Peregrinating
2016

September

1 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

A busy morning after a slightly shorter walk. First on the agenda was go to the Smith's parking lot directly across the street from a laundromat. There I was going to start up my RV generator and give it some exercise while I did laundry. It did start, this is an improvement over what it did when I tried to start it upon arriving in Dolores, but ran rough, smoked a lot and died after a few minutes. It would then re-start but die again within a minute.

I spent a LOT to get it just to start. I guess it is going to drive me to the poor house to get it running and keep it running.

The laundry chore went well as did my shopping expedition at Smith's. Then it was time for breakfast at Earlenes Pubic House where I had a very good Greek Omelet and very good coffee. The downside to that is the cost, they are very expensive compared to my usual haunts. I may go back one more time before I leave here but only once although it is the best place for breakfast that I have tried.

This is the first of the four remaining 2-uniform tile that I said looked easy. This one was very easy and does not offer up a very interesting pattern. The next one is an alternative to this one with the same shapes, different coloring and the math guys say that "two tilings share the same two vertex types".


I have another quote from As We Go Marching by John T. Flynn. Remember that this was written in 1944 and he is speaking of Germany and the United States. As I have said about the Will Rogers weekly articles from 88 years ago: "The more things change, the more they are the same." - Alphonse Karr

We have noticed the growing demand upon the government from the indigent and the unemployed and from the swiftly returning crises in industry. And we have seen how the institution of social welfare and the spending of money on all sorts of enterprises enabled the government, by borrowing money, to create income. This income, infused into the blood stream of the nation, vivified industry generally and acted as a stimulant and support of the economic system. But this stratagem, while supplying a temporary stimulus, had the effect of creating a national debt that excited the fears and, finally, the bitter resistance of the tax-paying and investing groups. They will always interpose an impassable opposition to continued public deficits for purely civil enterprises. But they will not object to spending money on armies for national defense. Governments were confronted with this curious paradox; namely, that the most vociferous enemies of unbalanced budgets were also the most willing supporters of expenditures for military power. Statesmen in Germany—and in every European country—found after a while that it was possible to get taxes up to a certain point and borrow funds beyond that for military purposes. And they understood also that money spent on military projects was just as effective in providing supplementary energy to the economic system as funds spent on any other kind of public project. It was those deficits created by vast military expenditures which did for the German economic system what our deficits over the last ten years have done for ours - kept the organization of private business in motion.

2 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

I think the only thing that is different from when John T. Flynn wrote this in 1944 is we now have TV and the Internet. They serve the same purpose as the radio did back then so the fundamentals have not changed.

No free society can extort from its people compliance with all the abrasive rules and ravaging taxes, the endless intrusions into their business affairs that grow and multiply, one rule calling for another to correct its repercussions in unexpected quarters, one intrusion the forerunner of countless others. Free men will not endure it. They will, if they retain their freedom, cast it off by driving the leader out and putting another in his place who will now promise them softer and more amiable conditions of life. Hence the leader who rides to power upon the masses’ hunger for jobs, for security from the cradle to the grave, for the regulation of business against the evils of overproduction, will quickly enough discover, even if his tastes do not already run in that direction, that he must make an end of criticism, that he must suppress opposition, that he must enforce compliance by the application of force and through a comprehensive attack of positive propaganda. Hence he assumes dictatorial power. He liquidates the critics. He introduces all the time-worn instrumentalities of coercion. But now he has in his hands instruments of positive propaganda such as the world has never known—the radio, the moving-picture projector, and the school. After all, the school, which commands the attendance of all youth at the public expense, is something comparatively new. And there the dictator can take possession of the minds of the oncoming generation.

3 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

I have drawn Knot #3 and it looks much more like what is shown on the stained glass web page than the first two. I had a few false starts getting the width and height correct but it went well from there on. There are two more knots on the stained glass web page with the next one perhaps easier since I have drawn this one - I'll find out. The last one looks like it could be more of a challenge.



It seems to me that John T. Flynn got it exactly right when he wrote this in 1944. Yes, "We must have enemies. They will become an economic necessity for us."

We have managed to accumulate a pretty sizable empire of our own already—far-spreading territories detached from our continental borders—Alaska, Hawaii, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, Panama Canal Zone, Virgin Islands, with a territorial area of 711,000 square miles or as much as Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, and Holland all combined, and a population of 19,000,000. We have now managed to acquire bases all over the world—islands as distant as the Australian Archipelago which President Roosevelt seized in 1938 without so much as a by-your-leave from Congress. There is no part of the world where trouble can break out where we do not have bases of some sort in which, if we wish to use the pretension, we cannot claim our interests are menaced. Thus menaced there must remain when the war [World War II] is over a continuing argument in the hands of the imperialists for a vast naval establishment and a huge army ready to attack anywhere or to resist an attack from all the enemies we shall be obliged to have. Because always the most powerful argument for a huge army maintained for economic reasons is that we have enemies. We must have enemies. They will become an economic necessity for us.

4 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

One more passage quoted from As We Go Marching. The sad thing about this was it had only started and John T. Flynn would be appalled at what we have come to some 72 years later.

Once upon a time anybody working in a public office was called a bureaucrat and, in its most odious sense, it described nothing more than the official who lived on red tape. The present-day meaning, however, comprises a significance of far more serious character. The old bureaucrat was a public employee who carried out the laws and orders of Congress. But today he is something very much more than this. Congress, in its impotence to deal with the multitude of its assignments, delegates to these bureaus great gobs of its own legislative power, clothes them with the authority to make laws which they call “regulations” and more recently “directives.” But these regulations and directives are actually laws and have the force of law. The grand result of this is that the bureau officials who are appointed by the President are answerable to him and pliant in his hands. And as they have this power through “directives” to enact laws, a vast sector of the power of Congress to legislate has passed to the hand of the executive. Judge Hatton W. Sumners, distinguished chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the House, says that today more law is being enacted by these bureaus than by Congress itself.

5 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

I have quoted from this book enough that you should have a good idea what it was about. There are some extensive Customer Reviews at Amazon if you want a long review. However, I thought this Customer Review was succinct and would serve my purpose in recommending the book as one to read.

