asia (and far north America) needs to determine its own fate - as well as Turkey and Persia - so that ethnic federations can be formed (Kazakh, Turkic, Mongol/First Nations). Of course, for this to happen, the CCP must also fall. Details.

4. Israel. The Gazan genocide/famine/ethnic cleansing needs to stop. Those apologists who cannot see this and say it publicly have spent any credibility they have. Saying that Arabs are better off in Israel than the rest of the region is setting a low bar. Refugee camps for Gaza need to be in Israel proper. Let these people go home - as their Canaanite roots are as deeper than the Sephardim. That they are Muslim means that they adopted the religion of the conquerors - to the extent that people adopt a religion internally - most people don't, but play along because it is socially advantageous. No one followed second temple Judaism in the time of the Judges, or of David or until and after the exile, the conversion by Philip of Samaria, the adoption of Christianity by New Rome and the Muslim invasions. My point is, however, that any Zionist apologist who does not decry the current actions of the government is ignoring Torah and is not a very good Jew. To the extent that people can be bad - what they are allowing is bad (and I am someone who does not even believe in Hell).

4. Trump (and Vance). Speaking of bad people - Trump had skull reduction surgery. It is why he could not serve (bone spurs were a cover story) and why his hair is the way that it is (below the collar). Making fun of his hair, if one knows about his medical history, makes someone a bad person. Trump has is problems - but he is likely lead to Vance running in 2028 as a sitting president. If Vance can cope with current challenges, he will deserve a second term. If he cannot reverse things, and or someone runs against him, then the Democrats win.

5. The Democrats lack a vision, other than winning elections. Trump has thrown the neoliberals out of the GOP, but the Neos still fund both parties anyway because they can count votes. Since the Clintons, becoming electoral rather than having a vision (like the Greens), stops them from fixing anything but infrastructure - which after it is passed, everyone supports. The Greens have a vision, most of which I agree with, but only work as part of a coalition. Their view will never be an outright majority - as their (our) personality/cultural type is not widely held. Neither is the neoliberal/woke style of the Democrats (who usually lack vision). The infrastructure changes required to fight global warming (see point 1) won't be passed by Capitalists - it takes a more worker controlled (cooperative) economy to get there. That movement needs a leader - because leaders bring about policy change. It's actually easier to run for President than rise through the ranks (less expensive to get known - but you have to get known first). I will follow or be that person, but getting known is the issue - and right now, it ain't me, no it ain't me - I'm not a Senator' son, no....Some kind of change is inevitable. How we get there and the details are TBD.

Part 2: https://youtu.be/7VWbIl5Ljfg

Part 3: https://youtu.be/jxKX7UUjqKg

Even MAGA SCOTUS Won't TOUCH Gay Marriage

Dominionists believe that if they allow what they consider evil in society that God will withdraw his favor. Unless you understand that, you won't understand these people.

Why do We Still Need to Work?

A better option is 6.5*4 days or a 26 hour week (one third less), with a one-sixth decline in salary levels - but with a doubling of the minimum wage from 7.25 to 14.50 and a long-term unemployment insurance rate of 13.25 - with recipients required to be in school, caring for a child, or participating in a drug, psychiatric or physical disability rehabilitation program. This would result in a 82.5-65-100 deal, rather than 100-80-100. 

Manufacturing and service industries would have a two (or four) shift system - with a 43% bonus for second shift labor (working 52 hours in a week) or 200-130-200.  LTUI would pay 1481 per month.  Full time minimum wage would pay 1621 per month. Average Social Security would be 2494 (pegged to FT Min wage 40 hour work week).

Current min wage work is often for 29 hours a week, so real min wage job pays 904 per month.

COLAs are currently a fixed percentage of last year's wage, which causes inequality because prices chase wages at the 90th percentile. If they are granted on an equal dollar basis, management will give themselves the number of dollars that they need, with the understanding that everyone under them gets the same raise in dollar terms.  Managers and professionals will have to settle for less - and executives much less - but the economy would grow with less inflation (because it is excomp and professional salaries that drive up prices - especially for housing).

If You Don’t Understand Bonds, You Don’t Understand Money

The correct metric for determining whether the National Debt is too high is its ratio to Personal Income Taxes. The ability to accumulate such a debt at all is the ability to tax incomes (16th Amendment). When the ratio between the two was too low, there was not enough leverage for economic investment, since it is Treasury Bonds which provide that leverage.  There are four kinds of debt holding that are important. 1. the operational debt held by government funds not attributable to households, holdings in overseas official accounts and by state and local governments. This is about $7T. 2. the debt held to finance social security and Medicare that is broadly held by beneficiary households $3T. 3. Long term and monetary debt, including the Fed - which is ultimately owned by depositors and includes public and private pension holdings  $10.7 T 4. High yield debt held by mutual funds, direct bondholders - including assets held in Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands, Ireland, Switzerland by US an foreign capitalists $15.5 T. These were the figures from the June Treasury Bulletin - which was before the last auction.

Those with access to the Trust Funds are already retired and mainly fall into the first and second income quintiles. The top 10% hold 54% of long term assets and 77% of high yield assets (according to the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finance by the Fed). According to IRS estimates, for any distribution of AGI, the bottom 90% get half and the top 10% get half. The same fraction exists between the top 1% and the remaining 9% (and top 0.1 % and remaining 0.9%). Note that stocks have no federal debt backing - even though mutual funds do by holding T Notes. This means that the top 1% hold about 27% of long term assets and deposit accounts and half of high yield accounts (.77*.77). You can do the math to determine how much the top 0.1% hold. IRS income figures are in line with these estimates.

Net interest on the debt is distributed to the last two types of funds and is necessary for capitalism to grow. If net interest equaled the deficit, then there would be no expansion of capital - we would be treading water.  To even get to that point, to avoid slowing the economy - taxes on the population that holds the debt would need to be increased - especially by partially or fully repealing preferred rates for interest, dividends and capital gains. The result is that less junk will be created to inflate financial bubbles - especially those holding crypto, oil futures and mortgage backed securities - including the current commercial real estate bubble.

In the long term, a cooperative economy would have to provide control over finance and consumption as well as housing, production, infrastructure and human services. To get there the exemption for sales of private stock to qualified esops on capital gains taxes would have to be given to sales of other liquid assets - preferably with capital gains taxes being replaced with an asset value added tax at a high enough rate to encourage such sales, especially among heirs. 

This is What “Always” Happens Before a Market Crash

He left out one thing, which affected 1929, 1987, 2001 and 2008. Tax cuts on the wealthy, particularly on capital gains, which added incentives to favor investment schemes over work and freed up money for speculation - which was used to develop bad investments that were later sold to the general public (while cashing out). It is how the rich get richer.