One World

I do not think native americans were all that different than europeans at their first meeting. 

A clan larger than 50 individuals requires social constructs to keep it together - god, money, prestige, nation, etc - intimacy and blood relations no longer sufficient with larger groups. Two strangers would fight side by side for the first time for nation, for god, for money, as examples.  

And so Natives invented their gods, had their money, defined prestige and success, had their nations and inevitable wars all as social glue for their societies - all of it human construct - none of it real. 

Europeans had advanced technologically - especially in devising new and more deadly ways to kill each other - which served to elevate and pervert their social constructs to psychopathy. Unhappily for the natives they had not yet reached those levels and were systematically destroyed - either by disease or murder.

But I think they would have had they been given the time. 

Self-inflicted Wounds

2977 people died on 9/11. We will exceed 3000 deaths in one day today from the coronavirus. Unlike 9/11, many of our covid deaths were avoidable. From an incompetent, anemic government response, to a group of Americans who find it inconvenient or just don't care - “It only kills the elderly or weak, Ill be fine” and who refuse to wear masks or social distance, we do this to ourselves. These deaths were avoidable, save for our weakness, ignorance, and inhumanity. What have we become? Please, social distance, wear a mask - care. 

Possibilities

Close your eyes

Lift your head to the sky

Raise open arms

Smile and

Embrace the possibilities

A Billion Years

The enemy of creationism is time. What is possible in a billion years negates all need for instantaneous conscious creation or even faith. 

Best Government Money Can Buy

 As long as there is money in politics, it will rule.

Next!

The beautiful actress talking to the camera, her thick, auburn hair, flowing over perfect shoulders, her breasts, the gentle curves of her back. Calm, eyes shining, full of life, kindness, and inner truth as she speaks to centering ones energy, opening ones mind to a universe that will care for you if only you allow it too. Give yourself to this universe, opens ones mind, ones heart, find the courage in order to find your inner calm, your peace, success, happiness, and true meaning. 

Look at her, magnificent, so beautiful, centered, calm - utterly intoxicating. Clearly she has THE answers. 

splat

An asteroid slams down sterilizing the surface of the earth. 

Next! 

The End of Economists

Economists have been arguing about whether mechanization and automation will completely displace human work pretty much forever.

The answer? There will always be work. The nature of that work will change - mostly for the good. But there will always be work. If not, we will cease to exist in very short order. 

Humans may need to augment their intelligence, even evolve past ‘human’ to continue, but there will always be work to do. 

But economists being economists have yet to even fathom the main near term impact of automation and AI on humans - the end of money. Easy to imagine machines providing all the necessities of high quality life -  food, shelter, transportation, clothing, etc independently of human supervision. From energy production, to raw material procurement, to processing and refinement, to manufacturing, and distribution, machines are not that far from doing this completely autonomously and thus, for free. What need money then? 

No money, no economy, no economists. Oops.

What Need Money Then?

Automation will not replace work, at least not in the near future. There will always be work for humans, or augmented humans to do - just not drudgery and repeatable task work. 

Automation, however, could render money obsolete within the next 20 years. 

Machines that gather and refine raw material, then process, assemble, and distribute finished product, could be made that produce almost all material goods needed to maintain high quality life within the next 20 years. Operated and maintained solely by AI and AI directed repair apparatus these machines could produce our homes, clothing, transportation, energy, toys, and food without human intervention. Self repairing machines with their own energy source would produce all the necessities of high quality life for free. What need money then? 

Heroes Wear Masks

Close your eyes. Pretend you are heading into the hospital where you work as a doctor. No more ‘heroes’. No more applauding crowds, no more hallways covered with signs and posters of gratitude from the community. Covid? Yesterdays news. 

Walk into the ICU where you work. See the drawn and emotionally exhausted faces of some of the finest people on earth, the nurses, as they have faced month after month of death and prolonged suffering of their patients from this cruel, unrelenting, disease. 

Now put on your PPE - gown, cap, respirator, face shield, gloves - as you have done  hundreds of times before - knowing a deadly virus lurks. Watch people of all ages and pre-existing conditions suffer horribly - struggling for weeks to breathe, alone, their families forbidden to visit, their doctors reluctant to put them on ventilators. Eventually they do get their ventilators, for weeks on end,  and then many die anyway. Ever watch a 23 year old previously healthy person suffocate and die despite all your best efforts? 

And now imagine going home to a nation bored with the virus, rationalizing selfish, self-centered, behavior despite 225,000 deaths.

I don’t feel heroic in what I do as an ICU doctor, I feel betrayed by a spoiled, ignorant, country. Masks work. Most of the spread of this virus is by droplets that masks catch. Tens of thousands of lives can be saved, the virus brought under control, the economy fully open, if only 90% of the people would wear a mask at all times when out. Please, most of you are not medically trained. You in fact do not know best. Listen to the experts, respect the deaths and suffering of hundreds of thousands.  Wear a mask.

