Freeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

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Woody Woodpecker (the classic, pre-politically version) would cackle and screech, Free! why that’s my favorite price! as he made off with someone else’s stuff – pecking them on the head first.Woody lead

That’s how it works online, too.

I got an e-mail the other day, which I am posting here for your perusal. Guy runs or represents a company that has a new App called Staance. It is a variation on social media, as I understand it. He explains that he has read and likes my stuff and is writing to “invite” me to be a “host” of their “#politics” channel, where I will be a”voice” that “drives” the “conversation” on a “fun” app.

Here is his initial e-mail, in full:

Hi Eric,

I hope this finds you well! I head up the political side of Staance, a simple app that lets folks influence today’s biggest issues and see how others feel.

I enjoy your blog – as well as your pieces on LewRockwell.com, and we’d like to invite you to be a Host of our #Politics channel. You’ll be one of the earliest voices driving political conversation on a fun app, and it’ll be a great way to drive engagement for your work.
 
Signing up on www.Staance.com takes just a minute, and there’s no cost associated. Do you have a minute available to create an account? I’m happy to walk you through the process and the platform over the phone as well.
 
Thanks,
 
Gordon
Gordon Neal
Strategic Partnerships, Politics at Staance

You may perhaps have noticed the missing element.

Which I asked about, as follows:

Hi Gordon,

Thanks for the kind words, first of all!  
On the rest: I’d be interested in providing articles, etc. if there’s compensation for the time and material. No offense meant. 
Would love to discuss possibilities, if you’re interested. 
Best,
Eric
Gordon’s reply:

Hi Eric,

I completely understand. I’m afraid there’s no compensation involved, but it’d be a great way for you to drive engagement for your blog. Staance is as simple as, say, Twitter, and Hosts post short, concise thoughts about the news stories of the day (or, in your case, a Staance could be a declarative statement from a blog post you’ve written), and users then have the ability to agree or disagree. We thought that as an influencer in your own right, you’d enjoy a cool new medium through which to spur debate.  
Happy to explain in more detail if you’re interested! And thanks for getting back to me, Eric. Keep up the great work!
Best,
Gordon
(Italics added)
My reply as follows:

Hi Gordon,

I’m not looking for “a cool new medium through which to spur debate” anymore than a guy who is, let us say, a bricklayer, is looking to build a “cool new wall” on someone else’s property, just for the sheer fun of doing so.

I just don’t have the time, unfortunately, to add another thing to do to my day – unless I’m getting, you know, paid for my time and work. I hate to come across as mercenary, but this is how I make my living. For whatever reason, people seem to expect writers to just provide their work (and time) for free – to help others make money – and I just can’t do that anymore. 
I’m fine with someone else posting a snippet with a link back to EPautos (as Lew does), which helps me by driving traffic to my site. They don’t pay me, but I’m not spending any of my time posting articles/links or writing unique material for them.   
I’d love to be able to work something out with you; I’m just wearing myself out working for nothing. It gets old. 
This is a common problem for guys like me – who used to work in the mainstream but went off the MSM reservation. People bitch about the Pravda-esque  nature of the major media – but they expect writers and commentators like me to produce an alternative to it for free.
This is why so many of us give up – and go back to the MSM. 
It sucks, but the bills have to get paid. 
Thanks,
Eric
I have not received additional correspondence from Gordon.

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63 COMMENTS

  1. Over the years, lets posit I’ve “helped” many classes of people get things for freeeee or at greatly reduced prices.

    Sometimes very well off people. Other times struggling to pay rent and buy food people.

    But under grandiose clover schemes, we can all be made to pay, and ensure no one gets anything for free.

    Instead of just agreeing that the purpose of all this commerce, is to consume. And not sweat the details, of any instance of inequitable consumption without the adequate scheduled remuneration.

    Let’s say, as a guesstimate, there’s been 100 million in repudiated debts, and broken contracts and what have you, on my ledger for these things.

    I counseled Deadbeats D1-D1000 on how to unplug all phones. Stop answering all phone calls. Move to new addresses or jurisdictions. File new papers. Become new entities. Such that Providers P1-P1000 have been completely stiffed, or only partially payed as promised.

