Last Commented Society Blogs (898)

....well, it is a thing to ponder. Lots of examples, sadly, quite in the other direction, no? Often based on religion, power, money, sex, we look at such. with disappointment. The Crusades, the NAZI's, Communism, the great war, the Pope's inquisition, gay men wantonly spreading HIV-AIDS to normal innocents, a certain political party keeping the KKK and Jim Crow going, not to mention lynching. Even African tribal chiefs rounding up their own war slaves to enable the filling of the plantation bound slave ships. Yes, pretty grim indeed. But we must not forget the other side of things, often occurring in times of turmoil and danger. So we see the English and German soldiers football fraternizing in no person's land at Christmas, early in the great war. How some villages self isolated during the Black death plague, apparently a great sacrifice. The concealment and rescue of Jews-and others, during the German Third Reich. Passing out food and warm clothes to US hobos near freight train camps during the great depression. Many more examples. So, there is a tendency for humans to rally in goodness during these difficult times. Does beg the question, with the current great powers at each other's throats, how will humanity react with a threat that makes any pandemic seem like a walk in the park. Try a 10 KM diameter asteroid honing in on us all. Less than ideal such cooperation to the claims of climate changes. But this is partly due to the documented liberal bias faking of science early on, and to the activists assuming near religious behaviors, quite closed mindedly, abetted by biases in media pundits and editors. It seems that we can all rally, but only under some circumstances. Rigid thinking often seems to be a major enemy.

There's a new twist in selling a house in the city of North Miami. It involves the inspector approving the (single-family) dwelling is the same as listed on county records and in condition to be inhabited. Basically, it's the used house version of a Certificate of Occupancy or as most people it a CO.

The burden is on the seller and if the title transfers to a new owner without approval, it means the seller gets fined. It's the only time a city inspector can get inside to look at property without someone tipping them off there's a violation.

Let's say, I closed my carport into a garage, built a room addition not visible from the street, added a kitchenette, toilet and shower... all without building permits, so I can rent to another family living in my single-family dwelling. If I sell the house and not advertise the added illegal renovations, the new owner could (literally) carry on as a landlord to tenants.

Obviously, it's a problem the city is unable to control. They have a threatening warning on the Homestead Tax Exemption form that it must be your primary residence and you cannot rent any part of it or you forfeit the exemption and are subject to a fine.

It's a 'money grab' and I dislike having to pay the last minute fee (that's holding up closing on the property) but I do understand why they do this. It would be annoying if my neighbors all had multiple renters coming and going.

Here's the situation with Covid-19:

Every single school is closing for 2 weeks
All government employees in non-critical functions are being sent home
Families are urged to keep their kids home, starting tomorrow
Two people in critical condition due to Covid-19
All gatherings of 100 people or more are being discouraged
514 infected people
The strategy, about who is being tested, is changed
The Foreign State department has adapted their travel guides.

So this is essentially a 2 week lockdown of Denmark. Will this stop the spread of the virus? Who knows!

From The Atlantic;

And the crowds wait patiently for the unveiling of Julius Mal....

masquerading as a "Democratic Socialist"?
Is the Green New Deal a watermelon - Green on the outside & Red on the inside?



It's unlikely in the extreme that 'Crats will brutally raise and address such questions during their upcoming Primary Race, but they should. They MUST!

Why?
If they fail to raise & address such questions in their Primaries and run Bern For Prez - they can be damned Certain the questions will be raised FOR 'em in the General Election

Some of The Don's early campaign ads suggest 'Publicans anticipate running against The Bern & are framing the Prez campaign as a Capitalism vs Socialism/Communism clash of Worldviews.

...specifically, lovely and peaceful Newark.... Or, "the poor will always be with us". Give away program, mostly to the poor, designed by liberal city staffer, who is no longer in the job. Some 100 inner city abandoned lots, given away by town dictators for life, based on lottery, for a thousand bucks each. Over time, very few were built on by the winners. Issues included building permits, financing, non payment, probably scummy agents, and so on. Sometimes it's luck, but more often, the poor remain so for clear reasons. Said to be another 2,000 such abandoned lots available. Our best President, Republican Uncle Abe, had a quip on this sort of thing, concerning the poor, the rich, and taxation. First one to guess, gets an all expense paid fantasy date with BRAVO.

