Can desalination solve our water needs?

(Unknown Variables) America poured billions of gallons of filtered (desalinated) seawater into a dead desert -- and what happened next was unbelievable. Israel has been desalinating salt water for a long time, as have other countries. Why doesn't the USA do it? It's more about politics and economics of selling freshwater than any technological obstacle to abundance and prosperity.

Walking across US border to TJ, Mexico

(Cecil Travels) I crossed the border between San Diego (Alta California, US) and Tijuana (the largest city in Baja California, MX, often affectionately referred to as TJ) to see if all the terrifying tales of drug cartels, MS-13 gang members, prostitutes, donkeys, cunning dealers, clueless mules, underage drunken American partying, kidnappings, and human trafficking were true. What I found shocked me.

Aztec: terror, tribes, sacrifice?

(Re Righting History) Aztec warriors kinda sucked as neighbors...

• Neighboring tribe, the Tlaxcaltecs, neighboring tribe or "traitors" in league with European imperialists? It's messy

I don't want to drown in American society

(After Skool) Alan Watts on the MYTHS [social conventions] that keep us trapped

(Eddie and the Subtitles) "I Don't Want to Drown in American Society"

(LA's Wasted Youth) "We Were On Heroin" [or what we now call mega-dopamine]

What kind of addictive substance do you mean by "heroin," boys? - C&H White Processed Sugar.

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Danger, Will Robbing Son, danger!

Yeah, sure, Eddie, but what is "American" society? At least with LA punkers Wasted Youth, they get right to the point, claiming to be as addicted to all-American stuff (junk food, junk TV, junk relationships, etc.) as "heroin" addicts are to heroin. Pretty sure they didn't mean actual opioid, morphine, poppy plant extract from Afghanistan. - You know, "American" society, it's like "whatever." - Okay, well, then, in that case, let's ask Dr. Robert Lustig.

The Hacking of American Mind: Science Behind Corporate Takeover of Our Bodies and Brains

Author and narrator Dr. Robert H. Lustig, MD, has 4.6 out of 5 stars (with 1,159 ratings). This unabridged audiobook "explores how industry has manipulated our most deep-seated survival instincts," says Dr. David Perlmutter, MD, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Grain Brain and Brain Maker.

Dr. Lustig, the New York Times-bestselling author of Fat Chance, reveals the corporate scheme to sell pleasure, driving the international epidemic of

• addiction,
• depression,
• chronic disease.

Metabolical: Lure and Lies of Processed Food

While researching the toxic and addictive properties of white sugar for his New York Times bestseller Fat Chance, Dr. Lustig made an alarming discovery: Our pursuit of happiness is being subverted by a culture of addiction and depression from which we may never recover.

Dopamine is the “reward” neurotransmitter that tells our brains we want more; yet, every substance or behavior that releases dopamine in the extreme leads to addiction.

Serotonin is the “contentment” neurotransmitter that tells our brains we don’t need any more; yet, its deficiency leads to depression.

Idiocracy was prophecy not comedy

(After the Credits) Idiocracy wasn't a comedy, it was a prophecy!

• VIDEO: Dr. Lustig: The Science of Happiness
• VIDEO: Science: Pleasure versus Happiness
• Dr. Lustig: lust, pleasure, craving, addiction
• VIDEO: Idiocracy: Wisdom is Disappearing
• Happiness and Hugging Meditation (Nov. 29)
• Dinah Cancer? Vaccines? iPhones (TJDS)
• "Sugar is TOXIC...like alcohol" (addictive as coke)

Fat Chance; Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity

Ideally, both are in optimal supply in our bodies.

But dopamine evolved to overwhelm serotonin—because our ancestors were more likely to survive if they were constantly motivated. The result has been that constant desire can chemically destroy our ability to feel happiness, while sending us down the slippery slope to addiction.

In the last 40 years, government legislation and subsidies have promoted ever-available temptation (porn, sugar, illegal drugs, social media) combined with constant stress (work, home, money, internet).