A Universe For the Taking

I am amazed to see how small people can make their worlds despite exploring widely. And for others, how breathtakingly expansive and bold their worlds - despite being confined to a chair. 

Real Men

Three academic ‘doctors’. 

I found them in the basement smoking cigars & drinking whiskey - renaissance men all. 

I have never understood the appeal in shoving penis shaped tubes full of carcinogens into ones mouth & bonding - as ‘real’ men. Lol 

Oh my what a sight. 

Castles in the Sand

Tired of the game. 

A lifetime of scratching, compromising, and exchanging dreams for jewels. Living for security. Trading humaneness, richness of life, intimacy, for convenience, the familiar, the safe. 

Building kingdoms out of someone else's rubble all our lives and pretending they are something new. Only for it all to go to rubble upon our death, cycle complete. 

Life as we live it is a lie. A lifetime of false constructs and utter soul sucking bullshit. Money, prestige, success, religion - shallow two dimensional human construct - none of it real. We live within the confines of two dimensional drudge - like mice on a wheel, ants in a line - busy as hell with no idea - all the while immersed in an ancient, multidimensional, vastness of incredible complexity and beauty that is this universe. Despite endless opportunity for experience, for knowledge, for wisdom, for life - we instead choose two dimensional human construct - fantasy - ignorance - for a false sense of security, purpose, meaning. 

And in the end - we die. Having missed out on nearly everything.

Dying for a Better Government

158,000 people have died in the US of covid-19. Of those deaths,100,000 were preventible.100,000 people have died that needn't have, save for our government’s response. This is on our government - 100%.  

We have known that Washington was dysfunctional and corrupt for decades now. And it has only gotten worse with each passing year. And yet we have put up with it - year after dysfunctional year. And people have suffered for it.

But now people are dying because of our government. Dying. By the tens of thousands. 

Ah but the elections are soon. We will fix it.

No we will not. It is the system that is broken, it is not just the individual players. The corrupt power mongers that comprise so much of government these days were attracted to government precisely because it is corrupt and broken. It is the system that is killing us - not just sociopaths like Trump and McConnell. 

What is it going to take for us to fundamentally change our system of government?

Murder in America

At least 75,000 people have died unnecessarily from corona in this country due to a lack of leadership from the executive. Donald Trump is responsible for the deaths of 75,000 US citizens. 

In the coming months many more will die, tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, unnecessarily because of Donald Trump. 

If ever a coup was to occur in the US it would be now. 

Purposes

As a sentient being our ‘purpose’ is to preserve life.
Since that is ultimately a losing proposition the next best thing is to pass along our genes, while helping all of life do the same.
That and try to be nice.

Dying Right II

2994 people died on 9/11.
58,220 US troops died in Vietnam.

America grieved. 

America memorialized. 

145,000 US dead from Corona thus far and ‘masks are inconvenient’, ‘how does this effect me’, and ‘the economy must move forward’. 

To die in some useless war, to be blown to bits by a terrorist - matters. To die of a disease? - weak. 

Fuck your memorials, your medals, your flags. 

People don’t care if you die.

It’s only how you die that matters.

Civil Liberty

My father fought in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam in part for the freedoms our society enjoys. Guaranteeing our civil liberties was at the heart of what the founders were trying to accomplish in writing the constitution.

And yet the biggest threat to my freedoms and civil liberties today are the police - federal, state, local.
They themselves break the law and then tromp on our hard earned civil liberties as a matter of culture and policy.

And they wonder why they are hated? 

Dying Right

2994 people died on 911.
58,220 US troops died in VietNam.

145,000 US dead from Corona, so far, and most don't care. Not really.
The media wont put faces to names.
Masks are a nuisance.
And how does this impact me?

And really, at the end of the day, dying from a disease is weak.

People don’t care if you die.
It’s only how you die that matters.

To Negotiate With a Virus

We still haven't learned we cant negotiate with a virus. It marches on regardless of economic or political wishful thinking. 145,000 deaths so far and 60,000-75,000 new cases a day.

As things are now the plan seems to be in essence to develop herd immunity while waiting for a vaccine. Currently we are at about 7% infected. Herd immunity requires 50-60% of the population be infected. At 70,000 new cases a day that will require over a year to reach. 

In the meantime people will die unnecessarily and our economy will suffer horribly.

We are beginning to see a spike in daily deaths from the spike in cases that began a month ago. 1200 died today, July 22, 2020 - a death every 72 seconds - and it’s rising. 

It becomes clear we are going to need to completely shutdown again - this time to include aitravel and hotels. If we don't this is going to go on for at least another year at the cost of 400,000 to 1,000,000 lives and the development of a deep and lasting depression. Half measures will not work. 

