People keep asking who's going to man the grills, pick the crops, clean the houses when all the illegals get deported. We have lots of useless government paid parasites that could fill those jobs nicely. They're educated, speak English and currently produce nothing but obstacles.
People keep asking who's going to man the grills, pick the crops, clean the houses when all the illegals get deported. We have lots of useless government paid parasites that could fill those jobs nicely. They're educated, speak English and currently produce nothing but obstacles.
Working on farms is hard and demanding. We have produced SOFT generations, heads down on their cell and social media and have hyped their worthless degrees as big deals. Getting some time on the farms and doing hard hand labor would not only get them in shape but show them what the true value of work means. An economic shock is likely to come and the whining won't interest anyone, survival will be the way out. It's going to be tough kids but this is where we are.
I received the latest newsletter from a local, small family farming operation and was surprised to read they had serious problems finding dependable American workers and ended up hiring two foreign workers (one from Africa and another from India) through an international NGO. Think about that - they could not find TWO dependable Americans for farm labor - and they're not out in the middle of nowhere, plenty of possible candidates within walking distance. This is not going to improve. Deporting all the people willing to do hard work will not suddenly create a class of hardworking Americans; they've never had to do anything hard and now they're too busy playing games, as intended.
um, no. As a former farm worker and friend of a farmer, I saw how the foreign workers (many here under special programs for the season) worked so much harder than anyone else, even earnest strong college kids.
As a farm worker, I can only laugh at this. The issues are complex, involving housing, health care, transportation, and modern expectations. And stop crying that your eggs cost $5, not $2. That's what they should cost. I pay a lot more for the good ones.
I'm not crying about anything. Anything of higher quality costs more. Your presumptiveness though proves my point. With the arguments you're making you may as well be a 19th century robber baron making profits off of the slave labor of children.
Always always the racist crap card-the favorite Scarlett Letter of progressive left. Augmented now by anti semitism. It would just be pathetically tiresome if it wasnтАЩt always levied with intent to eradicate.
Farmers would love to pay their staff members $50/hour---if they made anywhere near that. The average farmer in Massachusetts makes less than $35,000--and many aspire to that. There is also a housing shortage. And health care coverage is expensive (it used to be a good deal in Mass.). Customers need to suck it up and pay for what high-quality produce, eggs, and meat grown by well compensated staff costs. But instead they whine when eggs cost more than $3/dozen. Do you know what goes into raising chickens and eggs well and getting them to market, where they are marked up by the stores?
Yep! i am not arguing the point that costs are somehow lower than they are. I agree that farmers should be fairly and actually generously compensated given the services they offer. And i am also aware of inflation and the unreasonable costs of everything. My point is that bringing in foreign labor to lower costs is not going to solve the long term problems you bring up. In fact, it will maintain the expectation of people that they can get a dozen eggs for 2 or 3 dollars. It is a like a drug habit. Outsourcing everything has led to the problems we are apparently "arguing" over.
Exactly, but what are folks going to do about it? I'd say it starts with consumers stopping their complaints about costs. Pay for good products made and grown by fairly compensated workers. If consumers are willing to do that, there will be less work for imported labor, if that's the goal.
~ Fuck The Crony-Capitalist Plutarchy Farm Industry ~
"Bill Mollison: People question me coming through the American frontier these days. They ask, 'What's your occupation?' I say, 'I'm just a simple gardener.' And that is deeply seditious. If you're a simple person today, and want to live simply, that is awfully seditious. And to advise people to live simply is more seditious still.
You see, the worst thing about permaculture is that it's extremely successful, but it has no center, and no hierarchy.
Alan Atkisson (interviewer): So that's worst from whose perspective?
Bill: Anybody that wants to extinguish it. It's something with a million heads. It's a way of thinking which is already loose, and you can't put a way of thinking back in the box.
Alan: Is it an anarchist movement?
Bill: ...You won't get cooperation out of a hierarchical system. You get enforced directions from the top, and nothing I know of can run like that. I think the world would function extremely well with millions of little cooperative groups, all in relation to each other."
Staff members? Your choice of words is telling, Carol. They are farm laborers. If they don't like low wages, there are plenty of other opportunities. And don't make excuses for them. That's a cop out. It's called personal responsibility - a character trait missing from the Leftists. I don't care how crunchy they are.
Footnote: The State of Louisiana, by it's State Constitution, outlawed slavery in 1864. My guess is that's a few years before she was born, so she's never really resided in a state where slavery is legal.
It brings me joy that you are amused. Though, i haven't a clue who SSS is. But an fyi to bring further levity to the situation..you must have forgotten how many Yankees were slave owners.
Nope. At $10, demand dries up. Mexican farmer's lettuce rots in the fields. The farmers get pissed and petition the Mexican Gov to act the way they are supposed to, per the US Gov. Sanctions/tariffs are a tool for behavior modification.
I worked tobacco in the early '70s with a mix of other white kids and imported Hispanics there for the season. It was gruelling, but working class kids were expected to sweat back then. Wonder what it's like now...
Same here - WNC, although the big tobacco farms were ENC.
"Wonder what it's like now..." ~ Steve
Most all NC tobacco growers sold their allotments years ago. After the spanking Big Tobacco took here, regulation cost too much. Growing went overseas.
Copenhagen snuff @ $0.23 a tin? Now near $10 a tin. Use has declined proportionately - that's economics.
Picking row crops-strawberries and beans ( every rural young school kid did ) , graduated to bucking hay ( if you don't recognize these activities, you lived in a big city - defined as over 1200 population ) made me WANT to get an education and improve my lifestyle....but I look back with gratitude for having the learning process.
I'm about as soft and lazy as anyone. I grow my own food, and there is no doubt that the work I do is nothing in comparison to the effort required in commercial production. When presented with the prospect of stoop labor, most would gladly slit their wrists instead.
I loved hard labor as a young man. Worked various jobs loading hay bails, moving sprinkler pipe, worked in mining operations, etc. Made me strong and I was proud of the large physique I gained from those jobs. I was also proud of the rough skin on my hands and the blisters and cuts. Saw them as badges of honor. I'm older now and the muscle has began to sag and the hands don't do much hard labor anymore. Young men today still want to "bulk up" but instead of taking on hard physical jobs they go to the gym every day and drink protein shakes and take steroids to grow the muscle that I grew from my hard labor jobs. I never took protein drinks, growth hormones or steroids but in my day I could easily bench press 250 pounds. Today young men are more concerned with video games, manicures and lotions to keep their hands callus free. It's a different world, for sure.
I retired over ten years ago and am working harder and longer than I ever did when I was working for a paycheck. Someone just gave me a wheelbarrow because I'm too cheap to buy one for myself. For the last ten years I've been carrying wood, water, mulch, produce, etc. etc. by hand. The wheelbarrow is nice. It doesn't make the work any easier because I just do more in less time. I'm nowhere near as big as I was in my 20's or 30's, but I'm way better shape than most people of any age in the US.
Yes, two years of mandatory outdoor labor: Classic Nationalism, also called Fascism or National Socialism. This could be concurrent with their mandatory military service or apart from it for those who aren't going that way, like the ladies.
Hunger is a strong motivator: let them (or their spoiled children) miss a couple meals or hot showers, and they'll become very interested in how to grub up a paycheck. (Well, like others here, I can dream, can't I?)
Ron, exactly what has been happening under Biden. Covid has given them the excuse to stay home and pretend they are working. IsnтАЩt that the description of UBI? UBI was the тАЬsolutionтАЭ of the up-coming AI generation in California, led by Andy Wang in the 2020 Democrat primary, to provide for the people that are going to be clobbered by the AI revolution. Think what the Democrats have done,
1.Brought 30-50 million more mouths to feed into the country
2. Sent our тАЬmiddle classтАЭ jobs overseas and converted them to slave labor
3. Overeducated our children with bullshit majors
4. Created a worthless government bureaucracy that abhors working
5. Created the concept of UBI, where people get paid for doing nothing, just enough to survive, Maslow would love this one. They need to figure out who is going to create the meaningful money to finance this one. The Biden Covid UBI created 9% inflation. The Weimar Republic will always be the best example of what happens when you just create money with no backing.
6. Created the economic environment to accelerate AI, so after bullshitting our advanced education and bringing in millions of peons, they destroy the base of employment that the country needs.
WTF!!!!!!!!! These are all trends that Trump needs to pound into smithereens. The ideal goal would be for every SOB that is advancing these goals, to be drummed out of the country.
John - you're exactly right, excellent summary. Just a comment or two.
Yes, the PTB always game plan many years in advance. They know all the things you mention would basically idle our workforce. How to keep the natives from getting restless? That's when the problems start. So, what's the minimum amount necessary? They're trying to dial that amount in.
On inflation, you undershot - even at 9% - closer to 18% real rate. See the Chapwood Index, a true measure of inflation - a basket of 500 goods & services, measured every 6 months in the 50 largest cities. No adjustments, no substitutions, no bullshit.
Using the Rule of 72, with inflation @ 18%, prices double every 4 years. Not a linear progression - geometric - another 4 years and prices double again.
A $4.50 hamburger in 2016, was $9.00 in 2020 and near $18.00 today. There you go.
Went to Chipotle the other day. Got a bowl full of rice, pico, guacamole, about a half a cup of chicken and some cheese. Damned thing cost me $19.00.
When considering inflation as high as it is is it any wonder housing prices are astronomical compared to what they were 20 years ago? I'm in land development. Costs are so bad now that profit margins are extremely thin for developers and home builders. Unless you are DR Horton or Meritage.
You can also order a kiddie meal at a burger joint or more over here, which includes a juice-pack, small burger (but you can add adult portions of veggie/condiment stuff in it at no extra charge!) and onion rings, all for a kiddie price.
Zazzy, for you, price is no object. Dreamy and I will be happy to take you there. If you're extra good, you can even get a chocolate sundae for dessert.
Yes. a truly free market. Lugh is right as the pols do not want the uncertainty of a truly free market, nor does the stock market. So crony capitalism creeps in which does lead to socialism.
Yes. Sell off all Federal and State land. Hunt all the animals to extinction. If they can't survive, that's their problem. Cut down all the trees for lumber. Replant the wilderness as a tree farm. Money! You're another Ronny Ray Gun.
"People"? Same. If they can't survive under the Market or Law of the Jungle, they go under. You are another Dos Pasos or Upton Sinclair.
I laugh. The real price of gasoline is probably 10 dollars a gallon. You pickup guys are gonna be screwed. You'll have shoot outs at gas stations to get the last drops of ancient sunshine.
Right. Just build a house in your mind and live in it. Ride to your job as panhandler in front of 7/11 on your imaginary horse. Or since your house is in your mind, just sleep in the doorway of the 7/11.
