While there is no doubt that the internet, email, etc., can lead to great productivity, it can also lead to feelings of isolation, inferiority, a lack of discipline, be counter productive to concentration, etc. How many times during the day do you check your email, or are notified that you have a new email, tweet, etc., and how many times do you drop what you are working on in order to check out the new missive? When that happens, the random message to you becomes the most important item in your life since you have prioritized it by responding to it quickly. This excellent review of the new book, A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload, will hopefully make you take a step back and restore some discipline regarding all the methods of electronic messenging . Perhaps we all need to have a timer on our desks so that we only look at electronic messages once an hour, or every two hours. Do you think you could do that? https://www.city-journal.org/tyranny-of-email

The election in Mexico this past Sunday appears to be a repudiation of the vision of President Obrador, better known as AMLO, by the middle class of Mexico. The link to the article below outlines President Obrador’s vision of a Mexico of the 1960s and 70s, with a one party rule, a meek Congress and an all powerful President. It is clear he prefers state run industries which have a proven record of failure, yet somehow he sees the failed policies as the hope for the future. Perhaps it is best summed up by Mr. Wood of the Woodrow Wilson Center, when he says that AMLO “..believes in the dignity of poverty.”. Perhaps he can take such as view as he has no bank account, no credit card and has all of his expenses paid by the State. With millions of Mexican citizens having fled to the U.S. over the years, apparently they do not see a largely agrarian, state run economy and poverty as glamorous as their President. https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-mexicos-president-a-threat-to-its-democracy-11622818830?page=1

Have you ever heard of a Federal or government program at any level which increased efficiency, or cost the tax payers less or even delivered what it promised? Think hard. I would venture to say that the military is the one area that at least has a degree of accountability. But others? I recently posted a story about how the Department of Education has received over $1,000,000,000 but has not increased reading or math scores. In this example, the Feds want more wind power but there is a problem; more wind power kills more birds, some of which are endangered. So the Feds tell the power company do do something about it or pay a fine. Do something about it? Like what? Put up warning signs for the birds to read? So the power companies pay the fine (and pass along the cost to you and I). Then the Feds want more wind power so more turbines go up and more birds are killed. Watch for the next step; the Feds will have to hire “inspectors” to monitor the power companies and guess what? Taxes will be raised for the new “inspectors”. Get it? Government is a perpetura motion machine of creating a situation which creates problems that they did not plan for, then they have to raise taxes to fix the problem they created. Pretty smooth, hey? Follow this link to a story on the careless birds vs. wind turbines. https://www.wsj.com/articles/expanding-wind-power-while-killing-fewer-migratory-birds-is-bidens-quandary-11622885401?page=1

Dr. Patrick Moore PhD., was a co-founder of Greenpeace and served as President of Greenpeace Canada for nine years. Yet, in 1986, he chose to leave that organization because as he said, “it evolved into an organization of extremism and politically motivated agendas”, and told a television audience, “The whole climate crisis is not only fake news, it’s fake science”. If you go to the link below, you will hear his roughly hour and a half talk which destroys numerous myths, (the polar bear population is declining, plastic waste in the Pacific the size of Texas, etc.) and provides evidence that nothing in our earths current climate is outside the range of normality for the past 10,000 years. Even if you do not watch the entire talk, it will make you ask better questions about what is reported. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3A4wrPU2jY

Causes can never claim victory for they become centers of self interest, with budgets and employees. Since they can never claim victory, they must always seek either new threats to their members, or discover new grievances which in turn leads to new requests for funding and continued existence, etc. What is the current direction of feminism and how well does it serve the vast majority of women? In this article, Mary Harrington does not call for a return to the role models of the 1959s, but she does question if a feminism “in the thrall of technology” is a failure. Is it time to think the direction of feminism and have it finally admit to certain “pragmatic realities”? This is a well written and thoughtful article that should be a basis for questioning todays more radical feminists. https://www.firstthings.com/article/2021/06/reactionary-feminism