    Why not institute Hammurabi Care. Where any proven breach of your word during commerce is punishable by immediate death by a Hammurabi-Mobile.

    Maybe the poor rate of catching scofflaws will continue. Let’s say it’s only a 0.04% chance that you’re going to get caught and made to pay for running up a business credit card, and then not paying.

    Or taking delivery from a vendor, and then blowing of the bill for months and years at a time.

    That would at least make simple sense. And the instances of taking advantage would likely greatly decrease.
    – – – –

    Or we can make this bad situation far worse.

    Create a new institution to address this problem.

    Call it the the DDD – Deadbeat Dispatch Depot. And give them full mandate and charter to do what is needed.

    And then send DDD agents to every business. And mail out bills to every consumer from every DDD jurisdiction and office.

    And now on top of the 100 million that was previously being lost. There can be 700 million spent on DDD jobs and administration.

    And 2,000 million in opportunities losses, due to the cost of compliance and things that never happened. Because dealing with the DDD was just too much for people.

    I prefer the first one. The latter is maddening and grows exponentially more horrible with every passing day.

    This is emotionally and ethically supercharged territory. When merely in discussion mode, try to detach and look down from outside the tableau.

    But then when decided, prosecute what is right to you while giving no mercy and no quarter. And make it well known, this is how it will be if you have your way.

    Also, why not return to the basics:

    steal (verb)
    Old English stelan “to commit a theft, to take and carry off clandestinely and without right or leave”

    from Proto-Germanic, Old Saxon, Old Norse, Old Frisian, Dutch, and Old High German stelan, German stehlen, Gothic stilan “to steal”, at earliest date from PIE *stel-, possibly a variant of *ster- “to rob, steal.”

    The notion of secrecy … seems to be part of the original meaning of the verb. [OED].

    Intransitive meaning “to depart or withdraw stealthily and secretly” is from late Old English. Most IE words for steal have roots in notions of “hide,” “carry off,” or “collect, heap up.”

    Attested as a verb of stealthy motion from c. 1300 (as in to steal away, late 14c.); of kisses from late 14c.; of glances, sighs, etc., from 1580s.

    The various sports senses begin 1836.

    To steal (someone) blind is first recorded 1974.

    I am guilty in the eyes of many. I am stelan like a felon. Described by my mate as “shady” since 1994.

    • One of my former employers had a few deadbeat clients that we had to halt projects on. Nope, it wasn’t any of the small clients, it was a of course a major corporation and a state government (the state government owing six figures by that point). Both are great at dodging debt, since the amount wouldn’t hurt the corporation’s credit and the state doesn’t care about its rating, since its in the toilet already.

      I asked one of the accountants if the state contract was even worth having, and he said, nope. But the owner of the company was that type that couldn’t let go, even if it was hurting the bottom line. Its no wonder this company no longer exists.

      • I would give this same advice to anyone thinking of dealing in dollars, and holding much of anything that is valued in them, telling them firmly no, you will eviscerate your bottom line, and quite soon, you will no longer exist.

        It gets harder every day to do this, so do it now, while you still can.

        The Federal Reserve Banks
        Combined Financial Statements as of and for the
        Years Ended December 31, 2014 and 2013
        and Independent Auditors’ Report
        http://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/files/BSTcombinedfinstmt2014.pdf

        A complex doc, but what it mostly says is this.

        Much of the world’s trade spends time denominated as an incremental amount of $US Dollar, but there is some Dark Disney Magic afoot.

        As we live and breathe, there is some line in this statement that in brass tack language says.

        Unresolved ledger balance between the US and China of 6 trillion dollars.
        Unresolved ledger balance between the US and Japan of 5 trillion dollars.
        Unresolved ledger balance between the US and UK of (-2) trillion dollars.
        Unresolved ledger balance between the US and EU Nations of 12 trillion dollars.
        And so this goes, thru hundreds of central banks.

        This amount is the shameful amount of goods and services US government entities and their Mafia Bank Cartels have consumed but, still not paid for.