Yes, replace White Americans with immigrants at the lower levels and AI and/or Indians at the higher. Promise to take care of the now useless eaters but then get rid of them with the Vax. AI is an essential part of the equation of ending America and the White Western World. John is in favor of it. He can't hold all the moving pieces in his mind at the same time.
Milton Friedman, (an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the complexity of stabilization policy), proposed the idea of a negative income tax (NIT), which effectively sanctioned a basic income for all, in his book Capitalism and Freedom published in 1962.
In his 1964 State of the Union address, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced legislation to fight the "war on poverty". Johnson believed in expanding the federal government's roles in education and health care as poverty reduction strategies. In this political climate, the idea of a guaranteed income for every American also took root. Notably, a document, signed by 1200 economists, called for a guaranteed income for every American.
Succeeding President Richard Nixon explained its purpose as "to provide both a safety net for the poor and a financial incentive for welfare recipients to work." Congress eventually approved a guaranteed minimum income for the elderly and the disabled.
Andrew Yang, American businessman, attorney, lobbyist, and politician. Founder of Venture for America, and a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate[79][80]
Tulsi Gabbard, former U.S. Representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district, and a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate[81]
Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Meta Platforms[82][83]
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon[84]
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft[85][note 1]
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple[86]
Larry Page, co-founder of Google[87]
....oh never mind.
The ideal goal would be for every SOB that is advancing these goals, to be drummed out of the country. Yeah right!
Yeah. All you need is a source for the money generation to pay these gimmes. Are you so dumb to not realize that тАЬmoney does not grow on trees?тАЭ Money needs to be earned with labor or it has no meaning. UBI on a grand scale will bring down the monetary system.
Proponents of UBI argue that basic income could increase economic growth because it would sustain people while they invest in education to get higher-skilled and well-paid jobs.[63][64]
Advocates contend that the guaranteed financial security of a UBI will increase the population's willingness to take risks,[66] which would create a culture of inventiveness and strengthen the entrepreneurial spirit.[67]
According to statements of American Enterprise Institute-affiliated Libertarian/conservative scholar Charles Murray, recalled and sanctioned in 2016 by the George Gibbs Chair in Political Economy and Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and nationally syndicated columnist[69][70] Veronique de Rugy, as of 2014, the annual cost of a UBI in the US would have been about $200 billion cheaper than the US system put in place at that date.[71] By 2020, it would have been nearly a trillion dollars cheaper.[72]
According to Swiss economist Thomas Straubhaar, the concept of UBI is basically financeable without any problems. He describes it as "at its core, nothing more than a fundamental tax reform" that "bundles all social policy measures into a single instrument, the basic income paid out unconditionally."[74]
Regarding the question of basic income vs jobs, there is also the aspect of so-called welfare traps. Proponents of basic income often argue that with a basic income, unattractive jobs would necessarily have to be better paid and their working conditions improved, so that people still do them without need, reducing these traps.[86]
Hahahahahaha! Boy have you been sucked into a bunch of BS by the extremists on the Left.
Money has to be generated by some sort of human activity. I will bet you think food stamps are a human right too. You are just a little Left of Bernie Sanders, and I will tell you a secret. During the next four years, your opinion means absolutely nothing, Leftie.
All of a man's problem stem from his inability to sit quietly in his room. So you're not wrong, but of course you want him to go out and look for trouble, so you're not right either.
I like this comment, Lugh. I have three children coming of age and they can't go five minutes without music. Either they are blasting it from a speaker (much to my annoyance) or they are hiding behind gawdy earphones or ear buds. These young people don't know how to handle quiet time.
I love to sit on my back patio and just watch the world. I sit in silence, watching the birds fly by, the bumble bee work over some Linden tree blossoms or my young corgi sniff about the plants in the garden. It's in these quiet times that we actually can think and resolve so many problems.
Good for her, a Type-A, hard-charger, an overachiever - probably running from something, anything to avoid the "quiet". For many like this, it's hard to be a human being they prefer, for whatever reasons, to be a human doing.
Cankerpuss's point may stand. I'd bet that if you tied her to a chair - no phone, no screens, no noise, no intentional distractions - her head would probably explode after 5 minutes of quiet.
Dennis Merwood likes to bring up his daughters. This is the second time he's bragged about his super girls and told me they want to meet me and kick my ass. Dennis Merwood is an arrogant prick, but I must admit his comments are quite comical. Although I will not engage him directly I do find myself actually looking forward to his comments. They make me laugh. He's easy to bait. Mention God and he's all over it like white on rice, like stink on poop. The dude is hilarious.
If true, this is a silver lining of Hyperacusis. My body forces me to be very quiet, much of the time. I can work, but only with a quiet work environment. Engineering employers would rather be sued than give engineers the quiet work environment that the accounting department generally has.
Most people hate their jobs. Why wouldn't they? What could be more abnormal and destructive than repetitive labor or part time slavery?
Yes, it's better than full time slavery as per UBI's guilded cage. But can we not do better? Not under Capitalism which will replace most of with AI and AI guided robots.
An Indian (feather, not dot) sits in the shade of a tree along a country road. A man drives by and stops and asks the Indian what he's doing. Enjoying the day he says.
The man tells the Indian he needs to get a job. Why asks the Indian. So you can save money says the man. What do I need money for asks the Indian. So you can invest the money and someday retire. Why says the Indian. So when you retire, you can sit in the shade of a tree and enjoy the day.
So true, Ron. Such a rat race we have created for ourselves in our Country. I just spent a couple weeks in Mexico and I loved it. The people there have much less than we do but they are also happier and seemingly more satisfied. My favorite day was resting on the beach and watching Mexican fishermen clean their catch of the day. Didn't detect any misery in those guys. Lots of jokes, singing, laughter and banter with their buddies. I was envious of them and dreading the return to "murica" and the rat race. If I had the cojones, I'd pull an Andy Durfrain from the Shawshank Redemption and high tail it out of here to Mexico for a simpler life.
There is a huge problem that will arise, and it has already started. AI may come into manufacturing and eradicate human labor. BUT, what happens when the consumer base erodes or dies and their is no one to buy what AI does? How do you have an economy where no one has purchasing power, there is no or little demand. That day is coming. Will wise men stop it? As there are no wise men in government, counting on government to help us is a joke, a fatal joke.
FYI. Musk goes through his factories and has found that some jobs are better done by people and removes robotics.
Economics As If People Mattered by Hazel Henderson. The title tells the tale. AI is worthless because it replaces people directly. You worry that this may be bad for the economy! - forgetting that the economy or "art of the household" is supposed to serve man. What a confused condition you are in.
If other nations want to go down this path of death, let them. Break off all relations with them and just wait for them to die off.
So, you can't find any reference that Elon found that some jobs are better done by people and removes robotics
What page of his Biography is this discussed on?
Since you know so much about it you would provide a link, or evidence.
But you can't. You think you know everything about everything! Look at your posts in this thread. Like the day is coming where we have an economy where no one has purchasing power, there is no or little demand.
As I said, you know nothing about what you are espousing, about anything you espouse. I disagree with Cankerpuss, you are not humorous, you are disgusting. Read his bio, fool, I do not have to supply you with pages for you to understand what Musk is all about. Everything I have stated is in the bio, if you want to stop your absurd statements, read the damn book.
Bandit, I take some exception to your comment. Not all bureaucrats are lazy slobs not doing anything on the job all day. In my line of work in land development I work consistently with city governments and I can state that some of the city workers are hard working individuals. When we are putting in a water line those city inspectors are right in there working hard, doing their jobs. When a water or sewer line goes bad the City workers are there getting the repairs done. Building Inspectors, City Planners, and other officials work long hours getting my plans reviewed so I can meet deadlines. Yes, you are right, some bureaucrats don't do any work and are leaches, but from my experience many government employees do work hard and do their best to assist us in the private sector.
One could raise the question if we need all of these City jobs such as inspectors and planners. That's a different discussion for a different time. My only point is I don't agree that all bureaucrats don't do any work. Some of those that I work with are very hard working individuals.
FYI, the city workers are not bureaucrats. They are, at least, skilled trades, they work for their money. I've worked for cities, too. The bureaucrats do jack, other than sit around and put down the people doing the work.
I'm glad to hear you say that. I have worked with many City workers and they have all been very dedicated, skillful, knowledgeable and hard working people. They earn their paychecks, even if it is the government paying them.
ThIs what the Socialists want, dependence on the government. They, under Obama mostly, ex-patted all the meaningful industries. тАЬWe will become a.service economy and let China et al be the Dirty manufacturersтАЭ. What a dumb ass. Then we convince all the Boomer and Generation G parents that the only path to success is a college education, mostly worthless majors. Then our government somehow managed to load up the colleges with idiots preaching Marxism, socialism and government control. So today, the education profile shows a very top heavy group of graduates that know nothing, have no skills and need the government to create bullshit jobs for them. Then Biden imports another 30-50 million non-skilled people and allowing the globalists to take over big chunks of the US economy. Nice!!!!!!!
JHK is right, one of the objectives of the Trump administration has to be the eradication of the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party and the advance of the party that is pro-USA and anti-socialistic. Right now, not many of those left. The gimme mentality created by 35 years of Left wing control (Yeah, the Bushes too) has infected the USAтАЩs mentality. Trump has his work cut out for him, also his cabinet.
Sidebar - Watched a You Tube yesterday about the renewed construction of the Wall, that beautiful yuge wall that will allow the Border Patrol to actually prevent incursions of globalist illegals. If Trump does two things, eliminate the college paradigm and drive out the professors that are distorting the kids, and put the border under control, we will be one step up on trying to reverse the socialist trend.
Speaking of useful jobs, Trump and Co. should figure out all the infrastructure projects that need to be done.
Bridges, Flint water plumbing re-do to get the lead out, cleaning up North Carolina and help people re-build in safe no-flood zones, highway repairs etc.
Create trade jobs and trade tech schools to teach all the loafers how to be plumbers, electricians, welders and how to run heavy machinery (think Mike Roe dirty jobs training) etc.
There is plenty of hard work to be done but most are not trained for it.
If we want the youth of our nation to learn useful professions they have to have the schools to go to and know there will be decent paying jobs at the end.
Right now China supplies us with necessary medications like Tylenol, antibiotics and more. All the things China makes FOR us that we NEED should be made HERE. It is a national security issue.
Lots to consider and figure out to REALLY make America great again and lift Americans into useful, meaningful jobs.
you do you, boo. this particular girl would take auto mechanics plumbing and wiring. which surprise are all things I do around the house I built personally by hand. and I choose to please myself. but if you want to learn how to please somebody else, also called co-dependecy, have at it.
