Weekly Explosions Blog

Still trying to get to the bottom of the server issues.

You will see from my earlier note I have turned Federation back on.

But images are down while we work on stuff.

Sorry this is trial and error, but we will get there.

I expect t update this post with the latest later this evening.

Stay tuned.

We have been having a lot of server issues today where I have had to reboot the server every hour or so.

I have seen there is a lot of reports of scaling issues with the federation that they say may cause issues.

To test if this is the problem we are experiencing, I have turned federation off for a few hours, maybe overnight.

I will let you know as soon as I know more.

In the meantime, I apologize for the inconvenience.

I have been looking through a long thread on another instance where a few users have been trying to convince that instance to defederate from Exploding Heads - because they do not want to see the content posted on Exploding Heads.

I have thought long and hard about how to please these people. They do have the option to individually block Exploding Heads communities or users, but they either do not know how to or simply do not want to.

In the end I realized if I ban those specific users requesting defederation from Exploding Heads - they will not see any content from Exploding Heads and therefore will not be offended by it. (Truth be told I am not sure if some of these users have really visited our site or interacted with our users).

So today I have banned those users with the explanation that they have said they do not want to see Exploding Heads content. If any of those users wish to be unbanned in the future, all they have to do is say so and I will happily unban them.

These users are not being banned in order to censor them, but to help them achieve what they have been requesting - to not see Exploding Heads content.

I hope you all find this a fair and reasonable action - if not let me know.

The lemmyverse of which Exploding Heads is a part is growing rapidly.

• become one of the largest Fediverse projects, ahead of Peertube and Pleroma.

• people want to take control of their social media into their own hands, as well as see the benefits of software made to serve human need, rather than the private profits of a few US tech giants.

This is an interesting update from the developers of Lemmy (the software Exploding Heads uses to run its server) and well worth the read.

I would like to ask for your help. There are a lot of new users exploring Exploding Heads for the first time. Let's do our best to make a good first impression and help them out where we can.

"My favorite thing so far is seeing people actually having back-and-forth conversations in the comments again. Many subreddits seemed to get too big where comments felt more “fire-and-forget” instead of people coming back to have a conversation."

Happy Father's Day

So many people have left Reddit. I set up a knew community so you can tell us why you did.

Tell us how we at Exploding Heads and the Lemmyverse can serve you better and avoid the same mistakes.

We just completed a major version upgrade.

Lots of bug fixes and a bunch of refinements.

Please enjoy.

Special thanks to @masterofballs for his assistance.

Kapow

Check back in about an hour

We seem to be getting a lot of spam posts the last little while.

I am doing my best to clean it up, but if you see any please report it by clicking on the clipboard icon.

I was checking out X7 Finance and stumbled across one of their investors CULT DAO.

What got me intrigued was their manifesto statement. Their world might be crypto whereas we live in the Fediverse, but tell me some of this does not feel familiar:

• There are of course those who do not want us to speak. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this world, isn’t there?

• Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who’s to blame?

• There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the only place you could, the government. They promised you order, they promised you peace, and all they demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.

• “There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels ... upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!” - Mario Savio

• The more I learnt, the more miserable I felt, I tried politics, starting out on the right as somebody with a mind for economics, and slowly drifting further and further left, socialism, marxism, communism, I joined extinction rebellion, became a full blown anarchist and yet all I found was disappointment, unwillingness to do what was necessary to do. Political infighting exhausted and wasted all noble causes.

• Anarchism and libertarianism are supposed to be opposite ends of the political spectrum, but they in my view are the only sides of the spectrum that can agree on a universal truth. Humans need freedom.

• You have an economic system that cannot function without maximum employment, whilst you have a technological age that is automating jobs faster than we can produce bullshit service industry jobs to replace them.

• We have social media spreading the truth, and lies, quicker than the media can run their own narratives, society is escaping the leaders of the old world, the beginning of the end is here, the borderless society is coming and with it, the death of sovereign nations.

• It is the SYSTEM that is defective, SOCIETY that needs changing, a functioning society does not have 20% of its population medicated for depression. It is time we stop blaming ourselves. You are not defective. That is how the economic model NEEDS you to feel, they need you to feel as if it is you that is the problem, so much so that millions on millions are prescribed pills to keep up this illusion of normality.

• The Many should not live in fear of their governments, it is the governments who should live in fear of the many.

