When Greed Prevails Liberty Is Lost
Greed drives most of the capitalism in the United States with little thought about the consequences. We are currently living through the consequences of a war a world away between Russia and Ukraine, imagine what happens if war breaks out in the Far East where everything we buy and use in the United States is manufactured. Have you tried to buy a car lately? Greed has put us in this bad place where China has a vice grip on our economy.
In the 1920s greed drove the United States and the world over a financial cliff toward a Depression. It took a World War and the New Deal laws to get the country back on its feet, but the wealthy minority, which has a lot of power because everything including votes and court decisions can be bought in the U.S., has been waging war against the majority, what we once knew as the middle class, ever since. Everything going on in the U.S. is a consequence if this war.
At the root of the issue is the claims on the definition of liberty. On one side, that includes the wealthy, is the claim liberty means one can do whatever one wants. On the other side is the claim that one’s claim to their personal liberty ends when it infringes on the liberties of others. The extreme libertarian side pushes toward anarchy, the extreme other side pushes toward over regulation, and in the middle is supposed to be the idea of the rule of law.
A simple truth….there are more books that I want to read than I have time, but I try!
Alan Jacobs, who I follow on micro.blog, recommends reading Albert Murray: Collected Essays & Memoirs (LOA #284). I click the link in the micro.blog app and I see the description of the book and think to myself, I would like to add this to my Want To Read list in my Bookshelves in micro.blog but there is no link to do that. Next, I shared the link to Drafts and open Epilogue to paste it, but first went to the Discover tab and saw the book listed.
All, to say…note to self, remember that books shared in micro.blog appear in the Discover in Epilogue, so just go there if you want to add that book to your want to read list.
Epilogue is an app in development and available via TestFlight to manage Bookshelves in micro.blog.
Checking back in on the micro.blog app for iPadOS on the iPad Mini, and see that the left menu still doesn’t disappear. I would prefer it showed posts across the entire screen.
It is utterly tropical outside and according to my weather app, a 79 degree dew point. No clouds. Sat outside for maybe 15 minutes before deciding I wasn’t in a mood for a sauna.
I received the Google Pixelbuds yesterday as promised by USPS and so far I am very happy with how they work. They were discovered by my Pixel 4a and setup went smoothly. The Pixelbuds are associated to my Google account and so my work phone that runs Android and knew about the Pixelbuds and displayed a notification to associate it and install the Pixebuds app. More first impressions notes on my tech information page.
I received a text message that the Google Pixelbuds that I ordered are out for delivery. At least I know the Post Office can deliver to the right address. Yesterday I read on Facebook that others had similar shipping experiences and the same resolution where once they enabled text notification updates whatever the issue was became resolved.
Six years ago I felt positive things were happening for the Chicago Cubs. I wrote then about all the young talent that was getting a chance to play and looked forward to the future. Honestly, I feel a bit that way this year. The Cubs young guys who have been given a chance to play have demonstrated they are capable. I think next year they should be competitive in the NL Central.
Against my better judgement, I ordered the new Google Pixelbuds Pro from the Google Store and once again I have evidence that delivery of products from the Google Store is at best cursed if not flat out incompetent.
To my surprise I found that Google shipped the Pixelbuds via UPS, which I thought was good because UPS seems to know what they are doing, but then I saw the indicator that it is really via Mail Innovations. I think this is the service in which UPS and the USPS partner in delivery with UPS doing the cross country transport and USPS doing the last mile, and it means more moving parts to fail.
The Pixelbuds shipped out of Bensenville, IL on July 26 and arrived in a UPS sorting facility in Urbancrest, OH, which is a suburb of Columbus. According to the UPS tracker, the package then was delivered to USPS in West Bloomfield, MI, which is where I live, on July 29 but rather than being delivered to me on August 1 as originally expected the next update on that date was another “sorted” at UPS facility in Urbancrest, OH.
To date the package has yet to arrive. I know there is no guarantee date and that I did not pay extra for shipping, but I am wondering why it appears stuck in Ohio as if nobody knows what to do with it. I can’t remember whether I even had the option to pay for delivery.
Worse, despite the fact that when I click the “Track Package” link in the notification of shipment email that Google sends goes to a ups.com site, when I manually enter the tracking number via my UPS.com account it indicates as not a UPS shipment. I go to usps.com and it indicates it “departed shipping partner facility” on July 28 in Grove City, OH, which is probably the same location indicated by UPS, but there is no other update on the USPS site.
None of these shippers provide me, a user, to click a link on these tracking pages to send to the shipper and ask them what is up with my shipment, even when I have an account set up with their site. I use Informed Delivery with USPS and normally as soon as a USPS shipping label is printed I get a text notification, but not this time. I can only conclude that “Main Innovations” is a very cheap and thus low quality shipping serivce. The bottom line to me is that Google Store compromises on customer service for the sake of cutting costs. It all adds up to a once again poor experience with Google Store.
Prior three orders of phones and the Pixelbook, which are more expensive items, where delivered to the wrong address. I get packages from Amazon and other online stores via UPS and Fedex with no problem, but every dang one from Google Store is messed up.
Update: Just got a text from USPS that the package arrived in West Bloomfield and will be delivered tomorrow.
Shock in Wrigleyville as the Cubs did NOT trade Wilson Contreras or Ian Happ as nearly everyone expected. During the lead up to the trade deadline pundits were bemoaning the fact the Cubs just trade away all the players who were so important to winning the 2016 World Series. Now pundits are bemoaning the fact the trades were not made!
