A Carribean Promise

Recently we had the good fortune of sailing across the entire expanse of the Caribbean Sea - east to west – some 1200 NM - in our Norseman 447. We left The British Virgin Islands on a Saturday morning arriving in Panama some 7 days later. A 1200 NM odyssey across ancient, uniquely blue water, following ages old trade winds, and 16th century European trade routes.

Prior to this trip, I, like most people, looked upon the Caribbean as being constrained to the touristy islands of the Lesser and Greater Antilles, and the Bahamas. And I, like so many visitors, had always conjured up romantic ideals of Spanish galleons, pirates, and their fierce individualism, set amidst a background of reggae and 1970’s Jimmy Buffet music. For me it was a playground, a place for wild times relatively unencumbered by the rules of home. And when not partying, I expected a slowed down pace of island life, world class beaches, and Ya-Man, with a tendency to reduce it all to two-dimensional fantasy and cliché.

Even to modern sailors, myself included, the Caribbean has been more about its touristy destinations and myths than about its 1 million square miles of blue ocean, its ancient trades, its 7000 islands, and its many shorelines that include South and Central America. It is a huge area of incredible diversity, rich history, and beauty. The Caribbean is immense, diverse, alive, and relatively unknown – and I would argue, worth a fresh look. 

As we sailed along downwind day after day in following seas - as have countless sailing vessels before us – we foolishly joked that gentleman (and gentlewomen) never need tack (while we secretly jumped up and down as children in our excitement as to the ease of our point of sail, speed and comfort). Yes, it can be quite active sailing, especially off the Colombian coast, with huge following seas and high winds, but other than adjusting reef points we never changed our tack, point of sail, or sail plan. 

But despite near perfect conditions night watch alone on a boat a sea can still be a soul-searching experience – in fact it’s one of the reasons I sail. And somewhere out in all that immensity I began to realize how narrow my thinking had been all these years as to how I thought of the Caribbean, and parts of my life.

The Caribbean Sea formed 130 million years ago as the supercontinent Pangea broke apart to the north and south forming a basin overlying the newly formed Caribbean tectonic plate. Beginning 80 million years ago this plate began to be pushed in a north-easterly direction by the thick, massive South American plate, smashing it into the North American plate to the north and east. These collisions resulted in volcanic activity that formed most of the Lessor and Greater Antilles islands and many of the mountains and volcanoes of Central America and northern South America – a process still going on today. 

Humans first arrived in the area around 8000 years ago making the region one of the last to be settled on the planet. The indigenous people came from Central and South America by boat and then spread throughout the entire region south to north in waves until they were widely dispersed by about 5000 years ago. The Bahamas were probably the last lands on earth to be populated as recently as 800 AD. European explorers arrived in 1492 with their disease, violence, and exploitation, wiping out most of the indigenous peoples in less than 100 years. 

Piracy in the area began almost immediately after the Europeans arrival in the 1500s, coming to a violent end by the 1830s - mirroring the slave trade – a massive and brutal kidnapping campaign and subsequent enslavement that brought nearly 5 million Africans to the region beginning in 1517 and not ending until the mid 1800’s.

It is interesting that Caribbean history includes South and Central America as playing such vital roles: for millions of years geologically, and for millennia regarding its human history. And yet is not considered part of the Caribbean by most. Colombia and Panama, in particular, were some of the original sources of its indigenous people. Both areas were vital to Spanish trade and plunder and as such its ships prime targets of piracy. And yet when so many of us say the Caribbean we mean to speak of the Antilles and Bahamas - tropical islands, rum, Reggae and Buffett.  

For seven days and nights we sailed on. The Southern Cross beckoned in the south-western sky - a constellation not visible to most of us in the US and thus symbolic of exotic southern seas and shores. As I saw it the iconic Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young song came to mind – and I knew intimately for what they said.

‘When you see the Southern Cross for the first time

You understand now why you came this way

Cause the truth you might be running from is so small

But it's as big as the promise

The promise of a coming day’

On the fourth night with winds to 35 knots in 10-12 foot seas, cruising along at 7.5 knots, it hit me. Three AM on watch, alone in the darkness, surrounded by hundreds of miles of empty ocean in all directions, hearing the night’s wind and ships noises in response – the immensity and true nature of the Caribbean hit me. To port lie Colombia and its incredible mountainous jungles, beautiful beaches, and historic ports, to starboard Cuba and the Greater Antilles, ahead lay Panama and Central America and aft the Lesser Antilles – all with shorelines bounding this immense, ancient, Caribbean Sea. 

My thinking until that moment had been quite cliché. But the only thing cliché in all of this was my limited imagination. So many of us try to reduce the excitement of each coming day to the mundane and familiar in an unconscious attempt at feeling safer. But once again the sea reached out and taught me in the darkness of a late night watch the utter folly of such limited thinking, replacing it instead with the danger, beauty, and truth, of a coming day. 

From the mountains and rainforests of Central and Northern South America, to the coral atolls of the Bahamas, to the volcanoes of the Greater and Lesser Antilles, the Caribbean Sea touches them all and all of it I would argue is the Caribbean.  Alive, fresh, rich, verdant, diverse, and so much more than I had ever realized.

Upon making landfall in Bocas Del Toro, Panama – itself originally settled by African immigrants and built in the Caribbean style - I felt I had tied east and west together as one in my mind. The Caribbean is a beautiful ancient sea – and its shores – all of them – Caribbean. 

And as I sat back in my cockpit at the Red Frog Marina in Bocas, beer in hand, reflecting on the trip, I realized we all tend to get into ruts in our outlook, in our lives. We narrow our thinking and repeat patterns because it feels easier, safer. But in doing so we rob ourselves of so much of life experiences, and limit our possibilities. Going to sea in a sailboat with the inevitable 3am watches is the best way I know to deliver oneself from a tendency to the mundane, from our self-made traps and narrowness of mind, opening our minds to new experience and perspective and enriching our lives.

With my new-found perspective on the Caribbean I have opened myself up to greater possibilities and experiences both in my approach to the Caribbean and in my life. Now full of energy tinged with an edge of fear I am determined to explore all of the Caribbean – most of it neglected in my mind’s eye all these years. I plan to begin by exploring the San Blas islands. From there on to Caribbean coastline of Colombia – not as separate countries but as a part of the greater whole – the Caribbean. I hope to explore Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana as less travelled Caribbean sailing destinations – sailing to weather because I must from Bocas Del Toro and perhaps partly as penance for my years of narrow-minded cliché.  From there who knows. But one thing I do know – being at sea in a sailboat is inevitably a soul-searching experience, painful at times, but nearly always results in a fresh, wider, and more truthful perspective, beautifully restoring the promise of a coming day. 