Given society’s mobility we must act nationally, not just locally. We need to shut down nationally for 2-3 months right now and then reopen with a real plan. Do that and we can bring this under control with less death and overall economic damage. Do this and we could bring the virus under control by September and have the economy open, exactly as most of the wealthy countries worldwide have been able to do, and do it just in time for the election. 

Unfortunately that is unlikely to happen under President Trump, or in a society that asks first - what about me? how does this effect me?, and finds death by disease, weak. And so the price of ridding ourselves of this virus is going to be the death by a thousand cuts.  The unnecessary deaths of at least a half a million lives, and long lasting, economic devastation. 

One With the Sea

The sextant was invented in 1730. The marine chronometer in 1761. Combined, what we refer to as celestial navigation, began. Along with the compass, used by mariners since at least the first century blue water navigation became possible. Or so goes the myth.

Celestial navigation did not begin in the 18th century anymore than the Americas were discovered by Columbus. Reliable blue water navigation employing celestial navigation, began around 1300 BC by the Lapita in the south Pacific and was refined by the Polynesians. Compared to their techniques, western, machinery dependent, navigation is almost as soulless as GPS.

The Polynesians used the positions of rising and setting sun and stars, the direction of seasonal winds and swell, the air and sea interference patterns created by land and currents, the migration patterns of birds, weather patterns, water color and smell, to accurately navigate thousands of miles of unchartered sea and return safely to their homes. The techniques were passed down in song and demanded incredible memory and a keenness for nature’s subtleties. These sailors were truly one with their oceans in a way I can only dream of.

Pictured here is a map drawn from memory of most of the south Pacific by the Polynesian navigator Tupaia for Captain Cook in 1769. Cook was not impressed - too busy shining his sextant I suppose.

There is Beauty and Then There is Beauty.

A beautiful young woman is truly a site to behold. Stunning, breathtaking, her beauty perhaps only eclipsed by her power. An amazing creature.
And yet gazing on her I do not wish to be young again.
I am happy with my age and only too glad to now admire from afar.

But show me a beautiful boat.
And I’ll wish I was rich.

Money, Money, Money - II

All economies are exquisitely sensitive to our modern day existential threats. Witness the near total collapse of the world-wide financial systems with the 2020 SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Corporatism and social democracies have no mechanism to address long range threats such as pandemics, global warming and/or automation and the loss of jobs, and autocratic governments haven’t the will.

At the root of the problem, money. Money became obsolete the moment it interfered with the advancement of human knowledge – space travel, scientific endeavor, moral enlightenment – we just haven’t figured that out yet. Money guarantees unequal distribution of wealth, deep poverty, unnecessary human suffering and human conflict. It is an exquisitely fragile system of resource distribution and our modern day global threats expose it’s inherent weaknesses. As the world continues to get smaller and more interconnected we have absolutely no choice but to move to a world without money. This is not a utopian fantasy, it is fact. Do it or we perish as a species, of this I have little doubt. But how?

Imagine a world where automation has expanded to include the harvesting of raw materials, processing them into refined materials, shaping, constructing and then distributing everything we need to live, and it is not hard to see how we evolve past money. Overseen by artificial intelligence (AI) that is dedicated to maintaining and improving such a system, aided by mobile repair and construction units, every material need would be provided for entirely by machines, for free.

Whether we realize it or not this is the logical progression of modern day industrial automation. Since automation promises price savings there is little doubt it will continue pretty much unchecked for the foreseeable future. But as it progresses more and jobs will be lost and money driven economies will eventually collapse. If no one is working, who is paying? It would be better to admit the inevitability of this and begin to plan for it aggressively, now.  In fact we should embrace it and make complete automation a national goal much as we came together and did the impossible landing on the moon in less than a decade.

As we displace workers with machines, we must retrain them in some facet of the automation industry, while paying them their old wages. As the next wave of workers then lose their jobs to automation, do the same. In fact make complete automation within 20 years our focused national mission. Create a national automation administration - NAA - in order to bring resources and expertise together with the common mission  of complete automation and freedom from material constraint for all mankind. Expedite automation in order to transition as painlessly as possible away from money to this more utopian life so as not to destroy societies so focused on money. At some point in this process much of the population will be employed in the automation industry at which point development continued but not brought on line until the system is completely ready to come online. Once completely in place - a literal throwing of the switch occurs - at which time - in one moment - money becomes obsolete, wages no longer needed, and mankind evolves.

Impossible? What will people do all day? Well, imagine a SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in such a world. Self-isolate while goods and services continue without a hitch. Patients cared for in their homes with the latest in medical technology and resource instead of in highly resistant microbe factories that we call hospitals – cost no longer a factor. Imagine a world devoid of poverty, famine, starvation, and much of the reasons for human conflict.  Imagine what the people of this future studying our times will say – 'they spent their entire lives going to a job they hated, so that they could eat? No job, no money, no eating? They focused their entire lives on materialism and killed each other by the millions over resources and riches. Absolute barbarism!'