• The current financial system serves to keep the people poor, a society built on debt needs inflation to function, and inflation serves to rob the poor and allow them to never catch up with their overlords in the ruling class.

We talk alot about issues like this on the Fediverse, but here is what caught my attention. They are taking things a step or two further.

They are building a vehicle that will fund ventures that further the cause of decentralization and reverse the evils of centralization.They call it Decentralized Venture Capitalism.

Now I do not know if this is the right vehicle, but if nothing else it serves as a model of a way we could take our talk and turn it into meaningful change.

Crypto has a culture all of its own, just like the Fediverse does. Too many of us, parts of the Crypto culture seem downright scammy (apologies to my new crypto friends). But maybe to be successful it would be worth learning more about their culture. We might learn how to reform the financial system to take the power back from the Ruling Class and build new organizations that reflect the will of the people.

One thing I like about the crypto community is they leverage everybody's propensity to act in their own self interest to produce outcomes that serve the greater good.

This is not investment advice. I am not telling you to buy Cult Dao or X7 Finance. But have a look and let the wheels in your head turn. What can we learn?

Read about how each of their DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) function - could this be a better way?

You will probably see more of these types of communities popping up on Exploding Heads as I seek to learn more myself. Please share what you find.

We may be down for a short time while I perform the upgrade

There is a new version of the software that runs Exploding Heads available. I am just watching it for a few days to let any bugs shake out - then I will perform the upgrade. I expect to be able to perform the upgrade in about a week.

Stay tuned, I will let you know before I do.

Mark Levin has been on a tear against populist nationalists ever since the Brave 20 stood up against the establishment coronation of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker.

He told the Brave 20 to yield to the establishment in the name of unity. Since McCarthy has been elected Speaker, Mark Levin has not given the Brave 20 credit for what they achieved, claiming it all would have happened anyway.

I have been listening to Mark Levin for many years and he is a man with enormous intellect. But he has two equally enormous blind spots:

• Seemingly unwavering support for Big Pharma (if the Covid debacle has not cured him of that, nothing will), and
• Ever increasing military spending.

It is military spending that I want to discuss here.

On Wednesday January 11th, Mark launched a full scale assault on those within the Republican Party who are not willing to blindly sign off on ever increasing Military Spending. His attack included many straw man arguments that divide rather then unify.

I would like to deconstruct some of those straw man arguments to identify those areas on which we agree and can easily unify versus those areas where we do not agree.

Mark Levine says Communist China is a nation preparing for war:

• has 5 times as many people as us
• has nuclear weapons - the technology they stole from us
• has a serious air force
• has a navy larger then ours
• is pouring an enormous money into this effort that is not just disclosed as military spending, but involves a lot of their civilian functions.

To which I say we agree. Communist China is a serious threat

Mark Levine says it would be insane to ignore:

• Iran has naval ships around the panama canal
• China has bases in our hemisphere in violation of the Monroe Doctrine
• China has a major military base on the west coast of Africa to strike the United States
• China just made a military deal with the Solomon Islands with a very deep port
• China has built nuclear missiles that can hit the United States
• China has killer satellites
• China seeks to conquer the moon
• China seeks to control both sides of the panama canal through contracts
• You would not have believed 10 years ago that China would have consumed Hong Kong the way it plans to consume Taiwan
• Putin wrote 18 months ago, Ukraine is not his primary target, the rest of European Europe is. If Putin was to cut through Ukraine and hit Poland, Romania, Hungry, the Balkan States we are required to go to war under NATO

To which I say we agree. I would argue if the Ukraine situation was better handled early on, the position we find ourselves in today would be vastly different – but we are where we are.

To his credit Mark Levin does not rule out all cuts to Military Spending. He says:

• we are not talking about waste, fraud, and abuse – we all agree with that
• we are not talking about oversight by inspector general on Ukraine – we agree with that
• maybe there can be cutting here and there, we agree with that – that is just fiscally responsible
• ensuring people are not getting rich off your hard earned taxpayer dollars whether it is spent on Welfare or Ukraine or Israel or Kansas

To which I say we agree. But we are not just interested in focus group tested phrases like “waste, fraud, & abuse” or offloading responsibility to inspector generals. We want a real review of military spending to ensure it is being spent wisely and in the most effective way to ensure our nation’s defense.