The Scientific Method

It is not anecdotal evidence. It is anecdotal information. 

Lots of anecdotal information is not evidence. 

Lots and lots and lots of anecdotal information is still not evidence, not even a little bit. 

Got it? 

But, but? 

Nope, not even a little. It's just not. So just stop. 

Stoppppp, enough, don't care about your uncle Harry or the friend of a friend or the rumor heard everywhere.

Not evidence.

To Allow Moments

"We live our lives of human passions, cruelties, dreams, concepts, crimes and the exercise of virtue in and beside a world devoid of our preoccupations, free from apprehension—though affected, certainly, by our actions. A world parallel to our own though overlapping. Call it 'Nature'; only reluctantly
 admitting to ourselves to be 'Nature' too.
 Whenever we lose track of our own obsessions,
 our self-concerns, because we drift for a minute,
 an hour even, of pure (almost pure) 
response to that insouciant life:
 cloud, bird, fox, the flow of light, the dancing
 pilgrimage of water, vast stillness
 of spellbound ephemera on a lit windowpane,
 animal voices, mineral hum, wind
 conversing with rain, ocean with rock, stuttering
 of fire to coal—then something tethered
 in us, hobbled like a donkey on its patch
 of gnawed grass and thistles, breaks free.
 No one discovers 
just where we’ve been, when we’re caught up again 
into our own sphere (where we must
 return, indeed, to evolve our destinies)
—but we have changed, a little."

Sojourns in the Parallel World by Denise Levertov - 1923-1997

Beautiful, sublime - truly. 

But there are not parallel worlds. There is only our one universe - all the rest is make believe. 

And there are no destinies - there are only moments.

For now, we are only allowed brief moments of resonance with our universe - and then returning to what? A patch of gnawed grass, thistles, and make believe? Parallel worlds? Can a world be comprised only of empty human construct - tethers, distractions, and fantasy?

Religion, nation, wealth, status, ‘success’ - shallow human construct all – a cacophony of ignorance and false promise - all of it - originally invented as societal glue so the few could control the many. So, complete strangers once known only to their tight-knit clans would for the first time, fight side by side for god, for nation, for money. All to ensure that the few had their 'power', their 'wealth', their kingdoms and city-states - all at the expense of the many.

If nation were real where did the Soviet Union go? If people stopped believing in the dollar - it becomes worthless. Status, 'success', religion, wealth, power - make believe, all of it. Nothing more than glue to construct false worlds, benefitting mostly the sociopathic and those seeking control, while serving to drown out angst, emptiness and isolation, and our longing for something more. Like mice on a wheel, ants in a line - busy, busy, and going nowhere. 

Resonance with our true universe - how it soothes the soul and frees the spirit - reduced by society and construct to secret, stolen moments.

You say destiny – I say illusion. You say spheres – I say you have too generously assigned a third dimension. You say breaking free - only to return to a patch of gnawed grass, thistles, and make believe? That is not breaking free - that is merely stretching the tether.

Our constructs have served their purposes. It is now long since time to abandon them and to merge with our one true ancient, immense, diverse, and incredibly beautiful universe. 

To allow moments - to become lives. 

When Stupid Got Cool

They say the CDC has a credibility problem. As does the Federal reserve, the FBI, the media - all of it, the courts, environmentalists, the EPA, elections, science and scientists, historians, authors, books, on and on all the way up to and including the truth. The truth has a credibility problem. Alternative facts indeed.

Yea, no.

It's the people who have the credibility problem, ever since stupid got cool. 

Oh yea, the price to pay

Hurricanes destroying everything in their path, washing homes out to sea, while flooding the rest, is god's vengeance against southern, white, bubba-headed, climate change denying, Trumpies. Exactly as AIDS was god's vengeance against gays. As Iraq was god's vengeance against Muslims. As poverty is god's punishment against brown immigrants. And so on and so on and so on.

How does it feel bubba?

Allahu Akbar

Big

The Artemis spacecraft just recently reentered earth's atmosphere traveling at 25,000 miles per hour. That's one trip around the entire earth every hour. 

That's 6.9 miles per second. Pretty fast. 13.4 times faster than a bullet. 

Traveling at 25,000 mph it would take Artemis 115,000 years to get to the nearest star 4.3 light years away. 

There are trillions of stars. 

Bubba Boo

A texas guy once said to my sister and her husband, as he spat tobacco juice on the ground, “Faggots wear Levi’s.”

Why yes, they do. And so do women, children, boys, girls, men - white, black, brown, red, yellow.

Barney wore them once - but he was a devoted, purple, nudist. 

I've seen Levis on a chimp, on a pimp, on a man with a limp.

I've seen them short, long, and on people's arms.

I've seen them as dresses - maxi, mini, and in betweeny.

I've seen them on a Gox.

I've seen them in a Box.

I've even seen them used as Gox Box Socks.

But I have never ever seen faggots spit tobacco juice.

Faggots and all real men don't spit.

Spitting, is for texans. 

Treat The Illness - Never the Patient

'The House of God' by Samuel Shem (Stephen Bergman), published in 1978, is a satirical novel written to call attention to the abuse and dehumanization of physician trainees. It is incredibly sexist, oversexed, and over the top, things one can begin to forgive when it's put in historical perspective - the 1970's. Nevertheless, it is an incredibly immature, self-indulgent, and two-dimensional novel, that its author and millions of physicians and physician trainees thought hilariously clever. 

It wasn't clever, not really. And in the end the book just served to contribute to medicines long, proud, tradition of self-aggrandizement, pomp, showmanship, and arrogance.  

Whereas the book sets out to expose the effect medical training has on its trainees - abusing them until they become dehumanized and two dimensional - exactly as their trainers had become with their training - all in an attempt to properly numb them to the abuse heaped on to their patients by western medicine's fundamental approaches to illness. But despite the authors original intent, the book somehow manages to do the opposite - evoking the sort of legend heard in frat houses and basic training camps - thank you sir may I have another?   

In the end it serves to lionize America's ridiculous approach to medical training and to care - making it legend, instead of indicting it. Whereas it is true training is different today, perhaps in part due to this book, doctors are nevertheless no more humane, no less callous, no less arrogant and certain in the face of ignorance, and no less two-dimensional, than ever before. Long hours and disrespect were never the issue. It was and still is medicines fundamental approach to patients that dehumanizes its trainees - something the book failed miserably at pointing out.

At the time of its publication giggles and laughter emanated from call rooms all across the country as medical students and interns read it's pages with glee - wow I'm a part of this insanity and that's cool, learning along the way that being clever, stuffing your brain with facts, and towing the party line was much more important than humaneness, wisdom, or compassion - all the while learning to ignore the dehumanizing effects western medicine's approach has on patients. It made them more famous in a funny and clever way - despite the book revealing their collective sociopathy. 