As the world continues to get smaller and more interconnected, as automation progresses in our search for ever more wealth, we simply must move to a world without money. Either societies collapse and millions die or we evolve. This is not a utopian fantasy, it is fact. Do it or we perish.

Moments

Ever tire of the sun rising in the east?
I do.
Just once why cant it rise in the west?
Or not rise at all? Or never set?
Just once in five billion years?

Ever tire of useless social construct?
I do.
“Success” “Power” “Prestige” “Money” rings and perfect weddings. Over and over and over again. And then you die.

Ever wonder how many times your life has been lived in a million years of history? The great loves, the desires, the hopes, the dreams, the self-importance and immediacy of each and every generation amongst thousands upon thousands of generations.

And then they died, forgotten. Did they ever even exist?

As you will only too soon die, to be utterly forgotten.
Nothing new.
Nothing new.

Save:

A glimmer of sunlight.

Waves on rocks. 
A breath.
The smell and warmth of summer grass.
Distant bird call.
Far away laughter.

Moments.

Death of America

58,318 US soldiers died in all of Vietnam. A decade long war. Now imagine a war where 800 - 1,000 US soldiers were dying every day, day after day, month after grueling month - and most of those deaths were avoidable. 125,000 dead in just five months.

Now know this is the ongoing death toll from the coronavirus in the US today. And despite this, Trump declares victory, governors reopen economies, and the media refuses to put faces to the dead. After all to die in war is glorious. To die of an infectious disease - weak. And besides unbridled consumerism must continue at all cost. 

What is so tragic is that most of the rest of the world has managed to contain the virus. The US hasn't’ the will or the humanity to do so. From here on out most of the deaths in this country from the virus will have been avoidable save our greed, selfishness, and weakness of will. 

A Tradition Very Much Alive Today

From ancient Greece, where physicians believed disease resulted from gods wreaking havoc on humans in acts of vengeance, to the more body orientated approach of Hippocrates and Galen, to our modern day, one thing has remained true. Physicians have had a very long tradition of getting it so spectacularly wrong as to cause needless suffering and death while refusing to believe it. Frequently wrong, rarely in doubt, has been the mainstay of medicine for centuries. Ignoring their mistakes, an art form.

Medical historians and physicians imagine medical history as a long triumphant arc of steady progress resulting from the discoveries of genius while completely ignoring thousands of years of harm at the hands of average physicians practitioners. So complete is the propaganda, that medical students today swear to uphold the utter quackery of Hippocrates while reciting the Hippocratic oath – where insuring proper payment to teachers is number one on the list of things to do, followed by homage to the gods, and a promise never to perform abortions.

From blood-letting, to blistering, to the inhalation of noxious gases in order to sweat out the Pox (and kill people by the thousands) – physicians have had, over thousands of years, a long unwavering tradition of sureness even while being completely and utterly wrong. Relentlessly so. And whereas the rare genius is responsible for medicine’s advancements it wasn’t until modern times, when the scientific method finally forced its way into medicine around 1900, that every day clinical medicine changed in meaningful ways. Even today we frequently do not learn from past mistakes, we instead choose to rewrite history and prop up prestige – grand and glorious.

In my experience this continues today in critical care medicine. My exposure to it started in 1991 as a trainee when on a cold and rainy November night two grand papers were published in the bible of internal medicine – The New England Journal. Tight glycemic control in the ICU and early goal directed therapy (EGT) in septic shock. Both studies were small, single center studies, both poorly done – and as time would finally tell us, both were utter nonsense.  But oh my, what a fuss they caused. 

Entire careers were made on implementing tight glucose control only for us to learn a decade later that we were probably killing 1 in 37 patients unnecessarily with it. An entire campaign was begun in response to EGT – the Surviving Sepsis Campaign – to insure that the first six hours of treatment was adhered to according to the EGT study – despite being pretty much on your on after that. It was utter folly. We learned very early that early antibiotics and infection source control were the only interventions in sepsis found to make a difference. Despite this we had to tolerate ridiculous, non-physiologic hemodynamic ‘guidelines’ that were more like commandments from the Mount than guidelines, despite being first extracted from someone’s behind and completely made up. Central venous pressure – one size fits all. Aggressive fluid resuscitation in EVERYONE based on the unproven assumption that sepsis patients always present hypovolemic. Whereas it is true vascular permeability is increased in sepsis, experts have completely ignored the lymphatic’s ability to dramatically increase fluid return to the central veins in such circumstances. And so sepsis representing, per se, a hypovolemic state has become gospel despite being untrue, as was blood-letting for thousands of years I suppose. 