As WWII approached there was a small group of writers of a libertarian and conservative persuasion. This author was concerned about fascism developing in America as a result of big government, particularly with the run up to the war. I read it because it was classified as an important book if you are interested in the authors in the years before the modem libertarian movement developed. It was not an easy read. If you are interested in political and economic philosophy it is an interesting book with an important message. - Customer Review at amazon.com

All of the quotes from this book have been copied from the Kindle Paperwhite. It is not as easy as copying from a web page or from Acrobat Reader but now that I have done it a few times it is no too bad. A whole lot better than re-typing which I would not have done.

After getting the Kindle I also downloaded Calibre a free open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books. It has a cornucopia of features but I have now used only the Library Management and E-book Conversion.

This book was my first real successful use of the E-book Conversion feature. I tried converting 2-3 PDF files and either got nothing or it showed pages with very small font size and no way to change it. This book was available in EPUB format but Kindle wants MOBI and Calibre converted it just great. The book that I am now reading was also downloaded as an EPUB and converted. Good stuff!

James Howard Kunstler has done it again. A Pleasant Lull is a good blog posting and he winds it up with a quotable closing.

The sudden bankruptcy of South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping Company ought to send shivers down the scaly spines of globalism’s cheerleaders. Fragility is everywhere in this unraveling network of gigantic, far-flung promises and obligations...More concerning, though, are the conditions of the banks. When their true insolvency is revealed — which may coincide with the height of the election season — look out below. The bankruptcy of one measly shipping company will look like a zit on the ass of a diving blue whale as countless trade operations seize up for lack of confidence that they will ever be paid. Then what?
Then we are forced to pay attention to the actual dynamics now at work in the world. Or be driven crazy by our refusal to get with the program. I tend to think we’ll opt for the latter. We’re too unused to reality. We’d rather crash and burn than change anything about our behavior. Both Trump and Hillary are perfect avatars for this date with a hard landing. The disorder both of them are capable of inducing will be a spectacle for the ages.

6 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

Forthcoming are some selected quotables from Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis by Ludwig Von Mises; this is the first. He could have been talking about presidential elections here in the USA for the past 2-3 decades.

It is usually argued that the essential function of democracy is the selection of political leaders. In the democratic system the appointment to at least the most important public offices is decided by competition in all the publicity of political life, and in this competition, it is believed, the most capable are bound to win. But it is difficult to see why democracy should necessarily be luckier than autocracy or aristocracy in selecting people for directing the state. In non-democratic states, history shows, political talents have frequently won through, and one cannot maintain that democracy always puts the best people into office.

The BLS has published seasonally-adjusted month-by-month employment data for both government and manufacturing going back to 1939. For half a century—from January 1939 through July 1989—manufacturing employment always exceeded government employment in the United States, according to these numbers. Federal, state and local government employed 22,213,000 people in August [2016], while the manufacturing sector employed 12,281,000.

7 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

Another bit of wisdom from Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis.

Grave injury has been done to the concept of democracy by those who, exaggerating the natural law notion of sovereignty, conceived it as limitless rule of the volonté générale. There is really no essential difference between the unlimited power of the democratic state and the unlimited power of the autocrat. The idea that carries away our demagogues and their supporters, the idea that the state can do whatever it wishes, and that nothing should resist the will of the sovereign people, has done more evil perhaps than the caesar-mania of degenerate princelings. Both have the same origin in the notion of a state based purely on political might. The legislator feels free of all limitations because he understands from the theory of law that all law depends on his will. It is a small confusion of ideas, but a confusion with profound consequences, when he takes his formal freedom to be a material one and believes himself to be above the natural conditions of social life.

Political leaders in our post-literate society no longer need to be competent, sincere or honest. They only need to appear to have these qualities. Most of all they need a story, a narrative. The reality of the narrative is irrelevant. It can be completely at odds with the facts. The consistency and emotional appeal of the story are paramount. The most essential skill in political theater and the consumer culture is artifice. Those who are best at artifice succeed. Those who have not mastered the art of artifice fail. In an age of images and entertainment, in an age of instant emotional gratification, we do not seek or want honesty. We ask to be indulged and entertained by clichés, stereotypes and mythic narratives that tell us we can be whomever we want to be, that we live in the greatest country on Earth, that we are endowed with superior moral and physical qualities and that our glorious future is preordained, either because of our attributes as Americans or because we are blessed by God or both.

8 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

Another shopping day and while I waited for Smith's to open I tried to run the RV generator again. It ran smoother and with less smoke for 1-2 minutes and then died. When re-started it ran for maybe a minute with more smoke and running rougher before it died.

Breakfast at Torbios South where I asked for their Huevos con Chorizo Burrito to be served unwrapped. It then came with potatoes, beans and a couple medium size flour tortillas. The coffee was pretty good but the service is not much and I went and got my refill. The prices are good and the food is good so I'll deal with the service considering what I have to chose from here.

When I got back into my space at the Park I had some trouble getting the electric to come on in my refrigerator. It may have been my mistake flipping breakers at the pedestal but it was a worry for a few minutes. Took on fresh water also today.

I finished Knot #4 and it is the best that I have done so far; looks very much like what is shown on the stained glass web page. There is one more knot on the page that looks like it could be difficult but maybe I have learned some things.



Before I try to draw it there is a 2-uniform tile that needs to be drawn.

9 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

This was the first morning in about a week that the sky was clear. We have usually cleared and then afternoon clouds build up again but the overcast mornings were starting to depress me. The cloudy afternoons have made for good walking weather so that has been good.

This was written long before the collapse of the Soviet Union but Ludwig Von Mises got it right. It is too bad that President Obama and The Hill did not spend more time reading what he wrote versus the teachings of Saul Alinsky. The collectivist will keep trying however; they look at failure as being only temporary.

To seek to organize society is just as crazy as it would be to tear a living plant to bits in order to make a new one out of the dead parts. An organization of mankind can only be conceived after the living social organism has been killed. The collectivist movements are therefore fore-doomed to failure. It may be possible to create an organization embracing all mankind. But this would always be merely an organization, side by side with which social life would continue. It could be altered and destroyed by the forces of social life, and it certainly would be destroyed from the moment it tried to rebel against these forces. To make Collectivism a fact one must first kill all social life, then build up the collectivist state. The Bolshevists are thus quite logical in wishing to dissolve all traditional social ties, to destroy the social edifice built up through countless centuries, in order to erect a new structure on the ruins. Only they overlook the fact that isolated individuals, between whom no kind of social relations exist, can no longer be organized. Organizations are possible only as long as they are not directed against the organic or do it any injury. All attempts to coerce the living will of human beings into the service of something they do not want must fail. An organization cannot flourish unless it is founded on the will of those organized and serves their purposes.

