Dwain Northey (Gen X)

There are times when I am not 100% sure that all the advancements MAN has made are all for the best. In reality if you look at Earth as a living object our rise and advancements have only resulted in the destruction of the environment in which we live. Point in fact for every monumental construction a dismantling of natural resources occurred. The Great Pyramids are one of the 7 wonders, but no one thinks about where all the stone came from to construct them.

To this point in our evolution even the revolution of power has been at the expense of natural resources, yes as a (thinking) species we became aware that there were other ways for harnessing power without consuming a resource. Great minds imagined that with the correct gearing wind energy could be exploited to pump water or grind wheat and for centuries it was. Sadly, this wasn’t fast enough for the impatient man so utilizing the same action the wind had provided more consistent means of production were invented. These advances made life easier for man, but this was where consumption of resources began. First came the revelation that burning wood created heat, great for cooking and not freezing to death but also that water when boiled created steam that could turn a turbine just like the wind or running water had done.  Hurray for MAN.

Again, this method wasn’t efficient enough for the advancement of civilization, although for millennia it was. Eventually wood was supplemented with oils, early on derived from plants but eventually from petroleum pulled from the earth. The first big energy transition was from wood and charcoal to coal, beginning in the iron industry in the early 1700s. By 1900, coal was the primary industrial fuel, taking over to make up half the world’s fuel use. Thus began our contribution to pollution, and we have only increased industrialization, burning more carbon and pumping it into the atmosphere.

When the first humans burned wood and saw smoke, they had no realization that the biproduct of that fire other than heat warming them. In retrospect it wasn’t harming them, unless it got out of control, because the scale that small groups exploited the resource had minimal impact on the environment in which they lived. That changed as nomadic tribes became larger, more stationary settlements, I believe that in the beginning they were very aware that their resources were limited. As time advanced and settlements became cities that recognition, by the masses, because less because of the illusion of abundance. It’s absolutely reasonable to presume that the elders knew that there was a limit to some resources but some, they assumed, were nearly unlimited.

It’s now the 21^st century and we have industrialized nearly every land mass on the planet, our numbers have nearly exceeded that of the resources required to sustain us. (That isn’t completely true because there is enough food to feed every mouth, but some nations discard more than they consume, but that’s another rant.) Finally, we have acknowledged, well most of us, that burning of carbon is creating more issues and could result in our downfall. Climate change has happened in the past but our continual pumping of carbon into the atmosphere is contributing to that change. Many on the side that believes we are responsible for this say we are killing the planet, but I don’t believe that. Earth, the Gaia hypothesis says that Earth is a living system, was around before us and will be here after we are gone, we are a virus that is killing itself. I said at the beginning of this rant, “if you look at the earth as a living object”, well I truly believe it is and we are just a blip in her existence, we should preserve and resect her presence and just maybe she will continue to let us continue our existence.      

Back to my esoteric rambling… never know day to day where my mind will go.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

I am so torn between thoroughly enjoying watching the current iteration of the republican party step on their own d*@#s and the insane truth that none of their base thinks there is a problem.

While the Governor of California Gavin Newsome adeptly pointed out that neither of them would be on the Presidential ballot in 2024 and subsequently pointing out all the accomplishments that the current administration has had Florida Governor Ron DeSantis kept inflating his ‘moral superiority’ and interrupting. My takeaway was that for once the Democratic representative did not acquiesce to the incessant interruption from his opponent to continued to talk over Gov. DeSantis.

Since this was a debate on Fox News and Sean Hannity was the moderator, this was undoubtedly the first time Fox viewers had heard anything about the accomplishments of the Biden administration. Fairly curtain that it won’t change any minds but at least the facts got out on the network.

Meanwhile huge infrastructure projects are starting in states like Florida and Colorado that are generating jobs. In prefect hypocrisy that is the GOP, representatives that voted against the infrastructure bill are taking credit for the boom in their districts. Again, in a perfect move by the Biden White House the President has been there to praise the projects and deftly point out that the representative now taking credit for the project voted against it even calling the legislation that is creating jobs in their districts an abject failure. Good job Joe no one since Al Franken has had the gumption to call out the Republicans on their hypocrisy.

Another high point in this weeks GOP House stepping in Dog Shit was when, much to their surprise, Hunter Biden agreed to testify under oath in the open house hearing. In typical GOP fashion that was roundly rejected because they want t closed door hearing. Their reasoning is that in the light of day the real truth cannot possibly be revealed, only in closed door, with no press and no witnesses, can the REAL Truth be uncovered. That seem to me that their mission isn’t the truth but something else.

This has to be the tactic that the Democrats have to use, instead of letting the GOP take credit for things they voted against pointing it out. In the House races use the Congress Persons Voting record against them especially if they are in a state that is receiving huge benefits for the Infrastructure Bill and/or the Chips and Science Bill. The GOP lies so often and with zero regard for their constituents that the Democrat running in that district can not be afraid to call them out on it. It is past time to play nice, if the GOP candidate is lying, call them out on the lie with the facts and prove their dishonesty. This is something that the liberal side of the government hasn’t been willing to do. The professed ‘Conservatives’ are happy to make up lies in whole cloth and challenge anyone to dispute the lie and for the past 40+ years the democrats have been on the side of ‘the truth will come out’. Well guess what, unless we shout the truth as loud as they shout lies no one will hear the truth.