But after more than a decade of physicians and physiologists pointing out how un-physiologic the SSC resuscitation recommendations were, they decided to take it out of realm of physiology and reduce recommendations to commands. You will give 30ml/kg IVF to every septic shock patient, and you will follow lactate. Don’t do that in New York and face criminal charges. No attempt was made to explain the cardiovascular physiologic effects, or reasons, just do it. And no attempt to even explain where the recommendations came from since there is no evidence, none, that this is the right amount of fluid to give to anyone for any reason, or that following lactate improves outcome. But we all know sepsis causes hypovolemia on presentation so this seems reasonable. Except we do not know that. Separate from insensible and GI losses we have no idea if early sepsis actually represents a hypovolemic state. We do know that more than 60% of patients with sepsis presenting to the ED are not fluid responsive. We do know that most do not have peripheral or pulmonary edema prior to resuscitation - begging the question where does all that extravasated fluid go? And finally and most importantly, we do know one size does not fit all – ever– in medicine, underlying the absurdity of such recommendations. 

I could go on. But here is the point. Did we learn anything from our tight glycemic control experience despite probably causing excess death? No, we did not. Most centers just choose another glucose target, completely ignoring the complex metabolic and endocrine effects of insulin or the harm it may be doing, regardless of hypoglycemia. Did we learn anything from EGT? Apparently nothing except three separate studies have proven it a miserable failure. And instead of learning the lessons from that experience the SSC just made up a whole new set of guidelines and on and on we go. 

Bloodletting started in ancient Greece and continued into the 20thcentury. It obviously did not work, and usually harmed. But physicians refused to learn from their mistakes for thousands of years, having refused to do so since the beginning. How many died and suffered unnecessarily as a result? A long and dangerous tradition – sureness in the face of ignorance. 

A tradition very much alive today.

Friendship

I had a friend, and then I didn't.
And so I probably never had a friend at all.

To Love Once Again

At the moment of death there is no point to even a lifetime of strife - it’s over. And so the living are free to forgive and love once again.

Genius and Death

Genius should be spared death.

Weapon of Mass Alveolar Destruction

The number one cause of stress related mucosal disease in the intensive care unit is the ventilator. But how does a ventilator attached to a lung cause bleeding in the stomach? Because the ventilator forces air under pressure into an organ that is literally 80% air by volume and in the process damages the lung’s incredibly delicate structures. This then causes inflammation. The mediators of that inflammation then leave the lung, traveling in the blood to the stomach causing dysregulation of blood perfusion to its capillary beds. This then causes a reperfusion injury that results in shutting off prostaglandin production, causing cessation of bicarbonate rich mucous production that normally lines the stomach protecting it from its acid. This results in erosions of the stomach lining and bleeding.

Oh my. All this from a ventilator?

Now imagine a lung disease of intense inflammation but near normal compliance - Covid 19.  Those lungs would be orders of magnitude more susceptible to the harm ventilators can cause than normal lungs or really any lungs we have ever encountered in the intensive care unit before.

What a unique, deadly, disease. We have never seen anything quite like it. We have been learning while doing. But as it turns out the answer to Covid 19, once a patient has reached the ICU and needs a breathing machine, may be as  simple as not using breathing machines. That’s right, instead of putting people on ventilators put them on a machine that does the work of the lung without damaging it, providing an opportunity to rest a ‘sprained’ injured lung, much as we would rest twisted ankles, until the lung has had a chance to heal. Use V/V ECMO.

Sounds simple enough. But you would think I was suggesting no longer bleeding patients to 17th century Europe. Or refusing to ask patients to inhale mercury vapors in order to treat the pox (syphylis) in the 15th century. Sacrilege.

It’s new. It’s different. It competes for resources with other fields of medicine that traditionally don't play well with others. But mostly the idea diminishes the role of the cornerstone of the intensive care unit since its inception - the ventilator.

Tough. It’s the right thing to do. It will save lives.

God

God is a black lesbian living in a third floor walkup in south Chicago.
I met her.
She’s pissed.   

Medicine’s Answers

The pores on a surgical mask are 160 times larger than the virus. If the virus was your size, the pores would be 3 football fields across. 100 million virus particles can fit on a pin head. The mask is for fine droplets such as from a sneeze or cough. They are just empty space to the virus.

A Sea Eternal

In the dim light of sea’s dusk and dawn, within the magic before a storm, in the lonely dark nights at helm, I feel them.
Hidden in the mists, the crested waves, the darkening clouds.
Majestic ships of yore, cutting through the surge.
Their spirits, forever there.

Beginnings and Endings

Time, as we experience it, is illusion.
It slows or quickens relative to gravity and speed.
Larger gravity fields slow time, as does greater velocity.

It becomes clear then, that I do not understand time.
What I experience it to be - illusion.

Beginnings and endings then, illusion as well.

Deaf and Blind At The Opera

Anecdotal evidence is an oxymoron. It is not evidence. Period. Nope, not even a little.

The scientific method is one of humankind’s most beautiful and significant achievements. It is not a rigid set of rules designed by uptight scientists trying to make things difficult. The scientific method is the only way to discover truth outside human experience and bias. That truth reflects the beauty of this universe - a beauty more powerful, intricate, and stunning than anything mankind has ever invented, will ever invent, or can even imagine.