        Many of these type of amounts are to tiny nations, and its been decades with no settling of the debt.

        What’s worse, is ten times of this amount at least has been “stolen” from everywhere else when somewhere like Trinidad capitulates and says fine, US Fed, send me an F-16 fighter jet and some military presence and 10 satellite launches in exchange for all the clothes I sent your people(via big bank debt money) and we’ll call it a wash.

        Folly Triumphant
        http://www.plata.com.mx/mplata/articulos/articlesFilt.asp?fiidarticulo=261

        An interesting and important exceptional case of the defeat of Folly, or Quackery as I should like to call it, presented itself in London in the middle of the 19th Century.

        Perhaps the most frightening threat that faced 19th Century Europe was the ever-present possibility of the plague of cholera, which took off tens and hundreds of thousands of Europeans in sudden, unexplained outbreaks in its populous cities.

        A city-dweller might leave his neighborhood for a weekend in the country, and return to find that 10% of his neighbors were being carted off in boxes to the graveyard.

        The prevailing idea was that cholera was airborne; stench denoted sickness, and in London in the 1850’s there were stinking places aplenty.

        There was no central sewage; human excrement was deposited in the cesspools under the cellars of buildings; the cesspools frequently overflowed into the cellars and courtyards in poorer neighborhoods.

        Cesspools were periodically emptied by “night-soil men”, and the contents was carted off to the fields, but it was a costly operation.

        What sewers there were, discharged into the Thames as a grand sewer, which produced such an unbearable stench that, one memorable Summer, Parliament was forced to adjourn…

  2. Finding a Clover Commenter: one man spent four years and $35,000 to unmask his internet troll
    http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/23/9772824/commenter-defamation-lawsuit-identity-revealed

    The plaintiff was mentioned in a simple article in the Freeport Journal Standard, detailing the guy’s run for a newly vacant seat on the county board.

    But one commenter was less polite. “This guy is a Sandusky waiting to be exposed,” a clover commenter had written. “Check out the view he has of that elementary school from his front door.”

    The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Comcast had to give up its subscriber’s info and the name was finally made public.

    It was a state attorney for Stephenson County, IL who had served on the county board with the plaintiff during his first six-year term as state attorney for Stephenson County.

    But while the plaintiff knew the clover, he was bewildered that this vague acquaintance could have elicited such strong feelings about him.

    “I know him on the street to say hello to him,” he told a local paper after the ruling came down.

    The following day, the clover resigned his position, citing the ongoing case, but has since maintained his innocence in public statements.

    The trial had to change venue, moving 20 miles southeast to Ogle County. Since, after the clover was unmasked, it became clear that avoiding conflicts of interest in Stevenson County would be impossible.

    The first hearing in the new venue is scheduled for the first of December 2015.

    (There’s no end to the absurd excuses to burn piles of money, when it’s O.P.P. (other people’s property.))

  3. Chatting in Memphis With Big Bazonga’d Paralegal Bot –

    The information disclosed in this conversation does not constitute or create a lawyer-client relationship.
    You have entered the conversation. Waiting on operator…
    Operator has entered the conversation.

    Alanis
    Hi, I am Alanis. How may I assist you?
    Visitor
    Interested in uninsured accident help as the plaintiff
    Alanis
    We may be able to help you with that. Do you mind explaining the situation in a bit more detail?

    Are we still connected?
    Visitor
    Recently a driver with no insurance, no tag (drive out tag from tote the note lot) & no driver’s license (suspended), hit the rear of my car. I had let my uninsured motorist coverage lapse since the state of TN has mandatory insurance for all drivers. The cop wrote the defendant a ticket but did nothing else.

    Alanis
    I understand. Were there any injuries?
    Visitor
    no, not any known at the time. or that I sought treatment for. have healed since. Not too shaken up or in pain anymore.

    Alanis
    Could you tell me where this situation took place; city and state?
    Visitor
    memphis tn

    Alanis
    Thank you for briefing me on the situation.
    Do you mind holding for a moment?
    Visitor
    no prob. can you offer a link while i wait

    Alanis
    The lawyer best suited to assist you is unavailable to chat at the moment, but I can have someone from our legal team contact you as soon as possible.
    What would be the best number for us to call?