Mark Levin says sudo-conservatives are talking about slashing defense spending:

• because we all know it is defense contractors making all the money.
• we are supposed to hate defense contractors that engineer, design, build, & develop the arsenal that protects America and protects our troops
• we are supposed to turn on the businesses that provide us with the jets, missiles, bullets, tanks, armaments, technology that make us the #1 military power on the face of the earth now

To which I say – no that is not what we are saying. But defense contractors are rightly focused on increasing shareholder value and their interests may not always be 100% aligned with the best interests of the American people. We should recognize that and take it into account in our decision making process. Surely that is not unreasonable.

Mark Levin says conservatives who talk about cutting military spending are like leftists talking about defunding and disarming the police, except we are dealing with:

• The Communist Chinese
• Neo-facists in Iran, and
• Dictators like Putin in Russia

He goes on to say conservatives that talk about cutting military by ending (or simply not getting involved in) forever wars (like Afghanistan and Iraq) are preventing us from defending ourselves. Conservatives that would prefer to spend that money here at home (where our borders are being over run) are preventing us from defending ourselves. That conservatives who talk about ending forever wars do not want to give money to Israel.

To which I say – your logic escapes me. If Afghanistan and Iraq are your models for success, then yes we disagree. But this disagreement in no way means we should not defend ourselves.

In another part of the program, Mark Levin talks about the failures at the FAA and says:

Don’t tell me they don’t have enough money, I am sick of hearing this:

• They have enough money
• They are swimming in money
• They eat money for salad, they put dressing on it
• The bureaucracy has more money then you can spit at
• We have never ever created this much money in our human existence
• I don’t want to hear there is not enough money

To which I say that sums up perfectly how many of us feel when we are told we should blindly increase military spending despite the recent waste and failures of the military and without making significant changes to improve the outcomes.

I would remind Mark Levin that Ronald Regan destroyed the Soviet Union by forcing them to spend money on their military that their economy simply could not afford and ended up bringing down the evil empire. With $31 trillion in acknowledged debt and probably at least another $100 trillion kept off the books in the form of contingent liabilities, etc. America is at risk of suffering the same fate as the Soviet Union if we keep blindly increasing military spending regardless of how well it is being spent.

Remember the US Department of Defense has, for the fifth straight year, failed to pass a financial audit, with only seven out of the Pentagon’s 27 military agencies receiving a passing grade:

• the Pentagon only managed to account for 39 percent of its $3.5 trillion in assets (they have misplaced $2.1 trillion in assets – where did they all go?)
• in 2019 alone, the Pentagon made $35 trillion in accounting adjustments – a figure larger than the entire US economy (ask any auditor – this volume of accounting adjustments is a huge red flag for fraud and malfeasance).

Lets put those numbers in context.

Remember the outrage over the amount of military equipment left behind in Afghanistan. Estimates ranged from $3 billion to $85 billion. Lets take the high figure and say it was $85 billion. The $2.1 trillion in assets the military cannot account for is at least 24 times the value of the equipment left behind in Afghanistan. Imagine that, enough equipment to fight 24 wars the size of the Afghanistan conflict is missing and for us to dare to demand a closer look at where all the money has gone is unpatriotic – I don’t think so – let the light shine in.

I believe the 2023 military budget is somewhere between $700 billion and $800 billion. If you find those $2.1 trillion is missing assets – you could fund our military for 3 years. Let’s do that instead of throwing more money at the problem.

Mark, I do not know if I am a:

• populist
• nationalist
• conservative
• isolationist
• constitutionalist
• knucklehead, or
• all of the above

But I do know I am not a:

• Socialist
• Communist
• Marxist, or
• Fascist

I want a strong military and believe in peace through strength. Surely we have a common cause, yet you seek to divide us simply because we do not want to blindly continue to increase military spending without first making sure the military is accountable for the money we invest in it and it is being spent both effectively and wisely.

Are you really seeking unity?

You will have noticed a few months ago, I started setting up specific communities for different countries and states and then cross posting to them when one of the stories I was otherwise posting to related specifically that country or state.

I did this based on a couple of user requests who were interested in some of our communities, but specifically how it related to them in their country or state. For example one lived in France and was interested in Digital Freedom.

Some of these country/state specific communities are starting to show some interesting green shoots traffic wise - so I wanted to ask your help to grow them.

If you see an interesting post that mainly relates to a specific country or state, would you kindly cross post it to that country/state community on Exploding Heads.