The reason why trades were made is simple, teams didn’t want to pay the price the Cubs were asking for. Contreras is the best catcher in baseball and you don’t just give that caliber of player away for some prospects, except maybe a team of prospects. Before Soto became available Contreras was one of the best, if not the best, hitters available. When the Nationals announced they were open to trades, Contreras was no longer the best hitter, he was just the best catcher available. Teams buying simply decided they had needs greater than catcher.
My hope is that the Cubs make a serious attempt to signing Contreras to a new contract during the offseason. Wilson is a player worthy of being the cornerstone to the next great Cubs team, particularly given the additon of the designated hitter. You need leadership to win in any sport, and Wilson provides it to a team of young players and particularly a team with young pitchers. I think Wilson is worth the money he asks for.
Vin Scully was the last remaining enduring voice of baseball. He became the voice of the Dodgers in the the 1950s when they were in Brooklyn and was the only voice the L.A. Dodgers ever had up until 2016. I will most remember his call of Kirk Gibson’s home run in the 1988 World Series.
Consider this. We don’t have a Supreme Congress, we don’t even have a Supreme President, despite what Trump thinks, but we do have a Supreme Court. By name and by implementation the Supreme Court is the most authoritarian and most dangerous branch of U.S. government. The people who make up this supreme branch of government are not elected but appointed for life! There are no qualifications for appointment, which means those who are appointed are put there because they ideologically agree with those who do the appointing. Nearly every one of the most wrong and most embarrassing moments of U.S. history can be traced back to a Supreme Court decision. And, the Constitution really does not define what it is that the court does nor its power, those were all decided by members of the court itself. No wonder why there are originalists, the origins of the Supreme Court allow them to reign with impunity.
Remember this despite the marketing of the current justices.
It’s another beautiful morning in Michigan, and perfect weather to be outside drinking coffee and reading.
The NFL is simply hostile to people who are fans of teams not in their local market. I started giving the MLB my money the moment I was able to watch every Chicago Cub game, but the NFL doesn’t seem to want my money to let me watch very Green Bay Packer game. I live in the Detroit, Michigan market, but I moved here many years ago and never budged from my childhood favorite Packers. It’s not like my ability to pay for and stream Packer games is diminishing local broadcasts or ticket sales. It’s just crazy!
Much talk regarding the Chicago Cubs probable trades of some of their remaining “core” players, Wilson Contreras and Ian Happ, mostly due to the big sell off last year.
One big difference this year, I think, is that the Cubs may be trading away the best catcher in baseball. As good as Bryant, Rizzo, and Baez were you can’t say they were the best at their positions. The last time the Cubs cast aside the best in his position was Gregg Maddux, and that trade might have contributed a decade or more of “same old Cubs” baseball.
It seems to be that Cubs ownership and front office don’t understand that there is a difference between turning a franchise around, as they did before 2016 and maintaining the culture that as built during the turnaround. Continual selling and tanking was warranted to turn around a 108 year problem, but that is NOT how you maintain the culture, in fact it destroys what culture that has been built.
The St. Louis Cardinals provides the template of excellence, and the Cubs should know this well since the Cardinals have been their main rival since the beginning of baseball time. The Cardinals prioritize re-signing players, even at the price of overpaying, to maintain their culture.
So far, the current Cubs ownership and front office has not had one major re-signing of player on their roster, and that sends a clear message. The message is sends is that while they might now how to turn a team around, they don’t know how to keep it at the top.
I am walking the Appalachian Trail virtually using the Walk The Distance app. Right now I am “walking” the Georgia segment and have completed 22 miles, with 48.7 miles left for this walk. The Appalachian Trail is 2,190 miles long, I wonder if I will have finished by this time next year?
I hope that Mike Pence seeks the Republican nomination for POTUS, then I hope that everyone, particularly journalists, emphasizes the differences between Pence and Trump as the difference between true Americans who stand for the Constitution and the other who not only does NOT stand for the Constitution but also has contempt for it.
Which one is the True American?
My point is not that I agree with or support Pence, but besides Democracy, what is the real difference between he and Trump? Any election that involves Donald Trump is a referendum on the representative Democracy/Republic that is the United States.
If comes down to a question of Democracy or no Democracy, I pick Democracy every. single. time. What about you?
I just wonder whether Pence has the balls to draw the comparison this clear?
Next to micro.blog, Instagram may be my second most-checked social network. I recently learned of the way to filter the feed to only those you follow in chronological order. After you open the app tap Instagram title at the top left and then tap following. It would be much better if Instagram provided a setting for users so that they could specify which format they want for the feed.
After temperatures last week didn’t go below the 70s at night, it’s nice to see the 65 degree temperature this morning.
Here is a fact of how things work in the United States that people don’t seem to like. The only real way change works is when both parties agree to make change. Further, our government is not set up so that the President can do anything he pleases, unlike what Trump might want everyone to think.
Consequently, blaming Biden for any legislation, like climate change, not passing is B.S. because Congress has to pass legislation first. Guess what, a 50/50 split in the Senate means that enough people from both parties have to agree.
Unfortunately, this hurdle on change is by design, it’s not a bug. It was built, however, on the premise that those elected would actually govern and would not simply vote along party lines even to vote against the best interests of their constituents.