    Visitor
    only want emails for now, please. use alexaparrish@gmx.com please. thanks.

    Alanis
    I will take note of that.
    May I know who I am speaking with?

    Visitor
    the injured party. lets get some prelim info first, okay

    Alanis
    I can assure you that your contact details are kept completely confidential.
    May I have your complete name?

    Visitor
    so how do you like being an interrogation bot?
    Alanis
    I am a real person chatting with you and my job is to connect people with the most appropriate lawyer for their situation.
    Often more can be accomplished with one short phone call than a number of back and forth emails. Would you like to leave a phone number just in case?

    Visitor
    not yet, but I’m going to read what you send asap, and will get back soon if it sounds worth pursuing
    Alanis
    Okay, Is there anything else that you think that the lawyer should know or might find helpful prior to contacting you?

    Visitor
    no thanks Alanis
    Alanis
    I will forward this transcript immediately and request you are contacted as soon as possible. Thank you.

    The chat session has ended.

    Findlaw Free Consultations
    http://lawyers.findlaw.com/lawyer/firm/motor-vehicle-accidents-plaintiff/memphis/tennessee

    Should a Christian Sue?
    Toll Free: 888-521-8842
    Phone: 901-201-6013

    Peel Law Firm – Memphis Uninsured Motorist Lawyer
    8582 U.S. Highway 51 North
    Millington, TN 38053

    Christians and Lawsuits
    http://www.coleandpeel.com/Practice-Areas/Uninsured-and-Underinsured.shtml

    • Dear Alexa:

      Thank you for contacting our office regarding our recent injuries. Unfortunately, our office only handles cases in which there is automobile insurance to cover the injury claim.

      You could pursue the wrongdoer by filing a case in General Sessions Court at 140 Adams, Room 106. You will need the wrongdoer’s name and address to do so, but I trust you have that. I regret that we are not more help in this unfortunate situation.
      *************************************************
      The information contained in this communication is confidential, is intended only for the use of the recipient named above, and may be legally privileged.

      If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited.

      If you have received this communication in error, please resend this communication to the sender and delete the original message or any copy of it from your computer system.

      Thank you.
      *************************************************

  4. The Muzzle’ems sullenly wallow in eeevull filth, unbalanced too far in favor of the masculine.

    The Crisp’Dumbs wallow in eeevull swill, unbalanced too far in favor of the feminine.

    If I were a cleverer Chairman Zoo type, I would state this in a more balanced way, nutritionally grokkable, and helping me make me a great meal for you.

    Able to filtre and fibre, your blood, and be of photonic sustenance for those of Pastor Eric’s Phlock who are in need.

    Instead of Morphed Meme jolts of misfiring synaptic cylinders, soon to be running on empty. Running On and On. Running into the sun. Always running too far behind.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYHRjO3Le74

    But I am greatly self-unbalanced, with Kneel Young Needles, too far in favor of the hypo-dermic-thetical.

  5. For the first decade out of college, I was a graphic designer. Like all creative fields, it has the same problems that writers, musicians or anyone creating has.

    When the internet was new, I thought, maybe creatives would get a break. Maybe we could break free of all the freeloaders and others that suck all the money from the creative fields. They could promote themselves, not needing agents, record labels, publishers, promoters and all that. Those people charge a lot of money for what they do (or not do). Maybe creators could bypass the established distribution world, which never was that great to begin with for those doing the grunt work.

    However it seems the opposite is true. We had clues right away, that maybe it wasn’t going to work out. Just look at Napster, remember that? A whole site to steal music. Nobody cared, because we are just stealing from faceless record label corporations and multi millionaire rock stars. Right? Of course those corporations handled it in the worst way possible……..

    Now we have Google, which controls almost all ads on the net. They take most of the money to begin with, and then cut you off if they don’t like what your doing.

    Forty years ago, someone like Eric would have created a newsletter. At one time there were tens of thousands of such little newsletters on a huge variety of subjects. Most no longer exist because the internet made them unprofitable.