It makes sense to me people would be interested in what effects them locally and I would like to try and support that interest.

Thanks in advance

Kapow.

I have been looking for a better logo for Exploding Heads.

What do you think of this one?

Be a doer, not just a talker.

Make sure you vote today for candidates that will best represent your views.

Don't forget local officials - they have a huge impact on your day to day life.

I was curious to see which Lemmy instances were getting the most page views, which were growing quickly, etc.

So I picked a free tool called StatShow to make the comparisons. Not sure how accurate it is, but I figured it would serve as a guide.

Here is what I found:

Top 10 Lemmy Instances by monthly page views

1. Lemmy.ml
2. Lemmy.ca
3. Lemmygrad.ml
4. Lemmy.eus
5. Forum.NoBigTech.es
6. Lemmy.pt
7. Lemmy.cat
8. MidWest.Social
9. Szmer.info
10. Exploding-Heads.com

When you look at those to top 10 Lemmy instances you realize what a diverse crowd Lemmy users are:

• Lots of different countries,
• Lots of different languages,
• Lots of different viewpoints.

Makes me proud to be part of the Lemmy community.

I wanted to give a special mention to 4 of those top 10 Lemmy instances that are growing incredibly quickly.

Fastest Growing Lemmy Instances

• Forum.NoBigTech.es +227%
• Lemmy.ca +195%
• MidWest.Social +94%
• Lemmy.pt +68%

They are clearly doing something very right and with that sort of growth, the Lemmy community is going to be much bigger tomorrow then it is today. Perhaps we could learn from what those individual instances are doing to grow so fast and apply the lessons to help the entire Lemmy community grow even faster.

I will update these stats each quarter for those interested.

Genocide means any of the following acts :

• Killing members of the group;
• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
• Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

When we hear the word Genocide, many of us think of the atrocities in Cambodia in the late 1970s, Rwanda in the 1990s, or the Uyghurs more recently. I am going to argue that there is another Genocide going on right now, spread across the globe, under everybody's nose, probably in your hometown.

First lets have a look at the evidence of genocide.

Prevention of Births Live births are down between 10% and 25% in many nations across the globe:

• Germany down 12%
• North Dakota down 11%
• UK down 10%
• Taiwan down 23%
• Switzerland down 10%

The most likes cause of this drop in live births comes from the Global roll out of the COVID 19 vaccines. This Depopulation of Taiwan case study shows it the most crisply. The decline in live births clearly occurred 9 months after the vaccination of child bearing age adults.

There is evidence that the Covid19 vaccines appear to have negatively impacted the ability of both men and women to have children:

• Sperm concentration in men reduced by 15%
• Pfizer's own studies showing 28 out of 36 babies with known outcomes died at or before birth—a crude mortality rate of 78%.This suggests a mortality rate much higher than normal (10% for early pregnancies; less than 1% for pregnancies that last longer than 20 weeks).
• Adverse events rise in babies breastfed by vaccinated mothers
• According to VAERS, 57% of all the vaccinations that resulted in a baby or fetus dying in the past 25 years or so occurred when pregnant women started receiving COVID-19 vaccines.
• 3,816 babies died after their mothers were vaccinated
• Are pregnant women who get the Pfizer mRNA vaccine putting their unborn babies at increased of dying? DailyClout’s Team 5 looks at the Pfizer data and answers this question.
• '28% Of vaccinated pregnant women' suffered from 'serious adverse effects'

Killing People

• Young football players suddenly dying or having heart problems
• Doctors ‘baffled’ by a ‘mysterious’ new ‘sudden death syndrome’ killing healthy young people
• the US mortality rate for working-age adults was 26% higher than pre-pandemic levels.
• Healthy young people are dying suddenly and unexpectedly
• Overall deaths in Australia - where nearly everyone is vaccinated - are spiking.
• 1 million excess deaths — that is, deaths in excess of the historical average — have been recorded since the COVID-19 pandemic began two years ago, and this cannot be explained by COVID-19.
• USA life expectancy falls
• Excess Deaths Skyrocket Worldwide in 2021 Following Rollout of the Experimental Covid Vaccine
• 40 percent Increase in Deaths Among Working-age People

Injuries to People

• strokes
• long term damage to teens
• blood clots
• brain disease
• stunted kids' immune systems

Lets not think it is just Covid Vaccines - it is a multi-pronged approach:

Puberty Blockers The push to encourage confused children and teens to take puberty blockers (often without their parents knowledge or consent) that will make them infertile for life.