10 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

We had some strong winds during the middle of the night which is somewhat unusual. Still a bit more than a breeze this morning while I was on my walk and felt cold while sitting at Taos Java. It did keep the sky cloud free so I guess I should quit complaining - can't have everything you want (Bulgarian philosophy).

I have been trying to draw the last knot that is shown on the stained glass web page that I have been using for pattern inspiration. I am now about half way and know that there is a mistake somewhere but I can not see where it is or how to fix what seems to be a mistake. Maybe the mistake is I think I have made a mistake? So confusing! It is more difficult as I thought it might be!

The latest book that I am reading is also more difficult than I thought it would be. I am about half way through it also and find that I understand less and less the more I read. Tempted to give it up but hate to do that so I'll soldier on some more and hope it becomes easier reading.

Obama-Duterte Blow Up: What the Corporate Media Doesn’t Get by Wayne Madsen is an article you will not find in the Lame Stream Media for a host of reasons. The quote is the closing paragraph offered as a teaser for this recommended read.

Duterte is the first Mindanaoan to be elected president of the Philippines. As a Mindanaoan, who knows more about the history across the Sulu Sea than many of his countrymen, Duterte has little time for an American president whose Indonesian clan has the blood of innocent Southeast Asians on its hands. For Obama to lecture Duterte on human rights was the ultimate in hubris. Duterte, who survived political office in violence-prone and Islamist guerrilla-rife Mindanao, let Obama know exactly what he thought of the American upstart.

11 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

I was finally able to see my mistake. When there is an obvious error in the coding a 'good' programmer will claim that is not a mistake it is a 'feature'. That is how I feel about this Knot. It is not a replication of what is shown on the stained glass web page - I have added a 'feature' to it and will not be going back and changing it. I'm satisfied with how it looks and understand how the 'feature' came about - that is good enough for me.

I may finish this Knot today and show it tomorrow. The other knots were difficult but if I had not drawn them first this one would have probably defeated me. There are 40 quadratic curves included in this one which is almost twice what any of the previous knots required. They are easier to draw now but I still do not know where to put the control point the first time to get the curve that I want.

I have learned a new word that describes how I have gone about learning how to draw on HTML Canvas. I have been using a heuristic technique which is any approach to problem solving, learning, or discovery that employs a practical method not guaranteed to be optimal or perfect, but sufficient for the immediate goals. When I say I have learned a new word that may be an overstatement because I'll probably forget it.

I think I'm in The Hill's 'basket of deplorables'. I can't say that I'm a strong supporter of The Donald but will say that I deplore The Hill so that most likely places me in the basket.

But, I'm in good company. When she offered up her apology she apparently has been taking lessons from The Donald and doubled down on the insult when she said: "Last night I was ‘grossly generalistic,’ and that’s never a good idea. I regret saying ‘half’ — that was wrong." She does not regret being 'grossly generalistic' it is the 'half' which was wrong. She probably now thinks it is everyone not just half.

12 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

This is the last Knot shown on the stained glass web page that I am currently using for pattern inspiration. There are more on some of the other pages at the web site but they can keep.



I'll be drawing from this same page but the patterns will be more geometric rather than Celtic Knots. I have almost finished the last 2-uniform tile and will post it tomorrow.

The ebook translation of Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis by Ludwig Von Mises that I am reading is his 1932 republication. I don't know if this quote was revised from the original publication in 1920 or not. What is obvious is the argument over income equality is of long standing and the proponents have learned nothing over the years. They continue to believe that average income will remain unchanged.

Most people who demand the greatest possible equality of incomes do not realize that what they desire would only be achieved by sacrificing other aims. They imagine that the sum of incomes will remain unchanged and that all they need to do is to distribute it more equally than it is distributed in the social order based on private property. The rich will give as much as they receive over and above the average, and the poor receive as much as is needed to make up their incomes to the average. But the average income itself will remain unchanged. It must be clearly understood, however, that this idea rests on a grave error. It has been shown that, in whatever way one envisages the equalization of incomes this must always and necessarily lead to a very considerable reduction of the total national income and, thus, also, of the average income. On this showing, the matter takes on quite a different complexion. For we have then to decide whether we are in favour of an equal distribution of income at a lower average income, or inequality of incomes at a higher average income. The decision will depend, of course, essentially, on how high one estimates the reduction which alteration in the social distribution of income will cause.

If humans were rational creatures, the time and place of Clinton’s “overheating” wouldn’t matter at all. But when it comes to American psychology, there is no more powerful symbol of terrorism and fear than 9-11 . When a would-be Commander-in-Chief withers – literally – in front of our most emotional reminder of an attack on the homeland, we feel unsafe. And safety is our first priority. Hillary Clinton just became unelectable.

13 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

I am not moving tomorrow but should have done household chores yesterday. Just did not feel like it. Did a short walking day and spent a lot of time on the couch with my Paperwhite. There was another afternoon storm which provided me some excuse but generally just lazy.

I got busy this morning and did the bathroom and kitchen, all except the stove and counter top. That will keep until tonight or tomorrow.

This is the last one of the twenty 2-uniform tilings of the Euclidean plane. Next I'll be drawing from the 61 3-uniform tilings of the Euclidean plane. Thirty nine are 3-Archimedean with 3 distinct vertex types, while 22 have 2 identical vertex types in different symmetry orbits (whatever that means). They are more interesting than these final 4 in the 2-uniform and look to be more of a challenge to draw.


I started a geometric pattern from the stained glass page yesterday. Finished it this morning. So much easier than doing the Knots. I'll show it tomorrow or the next day, I have things to do tomorrow.