Black humor has to be a part of medical care if one is to hang on to even a shred of humanity, but 'The House of God' used it to glorify a band of brothers (and one female) traumatized to callousness, serving to encourage an underlying dictum seen even today in the halls of academia - that clinical medicine is nasty and beneath 'real' academics. That patients really are gomers, obesity and most chronic illness is to be ridiculed, that doing is the go-to when the talentless meet suffering humanity - testing, operating, just one more round of chemo, one more course of antibiotics - all much more important than quality of life or often, even dignity.

The House of God never really taught us anything new. It lionized black humor, pedigree, arrogance, and heartlessness, in medicine, and helped to cement a culture of inhumanity in the delivery of medical care while enshrouding it in legend. But arrogance, certainty in the face of ignorance, callousness, and an approach that involves treating the disease not the patient is a long sorted one, well-established for millennia in medicine - nothing new - and if anything, the book just made it worse. 

A Good Place To Start

Science is truth. 

Religion is faith - divisive, limiting, ignorant, and used as justification to act on our worst impulses.

Art resonates and reflects the relationships found in frequencies, colors, textures, and media, as determined by the physical laws of our universe. 

Nation is imaginary. Make believe, infantile, empty human construct. 

Music is mathematical - resonate with the universe's periods, cycles, and patterns.

Money, wealth, consumerism, power, prestige, 'success' - all empty human construct leading to isolated lives, harshness, and soul sucking ignorance.

There is an ancient, grand, and glorious universe rich with the truth of you to be discovered, explored, and experienced. 

To do so all you need do is look away from the shallow human constructs that have so shaped your life, all your life, and come to know, really know your universe. Art and music, mathematics and physics, good places to start.

Norman Rockwell Where Are You?

As I have worked across the US these last 8 years, I have discovered some interesting things about its people:

1. The smaller the town the meaner and more ignorant the people.

2. The uglier and harsher the environment the uglier and harsher the people.

3. At the heart of conservatism lies fear - of nearly everything. 

    a. Fear of change from imagined historical norms.

    b. Fear of the unfamiliar - people of color number one.

    c. Fear that their way of life will be taken from them.

    d. Fear that their stuff will be taken from them. 

    e. Fear of their own failings.

    f. Fear that they will fail even more when faced with change.

4.  There are good people everywhere - there are just more of them in the more urban, or the prettier and/or more educated areas of the country.

5.  Conservatives tend to be mean and more likely to:

    a. Cut you off in traffic.

    b. Tailgate.

    c. Gawk but keep moving at accidents - not the ones who get out of their cars and help. 

    d. Lie

    e. Feign religiosity to cover heartlessness and to empower their selfishness. 

    f. Mistreat people when they perceive little risk of blow back.

    g. Lack a sense of social responsibility - denying climate change even when they know it's real, refusing to help those in need - immigrants, refugees, the poor, the traumatized. Ignoring the suffering of others. Using 'fierce independence' to cover for selfishness and a lack of empathy. 

6. Major corporations in this country are obsessed with profit, do not really care about their customers except as to keep them coming back, and lack a sense of social responsibility. Think of how badly the airlines treat you now, and how much worse they would treat you were they not so heavily regulated as just one example. 

7. People are more than willing to exchange richness of life, intimacy, uniqueness, and soul - for convenience, cost, and to avoid the unfamiliar. Chain restaurants and coffee shops, strip malls, and cookie cutter homes, come to mind.

8. Americans love war, violence, violent competition, and all things military.

9. Americans hate 'losers', old people, and anyone too different from themselves. 

10. 'Justice' predicates for the most part on the almighty dollar and that's ok. 

Of Emails and Misogyny

But, but, what about her EMAILS!!!

Perspective

100 tons of star dust falls to earth each day

36500 tons per year. 365,000,000 tons in 10,000 years

740 trillion pounds since the dawn of civilization.

Sounds like a lot 

It's two Mt Everests 

Paradise Lost

Sorry Milton, but I dream of tropical paradise at the end of the earth.

Sailboats, gently adrift at anchor in remote lush lagoons, alone in their grace. 

A place of solitude and solace, hard won after weeks at sea.

Tucked in, protected by steep mountains draped in verdant jungle, small streams, waterfalls, all sweeping down to meet gentle palms along soft white beaches. 

A place where souls go to rest.

 

Vengeance Is Mine Saith the Lord

Ever noticed how most of climate change's early effects are being felt in the south? Tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, drought, rising tides, shorelines eroding, houses floating out to sea.

Now if I believed in god I'd be saying something about his vengeance against the ignorant, selfish, southern sinners, who mocked Al Gore and environmentalists for decades, who continue to drive around in gas guzzling over-sized pickup trucks, and even though most now realize climate change is real, refuse to do anything about it, and in fact still mostly stand in the way.

Remember when a lot of southerners said AIDS was god's vengeance against homosexuals? 

Well, welcome to their world, Bubba. 

Hang On

In the time it takes you to read this sentence you will have travelled about 1100 miles relative to the galaxy's center. 515,000 miles in an hour. 12 million miles in a day. 

Better hang on, tight.

Mick and Me

Crazy dreams last night very vivid - crawling around underground in the ruins on Montserrat with Mick Jagger with him asking me for my opinion on painting the walls - giving me sample paint cards - 4 of them. I chose gray-white - not even a color.

By the way, Mick is in great shape, in case you were wondering, better than me - crawling at least twice as fast as I was, even stopping to ask if I was ok.

This after he had picked me up at random on a country road on a tiny motor scooter and took me to this bizaare bar, restaurant, Im not sure what. Polo grounds? Tiny restroom about the size of a closet with pee draining down the wall from another restroom above me I supposed, wasn't that special I remember thinking.

Most of the place was closed, there was one small outdoor bar open where I was ignored by a snob bartender, finally got a draft beer from another. Went to find Mick, found him in a really nice black suit sitting in court. His attorney was about to make a summation argument but he had this entire production device strapped onto his neck behind his ears with dramatic music and script prompts.

Mick was nice enough but definately had a secret, and oozed self confidence even in court. I asked him if he wanted a drink, and he said not right now, the court thing and all.

It ended with me catching myself crawling/falling out of bed. 

All of this and Im not even a fan really. 

Pathetic Is As Pathetic Does

Seriously how powerless and impotent do you have to feel? How small must your penis be? How ignorant and ineffective do you believe yourself to be to have to play dress up soldier and carry assault rifles in public?

Stupid Then, Stupid Now

When I played high school football chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) wasn't a thing. The harder you smashed your head into an opponent the greater the coach's praise. 

Players were discourage from drinking water - it would give you cramps. 

