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Showing posts with the label future

Government Gift Cards

Government Gift Card Rant #22 ( Opinion ) April 3, 2020 Automatic stabilizers for recessions makes the most sense as a policy in order to smooth out economic slowdowns. That concept means that basically as soon as the markets show signs of slowing, the federal government automatically disburses checks of a set sum until a recovery begins. It would not replace things like unemployment insurance, but rather serves as a way to put extrra capital in the pockets of Americans. Then, when the economy gets going again, the Federal Reserve would take the training wheels off, so to speak. Failing that (or even as a way to augment it), I have an idea for future US stimulus checks. We should send people gift cards, essentially, the value of which expires at the end of the fiscal year, or 365 days later or something. Maybe people get one every month and the value goes down by 10% each month it is unused, expiring entirely at the end of one year or 18 months. In a scenario with no autom...

Radical Relationship Shifts--Will They Ruin Society As We Know It?

Radical Relationship Changes--Will They Ruin Society As We Know It? Rant #20 ( Opinion ) March 30, 2020 Homosexuality, birth control, children born out of wedlock, divorce, single mothers, casual sex, transsexuals--all sinful choices that will lead to a ruinous society, so say the right-wing, traditionalist, often religious voices. They've said this before. Radical shifts around sexuality and family structure rocked Western societies with the spirit of Enlightenment in the late 18th and early 19th century. It started in America and France (doesn't it always?) before it rocked the establishment conservatives of that time. What crazy, liberal, revolutionary new sexual and relationships started to become common then? Some people at that time began to practice the previously taboo act of marrying a person that they felt limerance towards. In other words, couples began to get married on the basis of infattuated feelings and love for one another. Which went against t...

The Fate of "Trumpism"

The Fate of "Trumpism" Rant #18  ( Opinion ) March 23, 2020 The future of what reluctantly gets the label of 'Trumpism' has increasingly represented a topic of much speculation among those who spend their time thinking about politics. I have a few tentative thoughts on that, based mostly on sheer guesswork. Many have argued that after leaving office, the Republican Party will 'snap out' of its Trump-induced spell; politicians will write off their former support for him in one way or another to avoid association with that trainwreck. While that sounds like an appetizing outcome to me, that is very unlikely, in my opinion. The man has amassed too much popularity for him to just step off the stage and fade into the background. The vicious and aggressive tweeting he does will in and of itself continue to effect the public discourse and news cycles long after leaving office. If Trump loses in November, after a lengthy dispute about the integrity of the...

Psychoactive Substances' Presence In Narcissistic Nationalist Politicians

"Psychoactive Substances' Presence In Narcissistic Nationalist Politicians" Rant #11 ( Opinion ) Originally March 13, 2020  Today, the president declared a national emergency in response to the spreading coronavirus, COVID-19. During the announcement , Trump gave his usual brash presentation. And yet, the way he spoke sounded a lot lower and slower than the way he usually speaks. Perhaps my observation here is a bit slanted: I only heard the address on the radio, so I don't know what he actually looked like during this. Also, I may be uniquely keen on noticing the effects of drugs on someone. So, was Trump on drugs?  The slurring, that weird draggy low voice: I don't know if you could go so far to say that there exists an 'opioid accent,' but the way he sounded reminded me of how many men tend to talk while on dope. Stringing together words has never been a challenge for this president. Those words might not make any sense at all, bu...

Can Bernie Take Texas?

Can Bernie Take Texas? My Take  ( Opinion ) Originally February 28, 2020 Could Bernie pull off a win in Texas? No, not on Super Tuesday. I don't mean next week; I mean in November. Conventional wisdom would quickly assert 'no'-- but that dynamic might be changing. A new poll by the University of Houston in association with Univision and "Latino Decisions" shows some surprising results. Among the 1,004 registered voters they surveyed, 45% said if the election were tomorrow, they would vote for Bernie Sanders--equal to the percentage of respondents who said they would vote for Donald Trump. This leaves 10% undecided, but still. The idea that a Democrat--let alone one regarded as so far left--could do well in Texas comes as a surprise to many Americans. After all, this is the state of George W. Bush. A conservative powerhouse and in some ways an emblem of the right done 'right.' How could this happen? If you regularly read The Man of Jackist...

Vote Shrooms-Ayahuasca 2020

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"Vote Shrooms-Ayahuasca 2020" Rant #3 ( Opinion) Originally February 1, 2020 On May 7, 2019, by the narrowest margin, the people of Denver voted "yes" on a controversial ballot initiative. Despite just 50.6% support at the polls, Initiative 301 passed, making Denver, Colorado the first city in the United States to decriminalize shrooms. Yes, those shrooms: also known as magic mushrooms, more formally referred to as psychedelic mushrooms. This categorization represents over 200 species of fungi that contain psilocin or psilocybin, mostly in the genus Psilocybe. These mushrooms grow allover the United States and the world. And for the last 50 or so years, it has been a crime to buy, sell, grow or hold any of them.  I've said this for years, going back as far as 2007-08 as more and more states considered and then legalized marijuana first for medical uses, then for recreational: the 2010s would be the decade of cannabis. States would start to l...

Texas Turns Swing State, Hispanics Become White, and the Bolton Cover-Up

Texas Turns Swing State, Hispanics Become White, and the Bolton Cover-Up Rant #1 ( Opinion) Originally January 31, 2020 This is a rant that has to do with the idea that Texas will likely become a swing state in the near future, in part due to growing Hispanic populations. However, the White establishment may eventually absorb Hispanics to avoid becoming a minority population, much like they did with the Irish in an earlier era. And finally, some thoughts about the denial of John Bolton's witness testimony by the Senate and what that means. It is derived and cleaned up from a conversation I had with a friend today. Other portions of this conversation, also rants similar to this in form, may be posted later. 'Whites will be a minority by 2040.' Or 2050, 2045, whatever; the headline may have a range of potential years but they all point to the same thing: that the Hispanic population of the United States is growing rapidly, so much so that Non-Hispanic Whites will...