Is Hillary Clinton Going To Drop Out Of The Race For The Presidency? by Michael T. Snyder is only one of many articles these last two days that ask that question. In his article he says "Of course the Clintons have made a career out of lying, and Hillary’s trail of lies has been well documented, but this may be the lie that breaks the camel’s back."

US Public Don’t Care If Politicians Lie by Eric Zuesse is an article that makes a strong argument that The Hill's health lies will do her no harm.

This is only day two of the News Cycle so I think it is way too early to think she would do any such thing. She can’t be forced out of the race no matter how sick she becomes; she is going to remain the nominee until she willingly withdraws. I do not see her doing that - she would rather die.

14 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

Another shopping day and time to dump holding tanks on the way out of the Park. When I got to Smith's I tried the RV Generator once more with the same results. I am insane! keep getting about 1-2 minutes of run time out of it which is rough, smoking and smells of raw gas. Then after it dies and restarted it runs for less than a minute before it dies.

The only thing different this time was that I had a 12v light on while it was running and the light was burning very dim. I don't understand.

Stopped at the Chow Cart for breakfast and tried to get a Chorizo Burrito not wrapped (the filling on a plate) and a side of hash browns. The guy that took the order seemed to understand that but he then brought me a regular Burrito and when I complained he said I had ordered a Breakfast Burrito. It was good but not what I wanted, nor what I ordered, and the coffee did not make up for not getting what I wanted. I will not be going back.

I then arrived about 45 minutes early for my appointment to get Desperado washed and waxed. The guys at Never Winter Detail Shop showed up early also and got busy with the wash by my appointment time. It took the three of them about 1 hour 45 minutes to do a much better job than what I got in Sierra Vista and it cost me not quite half as much. Highly recommended for a RV wash and wax!

Not so long ago I would have found this pattern very difficult to draw - maybe not possible. Now I was able to draw it with relative ease with no measurement references other than looking at a picture. I can not get to hubristic however because there are a lot of difficult pattern yet to be drawn. There is also that Armenian Knot in the Geometric Design Lessons that I never did master.

15 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

I need to scale my daily walks back some for a day or two - foot sore. Started that this morning and will see if they feel better by Saturday.

That will give me more reading time. Finally finished the long book by Von Mises and have downloaded another H. G. Wells book that is much shorter and I understand what he has written a lot better.

Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis is a book by Austrian School economist and libertarian thinker Ludwig von Mises, first published in German by Gustav Fischer Verlag in Jena in 1922. It was translated into English from the second reworked German edition (Jena: Gustav Fischer Verlag, 1932) by J. Kahane and published by Jonathan Cape in London in 1936. In 1951 the translation was reworked with the assistance of the author and published by Yale University Press in New Haven with the addition of an epilogue by Mises, originally published in 1947 as Planned Chaos by the Foundation for Economic Education (Irvington, NY). It was this 1951 publication as an e-book that I read with much of it way over my pay grade. From those book selections that I have posted, as well as the title, you should have a good idea what the book was about. I have selected a Customer Review from goodreads.com that says what I might have said except for the part about Protestantism (someone else would have disagreed with what he had to say about Catholicism).

If people want to know the fallacies of socialism, this is the book. I might disagree with some of his conclusions about Protestantism, but it touches on every aspect of what socialism is, how it works, and how it really affects mankind. He discusses it roots and shoots into communism and even how they differ, or how it was implemented differently than one would expect. In short, socialism can only be achieved with totalitarianism. It is inevitable - total state control is the only way to truly implement it. Its based on economics that can never, ever work in the real world - there isn't enough money! And it creates and perpetuates and exacerbates the very problems its said to fix. I'd call it a Ponzi scheme - as long as there is money to steal from the rich, it will appear to work. Once they're gone, it collapses like a house of cards. My only problem with the book is its length; its long. But to touch on every aspect of the subject, that is what was needed. - Customer Review at goodreads.com

This is the last passage from the Von Mises book that I copied. What he calls 'interventionism' is the economic system of the United States since the beginning of the 20th century but gained in strength with FDR and the Establishment since then.

Many advocates of interventionism are bewildered when one tells them that in recommending interventionism they themselves are fostering anti-democratic and dictatorial tendencies and the establishment of totalitarian socialism. They protest that they are sincere believers and opposed to tyranny and socialism. What they aim at is only the improvement of the conditions of the poor. They say that they are driven by considerations of social justice, and favour a fairer distribution of income precisely because they are intent upon preserving capitalism and its political corollary or superstructure, viz., democratic government. What these people fail to realize is that the various measures they suggest are not capable of bringing about the beneficial results aimed at. On the contrary they produce a state of affairs which from the point of view of their advocates is worse than the previous state which they were designed to alter. If the government, faced with this failure of its first intervention, is not prepared to undo its interference with the market and to return to a free economy, it must add to its first measure more and more regulations and restrictions. Proceeding step by step on this way it finally reaches a point in which all economic freedom of individuals has disappeared. Then socialism of the German pattern, the Zwangswirtschaft of the Nazis, emerges.

16 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

It is beginning to get colder in the early morning; was below 40 this morning which I have not experienced in a long time. The weather guessers have not given up on guessing the lows will remain in the 40s or even 50. They may be right but I think there will be some more 30s during September and mostly 30s then in October before I leave here.

Not doing much. More drawing and more time on the couch with my Paperwhite and H. G. Wells.

This is the first [3.4²6; 3.6.3.6; 4.6.12] of the thirty nine 3-uniform, 3 vertex type tile. I'll be drawing them on a little larger canvas because these tile have so many more shapes that make up each one. On a smaller canvas the pattern would not be apparent.


This looked like it would be difficult but I was able to draw it rather easily which surprised me. I then started another drawing from the stained glass web page and was able to do the 'line drawing' in almost no time at all. I'll be doing a colorized version of that pattern as well as the line drawing - both to be posted soon.

17 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

In her speech at the Democrat Convention Michelle AKA 'FLOTUS ' said the following.

And make no mistake about it, this November when we go to the polls that is what we’re deciding, not Democrat or Republican, not left or right. No, in this election and every election is about who will have the power to shape our children for the next four or eight years of their lives.

As @FLOTUS said, the choice in this election is about who will have the power to shape our children for the next four years of their lives.