Yes, nobody should ever try and please anybody. That's what the robots are going to be for. When you try and tinker with them, they will zap you and report you to the manufacturer.
Flint knapping. Learn to make flint arrow and spear heads. Every youth spends five years on "the Wild Continent". They will hunt and gather, form tribes and make war. Many will never return. Some will not want to return. But those who come back will be magnificent. Side benefit of controlling the population.
Oh no I wonтАЩt, Abby. When is the last time you saw the federal government тАЬtalkтАЭ to the states or locals about what they need? Flint is still lead-lined? That is a disgrace. Look at the border, have the Feds helped any of the states with the costs of dealing with these groups.
My problem with the government is that they put their money into politically items instead of what is really needed. Right now, there is no more obvious support for this statement than So Cal. God gave us brains and the power to use them, it appalls me how much of that is wasted in government.
Even Lugh states that the best situations are good governments manned by good people. His dreams are good, finding them has been impossible. Good government set limits on interfering with the folks it is supposed to support. In my lifetime, 77 years, I have not seen that yet at any level of government.
I have two sons coming of age. I desperately tried to emphasize upon their brains that no matter what happens there will always be a need for someone to fix pipes, run wires and build walls and that there were ample opportunities for great success in those trades. No interest. None whatsoever.
I have a new great grandson, and his dad has just entered the workforce. I have no advice to give them at all, because my upbringing and knowledge base are so out of date. AS JHK has said it, the on-coming generations are going to have to wing it, reacting to a constantly changing workplace. I have read recently that Gen Z in Britain is favoring dictatorship as the preferred form of government. Have we wasted two hundred fifty years of republicanism?
If only evolution or God had given humanity the ability to have a generational or genetic memory. Humanity wouldn't have to re-learn the same lessons over and over again. Unfortunately, we don't live long enough. By the time the grand children come of age the grandparents are gone and there experience and wisdom of 8 or 9 decades is gone with them.
well the first thing we do is make those jobs well paid and well regarded. as a country we have demeaned genuine useful work for as long as I can remember (73 yo)
I'm 71. When I was in my 20s, my mother kept bemoaning the fact that I didn't have "that piece of paper".
Now I'm debt-free, retired, and own my own home; I worked for myself most of my life, and I'm pretty happy. Never went to college, but dammit I can spell and punctuate better than almost any college graduate today.
Not so sure that it was always Kool -Aid. It is hard (for me, at least) to imagine what the impact of the G.I. Bill has been on U.S. history. Suddenly servicemen and women, for the low, low price of risking their lives, could go to college. One need no longer be among the landed gentry to read great books and learn great things.
It is unsurprising and indeed it is a very good thing that this caught on.
But then came The Age of Indolence, which began several decades ago, and in which we are now stuck, seemingly stuck but good and for a long, long time.
The whole nation nearly swooned last week to witness people working! That could catch on.
Spot-on, actually; the post WWII GI Bill era was arguably the sweet spot. College admission standards hadn't crumbled yet, skilled trades still respected -- the evil came later.
I thought I read over the weekend that 1/4 of American adults are receiving Medicaid payments. Guessing 60-80% of these people are capable of some type of meaningful work.
You have pointed out one form of underhanded welfare. The biggest is Social Security for disabilities. Lawyers figuring out ways to get disability for people who have been thrown out of the economy have exploded in numbers.
RE: SS disability-- in the past, it was not that difficult to get, IF you had a lawyer.
Neighbor had an adult son who was married, had two kids but worked. He was dyslexic, and possibly had ADHD. But he held a job for many years, and then went to government sponsored Janitor School. And worked. The parents decided that they didn't want to support him all his life, so they got a doctor to claim he was bipolar. He was rejected for SSI, and then, voila! He got a lawyer and got approved.
FYI, he's not disabled and very likely isn't bipolar. Just lazy.
Having looked at programs like this, admittedly quite a few years ago, I had a difficult time understanding why anyone would want the level of intrusion, surveillance, and loss of freedom as major side benefits of such programs.
Yet, over the course of a career, I regualrly saw people welcomingly submit to this government instrusion in order to receive 'benefits' at the expense of personal freedom/liberty.
We have been reaping the 'benefits' of these programs sown over the past few decades, to the point of national detriment.
It's going to come to a swift and harsh end. Why? Because there isn't any money anymore. The money is gone. Poof! Vanished. There is no money. Nothing. Nada. Bupkiss. Like JHK said, we are getting to the point where we can't even service that debt anymore. The tipping point is near.
My wife works in an orthepedic clinic and many of their customers are on Medicaid. Medicaid pays jack so the doctor stopped accepting it. Lost a lot of patients but still making money.
Mary, when I was working as a nurse in Denver, there was an influx of CNAs from Russia. They were all Russia doctors that could not be accredited here in the USA and needed to survive. Most I believe became accredited and became MDs here.
For the past 5 years or so, I've been getting my hands dirty and cultivating some skills on a small community garden plot across the inlet here in Halifax.
I figure if I had 10 of them-- and not too much harder to manage, since I have to be there for the one anyway-- and could prevent the deer-plunder, I could probably feed myself more or less for a full year, minus the meat part of the diet (unless I ate the slugs). (Deer are probably legally off-limits, for now.)
Point is in part that gardening is not that hard once you get into it and are willing to put in a reasonable amount of work, but not all that much. There might even be a book or two out there talking about the 'lazy gardeners' with associated strategies in that regard.
But it's also surprisingly fulfilling and self-empowering and takes you away from being a childlike dependent on the status-quo.
Speaking of water, Phoenix is about to tie its records for the longest number of consecutive days without rain, 157, I believe. Slight chance in the forecast.
You are right, it has totally changed character in the 20 years I have been here. The major thing people relate to is that there is little catastrophic weather here. Not even heavy thunderstorms creating tornadoes. Just heat and a rapidly oncoming problem with water. Every year we have Boomer snowbirds that stop going north in the summer and hang around all year. You do get used to the heat after being here awhile, but lose your ability to tolerate cold, and I mean less than 80 degrees. It is hilarious to see folks here in their winter garb when the temp is in the 60s.
Phoenix, Las Vegas, Tucson are all cities that should not exist where they exist. Wholly dependent upon the water of the Colorado, San Juan, Virgin and Gila rivers, among others. Ingenuity of man has brought the water to the cities but the numbers of man have grown so large that there is no longer enough water to sustain these huge cities in such a hostile environment.
My State of Utah is suffering with a dramatically water-LESS winter. The mountains in which I live typically at this time of year have 40 inches of snow. Right now we have 9 inches. When Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico suffer dry winters places like Vegas, Phoenix and Tucson are going to hurt. It's quite a dilemma.
Oh, and JohnAZ, many of the ski resorts here in Utah now often resort to snow making machines in order to open their slopes in October-November. You are right, things are changing.
JHK predicted the demise of the ski industry in the mountains based on the loss of oil to power it. I think we are seeing the effect of the atmosphere warming during the winter and the storm track moving north. Probably aided by La Ni├▒a. Like Jupiter, Earth has belts of wind generation. The three are Trades, blowing E to W, the Westerlies, blowing W to E, and the polar Easterlies, blowing E to W. The borders between these zones are turbulent and full of energy. They are the jet streams and the storm tracks. Think of hurricanes, the move E to W until the cross over the storm tracks then reverse to W to E. Anyway, where the belts lay across the USA determines where the storm tracks go with the water they carry as storms. Something is happening, moving the storm track north, which is a character of more equatorial heating AKA La Ni├▒a.
BTW. The water compact governing the Colorado River is very heavily slanted toward California, Fat lot of good that did.
You're such a polymath, JohnAZ. Is there NOTHING that you don't know EVERYTHING about? Oh, and how's your survival of the 'clot-shot' going? Still truckin' along, eh?
I know a little about a lot, enough to comment on the blog. As far as the clot shot, I have had sequelae on and off since I made the mistake of trusting the medical community. Covid twice, Pertussis once and I know two folk that have gotten auto immune disease as a result f either the disease or the Vaxx. If you will look at my comments over the years you will discover I have been an opponent to the Vaxx, based on data, not opinion.
Utah is an amazing place. I have three distinct geographic regions all within driving distance of where I live. To the west I have the Great Salt Lake Desert and the basin and range topography, to the south I have the red rock canyons and to the north east I have the high alpine forests of the Rocky Mountains. It is a stunning place to live and I love it here.
I am a native Arizonan, though, I only lived there as an infant. Born in Flagstaff. Moved to and lived in Page for a year and then taken by my parents to Idaho and then in my teens to Utah. Been here ever since. I love living in the west. It breaks my heart to see the unending immigration to these states from California and some eastern states. Utah is greatly losing its charm. I stay away from Salt Lake City now because it is becoming too large and too busy. It wasn't always this way. Montana is what Utah used to be. But even Montana is feeling the affects of the in-migration of Californians.
By the way, JohnAZ, I always enjoy your comments. I may not always agree with you but I always find your comments insightful and interesting.
Yes, that's what is understood. I actually have a squash soup in the fridge as we speak, made with some stuff from the garden from last summer/fall, including the squash (butternut-- easy to peel compared with acorn), garlic, a few very finely-chopped beet leaves and a splash of home-brewed apple cider.
I grew corn one summer before, indidentally, but planted it a little too late for our shorter growing season. In any case I figured that it didn't really give us much in the way of how much of the plant is edible, or at least perhaps reasonably so (just the kernals?). With some exceptions, ideally, I might prefer plants that are edible from root-to-leaf.
Also, although I plant beans all the time, at the garden we're at, the deer love it and they eat it all up, like the whole plant, not just the bean pods.
What I have intention to do this year is to look into the idea of surrounding some of the more vulnerable crops in cylinders of chicken-wire. I'd rather not have to do that, but if the deer can't be killed and eaten, it's a compromise. I'll try to let you know how it goes.
Grow potatoes. They do well in cooler climates, produce food that a human can survive on alone, and the potatoes, if stored in a cool area, can last for months. I grow a good supply of potatoes every year and store them under ground. The smaller ones I then re-use as seed potato and plant them in the fall. Come spring when the soil warms the seed potato sprouts and produces more.
That's not a bad idea, I'll look into it. It also kind of dovetails into a plan to plant rutabagas, which I quite like. I tend to plant a reasonably diverse garden plot-- about 13 kinds of stuff-- so I've still got options if some do less well than others.
Where are you located? What's your climate like or growing-zone?