You were not allowed to breathe with your hands on your knees when out of breath - despite it being a natural response - not sure what that one was all about. We have known for some time that with your hands on your knees, your lungs can fill with a greater volume of air. This in turn supplies more oxygen to your body so you can recover more quickly. Apparently the football coaches didn't get the word.

Hydration was not just a test of toughness or a way to identify weaklings trying to sate thirst, but instead was and still is essential, and potentially life saving. 

Today, CTE is real, and it's not just about the number of concussions players get. We can't fix it with special helmets and/or taking people out of games after getting a concussion as is the common belief of modern day coaches. We now know that playing football at all, even if just in high school, can lead to depression, impulsivity, Parkinson's disease, dementia, and early death later on, and that the number of concussions doesn't necessarily correlate with the severity of CTE. 

Football coaches - stupid then, stupid now. 

Corporate Piggies

A CEO, a conservative, and a liberal are at a table. The table has 20 cookies. The CEO takes 19 cookies and says to the conservative, “look out, that liberal is trying to take your cookie!”

The airlines say there is a shortage of staff that is responsible for the massive delays and cancellations we have seen of late. That they have no choice but to overwork current staff, deny them leave, or even proper rest between flights. 

Um, wrong.

In fact these problems have arisen due to an overabundance of greed by the airlines who schedule more flights than they have staff for.

Seething White-Hot Hatred

To all climate change denying, Trump loving, Floridians.

I care about as much for your victimhood from the recent hurricanes as you care about Ukrainians suffering at the hands of Russia's megalomaniacal, murderous, fascist - Putin. That is to say - not at all. Not one bit. 

Houses floating out to sea? Didn't you deny climate change, mock Al Gore and environmentalists for decades, while proclaiming your stupid pickup truck gets less than 10 mpg as a point of pride?

Aren't you promoting a racist, mentally ill, climate change denying, fascist hoodlum, that is trying to destroy our democratic republic for his own selfish gains, as our next president? 

Here's a wake up call. I am a decent, fair, loving, human being and I hope with all my being that you keep right on suffering - I really do. How much of your ignorant shit do you think we are going to take in one lifetime? Given the harm you have caused to millions worldwide, and continue to cause, I'd say you truly deserve it, and more.

Ya'll have a blessed day now, hear? 

A Dog is a Dog

There are a lot more crazy dog owners than crazy dogs - try as their owners may.

Going Straight To Hell

This is what Jesus would have looked
 like according to scientists.

Jesus was a brown immigrant Jew, and you are going straight to hell. 

Last Times - An Ode to Guy Clark

Another lonely west Texas night 

miles and miles of ancient, empty desert, gentle hills, and this old ranch

alone in a darkness so dark, even the wind gets lost

so dark, you can almost smell the moon 

so dark, you can see the lights of Ft. Worth from here

He can't sleep

coyotes in the distance making their spirits heard against all odds 

raw, soulful, wild-clear

occasional car headlamps far away on some old dusty dirt road 

silently creeping to nowhere

creaky old porch, looking at that sky

a shooting star so bright it had color - stealing his breath 

the milky way - so dark it had structure 

as if to pull him in - beautiful, ancient, immense - home

He was an old man now 

how many more precious nights like this left?

never too far from his mind

He had felt the need for his guitar - gently played

Its an old friend, a reliable friend, hand crafted hardwood

it's gotten him through - all these decades 

He found beauty and meaning and simple pleasure with it - hundreds of songs

It slept within his chest when not playing, came out from his soul when in his hands

It rang through him - true. Taken him where he did not know he could go - almost never let him down.

He had played and played to the darkness, felt its gentle peace. Now finally tired, ready for his bed, he

had put the old guitar down in its corner - as he had done a thousand times before.

Did not know this was to be his last.

Coyotes in the distance, soft breeze on the curtains 

As he slowly drifted off 

never to awaken again 

The old guitar in the corner, now silently waiting, forever.

'Justice' in America

 1. The Classified Documents Investigation

    Did Trump illegally remove classified documents from the White House and obstruct investigators? 

        YES 

2. The Jan. 6 Investigation

    Did Trump try to incite an insurrection, commit election fraud or fraudulently fund-raise in the run-up to Jan. 6? 

        YES

3. The Manhattan D.A.’s Investigation

    Did the Trump Organization commit tax fraud or other financial crimes? 

        YES

4. The Georgia Election Investigation

    Did Trump break the law to try to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia? 

        YES

5. The New York State Civil Case

    Did Trump and his children lie to lenders and insurers about the Trump organization’s financial condition? 

        YES

6. Will Trump spend even a day in prison? 

        NO - 'Justice' in America

(The list of investigations was paraphrased from a NYT article by Ankush Khardori, Aug 17, 2022)

Trumpty Dumpty

Trumpty Dumpty had a great fall - even though he had failed to build a wall. 

And all the republicans and all the white men couldn't put Trumpty back together again. 

Revised from New York Post 2022

The "Justice" Department

Some in the DOJ are now whispering Trump stole government secrets and put them in unsecured locations on his property just for 'his ego'. Oh well then, that's ok. I mean to commit a grievous crime for ego is so much better than for nefarious reasons. Violating the espionage act is OK as long as you do it for your ego, or if prosecuting you takes courage.

I heard Snowden did the same thing for his ego - So we can expect State, FBI, and the DOJ, to be welcoming him home any day now. 

So, here is what I want to say to those in the DOJ making excuses for their cowardice. 

A crime is a crime is a crime. Resist your urges to cowardice. 

CTE Sunday

CTE Sunday. 

Grab your snacks, beer, and friends and let's all watch young men suffer permanent brain injury. YEA!!! 

Depression, anger, impulsiveness, dementia, Parkinson's disease, and early death coming their way. RAH! 

Lives destroyed, cut short. GOOOO TEAM!

(Sssshhh don't tell anyone!!!)

Wake Up

Which of the bigger truths about our universe is not stunningly beautiful?

 

Learning about, describing, and understanding, what is possible in the 13.8 billion years since the universe began is as close to 'god' as you will ever get. 

It is science that will take you there, and it's beautiful.

Fake News

So called damage from climate change.

Crisis actors and homes selected for demolition.

These climate change deniers are just trying to cash in. 

Years and years of mocking climate change.

Smug arrogant piggies in their gas guzzling trucks. 

Sure, go ahead, make fun of Al Gore and environmentalists who have been telling you this was coming for decades.

And now you say your ugly little cookie cutter houses are washing out to sea because of climate change? 

If true wouldn't that be a real shame for you all since you have been denying climate change to suit your own selfishness for decades

red neck, climate change denying, dummies.