Anecdotal evidence did not play a part in developing almost everything you use for comfort, communication, travel, and health. The scientific method did.

The greatest failing of modern society is in not teaching its children how to think, and how to go about discovering truth. In doing so we have robbed so many of a beauty revealed through that deeper understanding that is beyond any religious invention, personal bias, social construct, or imagination.

We come mostly deaf and blind to the multidimensional, technicolor opera that is our universe and we miss the show. This is beyond sad.

For knowing - truly knowing - our only hope.

Add Murder to His Resume

“The virus is going close to zero” president Trump, Feb 28, 2020. What’s going “close to zero“ is Trump’s time out of prison after he loses the next election.

 

Until then his plan is to sow greed, ignorance, hate, for his own narcissistic pleasure, and to divert attention away from his incompetency, while people die by the thousands because of it.

Incompetent and mentally ill has now graduated to murder.

Came the Docs

In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. 

Upon returning, given Europe’s yearnings, 

came the Pox.

Putrid, painful, shameful 

came the Pox. 

Punishment, not for doing, not for yearning, but for getting caught

came the Pox.

Vienna became venereal amid self-righteous whispers, unrelenting pain and pustules,

came the Pox.

And then came the agents of agony, draped in robes of pageantry
prestigious, centuries in the making,
frequently wrong but never in doubt,
came the Docs.

Blood draining, mercury inhaling 
came the Docs.

Copious sweats, choking white foam, brain damage, seizures, and death.

Ah, the stuff of entire careers

came the Docs.

We Can Do Better Than This

45,000 dead.
Soon deaths from the SARS-CoV-2 virus in this country will exceed the total number of American dead in Vietnam.
Trump’s response?
Monotoned reading of someone else’s words of condolence
and this - all he’s got.



We can do better than this.

Failures and Death

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is a medical crisis. It is not a political crisis. It is the medical community that allowed this to be worse than it needed to be by not properly preparing and therefore, in essence, turning over the response to it to the politicians. Historically politicians have nearly always mishandled such occurrences. They are not trained to understand it early on and political machinery is nearly always self-serving, lumbering, and inefficient.

Throw in President Trump who clearly interpreted the virus - at least in the crucial first months - as an affront to him personally and to his presidency and who attempted to will it away by ignoring it and repeatedly lying about its seriousness and you have 40,000 dead in six weeks.

The government’s response to this crisis has been criminally negligent - as led by Trump - and it should be investigated and those responsible punished. But let there be no doubt. This is ultimately a failure of the medical community. We have known this was coming for years - and we did not prepare. We have known about this particular virus since December, 2019 - and we did not prepare. We have been warned of critical shortages in ventilators and PPE for years should something like this occur - and we did not prepare. Our research apparatus is woefully inadequate to respond to such a crisis in real time, needing to be completely constructed from scratch for each new study - with precious little permanent infrastructure and in place cooperative networks to expedite clinical research, and we have done little about it, for years.

But lets not forget the corporations who own the hospitals. They are at fault for not stock piling adequate PPE and life saving equipment, in order to save money and perhaps insure bonuses, for what we have known was coming for decades now.

The response to such a crisis should be nearly automatic and therefore in essence taken out of the hands of the politicians. It is up to the medical community and hospitals to prepare in order to do so.

Trump’s response has killed thousands, it should be investigated, and there should be consequence. But so too should the medical community and the hospital corporations for their utter lack of leadership and preparedness. 

We Are Not Alone

Despite having evolved over billions of years deep within earth’s gravity well, life functions well in microgravity. Life adopts. Life permeates. The same conditions and physical laws that gave earth its life are to be found throughout the universe. Life, even intelligent life, is tenacious, it is relentless, and it is ubiquitous. 

A Billion Years

Intelligent design believers reveal little more than a lack of understanding of the power of time. 

Walls, Walls, We Need Walls!!

As you can see everywhere that has walls and/or autocratic isolated nationalistic governments has been spared from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Israel with its wall, North Korea, China, Russia, etc. Or you could do as Venezuela does and not test and/or not allow reporting of tests because that’s known to save lives.

All In How You Spin It

According to Trump supporters the Latin root of the word coronavirus is - Hoax.

Thanks For The Thought

Dog owners in the US carefully bag their dog's poop, tie a knot in the little plastic bag's tops, and then leave them as gifts for the rest of us.

More and more I find neatly tied little bags of shit on the trails, beside the trails, at trailheads (in large numbers), on picnic tables, on posts, even on TOP of trash cans.

And whereas I appreciate the gifting I'm here to say to American dog owners, I'm good on the little bags of shit. 

Self-Loathing

Never do we judge as harshly as when we project. 