The more a person lies, the more we lose trust in them.
That's understandable. Afterall, they are likely to lie again.
People can't trust what they have to say.

One president has lied far more than any other.
Over 16,000 lies or misleading statements confirmed in just his first 3 years as president.
That's astonishing, despicable, and unprecedented !
And the worst part, is that each year of his presidency, he tells even more lies.
Although already the worst, somehow he manages to annually get worse.

From the Washington Post;


Lying has become his general way of communicating and oddly, it appears he has no shame in doing so. He has proven over 16,000 times, that he is untrustworthy.
Or as Jimmy Kimmel previously referred to him, as "the great misleader" ;

I came to say something about Karl Marx that got a friend of mine turn hostile. He is Trumpeter, believe in capitalism and hates anything that smell of socialism and communism. I suppose I have had leaning toward the right, but ...

Marx did study capitalism, but had nothing to do with communism most seems to think of it. Some of his thoughts was used by Lenin, Stalin, and others after he was dead and gone. A word of that first. Imagine a society that was based upon slavery and serfdom. Your body, your work, your children, was all the property of someone else. Then it is easier to understand what fueled the communist revolution.

One key aspect of Marx, was the evolution of a new class of owners, the capitalist, brought forward by the industrial revolution. Serfs working in factories. We have many examples of this today as well. ( example, correctional institution has become industries ) Marx proposed that people themselves should "own the means of production". It is easy to see why the "red scare" is the mortal enemy of capitalism. Imagine the scare of plantation owners if slaves should be free men ?

Instead of the industrial revolution, we experience an information revolution. Today, free men may be put back in chains. Facial recognition and surveillance, enslave people - you cannot buy goods at the store, not use transportation, have no means of income, except what some people decide you deserve based on a “social credit system” that will rate your human value, your freedom, your economic conditions. We will have 5G, mass surveillance, banking system, transportation, - it is already very much in place. We may soon see a toll system installed in your car for payment of road tax, insurance and maybe where you are allowed to go. Your personal data has become a commodity for large corporations.

So, what would "ownership of the production system" mean today ? Are we entering a new form of serfdom ?

At the beginning of 1943 the Derbyshire village of Derwent stood abandoned by all but one remaining inhabitant. By the autumn of that year the village would be demolished, and waiting to be swallowed up by the rising waters that would inevitably follow the completion of the new dam, further down the valley.

Dalkin Barleythwaite had lived all of his seventy-three years in Derwent village, and he had no intention of living out his remaining time anywhere else. He stubbornly refused to be moved. One crisp, March morning, Dalkin was spotted by a fellow villager, striding out across the moor with his spaniel, Raif. The next time Dalkin was seen, he was lying lifeless at the foot of the steep crag that bounds one side of the natural rocky feature known as Alport Castles, a couple of miles North West of the village. One hundred feet above him, on the edge of the crag, a forlorn dog broke the morning stillness with echoing howls of anguish. The coroner’s verdict was “accidental death”, but Dalkin had been wandering that landscape since he could first walk, and no one who knew him believed for a moment that he went over the edge of those rocks by accident.

Ladybower reservoir has since become a very popular tourist destination, and, in the summer, the area is alive with walkers, cyclists and picnickers. Most visitors are unaware of the story of the village’s last occupant, but he is a familiar character to some of the keener enthusiasts for the outdoors. The hills and dales surrounding the Derwent valley can be bleak and inhospitable in winter, and only the more dedicated hiker is to be seen there during that part of the year. Those who do venture out onto that harsh landscape on a frosty morning, when a thin mist hangs over the valley and an eerie silence haunts the air, are apt to become aware of an extra presence among their number.

John Lampfoot, from the nearby village of Bamford, knows the area like the back of his hand; he also seems to have a sixth sense. He has an uncanny knack of knowing just where and when Dalkin will appear. From mid-December to the end of March, John takes small groups of walkers up onto the moor, where they will follow the path that Dolkin took on his last journey to Alport Castles. At some point along the way, John signals the travelers to stop, and there they will stand and wait. How he knows where to stop is a mystery even to John, but he is never wrong. The wait can be long or short, but, in time, a mist will start to form close to the ground and slowly rise upwards, then out of it will trudge Dalkin, looking purposeful and grim. On John’s signal the party will resume their trek, alongside their extra member. They carry on right up to the crag; coming to a stop just a few feet from the edge; except for Dalkin, of course.