18 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

The weather guys continue to think the low temperatures will be above 40 until next week. They missed their bet this morning with it down below what I consider my windbreaker threshold. There was a breeze as well that made me think that gloves would not have been inappropriate.

The cold does not make my hands hurt more than usual, just adds to the discomfort. I have been developing psoriatic arthritis in my hands for many years but it has become worse the past couple of months. The middle finger on my left hand hurts almost all the time and is painful to flex, the right hand also but not as bad. I think my foot pain is also psoriatic arthritis related but cutting back on my walks a little has helped over these past few days.

Manhattan explosion timeline: second device appears to be pressure cooker by the Associated Press has the reaction of three different people that I find very telling.

The Donald:

Donald Trump may have moved ahead of New York City officials when he declared Saturday evening that a “bomb went off” in the city before officials had released details. Trump made the announcement minutes after stepping off his plane during a rally at an airport hangar in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He told the crowd, “we better get very tough, folks”.

Trump’s rival Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, sought to present a more cautions response, underscoring the difference between the two candidates’ styles. Hillary Clinton says she has been briefed about explosions in New York and New Jersey and a mall attack in Minnesota and is calling on the nation to support first responders and to pray for victims.

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio says there is no reason to think that an explosion in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood had a terrorist connection, but he did call the blast an “intentional act.”

The US military claims it thought it was striking ISIS. Think about that a minute. The US claims to be a military superpower. It spies on the entire world, even on the personal emails and cell phone calls of its European vassals. Yet, somehow all this spy power failed to differentiate a known Syrian Army position from ISIS. If we believe that, we must conclude that the US is militarily incompetent.

19 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

The bombing in NYC "was intentional" but we can not jump to the conclusion that it was a terrorist act much less that it was Islamic terrorism. The St. Cloud Crossroads Mall in Minnesota stabbings are a little harder for the Ministry of Propaganda to spin. The FBI is investigating this as a potential act of terrorism but will not link the attack to a specific terror group although the attacker asked passersby if they were Muslim, and then proceeded to stab them.

The Ministry is reporting that the attack was stopped by an off duty policeman but what they refuse to say is that it was someone with a concealed carry that put a stop to the stabbings. A good guy with a gun stopped a bad guy once again. One more time it is proven that when the police are only minutes away it is seconds that count and having a good guy available can save lives.

I really like how James Howard Kunstler predicts the future. Not that I always agree with his predictions but just how he 'says' them. He does it again in this weeks blog Slowly, Then All at Once.

We’re on a collision course with these stark realities. They are coinciding with the sickening vectors of national politics in a great wave of latent consequences built up by the sheer inertia of the scale at which we have been doing things. Trump, convinced of his own brilliance, knows nothing, and wears his incoherence like a medal of honor. Clinton literally personifies the horror of these coiled consequences waiting to spring — and the pretense that everything will continue to be okay with her in the White House (not). When these two gargoyle combatants meet in the debate arena a week from now, you will hear nothing about the journey we’re on to a different way of life.

20 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

Shopping at Smith's went quickly since I now know were everything is located and my list was shorter than usual. Breakfast was at Torbios South again where I ordered something new to me. Huevos al Albañil, bricklayer's eggs, are eggs scrambled with salsa and then cooked together. They can be served many ways with mine coming smothered in whole pinto beans and potatoes on the side. Two medium flour tortilla, a good cup of coffee which the server re-filled this time.

This is definitely my go-to restaurant but there is one more expensive one that I am going to try. Probably next week and then finish my time here with breakfast at Torbios.

I enjoyed this book but the only reviews that I could find were at goodreads.com by customers that wrote very long reviews either in praise or condemnation. Most of the very negative reviews were disappointment that the book was not like his more famous novels. Those that praised it understood when the book was written and look that into account. For its time it was leading edge science fiction, I might even be bold and say it was leading edge science - most people of that time had no understanding of biology.

"The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth" is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells, first published in 1904. Wells called it "a fantasia on the change of scale in human affairs. . . . I had hit upon [the idea] while working out the possibilities of the near future in a book of speculations called Anticipations (1901)." There have been various B-movie adaptations. The novel is about a group of scientists who invent a food that accelerates the growth of children and turns them into giants when they become adults. - Wikipedia

When I downloaded Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis I also downloaded two shorter books by Von Mises. Socialism was the longest by far and I found it to be a bit beyond my understanding in many places. I have started the middle length book Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War and it is written in a much more understandable style for me. Although I have only read about 20% of it I like what I have read and there have been numerous opportunities for selected quotes. I offer up this one as a teaser for what the book offers.

Note: I got the two shorter books from Online Library of Liberty in .pdf format and then converted them to Kindle format using a free online converting web site. The results of the conversion are better than what I have seen before when converting .pdf and it is readable but it is not very good. A better source would be The Mises Institute which I think has his complete works with these titles in ePub format which converts well for Kindle. There is just not a good conversion from .pdf to Kindle that I have found so far.

Von Mises uses 'etatism' throughout both of his books but that is the same a 'statism' and what is now sometimes labeled "Deep State or Establishment". This book was published in 1944 and was the first that he wrote in English after leaving Austria and emigrating to the United States in 1940. The United States has been under the interventionism form of government for about the hundred years that he writes about. What he calls liberalism is the 'classic' usage and what we would now call Conservatism.

The most important event in the history of the last hundred years is the displacement of liberalism by etatism. Etatism appears in two forms: socialism and interventionism. Both have in common the goal of subordinating the individual unconditionally to the state, the social apparatus of compulsion and coercion. . .
The state is essentially an apparatus of compulsion and coercion. The characteristic feature of its activities is to compel people through the application or the threat of force to behave otherwise than they would like to behave. . .
The total complex of the rules according to which those at the helm employ compulsion and coercion is called law. Yet the characteristic feature of the state is not these rules, as such, but the application or threat of violence. A state whose chiefs recognize but one rule, to do whatever seems at the moment to be expedient in their eyes, is a state without law. It does not make any difference whether or not these tyrants are “benevolent.”

21 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

Mostly cloudy, cooler and with a 40% chance of rain today. That will be the forecast the next 4-5 days. The weather radar is showing a rather big splotch of green coming at me from the west so the afternoon walk may be called off.

