The Post-Partisan Emporium

  Reinventing Democracy The whole point of democracy and free markets is to force competition on elites who are desperate to eliminate competition. What's the point of discussing reforms that aren't even possible in the current status quo?  That's a good question, as any discussion of major systemic changes can be dismissed as pointless (since they'll never be adopted), and a distraction from the "real work" that can be managed within the current system. On the other hand, we might ask: what's the point of discussing what is do-able in the status quo, i.e. superficial feel-good  policy tweaks  that change nothing in the  power structure ? In other words, everything is ultimately a superficial feel-good  policy tweak  if it doesn't change how power, "money," credit and resources are amassed and distributed. The argument for discussing "impossible" systemic changes is this:  we must ponder other ways to structure who has power for two

  Is It Beer Thirty Yet? From sacrament to sacrilege RADIO FAR SIDE Few people stop to think just how vital beer is to the human race. The Babylonians built temples to  Ninkasi, the goddess  of beer and brewing, and the Hammurabic Code had strict laws concerning the ingredients and process of brewing beer. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all took brewing very seriously and ancient breweries are discovered on a regular basis. Of course, most serious beer drinkers know about the German  Reinheitsgebot .\ In my own Celtic and Anglic cultures, every home brewed their own. The best brews drew visitors, and eventually those homes became inns and public houses (pubs), and even town breweries. One town brewery that became famous for its top-fermented lager was a sleepy Czech town called  České Budějovice . Their top brew is called Budwar, or in Germany Budweiss. Very long story short, this beer recipe and technique made its way to America, were it spawned a mega-corporation called Anh

The Monopoly - Labor "Let It Rot" Death Spiral Charles Hugh Smith The only rational response to this reality is to  opt out, lay flat and let it rot. In my previous post,  The Bubble Economy's Credit-Asset Death Spiral ,  I described the self-reinforcing feedback of expanding credit and soaring asset valuations  and how the only possible result of this  financial perpetual motion machine  was a death spiral of collapsing debt service, collateral and credit impulse. But this didn't exhaust the destructive dynamics of this  self-reinforcing wealth-creation machine for the few  who own the vast majority of the assets.  As longtime correspondent T.D. explains, this concentration of the benefits of financialization in the hands of the few also concentrates political power and the wealth to distort every function of the economy to enrich the few at the expense of the many. This concentration of wealth and corruption isn't cost-free.  As I've discussed here many time

What Is the Third Party Technique? An Exploration of the Propaganda That Sustains the Pandemic Industrial Complex A Midwestern Doctor From having watched the world for a while, I have come to accept people in power (either politically or financially) lack many of the morality and ethical frameworks we assume everyone would use to guide their actions. In turn what determines if most of the immoral actions those in power might commit happen or don’t happen is simply how feasible the actions are and what potential consequences might occur from enacting a policy. This is why laws that protect individual liberties are so critical in any form of government; governments will inevitably do bad things to their citizens unless they are restrained from doing so.  For example, one of my primary concerns with the COVID-19 vaccinations was that they would adversely affect fertility. This was based on the design of the vaccines, the unprecedented nature of their rollout (as all women of childbearing