The end result is an unprecedented epidemic of mental addiction, anxiety, depression, and chronic physical diseases.

We can hack this cave, build fires, project images

With the advent of neuromarketing, corporate America has successfully imprisoned us in an endless loop of desire and consumption from which there is no obvious escape.

With his customary wit and incisiveness, Dr. Lustig not only reveals the science that drives these states of mind, he points his finger directly at the corporations that created this mess and the government actors who facilitated it.

Fast version: "I Don't Want to Drown in American Society"

And he offers solutions we can all use in the pursuit of happiness, even in the face of overwhelming opposition.

Always fearless and provocative, Dr. Lustig marshals a call to action, with seminal implications for our health, our well-being, and our culture. More

Who's really running America? (Kim Iversen)

(Kim Iversen) Caleb Maupin: This is who's REALLY running America

• (Kim Iversen) Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard says Zionist Israel should threaten USA with nukes

Jon Stewart on Trump's US shutdown

Jon Stewart makes the case for Dems holding the line in Trump's shutdown warfare

(The Daily Show) Oct. 6, 2025: Jon Stewart dives into the emerging effects of the government shutdown [which seems to be a big government to protect Trump from being exposed by the Epstein Files (Client List) when one more Democrat gets into her office and votes for their release, which she is being kept from doing only by this government shutdown, as explained by Kim Iversen below], the battle over healthcare that has Republicans and Democrats pointing fingers, and Trump's delight in using the shutdown to continue steamrolling Democrats and the Constitution. #DailyShow #JonStewart #Trump #blackmailed

Why shutdown?

Viva dying Las Vegas: collapse

• Jello Biafra and the Dead Kennedys, "Viva Las Vegas"; Discovery Globe - Life Documentary; Seth Auberon, CC Liu (eds,), Wisdom Quarterly

To win, read this before gambling in Sin City

Inside Deportee Slums of Tijuana

(Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan) Inside the Deportee Slums of Tijuana

Culture Wars w/ Helen Lewis (Sam Harris)

(Sam Harris) Culture Wars, DEI, and political polarization with Helen Lewis (The Atlantic)

Trump's rollercoaster market: down, up

Don't get 'yippy,' stop trying to go through walls, be flexible says Trump before reversing himself

Trump Suddenly pauses his tariffs, White House spin in full effect, quizzing MAGA fans in Florida

(Jimmy Kimmel Live) April 9, 2025: After watching Trump gamble our life savings this week he paused almost all of those big beautiful tariffs he levied, Uncle Scam offered words of reassurance to the millions of Americans whose retirement funds he exploded, Team Trump is out of in full force praising his decision, the real reason for his backing off of the Tariffs is likely because his approval rating is lower than ever, he spoke at the National Republican Committee Dinner last night, lots of Trump brand items are made in China, he apparently has no vested interest in Russia, the Department of Justice is eliminating the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, and we sent a team to the Gulf of America in Florida to ask some of Trump’s bigliest fans what they think about the Department of Education.

Taylor Tomlinson on Trump’s terrible taxes called tariffs

Trump puts 90-day PAUSE on reciprocal tariffs but doubles down on China | The Daily Show

• Ebullient markets crash next day after over correction: We went too high, so we dropped again. What does anyone expect from a "rollercoaster"?
• ABC News: Taking another dive, market slips

LIVE NEWS: Stocks surging, 90-day tariff pause announced by Trump on his version of Twitter except for more tariffs on China

(LiveNOW from FOX) Started streaming April 9, 2025: China has vowed to “fight to the end” against Pres. Trump’s tariffs in a statement published Wednesday, arguing that trade between the two countries is in "balance" as a 104% [now moved up to 125%] tariff on the country’s exports to the U.S. came into effect.