Public Policy Polling released their findings on how "Democrats and Republicans differ on conspiracy theory beliefs" back on 2 April 2013. In that poll they found that 14% of those polled answered YES to the question "Do you believe in Bigfoot or Sasquatch? The more recent NBC poll, 16 August 2016, asked "Which of the following statements describe Hillary Clinton? (Select all that apply)"; with the results as shown: Has the personality and temperament to serve effectively as president: 42%
Is honest and trustworthy: 11%
Cares about people like you: 23%
Shares your values: 20%
None of the above: 52%

I believe there are three things that are shown by these polls. First, there are more people that believe in Bigfoot than believe The Hill is honest. Second, almost 4 times as many people think The Hill has the personality to serve effectively as president than think she is honest. Third, there are 52% of the people that do not care if a president is honest, don't care if the president shares their values or cares about them - it is ALL about what are they going to GIVE me!

'What Difference, At This Point, Does It Make?' IF The Hill is dead or alive on 8 November 2016 I think she will get a minimum of 52% of the popular vote.

These two tilings are the 3rd [3²4.12; 3.4.6.4; 3.12²] and 4th [3.4.3.12; 3.4.6.4; 3.12²] in the 3-uniform series that I have been drawing from. They look so much alike that I had to study them for some time to see what was changed and how I was going to change my JavaScript coding. It took almost as long to do that as it did to change the coding. I am showing them together to give you a better idea of how much they are alike than if I were to post them separately.

22 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

This week when I went shopping I had my sights set for some Greek Gods Black Cherry. Picked up some frozen dark sweet cherries and headed for the dairy case. No Greek Gods Black Cherry. BUT, they had a lot of a NEW flavor - Chocolate Cherry. Since I always pick up a couple bars of 86% dark chocolate I thought this new flavor would hit the spot. Wrong, I do not like it. It is not bad just not up to the standard that I think Greek Gods has met with some of their other flavors i.e. Honey, Honey Vanilla and Black Cherry.

Not much happening in the News, same O, same O. Another riot by President Obama's civilian national security force, Black Lives Matter, this time in Charlotte, NC. It is fortuitous timing for it to happen now.

The riot has distracted the News from the bombings in NJ and NYC, the knifing in MN and the 'accidental' killing of 62 Syrian Army troops by the USA. The riot and the bombing of the aid convoy has completely covered up any reporting of US troops that were killed by Russian airstrikes while in an Islamic State HQ near Aleppo. A lucky break for President Obama since he was going to speak to the UN and tell them what a great job he has done over the past 8 years in bringing peace to the world.

This is the last pattern on the stained glass web page that I have been using to select what to draw. I have drawn a slightly different pattern than what was shown and then colored it in what I think is a eye catching way (not an original idea but I think it may be original color selections).


I will now start drawing stained glass 'panels' from that same web site. There are 125 of these on 6 pages and I have decided to take them on in numerical order. They start off with some very simple side door panels which I am drawing twice each time to represent what they would look like on each side of the door. But I am also coloring them differently to provide some contrast side to side. After 11 of those the drawing becomes more difficult so it is good to have some easy patterns to begin.

The “Deplorables” - Who We Are And What We Want by Brandon Smith is a good article that he promises will be followed by another on the same topic - "Deplorables".

In my next installment I will examine a list of issues that are at the core of “the deplorables” and our shocking ascendance in the sociopolitical sphere. I will conclude by pointing out that every totalitarian action produces an equal and opposite reaction. The progressive left and the globalists have become so intoxicated with collectivist power and so abusive in their application of the government authority that they have chiseled from the public, that now, everyone hates them. Many people WANT to see the deplorables win. It’s not even necessarily about the viability of Trump. They just want to watch as the pretentious faces of social justice thugs twist in shrieking horror when Trump takes the Oval Office, or as Britain flips the bird to the EU, or as Europe breaks apart over the madness of forced refugee policies. If anyone is to blame for the popular rise of the deplorables, it is the very leftists and globalists who despise us.

23 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

There was some strong wind yesterday about sundown which brought in rain off and on until the early morning hours. Lots of standing water and mud this morning from a total of 0.33" with a 50% chance of more today. The weather guys then think the high temperatures are going to be dropping down into the 60s starting tomorrow and then inch back up to the low 70s at the beginning of next month. I think Autumn has come, I see some of the trees have turned yellow almost overnight.

LAVROV MAKES HISTORY: 'Ceasefires' were bogus, nixes future 'unilateral measures' is linked by Paul Craig Roberts in a blog posting where he says "Finally The Russians Have Caught On That Negotiation With Washington Is Pointless." He has been making this point for weeks/months and finally the Russians have said "достаточно" - Enough!

It just happens that Fred Reed has a good article posted in his bog today that ties in well with what Roberts has been saying - An Obsolescent Military: Bombing Everything, Gaining Nothing. He has it right with his closing; "Wrong military, wrong enemy, wrong war, wrong world."

On paper, US forces overall are superior to Russian. Locally, they are not. Russia borders on the Ukraine and could overrun it quickly. The US cannot rapidly bring force to bear except a degree of air power. Air power hasn’t worked against defenseless peasants in many countries. Russia is not a defenseless peasant. Europe, usually docile and obedient to America, is unlikely to engage in a shooting war with Moscow for the benefit of Washington. Europeans are aware that Russia borders on Eastern Europe, which borders on Western Europe. For Washington, fighting Russia in the Ukraine would require a huge effort with seaborne logistics and a national mobilization. Serious wars with nuclear powers do not represent the height of judgement. Again, Washington’s military superiority means nothing.

24 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

The weather guessers missed predicting the low temperature by a mile. They had conceded 40° and went with a 39 guess. What we got was a light freeze starting around 4:30 and it was 30° while I was out for my walk. I knew it was cold and I should have had my gloves and wool cap. I won't make that same mistake tomorrow.

Cooking breakfast warmed up Desperado but by the time I finished eating it felt like it was getting colder and colder. Checked the local weatherunderground and at 8:00 it was still only 31°. It was time to put the Wave 6 back to work. The expected high today is 66 and it is slow getting there so the Wave may be on for some time this morning.

My foot pain has improved although not completely pain free. I think what I have is plantar fasciitis that has been caused by psoriasis arthritis and aggravated by my walking routine. Shortening up my walks for the past week was helping but some stretching therapy has also made a difference.