Abortion No matter your view on abortion, I think we can agree it has progressed way beyond helping a woman in trouble to what some would say is a lifestyle choice. The end result is less babies are born.

Don't blame your political opponents This is not about left versus right, communist versus capitalist, fascist or socialist. The Covid vaccines were developed under the right wing Trump Administration and mandated by the left wing Biden Administration. Across the world, governments of all political strips have been involved in getting major portions of their populations vaccinated.

Something terrible is happening I hope after reading this, that you agree that something terrible is happening - something historically tragic. I hope you will do your own research, find the courage to stand up against the forces driving this genocide, and start to put a stop to it.

So why have District 7 vote results changed between May 29th’s machine certification and the June 5th “recertification” if only six precincts in District 5 were the problem? Here’s the obvious conclusion of my source after tallying these numbers:

I think we have all just about heard enough about:

• the green new deal
• getting rid of fossil fuels
• soaring gas prices
• natural gas shortages.

Time to have a good look at yourself. Are you:

• All talk, no action
• A constant complainer, or
• Action orientated

To be honest, I personally tend to transition through all three stages:

• Initially I talk about a problem, but really do nothing about it.
• Then when the problem does not go away, I start to complain as to why somebody does not fix the problem,
• Then when the problem still does not go away, I finally get motivated to see what I can do about it.

And I gotta say, I am a bit of a cheapskate:

• I drive small cars because I prefer them to large cars, but mainly because the are cheaper to drive - no matter how cheap the price of gasoline is.
• I drive a hybrid mainly because I got a really good deal on it when gasoline prices were cheap and nobody wanted to buy them. It cost me about the same as a normal car.

Living in a sunny climate - I figured I should take a serious look at putting solar panels on the roof. After all, most electricity is generated by natural gas and coal - so if I could swap some of that out for solar - then in an ever so small way ( a mere drop in the ocean):

• it would help reduce the demand for natural gas
• less demand means lower prices
• lower prices make it more affordable for people that do not have the easy option of Solar energy
• less demand frees up natural gas for areas experiencing genuine shortages.

I had looked at them in the past but did not move forward because:

• I was worried they would stop working in a few years - long before they had paid for themselves, and
• the economics did not seem to stack up. It always looked like it would cost me more then normal electricity (remember I tend to be a cheapskate)

Times have changed - Solar Panels are now a viable choice.

Affordable First lets deal with the money side. Many solar systems offer a 25 year parts, labor, and performance warranty. With interest rates still low, if you finance it over 25 years - the payments work out less then I currently pay utility company. The cheapskate in me is happy.

Warranty I would not consider financing the panels over 25 years unless I felt confident they would last that long - or be covered by warranty if not. Here is what made me feel comfortable:

• manufacturer's warranty covering parts, labor, & performance for 25 years
• Installer offering a warranty for 40 years covering anything the manufacturer does not cover. Belt and suspenders - I love it
• Lots of people have been using solar panels for many years now and they seem to have worked on a lot of the kinks - I won't be on the bleeding edge.
• I know I am taking the risk the manufacturer won't be around in 25 years to honor the warranty - especially if they have a lot of warranty claims. Same goes for the installer's 40 year warranty - 40 years is a long time. But in the end I decided to take the risk.

Nasty Surprise I was surprised that most solar systems connected to the utility companies power grid (so you can draw power at night or on cloudy days as needed) do not work if the power grid goes out. I would really not be very happy if I had solar panels sitting on my roof capable of producing electricity - but I had no power because the utility companies grid was down. That would not make me anymore independent then I am now. I had to do some hunting around and eventually found a solution called a Sunlight Backup.

The Sunlight Backup will only work when the sun is up and only provide as much energy as currently being generated - less if it is cloudy etc. But hey, if you have your fridge, microwave and a place to charge your phone - you are in a much better position then a total blackout.

I was told it will not power an air conditioner because the start up power requirements are too high. But I still have some homework to do because I found a Soft Starter that claims to solve that start up energy problem. I will update this note when I find out one way or the other.

String versus Mirco-inverters I am told you want micro-inverters so you can easily add panels in the future if you need to. And if one panel goes out, the others keep working. Apparently with String - one panel down knocks out the whole system

I am told it all should be up and running in 60-90 days. If all goes well I will be a little bit more energy independent and no worse off compared to if I kept paying the utility company.

I saw this comment in response to the question "Do you think it's possible for the US to change?" went unchallenged this week

"Not without intense violence first. For that to happen our current leadership would have to be killed. The President, the Cabinet, the Senate, Supreme Court, loads of corporate executives, and loads of pigs, etc."

The comment was made on a left wing site (self described as "A community of leftist privacy and FOSS enthusiasts").

My message to my friends on the left who let that comment pass is to wake up and start thinking. This is who this person is talking about killing:

• The President - Joe Biden, Leftist Democrat
• The Cabinet - a bunch of committed Leftists
• The Supreme Court - a third are committed leftists and another third are wobbly at best
• Corporate Executives - Big corporations actively support leftist causes like BLM, Critical Race Theory, etc.
• and they will not stop there - they will keep dividing and killing

Don't you get it - it is the people on the left that they want to kill. When the revolution comes - it is the people on the left that will compete with them for power and influence - which is why they must be killed.

You may say it won't effect me, I do not plan to be that powerful or influential. But it will. You see they break it down to your local communities and neighborhoods. It will be a neighbor or another school Mom who perceives you as a threat to their desired power and influence. This killing ends up reaching all levels of society.

The people on the right may be their enemy, but once defeated, they will be oppressed. But the true blood letting will be saved for their competitors on the left, the people who they see as threats to their power and influence within the regime.

This does not end in a good place. This week I added links to the Genocide community as this is the logical conclusion of the path comments like these lead us to. Have a look at them - remind yourself what happened in Rwanda, Cambodia, etc. Learn the history and course of the conflict that led to those atrocities.

If the revolution comes and unfolds the way described, obviously a lot of people will try and flee the country - which will leave them vulnerable to Human Trafficking. You may barely give the victims of Human Trafficking a second thought, but they suffer terribly. So this week I also updated the links in the Human Trafficking community so you can refresh your memory as to the horrors that will face so many people fleeing the revolution - especially the poor and working class.

If you think you will be ok because you are down with the revolution - then I encourage you to read Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China which is about:

"An engrossing record of Mao’s impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love, Jung Chang describes the extraordinary lives and experiences of her family members: her grandmother, a warlord’s concubine; her mother’s struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents’ experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution.

Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a “barefoot doctor,” a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving—and ultimately uplifting—detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history."

Wild Swans is both one of the best books I have ever read and also one of the scariest. If your politics lie on the left, then you owe it to yourself to read it.

Finally I say this to you - lets all step back from the brink. There are better ways to solve our problems and resolve our differences. Lets find them.

Last week I was doing a deep dive into the health benefits of having a sauna regularly and came to the conclusion that the reported reduction in overall mortality made an investment in a home sauna worth a bet.

I ended up ordering the Bridgeport Sauna by Almost Heaven. With the cost of transport being driven higher by gas prices and raw materials escalating in price quickly - I figured better to buy now before they increase their prices.

I also saw articles on the health benefits of different colored lights - though the research is not as strong as that for saunas - so I bought some lights for the Sauna as well.

Delivery time is 3 to 4 weeks - so I will let you know how it goes once I have it up and running.

Now onto this week's business

How should I invest in Crypto?

I am sure you have heard about the crash in crypto prices recently. With a drop like that I figured it was probably a good as time as any for me to see if I could learn how to invest in Crypto profitably.

Up till now, I have viewed Crypto investing much the same way I view gambling. With no balance sheets or profit and loss statements to analyse it leaves old school value investors like me at a total loss when it comes to investing in crypto.

But people are making money out of Crypto - some are making a lot and others are losing a lot.

To help me I have enlisted a young bull who sees upside and potential where I see high tech smoke and mirrors.

To make it interesting (I focus where my money is) I am purchasing USD$5,000 worth of Ether (ETH) that we can use to construct a portfolio based on the trading ideas we come up with. So over time I will have a tangible measure of how good this young bull is at teaching an old dog like me new tricks.

I have set up a new community called Crypto Traders Journal. This community is not investment advice. Rather it will be a record of some of the trades we make or consider and our thought process behind our decision to invest or not invest. For me personally I find this sort of record useful to look back on and see what worked and what didn’t. I believe it helps make me a better investor (in the value investing world) then I otherwise would be.

I would love you to share your insights on the trades we discuss - I am keen to learn. Even better, feel free to post some of your crypto trading ideas and the reasoning behind them.

Remember this is not investment advice - personally I consider investing in Crypto to be extremely high risk. Rather I hope it serves an educational purpose that may help old dogs like me learn new tricks.

I am also setting up communities for different cryptocurrencies, NFTs, etc as a reference of interesting articles I come across as I start poking around the crypto world. Please feel free to add to them. Some examples of these are:

• Crypto - Bitcoin
• Crypto - Curve
• Crypto - NFTs
• Crypto - DeFi

Please seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice before you invest any money. Do not rely on what you read here - it could be a case of the blind leading the blind.

If one of the conservative judges gives into the intimidation bought on by the leak of the decision to overturn Roe versus Wade - SCOTUS will be destroyed for ever.

Bad doers will have learnt they can bully the Judges into whatever they want and there will be no end to the intimidation.

The very future of the court is at risk.

The only way to save it is for those 5 Justices who voted to over turn Roe versus Wade to hold firm and stick to their decision.

I started 2 new communities this week:

• Sauna - Health Benefits
• Ofuro Japanese Soaking Tubs
• Chromotherapy

because I learnt of research conducted over a 20 year period that suggests using a Sauna 4-7 times a week for 20 minutes at 174°F was able to reduce:

• All Cause Mortality by 40%
• Dementia and Alzheimers by 60%
• Stroke Risk by 40%
• Risk of developing Hypertension by 46%
• Helps with Depression and Anxiety
• Muscle Atrophy by 40%, and
• Helps your body get rid of Heavy Metals

This research was conducted mostly at a university in Finland with a couple of thousand people over 20 years plus they eliminated compounding factors like exercise etc. So they were comparing like with like when they measured these risk reductions.

It appears that this is caused by heating your core body temperature and a similar effect could probably be attained using an Ofuro Japanese Soaking Tub. I am told these tubs are part of their daily routine in Japan, there is a switch in the kitchen they click while preparing dinner - the tub automatically fills and heats so it is ready for you after dinner and before you go to bed. I was told it was a secret to Japanese longevity along with their diet.

Upon learning this, I:

• was annoyed we had not been told about this before
• wanted to learn how and why it worked - was it BS or not
• could I get a Sauna in my house and if so, how much would it cost
• would an Ofuro Japanese Soaking Tub do the same job? If so, could I get one in my house, how much etc?
• which of those 2 options would be easier to use.

I noticed Chromotherapy was also included in many Saunas sold today and I wondered why. While there is not as much hard evidence, there is research that shows some interesting benefits. So I also started a community for Chromotherapy

So if you know about Saunas, Chromotherapy and Ofuros I would sure appreciate you contributing to the communities. If you don't, I am going to share useful links as I find them.

I am not in the business of selling or installing Saunas, Chromotherapy or Ofuros - just generally curious if they can improve our health and are practical for the average person to use.

Imagine the impact this could have on our medical expenses and our enjoyment of life. I hope you find this interesting.

I suggest you start with this video https://exploding-heads.com/post/6391

The Ruling Class like to cast things in terms of the left versus right. They try to keep the two sides divided. They actively censor each side to prevent the working class left finding common ground with the working class right and visa versa.

The true divide is between the Ruling Class (left and right) and the Working Class (left and right). The working class despise the Crony Capitalists and Corrupt Politicians who cut deals to enrich themselves.

The Ruling Class are those Corrupt Politicians, Bureaucrats, and Crony Capitalists who do not want any light shone on their special little deals.

The Working Class had a big win this week in Florida when Disney (Crony Capitalist) so angered the working class, that the Corrupt Politicians could no longer cover for them and had to let the light shine in on some of the special benefits Disney gets in the state of Florida like:

• the ability to issue tax free bonds. Disney took full advantage of this perk and had issued almost a billion dollars worth of tax free bonds. What other business - big or small - is able to fund its activities by issuing tax free bonds?
• not having to pay county taxes. Some estimate that this saves Disney about $200 million a year. What happens to your house if you do not pay your county property taxes. Is it fair for Disney to be exempt from county taxes?
• not having to comply with county regulations and approvals. If I want to put solar panels on my roof - my county has a whole approval and regulatory process to go through. Disney other the other hand could build a nuclear power station without seeking any approval from the county.
• not having to comply with county regulations that hinder all other businesses in the state - even direct competitors of Disney like Universal Studio, Legoland, hotels, restaurants, bars, tourist attractions, resorts, etc. County governments can tie up business for months and years in regulation - regulations are very costly, so this is a big advantage to Disney.
• Not having to comply with Social Media laws that other companies must abide by.