I live in the Western United States in the Rocky Mountains. Our growing season is typically from mid May to late September. Warm dry summers and cold snowy winters. The potatoes do really well here. I will usually plant two dozen seed potatoes and harvest four 5 gallon buckets of softball sized potatoes. Red Pontiac and Yukon Gold do really well here. They taste fantastic when they are fresh.
Good to know... So, can I take any ol' potato, say from a grocery store, and bury it an inch or three in the soil? And can I plant a seed potato in the spring, seeing as I'm too late for the fall? I'll probably be looking the answers up and since I'm also looking at rutabagas, but any tips or tricks you might like to offer would of course be appreciated.
You can try a potato from the grocery store but it is my understanding that they spray them with anti-sprouting chemicals. They don't sprout as good as an "organic" spud, if you will. I usually buy a fresh crop of "certified seed" potato from IFA or Tractor Supply. They are cheap but you get better sprouting from them than from a super market spud. You only need one eye per hill so one seed potato may yield four plants. I would plant it at least 6 to 8 inches deep in the soil and hill the soil over the potato. The taller the potato has to grow the more potatoes you get as the plant shoots the tubers off to the side of the vine. And yes, it will grow if you plant it deep.
I plant in the fall, but you can also plant in the spring as soon as you can dig down into the soil. I like to do the fall to avoid digging in muddy soil :)
6 to 8 inches does not include the hill or mound. The hill or mound is in addition to. You will also increase the hill size once the plant has grown about a foot above the ground to keep the spuds covered and free from sun light. Sun burns the potatoes, turns them green and makes them acidic.
You're dreaming and you've bought into the false narrative that they're "unskilled labor." Useless government paid parasites have no clue how to pick produce. Most probably can't even identify a head of lettuce in a field, much less figure out how harvest it. There would be no effective difference between hiring useless government parasites and letting the fields rot. The skills sets necessary to pick broccoli, cilantro, lettuce, etc. etc. would take them years to develop. It would probably take most Americans months to develop the skills to make it worth their while, and even then it still wouldn't be enough to keep up with inflation. Those illegal aliens picking produce in the fields can pick a whole row of broccoli in the time it would take you or I to pick just one case.
So kick them out and then create a system that lets them easily enter the country, legally, and work for a time. I'm not opposed to immigration. My great great grandparents emigrated from Denmark in the 1800s. We need to know who they are and where they go and how long they will be here.
The level of disinformation in this post is utterly astounding. Ignorance is no excuse, but I guess if you get your 'information' from OANN & Newsmax, then you will only 'know' what is just not true. There have been fewer illegal immigrants crossing the border from 2021 to 2024 than in the 4 years of the administration of Trump 1.0. And, just so you know, those flights of Colombian deportees that made the news this week? They were all rounded up and processed for the off by the Biden administration. What a bunch of feckless know-nothings around here.
Actually we had a record number of construction jobs the last several years as Biden is a builderтАжconstruction job openings started declining last year which is when illegal immigration started declining. Same thing happened under Bush/Cheney. Oh, remember when Bush said New Orleanians would build back their city after Katrina?? Nope, a month later a city with very few Latinos started getting taco trucks. Construction is just highly dependent on Latino immigrants and just visit Austin and take the side streets coming from the airport and you will see what IтАЩm talking about!
I'm all for making the parasites work for a change, BUT.....
In the Bio-Tech hog pen Trump and his cronies are setting up for you (they thought he'd do a better job than Kamala, that's all) there will be no:
Private houses to clean
Private gardens
Meat to grill,
No money to pay their wages, etc.
When will this sink in?! They told us what they intend to do last week.
Maybe the former parasites can make themselves useful as injectors of the new mRNA treatments, although I think they intend to move to aerosol versions to overcome 'injection hesitancy'.
Trump has gotten a company to develop 500 billion dollars worth of AI in the USA. He wants a piece of that pie, WHICH IS COMING, whether we like it or not. His success though will be the import of many of the companies which Obama and Biden alienated. One thing that will help this is the fact that shipping costs are becoming inflated greatly and I notice that many of the world problems, which I believe Trump understands, are related to transporting goods. Soon, it will be more profitable to build things here, rather than ship them in.
BTW, transportation costs are why Trump wants Canada and Greenland. Russia owns 1/2 of the seaways around the North Pole, and Trump wants the other half. Global warming is going to make Canada and Siberia inhabitable and the seaways will shift away from the Panama Canal. This is a gamble for Trump but I believe worth the risk.
Yes, it is an absolute disaster. And yes, China is way ahead because of "Open AI" and Elon's greed.
I remind you of the 11th Commandment of the Orange Bible: Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of the human mind. We need a Prophet to arise and destroy all of this in the Butler Jihad.
You need to read Musk's biography. He started Open AI and sold off his share when the board started going against his "safeguards" against AI control over us. I feel safer with him in place to counter the fools pushing Trump into more computer control.
Magnetic poles! BTW, it is in process right now and absolutely no one has tried to correlate it to increased surface temperatures. To me, anything that can affect the magnetic shield around Earth could be a prime contributor.
Global Warming??? Isn't that a Chinese Hoax, at least according to the Great Orange Leader, JohnAZ?
Plus, you must have missed the news about DeepSeek and how the Chinese have totally OWNED the techbros? In any case, Trump couldn't care less - he's picked up a few billion on paper with his meme coin grift. How many did YOU buy, JohnAZ?
None, how did you become so knowledgeable about Leftist leanings? We will disagree on just about everything, obviously. BTW, you just lost in November, thank God!
No Maria you're wrong. No one denies the climate has changed. The denial part come from what caused the change. Let me give you an example: When the Vikings settled Greenland it truly was a green land. About 300 years later the climate had changed to the point that those settlements had to be abandoned due to the cold. The cause? Climate variability , a process that occurs on a cyclical basis. Perhaps if you don't agree, you'll point out the Viking's use of carbon based machinery?
Oh, please! Those parasites are better educated, more presentable and with a better skill set than many in the labor force and will push the least competitive down a rung. Those are the people who will be manning grills and picking crops. Perhaps domestics servants will once again become affordable, and you too can have a girl of all work.
Just saw a map of where both aircraft were flying, their routes into the crash. A huge question, what the heck was that Helicopter doing in the flight path for runway 33 that the plane was landing at, and at the same altitude, which is being investigated as they are supposed to fly at a lower altitude especially around Reagan Airport.
People keep asking who's going to man the grills, pick the crops, clean the houses when all the illegals get deported. We have lots of useless government paid parasites that could fill those jobs nicely. They're educated, speak English and currently produce nothing but obstacles.
Working on farms is hard and demanding. We have produced SOFT generations, heads down on their cell and social media and have hyped their worthless degrees as big deals. Getting some time on the farms and doing hard hand labor would not only get them in shape but show them what the true value of work means. An economic shock is likely to come and the whining won't interest anyone, survival will be the way out. It's going to be tough kids but this is where we are.
Outdoor work would be a healthy dose of reality, in which today's bureaucrats are deficient
It's called a kibbutz.
I received the latest newsletter from a local, small family farming operation and was surprised to read they had serious problems finding dependable American workers and ended up hiring two foreign workers (one from Africa and another from India) through an international NGO. Think about that - they could not find TWO dependable Americans for farm labor - and they're not out in the middle of nowhere, plenty of possible candidates within walking distance. This is not going to improve. Deporting all the people willing to do hard work will not suddenly create a class of hardworking Americans; they've never had to do anything hard and now they're too busy playing games, as intended.
"they had serious problems finding dependable Americans"
Did they try offering higher wages? Maybe those farmers are just racist.
um, no. As a former farm worker and friend of a farmer, I saw how the foreign workers (many here under special programs for the season) worked so much harder than anyone else, even earnest strong college kids.
Some people are accustomed to slavery more than others. Sad that so many people still want slaves.
As a farm worker, I can only laugh at this. The issues are complex, involving housing, health care, transportation, and modern expectations. And stop crying that your eggs cost $5, not $2. That's what they should cost. I pay a lot more for the good ones.
I'm not crying about anything. Anything of higher quality costs more. Your presumptiveness though proves my point. With the arguments you're making you may as well be a 19th century robber baron making profits off of the slave labor of children.
Notice the last names on these two. You just nailed it
Always always the racist crap card-the favorite Scarlett Letter of progressive left. Augmented now by anti semitism. It would just be pathetically tiresome if it wasnтАЩt always levied with intent to eradicate.
Outed the jew
Yes..i see
Farmers would love to pay their staff members $50/hour---if they made anywhere near that. The average farmer in Massachusetts makes less than $35,000--and many aspire to that. There is also a housing shortage. And health care coverage is expensive (it used to be a good deal in Mass.). Customers need to suck it up and pay for what high-quality produce, eggs, and meat grown by well compensated staff costs. But instead they whine when eggs cost more than $3/dozen. Do you know what goes into raising chickens and eggs well and getting them to market, where they are marked up by the stores?
Yep! i am not arguing the point that costs are somehow lower than they are. I agree that farmers should be fairly and actually generously compensated given the services they offer. And i am also aware of inflation and the unreasonable costs of everything. My point is that bringing in foreign labor to lower costs is not going to solve the long term problems you bring up. In fact, it will maintain the expectation of people that they can get a dozen eggs for 2 or 3 dollars. It is a like a drug habit. Outsourcing everything has led to the problems we are apparently "arguing" over.
Exactly, but what are folks going to do about it? I'd say it starts with consumers stopping their complaints about costs. Pay for good products made and grown by fairly compensated workers. If consumers are willing to do that, there will be less work for imported labor, if that's the goal.
~ Fuck The Crony-Capitalist Plutarchy Farm Industry ~
"Bill Mollison: People question me coming through the American frontier these days. They ask, 'What's your occupation?' I say, 'I'm just a simple gardener.' And that is deeply seditious. If you're a simple person today, and want to live simply, that is awfully seditious. And to advise people to live simply is more seditious still.
You see, the worst thing about permaculture is that it's extremely successful, but it has no center, and no hierarchy.
Alan Atkisson (interviewer): So that's worst from whose perspective?
Bill: Anybody that wants to extinguish it. It's something with a million heads. It's a way of thinking which is already loose, and you can't put a way of thinking back in the box.
Alan: Is it an anarchist movement?
Bill: ...You won't get cooperation out of a hierarchical system. You get enforced directions from the top, and nothing I know of can run like that. I think the world would function extremely well with millions of little cooperative groups, all in relation to each other."
Staff members? Your choice of words is telling, Carol. They are farm laborers. If they don't like low wages, there are plenty of other opportunities. And don't make excuses for them. That's a cop out. It's called personal responsibility - a character trait missing from the Leftists. I don't care how crunchy they are.
Only someone who has no connection to farming would say to a farm worker that she doesn't know what she is talking about. But enjoy your rage today.