(CNN) Markets skyrocket after Trump reverses and sets 90-day tariff pause

VP JD Vance firestorm has foot in mouth: ‘Chinese peasants’ comment

• JD Vance has single-handedly destroyed America's relationship with Europe | Lord Ricketts

(IHIP News) Elon Musk has public meltdown after being cyberbullied

Trump's tariff tirade is tanking economy

Trump threatens 104% China tariffs, Fox News ignores market, Musk-Navarro Spar | The Daily Show

Trump’s tariff tirade continues, Houston fans mad at Ted Cruz and Elon calls Trump advisor a moron

(Jimmy Kimmel Live) April 8, 2025: The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P are all down again today, Trump announced that his annual physical will be done at Walter Reed on Friday, Elon Musk is calling Trump’s senior trade adviser Peter Navarro a “moron” and gave him a new nickname, Donald weighed in on why Russia was not included in the 86 countries he decided to tax (but Ukraine was), he is planning to hit China with an additional 84% tariff, the bootlickers on Fox and Friends are trying to spin it all as a good thing, The Florida Gators beat the Houston Cougars to win NCAA basketball championship, people are very upset about Ted Cruz being at the game and cursing Houston sports teams, and our Tony Award winning friend David Alan Grier performs a tribute in honor of fallen foods from the Cheesecake Factory menu.

Dear Mr. Trump 'n Pres. Elon (Bill Maher)

(PBS NewsHour) Protestors join more than 1,000 rallies across the US against Trump’s policies

I can't stand Musk almost as much as Trump

Los Angeles and Pasadena had massive turnouts for Hands Off! April 5th peaceful demonstrations and protests, with many clever signs and a great show of solidarity. That is only two of over 1,000 simultaneous actions across the country and other parts of the world. Trump is launching a trade war, and no one is happy about it.

New Rule: Trump Devotion Syndrome | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

• "Hands Off!" (handsoff2025.com) protests are taking aim at Trump and Elon Musk. This follows on the heels of
• "Tesla Takedown" (teslatakedown.com) protests have happened in cities around the country in opposition to Elon Musk's DOGE work.
• There used to be an Occupy Movement (occupy.com) before it was infiltrated, co-opted, and neutralized to a ghost of an operation
• Nationwide protests on April 5th draw thousands of Americans to streets
• Tesla stock sales slide after nation turns on Elon Musk's work on DOGE

• 

  #TeslaTakedown - Berkeley : Indybay

  Protesters are calling for Tesla owners to sell their stock and cars.
• Some owners have seen their vehicles vandalized.
• Tesla's stock price taken a hit this month and some shareholders told BI they want to sell their shares.
• Criticism of Elon Musk has spilled out from the virtual walls of social networks and into the streets.
• Tesla Takedown and Not My President rallies this weekend
• #TeslaTakedown - Berkeley, California: Indybay

Demonstrators have gathered in cities around the US in recent days and weeks to participate in "Tesla Takedown" protests of varying sizes.

Hands Off! our government and veterans' benefits, Trump and Musk

Meanwhile, some Tesla owners have said they have faced insults or vandalism amid the Musk criticism. Participants of the protests have called for a boycott of the EV giant in response to Musk's involvement with the Trump administration and DOGE's efforts to decrease the size of the federal workforce.

The "Tesla Takedown" effort started on BlueSky, a competitor to Musk's X platform, and now has a dedicated website. The site calls for Tesla owners to sell their vehicles and stock in an effort to "stop Musk now."

The website's organizer (teslatakedown.com), "Bill & Ted" actor and filmmaker Alex Winter, wrote in a Rolling Stone op-ed that demonstrations have happened at over 100 Tesla showrooms and other locations. Tesla owner and shareholder David Abrams told Business Insider he's heard about multiple protests but wasn't aware of the "takedown" effort specifically. More

Anti-Trump protests: Hands Off! (LIVE)

They're the men we love to hate, the comical and nearly fascist leaders of a dying nation

(New York Post) Anti-Trump DC protesters hold 'Hands Off' rally with rest of USA: LIVE

Women's March 2025 takes to the streets of downtown Los Angeles

What to know about Saturday's nationwide "Hands Off!" anti-Trump protests

"Hands off my benefits..." 3/14/25 (Jeremy Hogan/SOPA/LightRocket Images via Getty Images).