Except it's all fake news. There is no climate change. Your homes didn't get flattened or washed out to sea in Florida. You are all liars.

Fake News - crisis actors cashing in. You all should be ashamed.

Climate change is fake just like you have said for decades. 

Now - fill er up!

Democracy Wins

Dear 'Red Wave' media. 

Fuck You 

(and Republicans too) 

Election Liars

I do wish the media would stop calling politicians election deniers. 

None of them actually believe the election was stolen. 

They are not deniers; they are election liars. Cold, cynical, opportunistic, sociopathic, liars. 

They lie soley to gather their base's votes, democracy be damned.

 

Broadcast Media

All social media sites are unlicensed broadcast media stations.

Time to regulate them or shut them down.

It's Time

We have no choice but to regulate social media. These sites are and always will be echo chambers of lies, hate, conspiracy theories, and divisiveness. 

We had a free press prior to twitter - we can have one after. 

These internet sites are too easily exploited, too easily transformed into megaphones for the paranoid, the irresponsible, the criminal, and the insane. It is unbelievable that you can lie through your teeth about an election, purposefully dividing an entire nation, while threatening all future elections, and democracy itself, and do it freely on a platform that reaches millions of people, with zero consequence.

Licenses and rules of behavior for the airways were put in place because people realized the potential harm broadcast media could cause. Guess what - a tweet can reach millions and cause even greater harm. 

Twitter and all the rest of these sites are broadcast media stations - not some guy on a street corner, or at a townhall, and it's way past time to regulate them. 

Make it law that if you choose to broadcast over the air, cable, or through these internet sites, you can and will be held accountable for what you say. Furthermore, the broadcast media sites you use will be held accountable if they allow you to broadcast disinformation, deliberately. This goes for radio, TV, and social media sites - anything that has the potential to reach more than say 200,000 people at one time.

They are in the public realm, they reach thousands, if not millions, we have precedent with earlier forms of broadcast media, it's time. 

Propaganda By Any Other Name

Social media will end this country. 

Then it's coming after the entire world.

Death and the Narcissist

Nighttime is the worst. 

The old man alone in his bed, in the dark, his eyes wide.

The sounds of his raspy breath, his own heart beating, a deep soul sucking loneliness, and dread.

For hours, he had lain there suffering - for sleep would not come.

And then as if he knew it was coming all along, across the darkened room, something not right - more than a shadow - a movement.

Terror washed over him. There, in the corner, an ethereal, floating, blackness, slowly creeping – ceiling, wall, to floor.

Coming, coming along the floor towards him, slowly, slowly 

death, was coming. 

No longer alone in his bed. He felt it along his back, cold.

A stench, a sound almost imperceptible - mocking him.

Panicked, he tried to run, could not move.

Tried to scream – silence.

Long bony fingertips lightly tracing along his shoulders. Foul breath, just in his ear.

An embrace - almost, intimate - trying him on for size.

Despite a lifetime of struggle against it - his pedigree, imagined power, greed, ill-gotten wealth, 'prestige', 'importance' - despite it all - death was coming.

It slowly merged within him, his chest - stealing his breath.

His empty, airless, screams never heard, as death finally ends him, leaving no trace.

...save for a nasty stain formed by a lifetime of cruelty, heartless manipulation, smug arrogance, lies, selfishness, and harm.

Drawing: Death Calls by Käthe Kollwitz

Care Now Or Pay Later

To all maga-hat, bubba-butts, who don't give a shit about Ukraine. 

Putin wont stop with Ukraine unless we stop him now. Eastern Europe will remain in a state of disarray as he continues to wage war in a hopeless attempt to satisfy his megalomania. This will serve to continue to destabilize world economies, disrupt energy distribution, and raise prices for everything, everywhere. 

Bubba I hate to tell you this but it's one world, one very small world. Even if you can't bring yourself to give a damn about the unbelievable human suffering Putin inflicts on the Ukrainian people, if you let him go on unchecked your ass is going to suffer. 

Guaranteed.

Magaerectus Republicanus

Magaerectus Republicanus: A subspecies of human commonly known as MAGA republican. They are distantly related to human but are more like something you’d scrape off your shoe - associated with human briefly - but nothing a stiff scraper and a good autoclave can't deal with. (I wish) 

Republicanus replicate in several ways. 

1. Whenever Karen ovulates. 

2. Spontaneously, wherever slime pools.

3. In a cauldron where two parts racism, three parts fear, and six parts self-loathing, are mixed over a fire of hate and ignorance.

After 'birth' Republicanus take ignorance and fear, wrap it in white racist nationalism, bigotry, xenophobia, and misogyny, and then smoke it, while waiting for their anti-Messiah and a tiny orange thumb to suck on. 

Their elected representatives tend to be born of greed, power lust, and contempt for their constituents. They are expert spreaders of fear, lies, and hate - finding it far easier than actually doing something. I mean have you looked at McConnell? Or fancy pants Lindsay Graham? Or God forbid 'See You in Mexico' Ted Cruz? Slime and opportunistic ooze do not begin to describe.

Their dominate leader is bloated, orange, combed over, emotionally crippled, and sociopathic. A cheap, dull, unimaginative, flim-flam man from New York City, selling his golden elixir to those desperate enough to pretend it's real. 

Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye, come one, come all - Dr. Trump's Magic Miracle Elixir. Guaranteed to help you hate while making you feel good about it. 

God Bless Merica 

We Are All Bozos On This Bus

The big bang resulted in a new universe 7.7 x 10−30 meters across. That is smaller than an atom. It is smaller than a proton within an atom. In fact, it is smaller than the quarks that makeup a proton, within an atom. And yet it contained all the matter and energy of our entire universe.

Shortly thereafter a rapid inflation occurred - the faster than the speed of light expansion of the universe - causing an expansion by a factor of 60 that resulted in a universe about 0.88 mm across - about the size of a grain of sand. This occurred in 10−33 seconds. 

The expansion then slowed considerably but continues to this day. By 379,000 years after the big bang, when the first photons started streaming towards us, the universe was about 84.6 million light years in diameter, which is about 840 times the diameter of our galaxy. 

Today the observable universe is estimated to be 93 billion light years across.

It is easy to say these things. It was with some difficulty that we only recently came to know them. 

But knowing is not understanding. 

Will we ever understand? 

60 expansion - to 0.88mm, the size of a grain of sand.Inflation into what?

Republicans Lie Cheat and Steal

You have an election. It includes voting for US Senators, US Representatives, governors, etc.

One election - one ballot.

If a republican wins, say a senate seat, its a clean election. 

If a democrat wins, say a governorship, it's a rigged election. 

Same election. Same ballot. 

Got it. 

Casualty Houses

Soldiers don't make the 'ultimate sacrifice'. They were young and vital and just beginning their lives when they were gunned down. They so wanted to live. 