Money, Money, Money

All economies are exquisitely sensitive to our modern day existential threats. Witness the near total collapse of the world-wide financial systems with the 2020 SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Corporatism and social democracies have no mechanism to address long range threats such as pandemics, global warming and/or automation and the loss of jobs, and autocratic governments haven’t the will.

At the root of the problem, money. Money became obsolete the moment it interfered with the advancement of human knowledge – space travel, scientific endeavor, moral enlightenment – we just haven’t figured that out yet. Money guarantees unequal distribution of wealth, deep poverty, unnecessary human suffering. and human conflict. It is an exquisitely fragile system of resource distribution and our modern day global threats expose it’s inherent weaknesses. But take heart. Whether we realize it or not it is on its way out as we automate - it would be better to admit it now and plan aggressively for it  – or billions may die – but make no mistake it’s on its way out unless we set ourselves back to the stone age first.

Imagine a world where automation has expanded to include harvesting raw materials, processing them into refined materials, shaping, constructing and then distributing everything we need to live  – completely by machines. Overseen by artificial intelligence (AI) dedicated to maintaining and improving such a system with the aid of mobile repair and construction units and it is not hard to see how we evolve past money. Every material need provided for, for free, by machines.  Getting there intact is the hard part. 

Now imagine a SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Self-isolate while goods and services continue on without a hitch. Patients cared for in their homes with the latest in medical technology and resource instead of in highly resistant microbe factories that we call hospitals today – cost no longer a factor. Imagine a world devoid of poverty, famine, starvation, and much of the reasons for human conflict. Imagine what the people of this future studying our times will say – 'they spent their entire lives going to a job they hated, so that they could eat. No job, no money, no eating. They focused their entire lives on materialism and killed each other by the millions over resources and riches. Absolute barbarism!

As the world continues to get smaller and more interconnected we have absolutely no choice but to move to a world without money. This is not a utopian fantasy, it is fact. Do it or we perish as a species, of this I have little doubt.

Have a Blessed Day

Jesus was a middle easterner. He looked pretty much like a modern-day terrorist.

God is currently a poor Nicaraguan, sitting on the Mexican border waiting for asylum in the US.  He looks at you as a glutenous, greedy, heartless, sinner.

Now ya'll have a blessed day, hear?

Capitalism - As It Suits Us

I marvel at how quickly dyed in the wool ‘capitalists’ will embrace socialism the moment they are faced with a crisis. Capitalism to justify gluttony and consumerism - calling it ‘freedom’, socialism the moment stuff hits the fan.

I'm all for government bailouts in this pandemic. But just maybe we can be spared the anti-socialist flag waving when the times are good? 

Perhaps our capitalist economy needs reforming so as not to fall apart with every existential threat. Hey, I know - let’s have an economy based on socialist democracy. Oh, wait. 

A fine tradition

'While for decades European medical schools had, for example, required students to have a solid background in chemistry, biology, and other sciences, as late as 1900, it was more difficult to get into a respectable American college than into an American medical school. At least one hundred U.S. medical schools would accept any man—but not woman—willing to pay tuition; at most 20 percent of the schools required even a high school diploma for admission—much less any academic training in science—and only a single medical school required its students to have a college degree. Nor, once students entered, did American schools necessarily make up for any lack of scientific background. Many schools bestowed a medical degree upon students who simply attended lectures and passed examinations; in some, students could fail several courses, never touch a single patient, and still get a medical degree.'   John M Barry

One World

For better or worse its one world. A fragile globe in space we all share. Armies, walls, and nationalism won't work - only worldview and global cooperation can insure our survival now. 

Respect is Earned

Jesus was probably born in Nazareth, the tiny village he grew up in. But no one has any real idea.

The entire Christmas story is made up, as any serious religious historian will tell you - to include where Jesus was born, the date of his birth, the manger, the wise men, and the star of David. There are two Bethlehem's within 150 miles of each other and there is no evidence, at all, that Jesus was ever in either one of them. Jesus was dark skinned, with short to mid-length hair as was the style in his day. He looked like the sort of people Trump tries to prevent from coming to the US not the white long hair whose portrait is to be found hanging in most European and US churches.

The amount of utter nonsense enshrined in the myths of Jesus by modern day Christians is nothing short of breath taking. What’s even more astounding? The average christian today has little to no real knowledge of Jesus or even the new and/or old testaments.

Christians personal religious beliefs are based almost entirely in superficial myths taught to them as children. Indoctrinated and programmed using techniques not dissimilar to Hitler youth programs these Christians grew up asking few if any questions. And despite living in a country where knowledge and the means and time to acquire it abound, most do not bother to properly inform themselves.

And I'm supposed to respect that? Am I supposed to respect their ‘faith’ that they themselves know almost nothing about?

Horror Vacui

Where there is no talent prestige will always rush in to fill the void. 