    He would have needed only about 5,000 subscribers to make a decent living. On the net, he has about 100,000 visitors, a number a small newsletter publisher back in the 1970’s would have never dreamed of having. But he is going broke even with us all. Granted finding up with 5,000 back then was much harder to do, but the point is, someone could make a living off that then. Now with way more readers, way less money. Even harder to get people to pay to see something they are already seeing for nothing.

    When I was doing design, I was being undercut by ISP’s, looking to sell websites packages. Some would do what I do for FREE. How do you compete with free? You can’t. Even if their work was sh*t (which most of it was). It is hard to talk people into spending way more money for something excellent instead of something ok for free or not a lot.

    When I was new, I did things for free for exposure. How much real work did it get me? Not one project. Not one. You can’t and you shouldn’t work for free. Ever! If you value your work at zero, which is what you are doing when you work for free, that means everyone else will too.

    Even other business owners had that weird disconnect. A friend with a very successful (and very expensive) hair salon wanted to expand her business into glamour photography. She was shocked that I was just as expensive as her hair salon. I guess she thought I would be doing all the work of it for low cost, because I was some starving artist, not needing others like a copy writer and a photographer etc to set things up and making it work right.

    She never understood that I wasn’t a pro photographer, a pro copy writer, that those things were jobs for pros in those fields, and that we worked together and didn’t compete for those things. She got the same answer from a photographer that didn’t want to do design or writing either, but it still didn’t sink in. We were even willing to work together (we hadn’t worked together yet at that point) to do her project but she couldn’t grasp the idea that we both had to be paid………….

    Never the less we never did that project. She tried doing it on her own, and it failed because she didn’t know what she was doing and it sucked (she took a photographic course at a community college from a photographer known for being terrible). Ugh….she other wise does everything to a high quality, but she decided to be cheap because she thought she could get away with it. Had she spent the money and done it right, it would have been hugely successful like everything else she did…….She never thought twice about remodeling her 5 year old shop for over a 100 grand, but spending a third of it to set up what was a whole business on its own was too costly…..

    Wish I had an answer to this problem, but I don’t. I would love to draw one of my comics professionally, but that business has had its legs kicked out from under it too with the slow death of newspapers.

    Hopefully a new model will rise up, but at this point I don’t see it. I see the internet becoming like other media, a few giants and nothing else. It will be as boring as those things too.

    • As one of those amateurs who occasionally posts here for free, I have no delusions of quitting my day job and becoming a full time blogger. Nor do I wish to somehow make any other hobby a career. Most of my posts look like what they are: an amateurish attempt to get a thought out. In the old days it would have been a letter to the editor or perhaps an Op-Ed piece in the local paper. I know that I do generate a few page views for Eric, but I’d never expect to get anything in return other than the satisfaction of knowing that I was able to spark debate.

      At a former job I was paid to do some technical writing. It was hard work, because I had to be certain what I was writing was correct, clear and understandable to someone who really doesn’t want to read the manual. I truly enjoyed the project, and I think I did a good job, but it quickly became clear that I’m just not up to the task. I have the tech chops, and can do a pretty good job of training, but actually sitting down and churning out a 50+ page manual, with drawings, index, TOC and references is a real skill, one that has a lot of value. And once the printshop sends out the final copies it’s too late to change that paragraph you thought you removed but didn’t…

      I don’t really know what the answer is for all this. Despite the attempts by the banks and governments to create inflation, we’re in a massive deflationary cycle the likes of which we’ve never seen before. The “free” economy is a result of this cycle. The attitude of “information wants to be free” is pervasive and ingrained in a generation. But ask anyone on Wall St if they’re willing to share all their information with the rest of us for free.

      In the end, all most of us have to offer are our thoughts, our time and our labor. As I see time running out I realize it is incredibly valuable, at least to me. You value your time the same way, or at least you should. So whatever price you have in mind for your time and whatever value I have for my time (and It’s getting pretty high as my thoughts and labor increase in value) is where the negotiations begin. If you refuse to provide tangible compensation for my time, you simply won’t get it.