Shout the Truth from the Roof Tops and let the Trumpublican Party continue to step in their own d*@#s.     

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

There is one branch of our government that since its inception has been placed in a position of having the moral high ground and thusly has no checks or balances on their individual behavior. I don’t know about anyone else but that doesn’t seem to fit into a system that espouses equal treatment for all.

The U.S. Supreme Court has been under scrutiny lately because of flagrant ethics violations, namely Justice Clarance Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito. These or two of nine individuals that are supposed to possess such high ethical and moral standards that they are beyond reproach, yet both have been caught excepting sizable gifts from influential people that have cases before the court. Gifts like private flights and luxury vacations that they are supposed to report but conveniently haven’t. Other Jurist won’t even except a bagel and coffee being graciously given to them for the fear that it would appear as some how influencing their decisions.

Chief Justice John Roberts has had the Supremes come up with their own code of ethics, isn’t that precious it like having your toddler write their own rules. The even more ridiculous part of the ethics rules they are putting forth is that they alone have the authority to enforce those self-governing rules. Only they have the power and authority to investigate and enforce the words they have so judiciously written on worthless parchment. Below is a link to their Ethic Policy.

https://www.uscourts.gov/rules-policies/judiciary-policies/ethics-policies

I have to assume that these rules will only be enforced if Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson are accused of impropriety because we know the other 6 are all floating in the same luxury watercraft.

My other issue with the current court is the number of Justices currently there are 9 Justices and the last time that number changed was 1869 if you don’t count the 10 months that Mitch McConnel single handedly reduce the court to 8 by disallowing President Obama a court seat after the death of Justice Antonin Gregory Scalia in February of 2016 claiming that it was an election year. It is crazy that the same rule didn’t apply when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg past in September of 2020.

The republicans are crying that the democrats want to pack the court when that is exactly what they have done. The democrats, at least some of us, want to expand the court to equitably coincide with the number of Judicial Districts that we currently have which is 13. That would seem to make sense that way each Supreme has an applet district that they preside over. My other gripe is why are the Supreme Court appointments lifetime appointments. I know that is how the constitution has it set up but back in 1789 the life expectancy was 57 years. RBG was 87 when she died thirty years older than the average life expectancy when the Constitution was signed.

Don’t start with Biden in 81 years old… I know there should be an age cap there as well but remember that the orange Cheeto is 78. Yes, Joe fell off his bike and got right back up, don’t know that Donny could, or even knows how to, ride a bike.

My point here is that the Supreme Court is writing its own rules, under duress, and they will also be the only ones that can hold themselves to those ‘rules’. Great what’s next Republicans are allowed to jerrymander districts and only count the votes they want to count… oh shit that already happening.

Thanks again for putting up with my ranting.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Ok this is my brain going on a random thought carnival this morning and the very reason that this blog is called Esoteric Meanderings.

So here goes… Everyone that watched the Avengers movies know what I am talking about and for those that don’t the villain Thanos at the end of Infinity Wars having secured all the magical infinity stone snapped his fingers and ½ of all living things in the universe disappeared. His goal was to return balance to a system that was and out of balance.

My thinking is, was removing ½ of all living things really going to bring balance, wouldn’t removing prejudice and creating economic equality level the imbalance rather than a 50% reduction in population. I suppose that would not make a good verse evil story if the villain wanted to end poverty by making the super-rich just rich and reducing or removing hunger and poverty. Man, that wouldn’t be a compelling story line.

As of late 2022, according to Snopes, 735 billionaires collectively possessed more wealth than the bottom half of U.S. households ($4.5 trillion and $4.1 trillion respectively). The top 1% held a total of $43.45 trillion. The World Population in 2023 is 8,045,311,447. Let’s do the math… that is 0.000000091357557% of the global population. The global wealth as of 2023 was $454.4 trillion, that math isn’t too difficult 735 families possess nearly 10% of the global wealth. Seems to me that there is a real imbalance in those figures.

Ending world hunger would require significant financial resources. According to estimates from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an annual investment of around $267 billion is needed to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030. Let’s but this number in relation to the amount Elon Musk spent to buy, and is now destroying Twitter, Musk the arrogant South African bought Twitter for $44 billion and that had no impact on his wealth. He willy nilly spent 15% of the funds that could help to end world hunger. It would cost the wealthiest families 0.0006145% of their combined wealth to end world hunger. That is a miniscule amount that they would even notice is missing, that seems like more of an imbalance than just too many living things.

I don’t know how to solve the inequity problem; I know it can’t be done by any one individual or even one government because the unfortunate truth is that those with the money will always have the power to hold on to it. The problem we have and have always had is that a very few always consolidate things, money, land, power, and with those things they manipulate influence in order to confound the masses into believing that they aren’t worthy partaking in the bounty those few hold.

I wish I could Thanos Snap and level the field, there will always be rich and poor but if the super wealthy were just less wealthy and the poor were less poor maybe just maybe the imbalance would only be a river instead of an ocean.

Thanks for suffering through my musing… feel free to interject what your Thanos Snap would be.