You don't understand economics, i.e., supply vs. demand.
SSS....with you being from Louisana, that's really bizarrely amusing.
Let me see if I understand your logic:
In the State of Louisiana slavery was once legal.
Dreamy lives in Louisiana.
Therefore, Dreamy is pro-slavery.
Got it.
Footnote: The State of Louisiana, by it's State Constitution, outlawed slavery in 1864. My guess is that's a few years before she was born, so she's never really resided in a state where slavery is legal.
ЁЯТЪЁЯТЫЁЯТЬ
It brings me joy that you are amused. Though, i haven't a clue who SSS is. But an fyi to bring further levity to the situation..you must have forgotten how many Yankees were slave owners.
Nova, or how many free Blacks owned slaves.
A ton! Especially in New Orleans.
Brilliant logic there, "Maria". Not surprising.
Yeah - $10 lettuces aren't far off - the 25% tariff on Mexican vegetables will mean that local USA growers can finally pay their workers $15 an hour.
Nope. At $10, demand dries up. Mexican farmer's lettuce rots in the fields. The farmers get pissed and petition the Mexican Gov to act the way they are supposed to, per the US Gov. Sanctions/tariffs are a tool for behavior modification.
I worked tobacco in the early '70s with a mix of other white kids and imported Hispanics there for the season. It was gruelling, but working class kids were expected to sweat back then. Wonder what it's like now...
Same here - WNC, although the big tobacco farms were ENC.
"Wonder what it's like now..." ~ Steve
Most all NC tobacco growers sold their allotments years ago. After the spanking Big Tobacco took here, regulation cost too much. Growing went overseas.
Copenhagen snuff @ $0.23 a tin? Now near $10 a tin. Use has declined proportionately - that's economics.
Why were you surprised? Head in the sand? Calling for 'Mass Deportation Now!" are you?
Not to mention the much needed help for the devastated state of our agricultural and farming industries.
if they quit overregulating, the industries wouldn't be so devastated. It's killing two birds with one stone.
Picking row crops-strawberries and beans ( every rural young school kid did ) , graduated to bucking hay ( if you don't recognize these activities, you lived in a big city - defined as over 1200 population ) made me WANT to get an education and improve my lifestyle....but I look back with gratitude for having the learning process.
I'm about as soft and lazy as anyone. I grow my own food, and there is no doubt that the work I do is nothing in comparison to the effort required in commercial production. When presented with the prospect of stoop labor, most would gladly slit their wrists instead.
I loved hard labor as a young man. Worked various jobs loading hay bails, moving sprinkler pipe, worked in mining operations, etc. Made me strong and I was proud of the large physique I gained from those jobs. I was also proud of the rough skin on my hands and the blisters and cuts. Saw them as badges of honor. I'm older now and the muscle has began to sag and the hands don't do much hard labor anymore. Young men today still want to "bulk up" but instead of taking on hard physical jobs they go to the gym every day and drink protein shakes and take steroids to grow the muscle that I grew from my hard labor jobs. I never took protein drinks, growth hormones or steroids but in my day I could easily bench press 250 pounds. Today young men are more concerned with video games, manicures and lotions to keep their hands callus free. It's a different world, for sure.
I retired over ten years ago and am working harder and longer than I ever did when I was working for a paycheck. Someone just gave me a wheelbarrow because I'm too cheap to buy one for myself. For the last ten years I've been carrying wood, water, mulch, produce, etc. etc. by hand. The wheelbarrow is nice. It doesn't make the work any easier because I just do more in less time. I'm nowhere near as big as I was in my 20's or 30's, but I'm way better shape than most people of any age in the US.
OK boomer!
And of course, you had to eat shoe leather for lunch!
The older you get, the harder you had it, and the better you was!
Yeah right!
https://www.vox.com/2019/11/19/20963757/what-is-ok-boomer-meme-about-meaning-gen-z-millennials
Yes, two years of mandatory outdoor labor: Classic Nationalism, also called Fascism or National Socialism. This could be concurrent with their mandatory military service or apart from it for those who aren't going that way, like the ladies.
Girls.
We'll get you girls. But first you have to recant your Capitalist errors.
I'd like to see a new IRS hire picking lettuce.
IтАЩd like to see those IRS тАЬagentsтАЭ helping at the border WITHOUT their guns (as they want for the rest of us).
They bought them firearms a while back. ICE has more than enough employment slots for them at present.
That's what I've been saying. Deport the illegals, and replace them with the useless bureaucrats. Win-win for the American people.
But bureaucrats don't do work. They wouldn't have a clue how to do anything useful, and I'm sure, they don't have the mental capacity to learn.
Hunger is a strong motivator: let them (or their spoiled children) miss a couple meals or hot showers, and they'll become very interested in how to grub up a paycheck. (Well, like others here, I can dream, can't I?)
Well, they'll have to be taught then. After all, they'll be pink-slipped with no severance or retirement pay. At least in my fantasy world.
Enter UBI. One of the lessons sought from the "Covid" episode - a beta test for UBI. What amount keeps people on their couches?
Ron, exactly what has been happening under Biden. Covid has given them the excuse to stay home and pretend they are working. IsnтАЩt that the description of UBI? UBI was the тАЬsolutionтАЭ of the up-coming AI generation in California, led by Andy Wang in the 2020 Democrat primary, to provide for the people that are going to be clobbered by the AI revolution. Think what the Democrats have done,
1.Brought 30-50 million more mouths to feed into the country
2. Sent our тАЬmiddle classтАЭ jobs overseas and converted them to slave labor
3. Overeducated our children with bullshit majors
4. Created a worthless government bureaucracy that abhors working
5. Created the concept of UBI, where people get paid for doing nothing, just enough to survive, Maslow would love this one. They need to figure out who is going to create the meaningful money to finance this one. The Biden Covid UBI created 9% inflation. The Weimar Republic will always be the best example of what happens when you just create money with no backing.
6. Created the economic environment to accelerate AI, so after bullshitting our advanced education and bringing in millions of peons, they destroy the base of employment that the country needs.
WTF!!!!!!!!! These are all trends that Trump needs to pound into smithereens. The ideal goal would be for every SOB that is advancing these goals, to be drummed out of the country.
John - you're exactly right, excellent summary. Just a comment or two.
Yes, the PTB always game plan many years in advance. They know all the things you mention would basically idle our workforce. How to keep the natives from getting restless? That's when the problems start. So, what's the minimum amount necessary? They're trying to dial that amount in.
On inflation, you undershot - even at 9% - closer to 18% real rate. See the Chapwood Index, a true measure of inflation - a basket of 500 goods & services, measured every 6 months in the 50 largest cities. No adjustments, no substitutions, no bullshit.
https://chapwoodindex.com/
Using the Rule of 72, with inflation @ 18%, prices double every 4 years. Not a linear progression - geometric - another 4 years and prices double again.
A $4.50 hamburger in 2016, was $9.00 in 2020 and near $18.00 today. There you go.
Went to Chipotle the other day. Got a bowl full of rice, pico, guacamole, about a half a cup of chicken and some cheese. Damned thing cost me $19.00.
When considering inflation as high as it is is it any wonder housing prices are astronomical compared to what they were 20 years ago? I'm in land development. Costs are so bad now that profit margins are extremely thin for developers and home builders. Unless you are DR Horton or Meritage.
CP - you shoulda gone to the burger joint, you woulda saved a buck. :-)
You can also order a kiddie meal at a burger joint or more over here, which includes a juice-pack, small burger (but you can add adult portions of veggie/condiment stuff in it at no extra charge!) and onion rings, all for a kiddie price.
Zazzy, for you, price is no object. Dreamy and I will be happy to take you there. If you're extra good, you can even get a chocolate sundae for dessert.
Desire is endless but the world is limited. See the problem?
The answer is what you abhor: A steady state or control economy. Time to smell the music and face the coffee.
Nope. The answer is a free market. Fiat currency is state intervention.
Yes. a truly free market. Lugh is right as the pols do not want the uncertainty of a truly free market, nor does the stock market. So crony capitalism creeps in which does lead to socialism.
Yep, a truly free market - no subsidies, no incentives, no monopolies - all state intervention.
Yes. Sell off all Federal and State land. Hunt all the animals to extinction. If they can't survive, that's their problem. Cut down all the trees for lumber. Replant the wilderness as a tree farm. Money! You're another Ronny Ray Gun.
"People"? Same. If they can't survive under the Market or Law of the Jungle, they go under. You are another Dos Pasos or Upton Sinclair.
I laugh. The real price of gasoline is probably 10 dollars a gallon. You pickup guys are gonna be screwed. You'll have shoot outs at gas stations to get the last drops of ancient sunshine.
Ron says nothing. What could he say? He's an ideologue whose ideology is wrong.
No.
The world is only limited by man's imagination, resources have nothing to do with it.
Right. Just build a house in your mind and live in it. Ride to your job as panhandler in front of 7/11 on your imaginary horse. Or since your house is in your mind, just sleep in the doorway of the 7/11.
Right. Worked for the last 100,000 years or so.
Have you long have you lived in a cave?
Haha!
Brah-vo! Damn nearly suitable for framing!
Maslow was sound, but as a man, flawed. He struggled with hateful feelings towards his Christian students around Christmas time.
Yes, replace White Americans with immigrants at the lower levels and AI and/or Indians at the higher. Promise to take care of the now useless eaters but then get rid of them with the Vax. AI is an essential part of the equation of ending America and the White Western World. John is in favor of it. He can't hold all the moving pieces in his mind at the same time.
"The Biden Covid UBI created 9% inflation." Oh? Not the $8 trillion Trump added to the debt in just 4 years?
"UBI was the тАЬsolutionтАЭ of the up-coming AI generation in California" NOT!
The excuse to stay home and pretend they are working. IsnтАЩt that the description of UBI? NO IT ISN'T !
You need to broaden you reading my friend..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_basic_income
Milton Friedman, (an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the complexity of stabilization policy), proposed the idea of a negative income tax (NIT), which effectively sanctioned a basic income for all, in his book Capitalism and Freedom published in 1962.
In his 1964 State of the Union address, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced legislation to fight the "war on poverty". Johnson believed in expanding the federal government's roles in education and health care as poverty reduction strategies. In this political climate, the idea of a guaranteed income for every American also took root. Notably, a document, signed by 1200 economists, called for a guaranteed income for every American.