Made up another dessert batch this time using my old Greek Gods standby, Honey Vanilla, with dark sweet cherries and pecans. Much better!

This is the first of 25 panels shown on the first of 6 pages of panels at the stained glass web site. These are what I call side door panels and I have drawn the pattern twice with flipped coloring just to make the drawing a bit more interesting. There are 11 of these to get me started then the patterns become more challenging.

25 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

It was a little warmer this morning at 34° versus yesterday at below freezing. It was also warmer because i had my gloves and wool cap on. Still below what the optimistic weather guessers thought it would be. They have now raised their guess for tomorrow morning but lowered it for Tuesday morning then have the lows back up into the 40s for the rest of the month. I don't think so.

The Wave 6 is back in service again but may not work as long as yesterday. The high was only 60° and today the claim it will be a MUCH WARMER 69°. There seems to be a chance of that happening since it is warming up a bit faster this morning.

I thought that trouble came in groups of three and that I had reached that limit. So maybe what I have going on with my RV converter is not trouble but it seems that way. When plugged into 110v shore power my 12v interior lights dim for a second or two the brighten up again in a pulsing fashion. The converter is making a noise that I have never noticed before also which I have matched to the pulse. No RV service here so I am hoping it continues to work for a month or two more until I can get someplace where there is someone to check it along with the RV generator. I'll have some more to say about this tomorrow.

This is #6, [ 3⁶; 3³4²; 3²4.12], in the 3-uniform series. There is one more with the dodecagon as the base and then a group of six with hexagons and an outlier dodecagon. I think the hexagon patterns have a more interesting look.


I did something stupid on my computer yesterday and wiped out a lot of my Bookmarks. I think I have them all back now but probably have forgotten some. Another case of inattention - maybe I should start checking if there is a 'Home' someplace that will look after me?

It appears that the Lame Stream Media identifying the WA shooter as a Hispanic (why not a White-Hispanic?) was simply a red herring. "A 20-year-old Turkish Muslim named Arcan Cetin has been arrested in Oak Harbor Washington for the murder of five people in the Burlington Mall Shooting. " - Alt-News

CNN is reporting that "While more details emerged on the suspect after his arrest Saturday night, the motive remains unknown...State authorities said it's too early to rule out terrorism or any other motive because their investigation is in its preliminary stages." However, "Before the suspect's arrest, an official with the FBI had told reporters there was "no evidence at this time" of a link to terrorism." The FBI does not need to do any investigating, they know right away that there is no evidence of a link to terrorism - the DOJ and President Obama have said so!

26 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

Just before I posted yesterday I noticed that the 12v lights were no longer dimming, the converter was not making any noise and my neighbor looked like he was preparing to leave. I went out and asked him if he had been running an electric heater during the night and in the early morning. He said that he had been. I am sure as I can be that my problem was low voltage, the same problem that kept kicking my Surge Guard off.

Went through my shopping routine with added chores. Dumped holding tanks on the way out of the Park and first on the agenda in town was to do laundry. Got that started an while it was washing I got started on this posting.

With laundry finished I went into Smith's and pick up groceries for the week. It is very convenient to be able to park in one spot and walk to the laundry and grocery. I can not think of any other place that I have camped where that was possible.

Then went to have breakfast at Old Martina's Hall. I knew it was going to be expensive because I had checked the hours of operation and menu on their web site. Not open, web site hours not correct. This is not uncommon, even having the hours posted on the web site is uncommon so I am not surprised anymore when this happens. Since I was already of the mindset to have an expensive breakfast I went back to Earlenes Public House and had their Greek Omelet again.

I think this article probably has it right Debate fix is in…for Hillary Clinton - we will see.

Vegas wouldn’t touch this one with a 10-foot pole. It’s fixed.
Whatever happens on Long Island, Hillary will immediately be declared the winner by 98 percent of the press. The headlines are already written, the phony-baloney polls and focus groups are ready to roll.

In a market economy the rate of interest has a tendency to correspond to the amount of this difference in the valuation of future goods and present goods. True, governments can reduce the rate of interest in the short run. They can issue additional paper money. They can open the way to credit expansion by the banks. They can thus create an artificial boom and the appearance of prosperity. But such a boom is bound to collapse soon or late and to bring about a depression. The gold standard put a check on governmental plans for easy money. It was impossible to indulge in credit expansion and yet cling to the gold parity permanently fixed by law. Governments had to choose between the gold standard and their—in the long run disastrous—policy of credit expansion. The gold standard did not collapse. The governments destroyed it.
All governments, however, are firmly resolved not to relinquish inflation and credit expansion. They have all sold their souls to the devil of easy money. It is a great comfort to every administration to be able to make its citizens happy by spending. For public opinion will then attribute the resulting boom to its current rulers. The inevitable slump will occur later and burden their successors. It is the typical policy of après nous le déluge [I don't care what happens after I'm gone]. Lord Keynes, the champion of this policy, says: “In the long run we are all dead.” But unfortunately nearly all of us outlive the short run. We are destined to spend decades paying for the easy money orgy of a few years.

27 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

I did not watch "The Debate" but it is no surprise that the Ministry of Propaganda have declared The Hill to be the winner on points. She didn't get a KO however and there are still two rounds left in the fight. Most of the Alt-News sites that I read rank this first fight a tie with challenger, The Donald, getting a win for staying in the fight against two opponents. The Hill getting a win for staying vertical for the full 90 minutes.

From what little I have read the big winner was Lester Holt, the moderator. He bowing to pressure from the Hillary Clinton campaign and the liberal media by “fact-checking” Republican nominee Donald Trump and went easy on The Hill. Holt lived up to the expectations of his peers and appears to have avoided the condemnation that Matt Lauer received. He didn't KO The Donald either but he did his job.

Drudge is showing the results of a lot of polls to pick the winner of the debates with BIG differences depending on the poll taker and their audience. The one that I found very interesting was Slate, a rather solid Left-wing media member, that was showing The Donald leading with 54.3% of 42,418 votes. There will be a lot of spin today and by the talking head TV shows on Sunday.