They were murdered as they murdered. That's what war is. 

Funny how we call them casualties. 

Maybe we ought to call slaughterhouses, casualty houses. Cows could then make the 'ultimate sacrifice' so we could eat steak.

A Beautiful Universe

“I don’t want to believe, I want to know.” – Carl Sagan

It's not 'science'. 'Science' is at once dismissed as caricature and disconnected gobbledygook by the fearful and the ignorant. 

In fact science is our only means to come as close as we possibly can to understanding the true nature of our universe, and ourselves.

It's not science. It's truth.

And it is beautiful.

Political Hacks

The supreme court is behaving exactly as ultra conservative republicans would behave. 

Ultra conservative republicans do not base their opinions in law either. 

The Universe Is Trying To Tell Us Something

Truth is the reward for our courage to face the unknown.

Truth is the reward for our courage to face not knowing. 

The pursuit of truth is the only thing that will expand understanding, compassion, humility.

Truth, the pursuit of truth, is the only way we can grow. 

How can a galaxy, a tree, or even a single leaf, ever again be just backdrop to human folly once you have seen them, truly seen them, for what they are. There is beauty within beauty within beauty, complexity within complexity. Knowing then, lends perspective in ways that tear down false frames of reference that foster egocentrism and shallow human construct - helping us to the truths beyond.

Love in Paris

Montmatre, Paris
Photo by Tadji Kretschmer, 2022 

How does one make a roof vent, a speaker, and loosely placed colored lights, charming? Ask the French.

Yuliya and I sat outside this restaurant one evening along with an older couple a few tables away. 

Charming evolved into magical, as darkness fell.

The old couple held hands the entire time.

 

The Emperor Has No Clothes

Shortly after announcing his intent to acquire Twitter Mr. Musk laid out his vision: “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.” 

Town halls occur in one place - town halls. Everyone at the town hall must listen to everything being said, to include opposing viewpoints. This tends to bring people together. 

You know, sort of the opposite of what occurs on Twitter, where people choose to read only that which supports their own viewpoints thus dramatically amplifying divisiveness and anger.

If Mr. Musk is really that naïve, or clueless, is it any wonder he is about to single-handedly destroy the world's largest social media platform? 

Mr. Musk has exhibited genius over the years, possessing a spectrum of brilliance. But understanding people - be it on social media, his own employees, or society in general – does not appear to be on his spectrum.

Mr. Musk, you want to save Twitter? - leave. 

Say Hello to God

Space is not continuous to zero. The smallest distance possible is 1.616255(18)×10−35 m = Plank's length. 

In other-wards space is pixelated. 

Pixelation usually implies display and/or digital format.

A universe consisting of holographic display or digitized information argues for simulation. 

Whew

Today I flew over the Chicxulub crater left by an asteroid that struck the earth 66 million years ago. The asteroid slammed into the earth on the northern tip of the Yucatan peninsula, killing off most, if not all, of the dinosaurs.

Just think, had I left just slightly earlier (geologically speaking) that asteroid would have first hit my plane, wiping out me and all on board. 

Whew!

.

MillenniAll/MillenniMe

Me me

me, me, me, me

MEEEE!!!

me,me, me-me 

me me me me me, me me

MEEEEE!!!!'

Ripe For Fascism

Bubba don't care about democracy no mo

cuz bubba don't know what it is

Sheeet, lection was stole 

Well at least I ain't no brown hoard 

libs are morans

God Bless Merica 

Thankyou For Your Service

In the first year of the covid pandemic in the US, 3600 healthcare providers died of the disease. Most were nurses exposed while caring for their covid patients. They knew the risks and stepped up and cared for these patients anyway.

In that same time period there were 18 combat deaths in all of the US military. 

And yet it is the military we let on airplanes first, and go out of our way to thank for their service, every chance we get.

Says alot about our society, our love of war, and our attitudes towards female predominant professions. 

As an intensive care physician I can tell you the 1 million covid deaths our nurses have had to face deeply traumatized them. How about we, at the least, honor and thank them for their service.

Greed in Healthcare

Corporate greed in healthcare demoralizes providers by hindering their jobs causing people to die unnecessarily or to needlessly suffer. 

Labor is a major expense and so hospital administrations chronically understaff and underpay, as policy - even when they are widely profitable.

Materials and tools needed to care for patients if not a money maker are perpetually in short supply, or nonexistent.

There are almost no direct feedback channels to corporate leaders from the average nurse or provider - purposefully designed that way - giving no real avenue to problem solve in order to improve care or the working environment.

Corporate owned hospital's main administrations are not located locally and thus not really answerable to the community - purposefully so. 

Highly trained and experienced ICU nurses might make $80,000 if lucky. Corporate Healthcare CEO's? - somewhere in the 50 to 700 times that range.

I'd like to see this sort of greed become criminal. These CEO's and their corporations are making this sort of money off of the death and human suffering of their customers and off of our society that subsidizes them. At the least more proper compensation should be enacted for those highly skilled healthcare providers who actually do the work, take the risks, and do the bulk of the suffering.

Here is a list of our top ten offenders, bonuses not included: 

1. Ascension CEO $59.1 million
2. Kaiser CEO $29.8 million 
3. Banner CEO $29.6 million 
4. Advocate Health CEO, $27.8 million
5. Memorial Hermann Special Advisor/CEO $27.3 million
6. Northwestern Memorial COO $15.3 million
7. Trinity Healthcare CEO $24 million 
8. HCA Healthcare CEO $20 million 
9. Ascension Health CEO $13.6 Million 
10. Common Spirit Health CEO $4.0 million 

Squandering Paradise

The idea that the people of the United States would elect a republican majority to the House after everything the republicans have done, hand in hand with the amorality, criminality, and antidemocracy of Trump, tells me two things. 

     1. Republicans cheat. 

     2. The US deserves them. 

Self Made Worlds

The arrogance of stupid astounds.

On The Edge Of Sanity

Did you ever go in so deep you couldn't breathe? 

An old oak tree, it's 300,000 leaves gently shimmering in the light summer breeze. Its trunk's bark, thick, cool, comforting in the shade.

For years this tree has awoken from winter's long dormancy, transforming dirt and air into an explosion of delicate leaves, renewing itself so beautifully, year, after year, after year. 

Hold just a single one of its leaves in your hand and begin to get lost in its complexity and beauty. Its veins, pores, stoma, cells, deeper to its chloroplasts - little organelles within the cells, where photosynthesis occurs. Using the power of sunlight - 10 quadrillion (a million billion) photons per second, per leaf, these organelles transform carbon dioxide from the air, into carbon chains of sugars, starches, and cellulose. These are then transported throughout the tree nourishing and maintaining its life. Along the way the process releases oxygen, so that we may all breathe. This has occurred trillions of times in just this single tree, within these delicate leaves, each summer day, for a hundred years.

