What I'm Reading in Stackerland
A Few Recommendations
Hello subscribers! My last mega-post, Covid Vaccines as the Aschen Agenda, is my third-most viewed post and still rising. If you haven’t read it because of its obscure title, consider it when you have the time.
Such long educational posts will be far and few between, but the next major post I am working on is an introduction to Coley’s toxins, which will itself be the start of a series. I’m not sure when that will drop. My writing is highly spontaneous, and I have to wait for the creative juices for such posts to congeal.
Regarding the potential sinister agendas behind the covid vaccines, many of us have been following all of these developments along the way and collecting the information for over a year, so we have been accustomed to thinking about it. But I do understand that seeing the information collected in one single place can be pretty horrifying.
Negative emotions (anger, disgust, horror, terror) are powerful motivators. Without them we won’t be motivated to take action.
Many months of terror, uncontrollable crying, and so on, 8,000 miles from my family in the hermit kingdom of New Zealand, is what motivated me to work 7 days a week for 6 months, get my shit on a freighter, and say goodbye to a place that I thought would be home for rest of my life. Shit happens. I certainly didn’t expect my livelihood and country to be stolen from me. We have to deal with it.
To that end, I really enjoyed this recent piece by Mathew Crawford about the mess we find ourselves in, and what can be done about it:
If you thought six million COVID-19 deaths (a historically ominous number, indeed) was a tragedy, don't stop to think about what six hundred million deaths might look like.
The Ukrainians need solutions. They have no government to depend on.
Half the world or more may have no government to depend on soon. Policy cannot meet demand.
We need technological solutions to combat the current state of technological asymmetry and monopoly. We needed them yesterday, but tomorrow will be good enough [for some].
Anyone with a yard should begin to think about this (hat-tip to reader Rick Larson for the link). If you don’t own a home, how about befriending an elderly neighbor and discussing the possibility of using their yard for a garden, and sharing the produce? Just yesterday I was talking to my grandmother about a garden. She was born in 1933. Her mother (who died when I was eight) put bottles of milk in the creek to keep them cool. They drank milk unpasteurized from a local farm. This wasn’t that long ago.
So many solutions already abound. Increase your self-sufficiency with regard to food. Look into precious metals and decentralized cryptocurrency. Learn to live with less. These are just a few ideas, of course.
In a nutshell? Make yourself unappetizing to predators. As Mathew suggests, let’s not get trapped in the idea that more central planning will solve our problems. Voting is what got us here.
If you’re not following this Moscow-based writer, you should be!
Finally, I really enjoyed the following piece. I hesitate to excerpt it because the whole thing is really worth it.
Last week, I had an open day at my regular job. So I worked at the 300 acre Edgeboro Landfill, which rises 15 stories above the rivers and flatlands at its East Brunswick, NJ base. I spent seven-plus hours picking up pieces of plastic, styrofoam, insulation and other dross that would otherwise be windblown into surrounding areas, and stuffing it into black, 30 gallon Hefty bags. Fundamentally, the work resembled one of those Earth Day volunteer walks, where suburban people go to urban neighborhoods and, along with residents, pick up litter left by other residents. Though my work took more time, and I got paid for it.
…I’ve had some unpleasant jobs. I’ve mopped floors and cleaned toilets. I’ve worked on an assembly line. I’ve been a truck driver.
I was also a roofer, before they had nail guns. Lugging eighty pounds of shingles on your shoulders up long ladders, and then banging nails in 100-plus in-the-direct-sun-all-day degrees five, nine-hour, days/week cumulatively wears you down. And don’t let your mind wander. Looking down from the tops of multi-story houses I would sometimes think, “If I survive that fall, someone will end up feeding me and brushing my teeth for the rest of my life.”
The majority of the piece is about the others he works with, as well as the perpetually clueless who are disconnected from working class reality. Great read.
The last couple of years have been "yucky"
For the record I don't know if this planet is going to at the extremes quickly warm up to hot house Earth levels (I've read the claims) or its heralding in a new ice age (not many of those claims right now). The author of the article alludes to at least we are entering a colder era and I don't know that either.
What I do know is humans have changed the biological landscape to the extent we probably have kicked the climate out of relative stability. These biological climate fluctuations, I make this statement based on studies I've read concerning climax forests moderate the climate, my unqualified opinion, and I've personally noticed where I live being a gardener, as well as geopolitical events will cause food shortages my main reason for sharing the link. Yes, gardening is excellent advice and I advise start now to avoid the rush.
I noticed these studies of how the biology and specifically forests have this stabilizing ability after reading Permaculture A Designers' Manual a few times, various chapters that together give rise to other queries and also a Permaculture Design Course based on the manual (there are many variations) I participated in. Lots of varying variables and I don't believe anyone knows the future climate.
Anyway, thanks for the notice.
Oh, I joke every so often participating in the 72 hour design course instantly leap frogged my intelligence of the planet past even the most learned PhD. Hahaha!