In this quote Von Mises is writing about what has happened in the United States. Remember, he was writing this in 1944, can you imagine what he would write today?

This equilibrium in the distribution of jurisdictional powers was entirely upset by the policy of interventionism. New powers accrued not to the member states but to the federal government. Every step toward more government interference and toward more planning means at the same time an expansion of the jurisdiction of the central government. Washington and Berne were once the seats of the federal governments; today they are capitals in the true sense of the word, and the states and the cantons are virtually reduced to the status of provinces. It is a very significant fact that the adversaries of the trend toward more government control describe their opposition as a fight against Washington and against Berne, i.e., against centralization. It is conceived as a contest of state’s rights versus the central power.

28 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

It came real close to the predicted low in the 40s but was still in the 30s with a slight wind. Not too bad with rest of this week being about the same. But starting next Monday the weather guessers have the low forecast in the 30s with Tuesday guessed to be 32°. I think it will be cold and I'll need to use my basement heater to make sure my water pipes don't freeze.

The month is almost over and I just remembered that I need to set up some more Will Rogers weekly articles. I'll be doing that today and mix that effort with time on the couch reading my new Harry Turtledove novel borrowed from the Sierra Vista library. I had a difficult time finding their web page that I use to borrow books so Bookmarked it this time. Now if I can keep from throwing it away next time should be easy.

This is panel #2, drawn twice then colored differently just because I can.


Why There is Trump by Raúl Ilargi Meijer is a good article but the part that I have quoted is excellent because he agrees with my thinking. He also writes about what we have to look forward to if The Hill wins but it is not nearly as interesting as what he has to say about The Donald.

Donald Trump, and I say this mere hours after the first debate, may still lose the election, but it doesn’t truly matter. He’s just the figure head -dare we say bobble head?- for a development, even a revolution, that he doesn’t control any more than you and I do. He’s got a role to play but he didn’t write it. If he wins, his program too, like all the others, will be targeted towards more growth, and there’s no such thing available. And while in a no-growth scenario it’ll be a good thing for America to bring jobs back home, as is Trump’s message, they won’t spell anything that even comes close to growth...Trump has a role to play in this whether he wins the election or not. He’s the big red flashing American warning sign that the increase in poverty that has so far been felt only among those who it has hit, will shake the familiar political landscape on its foundations, and that this landscape will never return...But anyway, that’s where Trump comes from, and he doesn’t understand the half of it. Trump is there because everything else failed. And he will fail too, win or lose.

29 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

Spectacular sunrise this morning. Mostly cloudy and the sun turned them to gold. It was also much, much warmer with the low at 49° which was too high for my gloves and wool cap. It may be gearing up for next Tuesday which is now expected to be 30° and Wednesday to also be freezing.

Verizon has always been a PIA with their 'usage' reporting but now they have stopped reporting daily usage on a Log that they once had. They are 'improving' their reporting and have broken down the usage into a lot of categories but do not show daily usage. Worthless! I now rely on NetWorx and have been disconnecting from Verizon almost every day when NetWorx shows that I have reached my self imposed limit. This is happening more and more often so Verizon is doing something with their 'improvements' in addition to not reporting daily usage.

The Park WIFI here is like almost every Park WIFI that I have ever tried to use. Most of the time it is Worthless! Especially bad late in the afternoon when all the Class As are loading up their multiple TVs with movies for the night.

In spite of these two poor internet connections I was able to get the Will Rogers weekly articles copied and formatted for another month. Getting that done cut into my drawing and reading time but it is done.

There were many quotable passages in Bureaucracy by Von Mises but this one struck my as very appropriate during this election season. This was the shortest of the three books that I have read recently by Von Mises and included many of the same points that he made in Omnipotent Government and Socialism. Knowing what I do now I would recommend they be read in the inverse order that I read them.

Representative democracy cannot subsist if a great part of the voters are on the government pay roll. If the members of parliament no longer consider themselves mandatories of the taxpayers but deputies of those receiving salaries, wages, subsidies, doles, and other benefits from the treasury, democracy is done for. This is one of the antinomies inherent in present-day constitutional issues. It has made many people despair of the future of democracy. As they became convinced that the trend toward more government interference with business, toward more offices with more employees, toward more doles and subsidies is inevitable, they could not help losing confidence in government by the people.

Trump’s supporters and conservative media say he won. Hillary’s supporters and the liberal media say she won. But who lost the presidential debate last night? Well, America did.
America lost because Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are among the most unliked candidates in American political history. We lost because Trump is a billionaire who spent his entire career benefiting from politicians to make his fortune. We lost because Hillary is a politician who spent her entire political career benefiting from billionaires to make her powerful (and rich).

30 September
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

I have had an extreme contrast in neighbors these past couple of days. On my west side there has been a non-descript Kia SUV (maybe $25,000 new) that the couple had to unload so they would have a place to sleep. They did plug in to electric so I assume that they had a heater or heater blankets. They did not cause my 12v lights to dim!

On the east side I had a Sportsmobile 4x4. The starting price for the Standard Floor Plan with Penthouse Top and Bed for that is $69,500 and it would not have anything the SUV didn't have except a little more room and 4x4. A fully equipped van that is 10 or 12 years old will sell for about that same price. Fully equipped new would be over $100,000.

Tile #7 [3⁶; 3²4.3.4; 3²4.12] in the 3-uniform group. This is also the seventh to use dodecagons as the main focus with six now to come that use a hexagon then a final dodecagon.


The selected quote is the closing to Corrupt and Deranged by Robert Gore. This is just a teaser, you need to read the article to find out about the choice that the child in the story faced. It is a good article.

Hillary Clinton wins support not despite her corruption and derangement, but because of it, especially among the establishment. Their rackets need a participant and patron. Donald Trump is hardly a naively honest child, but he has had the temerity to question a few rackets, notably immigration, trade, and the warfare state’s global empire. Questioning that last one—because it’s the largest and most lucrative—has provoked copious quantities of vehement vitriol.
Truth can awaken minds and rouse people to action, posing an obvious threat to the corrupt and deranged. Should Trump win the election, he will assuredly be presented with the same choice as the child in the story: get with the program or die. Odds are he folds, in which case those of us rooting for meaningful change will be left with the hope that the inevitable collapse occurs before we die.