When I was in grad school 50 years ago (ouch!), taking my classes in totalitarianism and guerrilla warfare (what is now called asymmetrical warfare), one of the shining stars was Regis Debray. Born and raised by “broad-minded” parents, he finished first on the entrance exam for entry into the Ecole Normale Superieure, the key stepping stone to an academic career in the humanities. He went a step beyond, as his writings caught the eye of Che Guevara, was invited to Havana to become a “court favorite”. He received training in guerrilla combat, scouted locations for Guevara, serve four years of a thirty year term in a Bolivarian prison, and fought with the Sandinistas in the late 1970s, all of this when he was in his twenties and early thirties. His writings influenced Marxist theory on warfare and went against the tide of both Maoist and Cuban strategy (his writing on the subject was said to be “unquestionably constitute one of the most brilliant examples of Marxist-Leninist analysis to have appeared in many years”). Had Che listened to Debray, his farcial adventure in Bolivia might have ended very much differently. Later, he was a foreign policy adviser to Francois Mitterrand, the President of France.

Now, at the age of 80, he continues to write, including a book on the religious roots of environmentalism, Muslims in France, an autobiography and more. In the article linked below, we find a mind that has always questioned not only the systems and individuals around him, but his own self. It is a treat to see that he is still alive and kicking. I hope you enjoy the article as much as I. https://www.firstthings.com/article/2021/06/rgis-debray-radical-conservative

This last Friday, my favorite wife and I went up to LA, booked a room at the Sofitel at Beverly and La Cienega, facing the Hollywood Hills and shut out the world. No computer, no iPad. We opened a bottle of champagne, sat side by side with the balcony doors open, looked at the hills and let the world go by. Later, dinner at The Palm, a drink at the hotel and after lounging in the next AM, back to our home. We have a wondeful life but this little get away made us feel as if we were a thousand miles away from the everyday. It was a good lesson, so the next time you feel you are in a rut, or that the weight of the world is on your shoulders, or just want to do something different, go out for a stroll on the beach, splurge on a nice hotel room, go to dinner at a new restaurant, etc.. Treat yourself and put the bounce back in your step. If it works like I think it will, pick up your calendar and plan your next mini vacation.

Decades of enforcing a one child rule has created a number of problems for China. With 19% of the population 60 years old or older, a low age level for retirement (60 for men, 50 for women) which creates a huge demand on China’s weak retirement system, and a low birth rate (in a country of 1,444,000,000 only 12,000,000 births), China’s economic miracle is in danger of slowing down. Older people require most costly healthcare, generate little income and are not consumer orientated. All the while, the young face the possibility of rising taxes to pay for the care of their elders which goes to slow the marriage and birthrate. This may all be overblown as the decline in population still leaves China as nation with the largest population, but India is closing the gap and they could present a challenge to China in that part of the world. Go to https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-people-problem-swings-from-too-many-to-a-decline-that-sees-no-end-11620903602?page=1 for an interesting article on this dilemma.

For all of the wonderful plans for zero emissions, the Kyoto Accords, Paris Climate Conference and politicians hot air fail to address the reality of how you put the ideals into practice. The end result may very well be a serious threat to the economies of the world as demand for energy simply outstrips the ability of “renewalables”. Where are the real plans, budgets and ideas of how to implement the goals? This article points out some of the very real challenges. https://www.wsj.com/articles/bidens-not-so-clean-energy-transition-11620752282?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

“At the same time, National Socialism also maee itself felt on the level of everyday life by rewarding those who employed National Socialist language and ritualistic behavior in the conduct of their daily affairs and by requiring that activities be conducted in such contexts. While true believers had no trouble meeting these requirments, those who were not (and those who were skeptical) were necessarily driven on the path to various degrees of inner corruption by constantly having to behave in the required manner in order to protect and promote their intrests. The more they internalized such behavior, the less it mattered in a practical sense whether they believed what they were saying and doing. Their political correctness required “correct” political behavior.” (Allianz and the German Insurance Business, 1933-45 by Gerald D. Feldman, pp 107) It was the same under Stalin, Mao, etc. and today we see it in the United States. As Ronald Reagan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.”