Go deeper still, deep into the immensity that is our galaxy - so deep you feel your brain begin to unhinge - as what you have understood to be you and your place in this universe begins to dissolve away as the true nature of everything begins to unveil itself to you - its unbelievable vastness, ancientness, endless complexity, and beauty.

Hold tight as your imagined coordinates, frames of reference, even your sense of self, everything you have ever known or thought you knew about yourself and your place in this universe, comes slowly undone  - welcoming you to the edge of your sanity. 

There is beauty, within beauty, within beauty, complexity within complexity. Knowing then, truly knowing, lends perspective - helping one to the truths beyond. Shallow human construct - everything you have ever known and used to define yourself and your world - money, power, wealth, nation, religion, prestige - all of it - human invention - all of it - make believe and magic. None exist except as people believe they do. If nation were real - where did the Soviet Union go? And as such all of it will fade away as you come to know the true nature of your universe  - leaving you vulnerable and confused - the price to pay for truth. 

But it is a price well worth it, for how can a galaxy, a tree, or even a single leaf, ever again be just backdrop to silly human folly once you have seen them, truly seen them, for what they are? 

Hear the Mechanical Footsteps

Full automation is coming. Automation is for the most part cheaper and more efficient than humans, so there will be no stopping it. 

We are not talking about typesetters, or automated looms, or even industrial robots bolted to assembly lines. This sort of automation has nearly always created as many jobs as it has replaced. But full automation may not. 

Full automation will be directed by artificial intelligence (AI) and will thus work its way into nearly every job and profession there is. Furthermore, it will become completely autonomous. AI directed machines will harvest their own energy and raw materials, refine and process them, then assemble and distribute every material need people require for high quality life. Employing robotics these machines will become self- repairing as well, and so will attain complete autonomy from humans. 

How then will this full automation impact our economy? More importantly, how will it impact society as a whole? If everything can be provided for by machines, what will people do? 

This is not that far off into the future. It is beginning to occur now, today, and could be nearly complete within fifty years. 

Im going to go out on a limb here and suggest the world may want to begin planning for it now. 

The Future is Bright

Do not weary, for all things are possible. 

These plants can transform soil, air, and water, into a delicate petal or a leaf amoung a myriad of leaves, arranged in endless patterns of beauty. Simple dirt transformed into such stunning richness.

Everything is a miracle. 

Everything.

Apocalyptically Stupid

Ever noticed how the preferred vehicles of survivalists are souped up miltary camouflaged jeeps or huge oversized trucks? Apparently anything that gets better than ten miles per gallon is out. So where is all that gas coming from after the apocalypse? 

Obviously their vehicles need to be electric. 

Now try imagining one of these fools in a Leaf. 

Our Republican Party

Ladies and gentleman. May I present the leader of the republican party. 

DeSantis Is A Sociopath

One gets the distinct impression Ron Desantis wants the Florida emergency response to go well only as it helps his presidential aspirations.

He can hardly hide his glee in being put on a national stage during this crisis, despite the suffering of millions of his constituents. 

As if his cold, deliberate, abuse of immigrants, transgender children, gays, and women, solely to advance his career, wasn't bad enough. 

Lies To Children

Who defeated Hitler? 

The Russians did - with some help from the allies. 

42 million Russians died fighting Hitler. Thats 98% of all allied combatant deaths.

298,000 US troops, 420,000 British, and 212,000 French died. 

Not exactly what you've been led to believe. Hell according to your teachers, your parents, John Wayne, and the movies, Americans won the war against Germany almost by themselves.

Almost everything you've been led to believe about our country's history is a lie. You've been horribly lied to by almost everyone you ever trusted growing up, who themselves had been lied to. You were programed and indoctrinated to a false nationalism. Your brain was raped over and over again your entire childhood in order to foster an allegiance to a lie - so that you might blindly rush to to do your rapist's bidding when the time came.

Is that why we all so fucked up?

Trump Is A Fascist

Police by nature are fascists. They are not interested in your rights and civil liberties, not really, they just want to catch bad guys, weld their 'power', and it's best not to get in their way. 

Despite their necessity, they represent a potential threat to free society at all times and must be kept in check by a strong, fair, judiciary, and a society that wont tolerate excesses in their behavior.

I promise you the second we elect a fascist president, and taint the judiciary in his favor, will be the exact moment cops start abusing their power in earnest. 

Cruz On Ice

What do you get when you put a republican and some ice in a blender?

A bloody cold mess. 

And a smile.

Try Again

Bret Kavanaugh is a sleazy, serial sexual assaulter. He was not properly investigated by the FBI. Their tip line was flooded with calls from his female victims - ignored. 

Amy Barrett is a religious nut job straight out of A Handmaid's Tale. Creepy and dishonarable, allowing herself an appointment after the voting had literally begun in the presidential race despite McConnell stealing Garland's seat nearly a year out from an election. 

Neil Gorsuch just flat out lied about Roe V. Wade and his respect for legal precedent. He is a bold face liar as are Kavanaugh and Barrett. They all blatantly lied about Roe V. Wade.

Slimy, sleazy, creepy, liars - our supreme court. And you expect me to respect the institution? Or even consider it legitimate? 

Try again. 

Heady Times

What if I told you we will have the means to completely end poverty, worldwide, in the next 30 years. And along with it, end hunger, malnutrition, and their associated diseases. All without lowering anyone's standard of living. 

What if I told you we will have the means to end wealth inequality - and in doing so can end the disparities in health care, education, and opportunity, associated with it.

What if I told you we will have the ability for all people to live in the manner and at the standard of living of their choice, everywhere - wanting for nothing material? Or told you that we will have the means to equip scientific, exploration, engineering, and artistic endeavor with all that is needed, without regard to cost. 

What if I told you we will have the means to replace the focus in government from wealth and power, to actually governing and power. Or told you that we will have the means for people to focus on the attainment of knowledge and skill in science, music, the arts, and societal interaction - full time - rather than on survival, materialism, wealth, and consumerism. 

Crazy? A utopian futurist escaping the harshness of today’s world into fantasy? Well crazy remains to be seen. But an unrealistic utopian futurist’s fantasy - no.

But how? 

The answer is shockingly simple and eminently attainable in the next thirty years. It involves something we currently regard more as a threat, than as a species evolving godsend. 

Automation. 

Yep, rust belt causing, job costing, greed motivated, automation.

People have worried about the impact of automation on jobs and the economy for hundreds of years. Will everyone eventually be out of work because of it? Just look at the rust belt here in the midwest United States to witness first hand the harm automation can cause. 