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My PR firm said US would love me. It's shocking

Imagine a map of at least 1,000 Anti-Trump and Musk events being planned across all 50 states for Saturday, April 5, 2025.

It's real and interactive (created by Kavya Beheraj for Axios) and shows a significant concentration in the Northeast, West Coast, and Rust Belt as part of the new Hands Off! Movement (handsoff2025.com). Events planned outside the U.S. are not shown.

• Don't buy a Hands Off! protest t-shirt; make one | TeePublic

We have to arrest vandals who did these things and deport them to prison or capitalism is at risk.

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The nationwide Anti-President Trump Movement "Hands Off!" is expected to be the largest single-day protest this Saturday since the Orange Menace entered office. Why it matters:

• 

  I'm here to Make Israel Great Again (MIGA).

  The Trump administration's wide-reaching and ground-shaking policies have mobilized a varied cross section of Americans affected by political, economic, social and legal changes.
• "This is not just corruption," the Hands Off! website says. "This is not just mismanagement. This is a hostile takeover."

“Hands Off!” protest against Trump, Musk in Germany’s Berlin, Frankfurt

• By the numbers: More than 1,100 rallies, visibility events, and meetings were scheduled in all 50 states as of Wednesday (April 3, 2025) afternoon.
• Organizers said they had gotten nearly 250,000 RSVPs as of March 29.

• 

  R'n'r for freedom? Support brave journalism

  The latest: White House Garden tours scheduled for Saturday were postponed to Sunday in anticipation of D.C. protests, First Lady Melania Trump said on Thursday.
• State of play: Protesters are rallying against several Trump administration policies, including its handling of Social Security benefits, layoffs across the federal workforce, attacks on consumer protections and anti-immigrant policies and attacks on transgender people.
• The protests are also against Elon Musk's involvement in the federal government via DOGE — after he's already faced a wave of [vandalism and] demonstrations at Tesla dealerships worldwide via the #TeslaTakedown movement.
• The Hands Off! demonstrations will occur at state capitals, federal buildings, congressional offices, and city centers.
• Dozens of advocacy organizations are partnering to support Saturday's action, including the Center for LGBTQ Economic Advancement & Research, Declaration for American Democracy, the Human Rights Campaign, Indivisible and Planned Parenthood.

Two out of two women agree, these sh*ts suck

What they're saying: "This is a nationwide mobilization to stop the most brazen power grab in modern history," the movement's website said. "Trump, Musk, and their billionaire cronies are orchestrating an all-out assault on our government, our economy, and our basic rights — enabled by Congress every step of the way." More: What to know about Saturday's nationwide "Hands Off!" anti-Trump protests

• AS TV, 4/5/25; New York Post (LIVE coverage, April 5, 2025); April Rubin, Axios, April 3, 2025; Pfc. Sandoval, Sheldon S., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

1st US trooper lands to invade Greenland

(SBS News) Denmark criticizes Vance's tone after controversial trip with his wife to Greenland

(Channel 4 News) VP JD Vance hits out at Denmark during visit to Greenland, future-USA

🔴 LIVE: US Vice President JD Vance arrives in Greenland amid takeover talk

(The Sun) Streamed live March 28, 2025: Will U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrive in Greenland for a visit to the U.S. space and military base at Pituffik in the north of the Arctic island for the good of the world or simply to advance the administration's economic plans for a more powerful Amero (the new currency following the union of Canada, the US, Mexico, and Greenland?

(Brian Tyler Cohen) VP Vance, wife, and USA get out of Greenland!

We want to start other wars and don't have time
for yours, Little Man, so how about that?

