Moveable Feast Cafe 2021/03/30 … Open Thread

Time for Musk-ie Pooh to call Big, Bad Vlad?

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/spacex-launches-starship-sn11-fails-during-flight-descent

Strike two with the same descent problem–can get it up but not down (to earth) ? Eternal priapism of the inflated mind? Or sinister sabotage? Or double-down’s syndrome?

I just came in this morning to say, I doubt I will be coming here much anymore. Not to say I’m flouncing off with a “never again”. But I doubt it will be often, or much.

I dont usually stop to say “Goodbye” when I leave – but some have been kind and interesting and to them I would be gracious. Maybe the odd thing will catch my attention, but mostly, I doubt I’ll even stop by to read.

I’ve lost interest – I’m tired of the internet, but more, I’m tired of the atmosphere which permeates it.

I’m a person who enjoys discussion.

Friendly, rational, kindly, discussion. The sharing of ideas in a warm atmosphere. This has all but disappeared from the Internet – and certainly from here. I’m tired of snotty nosed, dismissive – “I am right and you are tiresome boor”. It occurred to me over a recent re-occurrence of this, that I hold 3 degrees, plus post graduate diplomas and 3 other professional training certificates, I was Head of Dept at my University for a while, I was a highly respected Senior in my profession of caring for the sick – and I dont think I worked, studied, learned, and practised, to be sneered at by anyone.

I’ve spent the last year with handling this this over other issues, while being sick. Fighting Adrenal Insufficiency and an Addisonian Crisis are not fun at any time, let alone in such an atmosphere. But it’s given me time to “go within” and think, and see things through a slightly different prism.

I’ve spent years studying, reading, listening, learning. I think it’s time for a “Long Vac”.

I just dont care about international issues anymore. Or trying to have civilised discussions about them.

I’ts time to do as the voice I heard while waking from a dream advised. I’m off on other journeys of discovery, and people more attune to me along the way.

For those who have had good things to say – I thank you, and wish you well.

до свидания.

Do not hug.

No. Tis verboten to give hugs
Those you love
Say the cabal of thugs.

What is it that they so fear
That they must wedge us from those we hold dear.

If we respond with mere shrugs
As our world is lost to these grugs
Are we not complicit?
Because surely what they impose is illicit.

A world without hugs
Is a world of grey slugs

Now don’t get me wrong
Slugs in nature belong

But they don’t aspire to humanity
And for us to “embrace our inner slug” is pure inanity.

Today, I saw, for dogs, a rack of winter rugs.
Even our pets, we want to keep snug.

Back home from the shops I boiled the jug
And sat and thought as I sipped my mug

This yawing, dystopian hole needs a plug
We just cannot continue to not give a fug.

Our global world today, the way I see it:

The sad truth is that the modern society is a very rigid class system. Forget about the upper, middle, lower division of the good old days. Today there are only two tiers – upper and lower – with three distinctive layers: dominating, intermediate and the dominated.

Ok, I may be exaggerating a bit – there is still a middle class, kinda, sort of, but it consists mostly of low-level corporate and state workers, and small private enterpreneurs, trying to run their own businesses (but, regrettably, doomed to fail in long term).

Nevertheless, the social stratification is at its peak everywhere in the world. At the top of our society you have the transnational megacorporations. These global companies ARE the real in our world today – they have more money and yield more political influence than most of the governments today; they practically create their own culture, laws and social systems. Indeed, there are some cultural differences between them, result of their nation of origin, but ALL of them value the same things – conformity, observation of the hierarchy, unyielding loyalty to the company and its policies, but above everything else – Power (with capital “P”).

In the global picture, nowadays you’re either working for a transnational, or you’re on your own – this means that either you’re struggling to run your own business, you’re freelancer, or you’re unemployed. Low- and middle-level corporation employees are expendable and replacable almost immediately – the large contingent of unemployed are used by the transnationals as readily available pool for replacements, and is a constant threat to the employed. If you’re ineffective – you get fired. If you’re disloyal – you get fired, or worse. And if a transnational considers you a threat – you’re most definitely worse.

Let’s first review our corporate lords and masters.