Succeeding President Richard Nixon explained its purpose as "to provide both a safety net for the poor and a financial incentive for welfare recipients to work." Congress eventually approved a guaranteed minimum income for the elderly and the disabled.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_advocates_of_universal_basic_income
S. Robson Walton, former Walmart Chairman[57]
Andrew Yang, American businessman, attorney, lobbyist, and politician. Founder of Venture for America, and a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate[79][80]
Tulsi Gabbard, former U.S. Representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district, and a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate[81]
Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Meta Platforms[82][83]
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon[84]
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft[85][note 1]
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple[86]
Larry Page, co-founder of Google[87]
....oh never mind.
The ideal goal would be for every SOB that is advancing these goals, to be drummed out of the country. Yeah right!
Obummer got the Novel Prize for doing what he does best, nothing. I'm not impressed.
Yeah. All you need is a source for the money generation to pay these gimmes. Are you so dumb to not realize that тАЬmoney does not grow on trees?тАЭ Money needs to be earned with labor or it has no meaning. UBI on a grand scale will bring down the monetary system.
Nonsense!
Proponents of UBI argue that basic income could increase economic growth because it would sustain people while they invest in education to get higher-skilled and well-paid jobs.[63][64]
Advocates contend that the guaranteed financial security of a UBI will increase the population's willingness to take risks,[66] which would create a culture of inventiveness and strengthen the entrepreneurial spirit.[67]
According to statements of American Enterprise Institute-affiliated Libertarian/conservative scholar Charles Murray, recalled and sanctioned in 2016 by the George Gibbs Chair in Political Economy and Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and nationally syndicated columnist[69][70] Veronique de Rugy, as of 2014, the annual cost of a UBI in the US would have been about $200 billion cheaper than the US system put in place at that date.[71] By 2020, it would have been nearly a trillion dollars cheaper.[72]
According to Swiss economist Thomas Straubhaar, the concept of UBI is basically financeable without any problems. He describes it as "at its core, nothing more than a fundamental tax reform" that "bundles all social policy measures into a single instrument, the basic income paid out unconditionally."[74]
Regarding the question of basic income vs jobs, there is also the aspect of so-called welfare traps. Proponents of basic income often argue that with a basic income, unattractive jobs would necessarily have to be better paid and their working conditions improved, so that people still do them without need, reducing these traps.[86]
Geez, Denis - it's all pearls before swine. Not sure why you bother showing off your powerful intellect around this shaking shack...
Maria, I am not that smart, I just know how to use the resources that the wonderful internet makes available to everyone of us.
Every one of us that is not closed minded that is.
Hahahahahaha! Boy have you been sucked into a bunch of BS by the extremists on the Left.
Money has to be generated by some sort of human activity. I will bet you think food stamps are a human right too. You are just a little Left of Bernie Sanders, and I will tell you a secret. During the next four years, your opinion means absolutely nothing, Leftie.
I suppose you think Milton Friedman was a "leftie." LOL
One thing you excel at, my friend - putting labels on people.
Better you go onto READ ONLY mode - and stop making a fool of yourself.
Yes, very true: many were very happy to be paid to sit at home in prison a long as they could get fed and watch Netflix and porn.
Pathetic, but that is the mass of mankind now.
And substance abuse and depression soared. Endless amusement is no laughing matter.
All of a man's problem stem from his inability to sit quietly in his room. So you're not wrong, but of course you want him to go out and look for trouble, so you're not right either.
I like this comment, Lugh. I have three children coming of age and they can't go five minutes without music. Either they are blasting it from a speaker (much to my annoyance) or they are hiding behind gawdy earphones or ear buds. These young people don't know how to handle quiet time.
I love to sit on my back patio and just watch the world. I sit in silence, watching the birds fly by, the bumble bee work over some Linden tree blossoms or my young corgi sniff about the plants in the garden. It's in these quiet times that we actually can think and resolve so many problems.
"These young people don't know how to handle quiet time"
What a stupid gross generalization, Cankerpuss.
How many "young people" do you spend time with?
My young Daughter who is an MD, and just got another PhD would like to have a word with you - and give you a well-deserved swift kick in your nuts!
Good for her, a Type-A, hard-charger, an overachiever - probably running from something, anything to avoid the "quiet". For many like this, it's hard to be a human being they prefer, for whatever reasons, to be a human doing.
Cankerpuss's point may stand. I'd bet that if you tied her to a chair - no phone, no screens, no noise, no intentional distractions - her head would probably explode after 5 minutes of quiet.
Or I could be completely wrong.
Dennis Merwood likes to bring up his daughters. This is the second time he's bragged about his super girls and told me they want to meet me and kick my ass. Dennis Merwood is an arrogant prick, but I must admit his comments are quite comical. Although I will not engage him directly I do find myself actually looking forward to his comments. They make me laugh. He's easy to bait. Mention God and he's all over it like white on rice, like stink on poop. The dude is hilarious.
"All of a man's problem stem from his inability to sit quietly in his room." ~ Lugh
There's a lot of truth in this. In his room or in his cave, as the ascetics did.
If true, this is a silver lining of Hyperacusis. My body forces me to be very quiet, much of the time. I can work, but only with a quiet work environment. Engineering employers would rather be sued than give engineers the quiet work environment that the accounting department generally has.
from Blaise Pascal, mathematician turned spiritual seeker turned Catholic mystic.
Most people hate their jobs. Why wouldn't they? What could be more abnormal and destructive than repetitive labor or part time slavery?
Yes, it's better than full time slavery as per UBI's guilded cage. But can we not do better? Not under Capitalism which will replace most of with AI and AI guided robots.
An Indian (feather, not dot) sits in the shade of a tree along a country road. A man drives by and stops and asks the Indian what he's doing. Enjoying the day he says.
The man tells the Indian he needs to get a job. Why asks the Indian. So you can save money says the man. What do I need money for asks the Indian. So you can invest the money and someday retire. Why says the Indian. So when you retire, you can sit in the shade of a tree and enjoy the day.
So true, Ron. Such a rat race we have created for ourselves in our Country. I just spent a couple weeks in Mexico and I loved it. The people there have much less than we do but they are also happier and seemingly more satisfied. My favorite day was resting on the beach and watching Mexican fishermen clean their catch of the day. Didn't detect any misery in those guys. Lots of jokes, singing, laughter and banter with their buddies. I was envious of them and dreading the return to "murica" and the rat race. If I had the cojones, I'd pull an Andy Durfrain from the Shawshank Redemption and high tail it out of here to Mexico for a simpler life.
Yet you endorse the rat race of the Market, the fore-runner of the AI Beast.
You may be right BUT
There is a huge problem that will arise, and it has already started. AI may come into manufacturing and eradicate human labor. BUT, what happens when the consumer base erodes or dies and their is no one to buy what AI does? How do you have an economy where no one has purchasing power, there is no or little demand. That day is coming. Will wise men stop it? As there are no wise men in government, counting on government to help us is a joke, a fatal joke.
FYI. Musk goes through his factories and has found that some jobs are better done by people and removes robotics.
Economics As If People Mattered by Hazel Henderson. The title tells the tale. AI is worthless because it replaces people directly. You worry that this may be bad for the economy! - forgetting that the economy or "art of the household" is supposed to serve man. What a confused condition you are in.
If other nations want to go down this path of death, let them. Break off all relations with them and just wait for them to die off.
Where do you read all this nonsense John?
Maybe it's time you started reading different comics!
"The day is coming where we have an economy where no one has purchasing power, there is no or little demand."
Got a link to any rational person who holds this belief?
While you are looking for links ~ find us one about Elon found that some jobs are better done by people and removes robotics. LOL
As I said, read his Biography before you shoot your mouth off about things YOU know nothing about!!!
So, you can't find any reference that Elon found that some jobs are better done by people and removes robotics
What page of his Biography is this discussed on?
Since you know so much about it you would provide a link, or evidence.
But you can't. You think you know everything about everything! Look at your posts in this thread. Like the day is coming where we have an economy where no one has purchasing power, there is no or little demand.
As I said, you know nothing about what you are espousing, about anything you espouse. I disagree with Cankerpuss, you are not humorous, you are disgusting. Read his bio, fool, I do not have to supply you with pages for you to understand what Musk is all about. Everything I have stated is in the bio, if you want to stop your absurd statements, read the damn book.
Bandit, I take some exception to your comment. Not all bureaucrats are lazy slobs not doing anything on the job all day. In my line of work in land development I work consistently with city governments and I can state that some of the city workers are hard working individuals. When we are putting in a water line those city inspectors are right in there working hard, doing their jobs. When a water or sewer line goes bad the City workers are there getting the repairs done. Building Inspectors, City Planners, and other officials work long hours getting my plans reviewed so I can meet deadlines. Yes, you are right, some bureaucrats don't do any work and are leaches, but from my experience many government employees do work hard and do their best to assist us in the private sector.
One could raise the question if we need all of these City jobs such as inspectors and planners. That's a different discussion for a different time. My only point is I don't agree that all bureaucrats don't do any work. Some of those that I work with are very hard working individuals.
FYI, the city workers are not bureaucrats. They are, at least, skilled trades, they work for their money. I've worked for cities, too. The bureaucrats do jack, other than sit around and put down the people doing the work.
I'm glad to hear you say that. I have worked with many City workers and they have all been very dedicated, skillful, knowledgeable and hard working people. They earn their paychecks, even if it is the government paying them.
Thank-you for noticing that we're not the scum management says we are.
Have you ever had the nickname, Bandits, with an s?
Nope.
Fair enough.
ThIs what the Socialists want, dependence on the government. They, under Obama mostly, ex-patted all the meaningful industries. тАЬWe will become a.service economy and let China et al be the Dirty manufacturersтАЭ. What a dumb ass. Then we convince all the Boomer and Generation G parents that the only path to success is a college education, mostly worthless majors. Then our government somehow managed to load up the colleges with idiots preaching Marxism, socialism and government control. So today, the education profile shows a very top heavy group of graduates that know nothing, have no skills and need the government to create bullshit jobs for them. Then Biden imports another 30-50 million non-skilled people and allowing the globalists to take over big chunks of the US economy. Nice!!!!!!!
JHK is right, one of the objectives of the Trump administration has to be the eradication of the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party and the advance of the party that is pro-USA and anti-socialistic. Right now, not many of those left. The gimme mentality created by 35 years of Left wing control (Yeah, the Bushes too) has infected the USAтАЩs mentality. Trump has his work cut out for him, also his cabinet.
Sidebar - Watched a You Tube yesterday about the renewed construction of the Wall, that beautiful yuge wall that will allow the Border Patrol to actually prevent incursions of globalist illegals. If Trump does two things, eliminate the college paradigm and drive out the professors that are distorting the kids, and put the border under control, we will be one step up on trying to reverse the socialist trend.
Speaking of useful jobs, Trump and Co. should figure out all the infrastructure projects that need to be done.