First Admiral Second Lady Usha Vance, backed up by Paratrooper VP JD V, sent in by Fearless Leader DJ Trump, have stormed the airstrip in Greenland, a scarcely populated portion of Denmark in an attempted takeover. PT JD seems to be trying to win hearts and minds before Commander in Chief Trump sends in boots on the ground to complete his international violation of a sovereign nation's rights. (He is currently funding Israel's illegal land grab in Palestine and trying to avert China's usurpation of Taiwan, while everything returns to normal in Pres. Putin's Russia after TV comedian Vlad Zelenski accepted bribe money to front a PR campaign with promises to join NATO and fend of its neighbor for European and American forces in a farce of a proxy war aimed at geopolitical chess more than any takeover, restoration of Czarist Russia, or threat to members of the EU.

• Next stop? Panama Canal, Super-Southern Florida

#livestream #jdvance #greenland. Subscribe to The Sun: @thesun. rense.com

• The Sun, March 28, 2025; Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

ICE detention for all: Last Week Tonight

ICE detention: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

(LastWeekTonight) March 10, 2025: John Oliver discusses ICE detention facilities, who’s in them, who runs them and – of course – why it is totally understandable if our studio audience would rather watch Drew Barrymore’s show instead.

Connect with Last Week Tonight online... Subscribe to the Last Week Tonight YouTube channel for more almost news as it almost happens, on Facebook like your mom would, on Twitter for news about jokes and jokes about news, or visit the official website for all that other stuff at once: hbo.com/lastweektonight

Buy Nothing Day: economic boycott

"Economic blackout" is planned for Friday, Feb. 28, 2025

Stick it to The Man! (Make him wait a day)

"Buy Nothing Day," will it work? Will American "consumers" really boycott capitalism and all the markets? An American meditation teacher in Chicago is sure they will at least take notice of the problem and help cement a lasting solution, unless the corporations align and undermine efforts to do anything but buy, sell, and shut up (while watching Netflix, chilling, and finding some legal source of inebriation to order online and have delivered by EV care of Postmates.com or some such Uber Lyft disruptor that makes our cushy life even easier and more dissatisfying.

• The Feb. 28, 2025, Economic Blackout | Occupy.com
• Int'l Buy Nothing Day | Northern Illinois University
• Buy Nothing Day after Thanksgiving - National Day

Southern California participates in the nationwide “economic blackout”

(KTLA 5) Feb. 26, 2025: KTLA's uber-nerd and slightly-spazzy David Lazarus reports on plans for a grassroots U.S. economic boycott this Friday.

Criminal Biden, criminal Trump, Elon

Republicans outraged over Hunter Biden pardon, Trump and Elon’s Thanksgiving a wacky pick to lead FBI

(Jimmy Kimmel Live) Dec. 2, 2024: Today is Cyber Monday, one of the holiest shopping days of the year, there was a foot and a half of snow before the Bills/Niners game, a lot of people like to fry their dead turkeys and it’s very easy to mess up and cause a fryer fire, Do Jo Trump spent his holiday at Mar-a-Lago with his family and new best friend Elon Musk, Genocide Joe pardoned his son (who engaged in crimes in Ukraine) Hunter "Drug Addict" Biden and there is outrage from the GOP, Trump announced that his wacky pick to run the FBI is Indian Kash Patel, the First Lady unveiled the décor for the Biden’s last Xmas in office, and a new twist on the Elf on the Shelf that was supposed to be the hottest toy of the season until the results of the election came in. #Kimmel

If only the Buddha taught about money

The Buddha did teach about money, how to manage and grow it, in the Sigalovada Sutta below.

Temu.com has this cute wall decoration for my home decor (Emotional Pain Chart)

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How much haul of merchandise piles up.

It all started on Brown Friday, calling the plumber the day after Thanksgiving because, well, Americans consume a lot.