Once the light exposed this corrupt deal (rumors abounds as to the benefits Disney provided state legislators over the years), the Corrupt Politicians could not withstand the Working Class outrage and had to terminate some of these cosy arrangements with Disney.

There is much more to do, for example apparently Florida loses $500 million a year in revenue because Florida does not have "Combined Reporting" laws and this allows Crony Capitalists like Disney to shift their profits to Delaware and save corporate taxes. (Florida does not have a Personal Income Tax - but they do have a Corporate Income Tax). Now the light has been shone on this loophole as well, the Corrupt Politicians are under enormous pressure to close this loophole as well.

These events have met with the overwhelming approval of working class Floridians. Heck it has even met with the approval of some of Disney's competitors who want an even playing field.

So what is the Big Hit the Ruling Class took this week? No it wasn't the removal of these special benefits from Disney - although that was good.

Politicians nationwide are a self interested bunch who mostly only care about being elected. Now they have seen how popular it is to strip away these special benefits from Crony Capitalists - you can be sure they will be motivated to do more. This is a snowball, that has only just started rolling. It is up to the Working Class (on the left and the right) to keep the pressure on their politicians to keep the ball rolling.

Introducing Combined Reporting so Disney and other Crony Capitalists pay their fair share of state taxes - and cutting the taxes of working class Floridians must have enormous appeal to vote hungry politicians.

The Crony Capitalists have already started to fight back by:

• making themselves a less obvious target (Exxon taking down BLM and LBGTQ flags)
• swinging behind an effort to repeal ESG, (Environmental, Social, and Governance) laws and ratings that encourage corporations to act other then in the interest of their shareholders. Remember the Working Class through their 401ks and investments are directly or indirectly those shareholders.
• the old hands coming out of retirement to coach the current crop of Crony Capitalists how to avoid issues the outrage the working class so they can keep their special deals in tact at the expense of the Working Class.

It is up to all of us to keep the politicians of all stripes focused on repealing the special benefits provided to Crony Capitalists over the years. To keep the snowball rolling.

If you are interested in this topic, please subscribe and contribute links and comments to the following communities:

• Crony Capitalists
• Corrupt Politicians
• Accountability

This week I created a new community called Food Security as there have been lots of articles "appearing" related to this subject:

• food plants burning down or blowing up
• planes crashing into food plants
• drought is impacting 69% of US wheat production areas
• Union Pacific cutting fertilizer shipments by rail by 20% right in the middle of peak planting season
• Grain deliveries by rail being partially HALTED, devastating dairy herds and meat operations nationwide
• FBI warning of cyber attacks on food plants

Now this could be blown out of all proportion because:

• lots of food plants and distribution centers near transport hubs that include airports. So if a plane crashes on take off or landing - there are food plants close by to crash into.
• Food plants have been running at full capacity since Covid lockdowns and regular maintenance has been deferred, increasing the number of problems in the form of fires and explosions.
• droughts come and go and have always been a part of agriculture.
• What's With All the Food Processing Plants Blowing Up Lately? does a good job of explaining why all this could be normal.

If that was all there was to these stories - I would not be suspicious. But there are 2 events that have set off alarm bells in my head:

**1. Why would a rail company like Union Pacific cut shipments of fertilizer to farmers during peak planting season and rail carriers cancel the delivery of bulk grains to cattle and dairy operations?

I am sorry - this just makes no sense to me. I would think the rail carriers would want to ship more to increase profits. I would think governments would be moving heaven and earth to make sure enough food is available at affordable prices for their populations.

2. FBI warning of cyber attacks on food plants

In recent years the FBI has a history of planting stories in the media to set up a hoax or false flag operation they are running. Their corruption has destroyed all the trust many of us once placed in the FBI - so their "warnings" need to be carefully evaluated for motivation rather then be blindly accepted.

It is too early to tell what if anything is going on. But I wanted to start a community where we could link related articles so we can evaluate the situation as events unfold.

If you are interested in this, please subscribe and contribute links and comments to the Food Security community.