At the bottom of the corporation hierarcy you have the “dominated” – cleaners, drivers, janitors, security guards, low-level employees. For their work they receive a salary, usually bordering to subsistence level. If they’re lucky, they may get a basic health-care insurance, paid by the corporation. Many of them are content with their dull jobs, carrying day by day their mediocre, drap existence. Some of them are dreaming about “promotion” and advancing into the ranks of the “intermediate” – the middle class of the corporate workers. In order to achieve this, they ofter work extended hours (in some cases up to 16 and more per day), they often resort to legal, and in many cases – illegal, stimulants just to keep up with the pressure. As result, they’re stick in a limbo, waking up every morning to do the same thing over and over again (and we all know what Enstein presumably said about doing the same thing and expecting different result). They’re dreaming and waiting for their “big chance”, because, they think, if they’re persistent, clever and ruthless enough, eventually they’ll have their chance to step up the corporate ladder. They dream how they’ll probably get some nice appartment (paid by the company, of course), and, may be, a company car. They imagine that their salary could go up, and,probably, now they could go to eat out from time to time, and enjoy fresh – but still GMO – food. But most importantly – they’ll be eligible for promotion to the upper levels. The sad truth is that such dreams are delusional – no matter if you get up there with your fists or knees, your connections, years of education or practical experience – at this level, is where the things get really serious. Here, you’re just one little shark among older, bigger sharks in a very crowded fish tank. To remain at the intermediate level one must be always
few steps ahead of the competition, and be prepared to fight quick and dirty. Many, who’ve reached this level drop out soon after that, sometimes with very grave personal consequences. Very, very few have ever get the chance to progress beyond that.

At the very top of the corporate hierarchy sit the real son-of-bitches – board members, CEOs, corporate owners (don’t mistake them with shareholders – the shareholders are just the dupes left holding corporate debt instruments, which will never be repaid), their family relatives. The new oligarhy. The ruling families of the brave new world, which all of us are “enjoying” today. Most of them have inherited their positions, groomed from day one to take over, when their parents decide it’s time to change the faces. Some of them worked it out after decades of scheming, back-stabbing, consolidating power and building alliances. Still, while their position is more stable than those of the low- and middle-level employees, it’s far from secured – there are always young and ambitious ascendants, waiting for even the slightest slip.

It should be noted, that coups at such high level are extremely rare – the stakes are so enormous and the possibility to weaken company’s strength (a sure way for a corporation downfall) in a badly time overthrow is so high, that this is where those psychopaths draw the line – very few of them would risk internal power struggle. These things that high and mighty fear most – for them the company is literally their life, more important than their families. Pretty much every CEO would sacrifice everyone and everything to ensure that his (it’s rarely her’s, but these days you never know…) company will remain alive and profitable.

The main threat to a transnational company are their fellow transnationals. On their way to the top of the food chain every transnational have worked hardly to overcome every and all domestic and government opposition. In places without strong governments, the transnationals have established bitter rivalries and are their worst enemies. Every imaginable sector of the economy is essentially a war zone, where only the strongest survive. On such battle field there are no rules of engagement and the transnational corporations aren’t beyond using the most gruesome tactics imaginable – hostile take overs, assasinations of key management and research personnel (usually conveniently presented as accidents, incidents or result of worsened health condition) and destroying and sabotaging of production facilities, transport lines and warehouses (presented in corporate-owner mass media as tragic accidents, of course) are just tip of the iceberg. Many transnationals are not beyond the use of para-military forces and commiting crimes against humanity in regions with weak and corrupt governments in order to increase their bottom line on the balance sheet.

Speaking of the governments, the businesses of the government and the transnational corporations have always been interlinked, and nowadays, they don’t even try to hide it. Thou the power of the nation states is just a fraction of the power yielded by the transnational corporations, they are still powerful regional players. Still, in the west, the governments these days are nothing more than front-office for the transnationals, which choose to set foot in the respective region. Of course, a lone government “crusader” may start “bashing” a coproration once and then, but it usually ends when the said government official receives his “fair share” of the bribe money – in the end, the government officials always seem to end up approving laws, which benefit the transnationals first, and the ordinary people be damned – those politicos most definitely knows, who’s giving them their bread and butter.

In a world so influenced by corporate-owned mass media, with populace so addicted to cheap entertainment and omnipresent trash culture, the so called “celebrities” have their own place at the top of the social pyramid. Every branch of the show business has its own stars, whose works shape trends and opinions. Most of them are product of the entertainment industry itself, designed to feed the current fashion. Very few of them are natural born talents, discovered by a manager, who recognized their potential and helped them to develop it;
these days most of them are creation of the mass-media and aggresively pushed forward, usually to promote some “woke”, idiotic, politically-correct agenda. Regardless of their origin, they’ll shine brightly for a (short) period of time, and then replaced by the next trendy face.