I Don't Like You

When I was young people assigned eccentric genius to me. They were wrong.
Now that I am older people assign senile genius to me. Wrong again.
Absolutely nothing has changed except my appearance.
People are self absorbed. People are ignorant. People project and then judge themselves harshly.

No wonder I don't like people.

Go to Sea

Chasing hollow constructs - success, money, power, religion, prestige all one’s life. All of them empty human invention, none of them real.
Is it any wonder you're anxious, depressed, confused? Want an alternative? A dose of real?
Go to sea. 

Live

Let go desire and want and live in the moment, says the Buddha. Good advice amidst the disorienting, anxiety provoking, cacophony of shallow human constructs in this 'modern' age. 'Success’, ‘power’, money, ‘prestige’, religion, nation - all human invention, none of them real. All of them tickets for a chance to grab the imaginary brass ring of ‘happiness’, forever just out of reach. Round and round we go. 

Shame we are not wired to live just in the moment. Buddhism then, just another drug to help us tolerate the intolerable - our shallow constructs - our 'modern world'. 

So much of human construct is based in myth and make believe. Invented for social cohesiveness in an age of short, difficult, lives, thousands of years ago, most have seen their day - especially in light of the destructive potential  of our modern-day technology. Almost all human constructs are hierarchical, guaranteeing conflict and unnecessary human suffering. 'Success' - we live, we die, we try to be nice along the way. A few create and/or discover truths of our universe. Established to insure societal cohesiveness, it is not real - and as such will never be attained. 'Power' - greed by force. Two dimensional, false, and shallow. Self made kingdoms of ego and greed and an utter waste of time. Money, at once establishing wealth and poverty guaranteeing global suffering, conflict, and environmental harm. 'Prestige' - Pompous after thought invented by the untalented who lay partial claim to the work of geniuses, who had no time for it. Religion - a focal point of intolerance and hatred. How many have perished in battles over which god and which followers are best? How much hatred in the name of 'god'? How much harm? Nation - us versus them with an emphasis on us - despite sharing just one fragile globe. Unsustainable, and in today's world, pure illusion. 

We must rid ourselves of so much of this. All were once used to hold societies together in an harsh, confusing world. But our understanding of our universe has increased exponentially and with it the need for myth, magic, money, and make believe, gone. What has held society together for millennia now promises to destroy us. We must move away from these self-invented constructs, not by blocking them out in moments of mindfulness, but rather by evolving past them.

 

But if we discard human construct where would we be? We need focus, reference points, goals, or we go insane.

Imagine a simple rose. Nature has taken soil, water, sunlight, and air and turned it into a rose. Right there in front of you – a miracle. Soft scented petals just days before atoms of atmosphere and dirt. Ancient atoms now arranged to simple perfection. All around you, ancient atoms arranged into everything there is, as ancient atoms were arranged into you. You, as the rose, are every bit a part of the immense complexity of breath taking beauty that is this universe. Parts of a whole drifting through space-time as does the sun, blades of grass, entire galaxies, dew on a petal – as does everything - as do you.

Close your eyes. You live on a planet that spins at 1,000 mph on its axis, 90 million miles from the sun - a continual thermonuclear explosion a million times earth’s size. Say hello to our ancient companion the moon as it circles us in a perfectly locked orbit 200,000 miles away. Know that our sun, with us in tow, is in orbit around our galaxy, a grouping of 100 billion other suns 100,000 lights years across. Trillions upon trillions of miles across. And within its spiral arms trillions upon trillions of ancient atoms – arranged and scattered and arranged yet again over billions of years. Trees and sky and stars and galaxies and atoms and quarks and you. This, your reality. 

Focus on that. Know that. Live that. Belong to that. Reference yourself to space-time, to reality, and live. Learn your reality, let go useless human construct, and live.

 

2020

I suppose I begin with the assumption that fundamental change is desperately needed. 

I do believe income inequality and the shrinking of the middle class is real and that it's due to a rigged system. Washington is paralyzed, ineffective, corrupt - primarily due to campaign finance law and structure, and special interest lobbying. Our government is the best money can buy - paid for almost entirely by less than 400 families that possess incredible wealth and power. 

And I do think we are dangerously close to corporatism - a form of fascism. At the least we do not have a system that can effectively deal with long range problems not centered on profit and consumerism - i.e. global warming, pandemics, automation and job loss.

I see nothing new this election - in a time that demands change - deep fundamental change. Anything is better than Trump is true, but misleading. The depth of corruption and the numbers of those compromised in congress by our enemies is not being factored in or really addressed.

But even if we somehow rid ourselves of Trump and McConnell and his clones, the system is so broken, so corrupt, the nation so polarized and misinformed, that we are not going to be able to effectively address our growing existential threats - no matter who is president. Witness our failures with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. 

As Mueller and the senate have shown – no one is going to swoop in and save us. We must stop looking for a savoir, and save ourselves. But that would take a social uprising the likes of which this country has never seen.

Unfortunately, we are unlikely to see it now.