But despite great worry and dire predictions ever since the invention of the printing press automation has created nearly as many jobs as it has displaced, to include the rust belt.

But the growth of automation is exponential and in our time is just starting to steepen its growth curve to dizzying rates, spreading at an ever increasing pace into the entire work environment - something we have never seen before. So, will this now finally end work? 

No, it will not. 

People are too curious and creative for work to ever end. But will it end jobs? Working mostly for money? Yes. Automation will fundamentally change how society views work, materialism, and survival. The 8-5pm grind, working at jobs people hate, working just to survive or just to maintain a certain standard of living, will end. Those are jobs - working mostly for money - and automation will end them. But work will always go on.

The more important question then becomes - how will advances in automation change society, not how will it change work. Automation is advancing at an ever-increasing rate, with the possibility looming of near complete automation of the service industry, transportation, manufacturing, food production, and power generation in the very near future. What will happen to ur economy as ,millions lose their jobs. And the logical conclusion of automations growth is the attainment of 'full automation' - where nearly all the material needs of society are met by autonomous machines. What then? If nearly no one has a job, what becomes of our economy? 

It is easy to see how the transition period from present day to full automation could destroy the world's economies as more and more people are displaced into unemployment at an ever faster rate.  How do we prevent the move to full automation from harming society as we struggle to keep up. 

In the next 5-10 years 5 million drivers, just in the USA, will lose their jobs to autonomous vehicles. That is 3% of the total USA workforce. And where it is true that the autonomous vehicle industry may create jobs for some of these drivers, eventually even those jobs will be lost to automation. Shortly thereafter advances in artificial intelligence will spell the demise of many of the jobs in the service industry, in manufacturing, product distribution, and on and on. This will extend even into the professions - doctors, lawyers, and engineers - Oh my who are we to marry now? 

So, what’s the plan? I mean we all know it’s coming, and it’s not very far in the future. Automation is more efficient and allows for greater profit so it's not stopping. Are we ready? 

Nope, not even a little.

Automation represents as big an existential threat to society as global warming and nuclear war, and just as with the latter two, we have no real plan. 5-10 years to witness autonomous vehicles, ships, perhaps airplanes and all the subsequent job loss is not a very long time. And with exponential growth in artificial intelligence and robotics, full automation could be upon us in as little as 30-50 years. If we are to adapt - planning must begin now.

To work towards solutions to this threat, we must first understand what we are dealing with - what full automation will look like. 

Full automation will employ subterranean machines that gather and refine raw materials, process them into parts and finished product, and then distribute them – all without human intervention. Operated and maintained by artificial intelligence (AI) and AI directed self-repair apparatus, these machines will make our homes, clothing, transportation, energy, toys, food, medicines – everything - without human intervention. Self-repairing machines with their own raw materials and energy sources that produce all the necessities of high-quality life for every human on earth. And since there is no need for human intervention of any kind these products can be provided at no cost. Free. Free? But what about the owners of the resources and the machines, you need to pay them, don’t you? Maybe a one-time payment by world societies as a whole at the beginning. But ongoing payment? Not if their every material need is already being met by these same machines. What are they going to spend their money on? Perhaps you pay them in a different form of currency – say political power, a Rembrandt or three, who knows? Well, I hope not, but my house, car, clothing, heat, light, food, on and on are will all be provided free of charge, regardless. If most of the jobs are taken, how would I pay them anyway? 

More importantly with full automation people worldwide would be lifted from poverty, famine, and given the resources for proper education and healthcare. There would be a cultural shift away from materialism and mere survival to self-fulfillment, exploration, discovery, and artistic expression. 

Clearly full automation has utopian qualities to it. But it's the getting from here to there that represents one of the greatest existential threats to humankind, ever. It involves the progressive displacement of the human workforce, and an evolutionary shift in people's minds away from money, materialism, wealth, and basic survival as the basis of self-worth. So, how do we keep full automation from destroying us? And once attained, what will people all day do if they can’t keep their noses to the grind wheel just to survive?

The answer to the second question is more easily answered. Just turn to scientists, artists, musicians, philanthropists, volunteers, and all the people today who work to discover, create, express themselves, or try to make this a better world. It will take no more than two generations for people to adopt from a world focused on survival and materialism, to a world of education and knowledge, exploration, discovery, artistic expression, and commitment to family. Imagine a child born into such a world, where parents and educators have unlimited resource to help with the child's education and the shaping of her talents and interests. A world where 8-5 jobs that are hated and worked solely to survive would be ancient history - as the child asks - how did they stand it?

So how do we get there safely? It helps to remember that getting there is going to occur whether we plan for it or not. Such is the nature of profit and greed. Either we have rapid job replacement with economic destruction, or we plan well in advance and adapt.

Our first step to full automation involves embracing it as a common goal worldwide. Make it the entire world’s ‘land a man on the moon in a decade’ unified effort - to end hunger, poverty, most communicable diseases while enhancing education, knowledge, and self-expression. Millions of people and their governments, along with trillions of dollars worldwide, are then committed to developing full automation over the next 30 years in a manner that does not destroy us along the way. A herculean effort many will say can't be done, exactly as they said of landing a person on the moon in the 1960's.

We would create an international automation administration - IAA - to bring worldwide resources and expertise together with the common mission of attaining complete automation and freedom from material constraint for all mankind, within the next 30 years. Expediting automation while transitioning as painlessly away from materialism as possible, it's mission.

Ten years from now 33 million drivers in the USA will be out of work. The IAA will then subsidize their training and salaries for jobs in the automation industry, paying them at least what they were earning as drivers. When the next great wave of automation strikes - say the global distribution of material goods – planes, ships, trains – those people will also be trained and hired into the automation industry. This in effect would maintain world economies while accelerating the effort to full automation. 

There then comes a point where further advancements in automation are put in place but are deliberately kept offline as more and more people are retrained and hired into the automation industry until such a day where the entire world’s material needs can be produced autonomously by machines. This is done to protect the health of world economies in the interim. But once ready to come fully online we throw the switch – at once ending poverty, unequal wealth distribution, famine, and all their associated problems - evolving as a species past materialism and working to survive, to working to self-enlighten, discover, explore, self-express, help, and thrive. 

Money, if it even continues exist, will take on a new form based mostly in barter, trading for art and unique antiquities as example. Politics becomes politics minus money, in other words unrecognizable but I suspect just as obnoxious. Human constructs such as prestige, religion, power, status, will remain at their essence, unchanged. 

Full automation then utopian in many respects, but the world still recognizable and flawed. Nevertheless, the onset of full automation will represent the greatest social evolutionary leap since humans moved past small nomadic clans to city states - if only we do it right.