Bridges, Flint water plumbing re-do to get the lead out, cleaning up North Carolina and help people re-build in safe no-flood zones, highway repairs etc.
Create trade jobs and trade tech schools to teach all the loafers how to be plumbers, electricians, welders and how to run heavy machinery (think Mike Roe dirty jobs training) etc.
There is plenty of hard work to be done but most are not trained for it.
If we want the youth of our nation to learn useful professions they have to have the schools to go to and know there will be decent paying jobs at the end.
Right now China supplies us with necessary medications like Tylenol, antibiotics and more. All the things China makes FOR us that we NEED should be made HERE. It is a national security issue.
Lots to consider and figure out to REALLY make America great again and lift Americans into useful, meaningful jobs.
I'd reintroduce shop and trade training at the middle school level with apprenticeships for high school.
Home ec too. Teach girls how to cook, clean, look good and please their husbands.
you do you, boo. this particular girl would take auto mechanics plumbing and wiring. which surprise are all things I do around the house I built personally by hand. and I choose to please myself. but if you want to learn how to please somebody else, also called co-dependecy, have at it.
Yes, nobody should ever try and please anybody. That's what the robots are going to be for. When you try and tinker with them, they will zap you and report you to the manufacturer.
There are projects here and there that have cropped up but there are nowhere near the number needed.
Where are the guys and gals who want to be welders? Electricians? These seem like great trades to me.
Flint knapping. Learn to make flint arrow and spear heads. Every youth spends five years on "the Wild Continent". They will hunt and gather, form tribes and make war. Many will never return. Some will not want to return. But those who come back will be magnificent. Side benefit of controlling the population.
Geez! Careful, Abby...JohnAZ will be calling you a 'radical left socialist' soon, with all your 'gimme' projects!
Oh no I wonтАЩt, Abby. When is the last time you saw the federal government тАЬtalkтАЭ to the states or locals about what they need? Flint is still lead-lined? That is a disgrace. Look at the border, have the Feds helped any of the states with the costs of dealing with these groups.
My problem with the government is that they put their money into politically items instead of what is really needed. Right now, there is no more obvious support for this statement than So Cal. God gave us brains and the power to use them, it appalls me how much of that is wasted in government.
Even Lugh states that the best situations are good governments manned by good people. His dreams are good, finding them has been impossible. Good government set limits on interfering with the folks it is supposed to support. In my lifetime, 77 years, I have not seen that yet at any level of government.
OMG...I better stop reading this male bovine excrement.........
It's up to my neck, just with your four posts so far my friend!
BTW, what do you do to earn your dough to pay the piper?
Just wondering?
Not quite as concise as the numbered list but with the added suggestion that a LOYAL opposition is to be... I would say a necessity.
Pick beans, or learn to code! Better yet, go to trade school. Around here, there's a severe shortage of plumbers, electricians, and carpenters.
Lots of opportunities.
I have two sons coming of age. I desperately tried to emphasize upon their brains that no matter what happens there will always be a need for someone to fix pipes, run wires and build walls and that there were ample opportunities for great success in those trades. No interest. None whatsoever.
Too bad. Plumbers and electricians make more money than I ever did and I'm retired now.
Cankerpuss.
I have a new great grandson, and his dad has just entered the workforce. I have no advice to give them at all, because my upbringing and knowledge base are so out of date. AS JHK has said it, the on-coming generations are going to have to wing it, reacting to a constantly changing workplace. I have read recently that Gen Z in Britain is favoring dictatorship as the preferred form of government. Have we wasted two hundred fifty years of republicanism?
If only evolution or God had given humanity the ability to have a generational or genetic memory. Humanity wouldn't have to re-learn the same lessons over and over again. Unfortunately, we don't live long enough. By the time the grand children come of age the grandparents are gone and there experience and wisdom of 8 or 9 decades is gone with them.
well the first thing we do is make those jobs well paid and well regarded. as a country we have demeaned genuine useful work for as long as I can remember (73 yo)
I'm not sure that society demeaned useful work so much as drank the Everybody Needs College Kool-Ade.
The Everybody Needs College Kool-Ade, because it was racist for companies to hire on merit or intelligence.
Another case of a govt regulatory body paying activists to sue it until it got what it wanted.
I'm 71. When I was in my 20s, my mother kept bemoaning the fact that I didn't have "that piece of paper".
Now I'm debt-free, retired, and own my own home; I worked for myself most of my life, and I'm pretty happy. Never went to college, but dammit I can spell and punctuate better than almost any college graduate today.
A high school grad from the mid 20th century knows more, understands more and is more flexible than any college grad today.
Not so sure that it was always Kool -Aid. It is hard (for me, at least) to imagine what the impact of the G.I. Bill has been on U.S. history. Suddenly servicemen and women, for the low, low price of risking their lives, could go to college. One need no longer be among the landed gentry to read great books and learn great things.
It is unsurprising and indeed it is a very good thing that this caught on.
But then came The Age of Indolence, which began several decades ago, and in which we are now stuck, seemingly stuck but good and for a long, long time.
The whole nation nearly swooned last week to witness people working! That could catch on.
Spot-on, actually; the post WWII GI Bill era was arguably the sweet spot. College admission standards hadn't crumbled yet, skilled trades still respected -- the evil came later.
I thought I read over the weekend that 1/4 of American adults are receiving Medicaid payments. Guessing 60-80% of these people are capable of some type of meaningful work.
You have pointed out one form of underhanded welfare. The biggest is Social Security for disabilities. Lawyers figuring out ways to get disability for people who have been thrown out of the economy have exploded in numbers.
My understanding of SS for disability: it has to be near 100% disability.
In other words, no working
I'm sure there are some with real permanent disabilities who fit this definition.
Am also sure the system can be gamed. Why not? Gaming the system has become a way of life for quite a few.
RE: SS disability-- in the past, it was not that difficult to get, IF you had a lawyer.
Neighbor had an adult son who was married, had two kids but worked. He was dyslexic, and possibly had ADHD. But he held a job for many years, and then went to government sponsored Janitor School. And worked. The parents decided that they didn't want to support him all his life, so they got a doctor to claim he was bipolar. He was rejected for SSI, and then, voila! He got a lawyer and got approved.
FYI, he's not disabled and very likely isn't bipolar. Just lazy.
Having looked at programs like this, admittedly quite a few years ago, I had a difficult time understanding why anyone would want the level of intrusion, surveillance, and loss of freedom as major side benefits of such programs.
Yet, over the course of a career, I regualrly saw people welcomingly submit to this government instrusion in order to receive 'benefits' at the expense of personal freedom/liberty.
We have been reaping the 'benefits' of these programs sown over the past few decades, to the point of national detriment.
It's going to come to a swift and harsh end. Why? Because there isn't any money anymore. The money is gone. Poof! Vanished. There is no money. Nothing. Nada. Bupkiss. Like JHK said, we are getting to the point where we can't even service that debt anymore. The tipping point is near.
Yup!
gaming the system starts at the top.
My wife works in an orthepedic clinic and many of their customers are on Medicaid. Medicaid pays jack so the doctor stopped accepting it. Lost a lot of patients but still making money.
Oh dear... aren't you going to run out of all the tired old clich├йs before this thread ends my friend?
Recall the professors from Russia that came here to be employed as janitors in schools last century... it was almost a cliche.
Mary, when I was working as a nurse in Denver, there was an influx of CNAs from Russia. They were all Russia doctors that could not be accredited here in the USA and needed to survive. Most I believe became accredited and became MDs here.
yes, they can get off of their fat butts playing online games all day and actually earn a living instead of leeching off of the us government.
For the past 5 years or so, I've been getting my hands dirty and cultivating some skills on a small community garden plot across the inlet here in Halifax.
I figure if I had 10 of them-- and not too much harder to manage, since I have to be there for the one anyway-- and could prevent the deer-plunder, I could probably feed myself more or less for a full year, minus the meat part of the diet (unless I ate the slugs). (Deer are probably legally off-limits, for now.)
Point is in part that gardening is not that hard once you get into it and are willing to put in a reasonable amount of work, but not all that much. There might even be a book or two out there talking about the 'lazy gardeners' with associated strategies in that regard.
But it's also surprisingly fulfilling and self-empowering and takes you away from being a childlike dependent on the status-quo.
The three sisters. Once acre of corn, beans, and squash can feed an entire family if well done on good land.
And if you have a water supply.
Speaking of water, Phoenix is about to tie its records for the longest number of consecutive days without rain, 157, I believe. Slight chance in the forecast.
Phoenix. A huge city where mother nature did not intend there to be a huge city.
You are right, it has totally changed character in the 20 years I have been here. The major thing people relate to is that there is little catastrophic weather here. Not even heavy thunderstorms creating tornadoes. Just heat and a rapidly oncoming problem with water. Every year we have Boomer snowbirds that stop going north in the summer and hang around all year. You do get used to the heat after being here awhile, but lose your ability to tolerate cold, and I mean less than 80 degrees. It is hilarious to see folks here in their winter garb when the temp is in the 60s.
Phoenix, Las Vegas, Tucson are all cities that should not exist where they exist. Wholly dependent upon the water of the Colorado, San Juan, Virgin and Gila rivers, among others. Ingenuity of man has brought the water to the cities but the numbers of man have grown so large that there is no longer enough water to sustain these huge cities in such a hostile environment.
My State of Utah is suffering with a dramatically water-LESS winter. The mountains in which I live typically at this time of year have 40 inches of snow. Right now we have 9 inches. When Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico suffer dry winters places like Vegas, Phoenix and Tucson are going to hurt. It's quite a dilemma.
Oh, and JohnAZ, many of the ski resorts here in Utah now often resort to snow making machines in order to open their slopes in October-November. You are right, things are changing.
JHK predicted the demise of the ski industry in the mountains based on the loss of oil to power it. I think we are seeing the effect of the atmosphere warming during the winter and the storm track moving north. Probably aided by La Ni├▒a. Like Jupiter, Earth has belts of wind generation. The three are Trades, blowing E to W, the Westerlies, blowing W to E, and the polar Easterlies, blowing E to W. The borders between these zones are turbulent and full of energy. They are the jet streams and the storm tracks. Think of hurricanes, the move E to W until the cross over the storm tracks then reverse to W to E. Anyway, where the belts lay across the USA determines where the storm tracks go with the water they carry as storms. Something is happening, moving the storm track north, which is a character of more equatorial heating AKA La Ni├▒a.
BTW. The water compact governing the Colorado River is very heavily slanted toward California, Fat lot of good that did.
You're such a polymath, JohnAZ. Is there NOTHING that you don't know EVERYTHING about? Oh, and how's your survival of the 'clot-shot' going? Still truckin' along, eh?