That was the first bill. Then began Black Friday wargames at the mall. Who knows what moves me. It's not emotions.

Today is Cyber Monday, so it's time to order what I really wanted but didn't find elbowing people in person. I can track it down and order online. Delivery guys in shorts need the work. It's alright.

Do marketers use our emotions to sell us on things, claiming we sell ourselves with their help?

Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday, when I allay my guilt at overspending and running up credit card charges (personal debt) I can't afford by spending more on giving money away. I call it philanthropy, charity...snacking. Dieting makes me crazy. I gave at the office, my home office, when I was trying to order shoes.

If only the Buddha taught about money

How our gold is chipped away

In the most important sutra for lay Buddhists, the Sigalovada Sutta (DN 31) or compiled "Advice for Householders Discourse," he does just that. He is giving advice to young Sigala on the best way to live.

The Buddha advises how to use money to become safe and rich. In a simple formula, one's money should be divided in four and spent to make more money, ensuring the future: Gather riches like bees who work pick up pollen. Riches grow like a termite hill suddenly piling up. Gathering wealth in this way, a householder has enough for family and holds on to friends. That wealth is divided into four equal parts:

1. The first portion is to enjoy here and now.
2. The second is used to pay off debts.
3. The third is used to purchase inventory.
4. The fourth is set aside as savings for times of trouble.

• Did the Buddha really care about money? As Prince Siddhartha, he was born rich and influential because his homeland, Kapilavastu (at the foothills of the Himalayas in a part of the range known as the Hindu Kush, Afghanistan not Nepal), was on the Silk Route. Many rich and powerful kings befriended him. His greatest lay-devotee was known as the millionaire (Anathapindika, Sudatta the Banker, his foremost male patron and supporter), who was worth so much money that he was a kind of Mansa Musa. The Buddha also had the great Ven. Sivali, foremost in receiving alms due to his previous store of skillful karma of giving dana. So money (gold, silver, cattle, fields, servants, property) was no object, and the Buddha had no love or need of it, having renounced all such worldly things, but his supporters loved it. So he taught them about making merit (punya) so they would always have all they needed.

Avoid wasting money

Well, I'm not really wasting money. I'm actually saving more the more I buy. The ad says so.

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[A penny earned is a penny saved seems to mean that we make as much money by not spending money as by earning it. Save up. How?] One is advised to avoid the “Six Drains on Wealth.”

“What six drains on wealth does one avoid? (“Drains on wealth” is apāyamukha, literally “openings for departure.”) This is emphasized since a good person wants as an heir to be a proper steward and not squander away the family fortune.

According to the Buddha, habitually engaging in the following things is a drain on wealth:

1. consuming intoxicants like alcohol (beer, wine, liquor);
2. roaming the streets at night;
3. frequenting parties and festivals;
4. gambling;
5. bad friends (companions);
6. laziness.

Alcohol?

The most common phrase in Pali for alcoholic beverages lists three items. Surā is brewed from grains and yeast (Bu Pc 51:2.1.2), meraya is made from sugars, fruits, or flowers (Bu Pc 51:2.1.4), and madya is a catchall term. Together they correspond with a modern classification of the potent drinks “beer, wine, and liquor.” See also Manu 11.94, Arthaśāstra 2.25, Suśrutasaṁhitā 1.45, Amarakośodghāṭana 3.6.

There are six drawbacks of drinking alcohol. Habitually tossing back beer, sipping wine, or guzzling liquors that cause intoxication causes problems like: (1) loss of wealth, (2) quarrels, (3) illness, (4) disrepute, (5) indecent exposure, (6) and weakened wisdom (liquid ignorance). More

• The Buddha sees a young person performing useless rituals and asks then teaches useful behaviors in their place. This becomes the most detailed sutra (DN 31) on lay Buddhist morality and ethics (suttacentral.net).
• DN 31: Siṅgāla Sutta (Kelly, Sawyer, Yareham) translation
• Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly