Bunch of random things

[nwhiker]

It's been hard, recently. A lot of stress and sadness over the state of the US, not being able to find a job, my mom. Coming up on the anniversary of my aunt's death. Spring is on-and-off and it feels like we didn't have a real winter. Worried about my kids. Major paperwork needs to be done. So yeah. But a few random thoughts.

-- I do an online weights program through UW. 30 minutes twice a week. I despise weights but the instructor is great and I've stuck with it for about two years now. (If anyone wants the link, btw, or info on how to access some of the workouts on youtube, holler). Dh is doing them with me now too. Anyhow, the point of this. Goblet squats. For the longest time I thought she was saying goblin squats and I so loved that they were called that. Ah well. I know better now but still think of goblins when I do them.

-- Dh is RTO 3 days a week starting today. 😭 Major adjustment for me too. I'm dreading this. I mean, it's not like we interacted, he was pretty much heads down 9-10 hours a day with a quick break for lunch, but it was just the fact that he was there. I dunno. Very annoyed at this corporate power-play, as well as dreading how much worse this is going to make traffic in the area, sigh. It's already dreadful.

-- Eugenics is going to have to be discussed. The Epstein class knows that they don't need all of us. With AI, automation, both industrial and agricultural etc, there is not going to be need for loads of human bodies to do the work necessary to keep their money growing and fewer of us means less chance of the guillotines ever coming into play. In addition, bitcoin is self-limiting on the amounts they can accumulate so long term the fewer people for competition, the better. Hence defunding education, because stupid people are easier to control. Getting rid of vaccines. In the US defunding as much social aid as possible. Letting rural hospitals/health care atrophy, it's not like we really need the people they serve. IMO, they are starting with Africa, via all the cuts to USAID, including the most recent one. They don't view "those people" as necessary to their way of life, Africa itself has little to offer from a tech standpoint (this is not Singapour or Taiwan), except all the mineral wealth and they figure that can be extracted by robots, poorly paid miners, under the supervision of the poor genocided Boers. 🙄

-- As my mom approaches the time when she is going to need Medicaid, I'm starting to expect it to go away for memory care, though I don't know when. I expect Republicans to refuse to allow people with any kind of family at all (is children or grandchildren) to get on Medicaid, arguing that it's the beautiful family thing to do to have your parent age with you, never mind that they have to be watched as carefully as a toddler, if not more. Which will mean families will be caught in an impossible situation and some adult is going to have to quit their job to take care of an elderly relative. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong.

-- Linnea's About Me on Discord: Pink, athletic, and hyperenergetic! I love it. Accurate too.

-- camelsamba mentioned The 100 Day Project. I am going to join her: I have a knitting project that I want to do. I keep on making mistakes, LOL, and having to start over because I can't undo them without making a worse mess... So. I'll post the photos on my flickr site... when I start. I mean, I had my stiches cast on when I sat down with the project today, added 1.9 rows, and ripped everything out because the knit on the round connection was too loose. Bah. I'll try again tomorrow.

Comments

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> The Epstein class knows that they don't need all of us. <<

It's a predator-prey pyramid. In order for one person to be rich, many other people must forcibly be made poor. Otherwise resources would be closer to equal. The more poor people you pack into the bottom of the pyramid, the richer the people at the apex can be. Not the more rich individuals, but a few individuals made more rich because they are stealing wealth from a larger number of victims. Shrink the pool of victims and you shrink the whole pyramid. Fast.

But hell, they aren't any better at remembering that than they are at castle math.

Re: Well ...

[nwhiker]

Yes, 100% agree with you, but I don't think they agree any longer. My feeling, from all the reading and the way things are going, is that they would prefer to jettison those who slow down the ship, so to speak: the sick, the already-too-poor-to-consume-enough (see: Africa), the disabled, the elderly. All of this overlayed on white supremacy and racism.

Plus, yeah, I think they do believe that most of us -not them! of course, just us- could easily be replaced with robots and AI.

Fewer people means less competition for the resources they want to hog.

Again, yeah, normally growth and consumption etc, but it's seriously looking to me like they think they've transcended prior models and moved into a new paradigm, where, again, the undesirable should be... dealt with, because in their mind, they cost more than they can produce in order to consume.

If they really wanted an economy based on consumption, all the while pushing for AI and automation which is going to depress jobs for a good number of people, they'd all be screaming for a UBI and more money in the pockets of the consumers who actually spend what they have.

I dunno. TBH, I think a lot of these people are... not as bright as they think they are.

Re: Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> My feeling, from all the reading and the way things are going, is that they would prefer to jettison those who slow down the ship, so to speak: the sick, the already-too-poor-to-consume-enough (see: Africa), the disabled, the elderly. All of this overlayed on white supremacy and racism.<<

Likely so. And yet, facts are what will bite you on the ass whether you believe in them or not.

>>Fewer people means less competition for the resources they want to hog.<<

But a far smaller pie overall.

>> they'd all be screaming for a UBI and more money in the pockets of the consumers who actually spend what they have.<<

Sure. Back in the day, Henry Ford ran his factory so that his workers could afford to buy one of his cars -- which they typically did. Ford Motor Company was then the biggest employer. Today's biggest is Wal-Mart, which cheats both the workers and the taxpayers with a poverty wage that leaves employees on government assistance.

>> TBH, I think a lot of these people are... not as bright as they think they are.<<

Rich people are often stupid. That's what happens when people are afraid to tell you no or that you're wrong, and you are insulated from the consequences of your actions.

[camelsamba]

i started by casting on 80 stitches - soon had 81, but it turns out that was good, since the pattern calls for rows of seed stitch which relies on an odd number cast on when doing in the round (so why did the pattern say 80? weird). Now I have 83. Instead of a beanie/toque/choose-your-knit-hat-word, this is going to look like the mad hatter's hat (i'm thinking of the old Alice in Wonderland illustrations, not any modern movie renditions). Then again, it switches back to some rounds of knit stitch, so i suppose i could use two decreases to get it back down to 81...

[nwhiker]

Oh do I ever hear you. It's like... I started with 96. Why do I now have 99 that happened to me a few cast-ons ago. 🤣

What really amuses me is that when I made my first hat a few years back, I had nowhere near this level of trouble. Of course it was larger acrylic yarn, so that might have something to do with it.