I know a little about a lot, enough to comment on the blog. As far as the clot shot, I have had sequelae on and off since I made the mistake of trusting the medical community. Covid twice, Pertussis once and I know two folk that have gotten auto immune disease as a result f either the disease or the Vaxx. If you will look at my comments over the years you will discover I have been an opponent to the Vaxx, based on data, not opinion.
BTW, your state of Utah is gorgeous.
Utah is an amazing place. I have three distinct geographic regions all within driving distance of where I live. To the west I have the Great Salt Lake Desert and the basin and range topography, to the south I have the red rock canyons and to the north east I have the high alpine forests of the Rocky Mountains. It is a stunning place to live and I love it here.
I am a native Arizonan, though, I only lived there as an infant. Born in Flagstaff. Moved to and lived in Page for a year and then taken by my parents to Idaho and then in my teens to Utah. Been here ever since. I love living in the west. It breaks my heart to see the unending immigration to these states from California and some eastern states. Utah is greatly losing its charm. I stay away from Salt Lake City now because it is becoming too large and too busy. It wasn't always this way. Montana is what Utah used to be. But even Montana is feeling the affects of the in-migration of Californians.
By the way, JohnAZ, I always enjoy your comments. I may not always agree with you but I always find your comments insightful and interesting.
Yes, that's what is understood. I actually have a squash soup in the fridge as we speak, made with some stuff from the garden from last summer/fall, including the squash (butternut-- easy to peel compared with acorn), garlic, a few very finely-chopped beet leaves and a splash of home-brewed apple cider.
I grew corn one summer before, indidentally, but planted it a little too late for our shorter growing season. In any case I figured that it didn't really give us much in the way of how much of the plant is edible, or at least perhaps reasonably so (just the kernals?). With some exceptions, ideally, I might prefer plants that are edible from root-to-leaf.
Also, although I plant beans all the time, at the garden we're at, the deer love it and they eat it all up, like the whole plant, not just the bean pods.
What I have intention to do this year is to look into the idea of surrounding some of the more vulnerable crops in cylinders of chicken-wire. I'd rather not have to do that, but if the deer can't be killed and eaten, it's a compromise. I'll try to let you know how it goes.
Grow potatoes. They do well in cooler climates, produce food that a human can survive on alone, and the potatoes, if stored in a cool area, can last for months. I grow a good supply of potatoes every year and store them under ground. The smaller ones I then re-use as seed potato and plant them in the fall. Come spring when the soil warms the seed potato sprouts and produces more.
That's not a bad idea, I'll look into it. It also kind of dovetails into a plan to plant rutabagas, which I quite like. I tend to plant a reasonably diverse garden plot-- about 13 kinds of stuff-- so I've still got options if some do less well than others.
Where are you located? What's your climate like or growing-zone?
I live in the Western United States in the Rocky Mountains. Our growing season is typically from mid May to late September. Warm dry summers and cold snowy winters. The potatoes do really well here. I will usually plant two dozen seed potatoes and harvest four 5 gallon buckets of softball sized potatoes. Red Pontiac and Yukon Gold do really well here. They taste fantastic when they are fresh.
Good to know... So, can I take any ol' potato, say from a grocery store, and bury it an inch or three in the soil? And can I plant a seed potato in the spring, seeing as I'm too late for the fall? I'll probably be looking the answers up and since I'm also looking at rutabagas, but any tips or tricks you might like to offer would of course be appreciated.
You can try a potato from the grocery store but it is my understanding that they spray them with anti-sprouting chemicals. They don't sprout as good as an "organic" spud, if you will. I usually buy a fresh crop of "certified seed" potato from IFA or Tractor Supply. They are cheap but you get better sprouting from them than from a super market spud. You only need one eye per hill so one seed potato may yield four plants. I would plant it at least 6 to 8 inches deep in the soil and hill the soil over the potato. The taller the potato has to grow the more potatoes you get as the plant shoots the tubers off to the side of the vine. And yes, it will grow if you plant it deep.
Never grown rutabagas before.
Thanks, Cankerpuss. Again, can I plant in the spring? (You said you planted in the fall.)
Also, does the 6 to 8 inches include the 'hill' (presumably that means mound?) over the potato?
Good point about the anti-sprouting thing. Hadn't thought of that and it kind of reminds me of those 'terminator' seeds.
I plant in the fall, but you can also plant in the spring as soon as you can dig down into the soil. I like to do the fall to avoid digging in muddy soil :)
6 to 8 inches does not include the hill or mound. The hill or mound is in addition to. You will also increase the hill size once the plant has grown about a foot above the ground to keep the spuds covered and free from sun light. Sun burns the potatoes, turns them green and makes them acidic.
You're dreaming and you've bought into the false narrative that they're "unskilled labor." Useless government paid parasites have no clue how to pick produce. Most probably can't even identify a head of lettuce in a field, much less figure out how harvest it. There would be no effective difference between hiring useless government parasites and letting the fields rot. The skills sets necessary to pick broccoli, cilantro, lettuce, etc. etc. would take them years to develop. It would probably take most Americans months to develop the skills to make it worth their while, and even then it still wouldn't be enough to keep up with inflation. Those illegal aliens picking produce in the fields can pick a whole row of broccoli in the time it would take you or I to pick just one case.
So kick them out and then create a system that lets them easily enter the country, legally, and work for a time. I'm not opposed to immigration. My great great grandparents emigrated from Denmark in the 1800s. We need to know who they are and where they go and how long they will be here.
During the Biden admin, he admitted 10MM + illegal aliens. That was over a 4-year period.
Who did that stuff 4 years ago?
It's going to be fine.
JLM
www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
The level of disinformation in this post is utterly astounding. Ignorance is no excuse, but I guess if you get your 'information' from OANN & Newsmax, then you will only 'know' what is just not true. There have been fewer illegal immigrants crossing the border from 2021 to 2024 than in the 4 years of the administration of Trump 1.0. And, just so you know, those flights of Colombian deportees that made the news this week? They were all rounded up and processed for the off by the Biden administration. What a bunch of feckless know-nothings around here.
Don't let the e door hit you where the good Lord split you. (Screw you Merwood)
Actually we had a record number of construction jobs the last several years as Biden is a builderтАжconstruction job openings started declining last year which is when illegal immigration started declining. Same thing happened under Bush/Cheney. Oh, remember when Bush said New Orleanians would build back their city after Katrina?? Nope, a month later a city with very few Latinos started getting taco trucks. Construction is just highly dependent on Latino immigrants and just visit Austin and take the side streets coming from the airport and you will see what IтАЩm talking about!
I'm all for making the parasites work for a change, BUT.....
In the Bio-Tech hog pen Trump and his cronies are setting up for you (they thought he'd do a better job than Kamala, that's all) there will be no:
Private houses to clean
Private gardens
Meat to grill,
No money to pay their wages, etc.
When will this sink in?! They told us what they intend to do last week.
Maybe the former parasites can make themselves useful as injectors of the new mRNA treatments, although I think they intend to move to aerosol versions to overcome 'injection hesitancy'.
Trump has gotten a company to develop 500 billion dollars worth of AI in the USA. He wants a piece of that pie, WHICH IS COMING, whether we like it or not. His success though will be the import of many of the companies which Obama and Biden alienated. One thing that will help this is the fact that shipping costs are becoming inflated greatly and I notice that many of the world problems, which I believe Trump understands, are related to transporting goods. Soon, it will be more profitable to build things here, rather than ship them in.
BTW, transportation costs are why Trump wants Canada and Greenland. Russia owns 1/2 of the seaways around the North Pole, and Trump wants the other half. Global warming is going to make Canada and Siberia inhabitable and the seaways will shift away from the Panama Canal. This is a gamble for Trump but I believe worth the risk.
Yes, it is an absolute disaster. And yes, China is way ahead because of "Open AI" and Elon's greed.
I remind you of the 11th Commandment of the Orange Bible: Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of the human mind. We need a Prophet to arise and destroy all of this in the Butler Jihad.
You need to read Musk's biography. He started Open AI and sold off his share when the board started going against his "safeguards" against AI control over us. I feel safer with him in place to counter the fools pushing Trump into more computer control.
Do you think the poles flip periodically?
https://theethicalskeptic.com/2024/05/12/exothermic-core-mantle-decoupling-dzhanibekov-oscillation-ecdo-hypothesis/
Magnetic poles! BTW, it is in process right now and absolutely no one has tried to correlate it to increased surface temperatures. To me, anything that can affect the magnetic shield around Earth could be a prime contributor.
Give me the Overton Window over the Dzhanibekov Oscillation anyday.
Global Warming??? Isn't that a Chinese Hoax, at least according to the Great Orange Leader, JohnAZ?
Plus, you must have missed the news about DeepSeek and how the Chinese have totally OWNED the techbros? In any case, Trump couldn't care less - he's picked up a few billion on paper with his meme coin grift. How many did YOU buy, JohnAZ?
None, how did you become so knowledgeable about Leftist leanings? We will disagree on just about everything, obviously. BTW, you just lost in November, thank God!
No Maria you're wrong. No one denies the climate has changed. The denial part come from what caused the change. Let me give you an example: When the Vikings settled Greenland it truly was a green land. About 300 years later the climate had changed to the point that those settlements had to be abandoned due to the cold. The cause? Climate variability , a process that occurs on a cyclical basis. Perhaps if you don't agree, you'll point out the Viking's use of carbon based machinery?
Oh, please! Those parasites are better educated, more presentable and with a better skill set than many in the labor force and will push the least competitive down a rung. Those are the people who will be manning grills and picking crops. Perhaps domestics servants will once again become affordable, and you too can have a girl of all work.
Their education may be about to get real.
Or a robot. Have you noticed that most of the robots being developed are female?
~ Our Skin Is In Their Game & That Creepy Sophie Vibe ~
That's maybe because most of their coders and engineers, etc., are 'horny boys' and who knows what else.
Well they 'look' 'female' anyway, if super creepy, especially that Sophie one. Maybe they 'fixed' it-- i mean, 'her'.
...And that trio of humans flanking (& rimming) Trump, in their Walmart suits and with their slacks bunched up over their shoes.
Sophie doesn't have a monopoly on creepiness. Maybe they do their Sophies when no one's looking, except their club-members.
Most of the ones I see are dogs.
john, you doing gender assignment? !! :)
Yeah. I am usually blind to human differences. But these robot developers aren't.
Just saw a map of where both aircraft were flying, their routes into the crash. A huge question, what the heck was that Helicopter doing in the flight path for runway 33 that the plane was landing at, and at the same altitude, which is being investigated as they are supposed to fly at a lower altitude especially around Reagan Airport.