Apart from the low-level corporate employees, today’s middle class consists of those, who’ve failed to find their place in a transnational corporation. These people are trying to run their own business, usually a small-time store. Owners of these enterprises are ordinary law-abiding citizens, who try to earn their living without selling their body and soul to a transnational. Some of them even succeed, even if only for a time, because, despite the efforts of ever-expanding corporations, these business still provide a fair number of jobs for their local communities. A small business owner’s situation is often challenging, as they are forced to rent homes in poor locations with (usually) non-existent security and, therefore, more exposed to criminal activity. They also have to cover the cost of all social and health insurance all by themselves. Usually, without the backing of local authorities, such owners are often forced to pay “protection fees” to local criminal gangs. In all fairness, in such locations, and if you pay your “fee”, the local crimnal gangs usually provide better protection from rivals than the authorities ever could. The lowest level of this tier, the “new middle class” of the 21st century, are the people on the verge of poverty. Poorly educated and mostly unemployed, they’re struggling to meet ends by running semi-legal (and in many cases – outright illegal) business, and trying to steer clear of authorities and organized criminals. Ironically, in the cold reality of the 21st century, the fact that they have a job at all counts them among the lucky ones.

There is always a way down from the rock bottom. Brutal changes in the structure’s society after the financial, health and geo-political crises during the first two decaded of the 21st century have dramatically increased the proporiton of the poorest part of the human population everywhere in the world. In every major city (especially those ranked as global) there are entire districts of shantytowns, tent cities and favelas where tens of housands of people live in outrageous conditions, trying to survive day-by-day. And despite the high mortality rate as result of disease, drug overuse, criminal activity, this army of outcasts grow bigger every day – people, who’ve lost their jobs after last “cost optimisation” by their corporate employers; people, who’ve lost their life savings as result of the latest government-approved financial scam, after which the big banks bailed out their buddies with freshly printed (well, actually electronically created) money; people, who’ve lost their entire families in regions, where local wars, fueled by corporate interests run unchecked, or people, who simple gave up and stopped caring.

Once a few years, a local government tries to solve the problems of such slums and their inhabitants. All such attempts always end up with corruptions scandals, with the poors often worse than before.

In this brave new world we live today – there’s hardly place for an optimism.

This is a ridiculous question, but me and my friends often have absurd conversations.

We joke about the culling (virus/vaccine campaign). All of my friends and family have taken the vaccine. I’m the only one too scared to take it – though if it becomes compulsory and they make life so difficult then I’ll opt for the Valneva vaccine which uses traditional methods.

I asked them (no-one could offer a solution other than, reduce the world’s population): if you lived on a planet where the human world was at high risk of extinction due to over population, diminishing food, water, energy resources, climate change – and if science led you to believe this is inevitable if we continue as we are.
And, secondly, if you were a powerful oligarch, whose friends were likewise rich and powerful, and technology was advancing at such a pace that within 10 yrs, 75% of western populations would be unemployed and unemployable.
And if you had the solution to the risk of human extinction, what would that solution be?

It’s a bizarre question. But none of us could think of a credible answer. My only thought was enforce a max 2 child policy globally like the Chinese did (?). Would that impact quickly enough to help. Assuming also, we have no way of stopping military expenditure/resources, with all the terrible environmental damage it causes, without total war.

Other than that, I can only ponder we need to rethink human reality, before we disappear like most other biological species. Is that what Schwab and his cronies are trying to do? Rethink and re-engineer human reality before we go the way of all animals… Yes, but if you had their power and status, what would you do? I don’t know. I’m lost.

If it’s too stupid a question to even consider, please ignore me.

People read because they want to know what other’s think, they need to have interpretations of world events. They want to find out what the mood is concerning, the upheavals, the petty results of autocracy, the political day to day.

I digress, but above in this thread, there was a brief allusion to a raging fanatic at the Café, whose choice of subject delirium was apparently the matter of “Q”, of which I will write no more.

The raging commentator enthused, made hay while the sun shone, shared links and related information, using an array of spontaneous discourse that as the Queen would say of , “We do not approve,” and it was gone.

It’s all along time ago, like a dream, but of course, people have different thoughts and ideas on anything.

But supposing it was an incorrect assessment about a “raging fanatic”, and the subject was used as an engine, like a teacher purely for the purpose of galvanising his or her students into enthusiastic attention away from more pessimistic, or lethargic stance’s for instance, what then ?

It was was considered inappropriate however, subversive or dangerous to the minds of the attendees, I imagine anyway, as safe guarding measures were introduce and the subject was banned.

It was interesting however, connected to other political events, relevant in its own way, to find out what is happening, what the focus is at any time among people, non personal, a passing phenomenon.
All things must pass.