      But because of the deflationary cycle, there’s a very good chance that sometime in the next few years I’ll just decide that my time infinitely valuable, and I’ll drop out of the marketplace. Hopefully I’ll be able to do this before I’m too old to enjoy freedom. However, if Uncle has his way, I’ll be forced to work (and pay income tax) until my labor and thoughts have no more value, and my physical assets will be devalued and eliminated. It’s the American way.

    • The problem with napster and all volumes of free shit on the interwebs is that it takes a lot of time and it’s shit. I tried napster a couple times when I wanted to find a couple tracks I couldn’t find in stores or borrow a CD from someone. What a monumental waste of time napster would be for anything else. Was a waste even for that. Same with bittorrent, today’s replacement too. The searching the long downloads, the whole nine yards. A $100 of my time for 1/5 of a $12 CD. It’s just stupid but people see ‘free’ and go for it I supposed. If it was something I wanted enough I would just buy it. And for ‘free’ after all the work it would be copy with horrible audio quality and skips. Why do people bother? Is it good enough for them? I am no audio geek and it’s garbage quality really. Then again here in the USA garbage quality but good enough for now seems to win the day more often than not.


  6. – Interesting Comments –
    Alexander “’Xander’” Sack 10 months ago
    As a musician, I have found when you play for free you get treated like an idiot, rescheduled, cut and left wondering why you do this. When you charge a nice fee, someone will be called to help carry your guitar when you arrive as you are offered a glass of wine. It does not pay to give valuable things away.

    kongab2025 1 month ago
    +Alexander “’Xander’” Sack I agree. Art is something that should be valued by more than just applause, especially if the person who produces it makes a living with it.

    Akeche 7 months ago
    +777Skeptic Hear the same stupid bullshit as a designer. “It’ll look good in your portfolio!” Motherfucker, I could make up any random ass company I feel like. Make a logo, have a nice little background of the company and be able to explain the why and how of the design. And it’ll have the same impact.

    I hate people.

    Peter McLaughlin 3 weeks ago
    Haven’t read through all 1,766 comments so perhaps this has been suggested elsewhere: Harlan’s advice is so good that we should be paying Harlan (and his heirs) for viewing it on YouTube.

    7beers 9 months ago
    In TV & movies, the writer is the most important. More important than the director, actors, anything else. Without the writer, there is nothing.

    Freja Rößle 1 year ago
    This is exactly the same with painters and drawers. Actually it’s just as problem with artists in general. People want us to work for free, and promise us we’ll get exposure, but the exposure they’re babbling about isn’t worth a penny.

    And everytime an artist works for free, it hurts every single other artist out there, may they be a writer, singer etc. because when you work for free, you’re saying that this is not a real job, this is just a hobby, when it may in fact be some people’s main source of income.

    And even if you can do a sketch in five minutes, you should still get paid for it, because you have to also count in all the years of studying and practising you’ve gone through to be able to make that sketch in five minutes.

    Never do work for free, because you’re hurting everyone, not only yourself. 

    – – – –
    Freegan rambling word graffiti below, skip ahead to more comments, If you’re a value producer

    Let’s get this party started. This could be what “we’re” waiting for.

    Sure, I’ll deal myself the cards, and play the imbecile’s hand a few times. Just to understand the game. And trolling the bottom feeder arguments, is also something I’m conversant in.

    There is a kind of emergent reality here, for me. But photons and electromagnetic waves don’t put food on the table, of course.

    That’s just been biding time. This isn’t some glad-handing libertarian think tank moment. This is as crucial to our survival as is water, and is food, and all known medicinal substances, and every kind of pair-bonding companionship.

    Do you think you can lightly refuse to pay a drug dealer or hooker with a driver out in the car, the agreed upon amount, after a bargain was struck.

    What about places where the Yakuza or the Triads have a black hand on the reigns of control of the water supply or food sources. Or ISIS. Or the Rothschilds.

    Even just a Vegas Casino floozy hanger on, if you promise her a $50 to be your gambling companion, pay her, respect her as you would any predator who might tear out your throat, or face the consequences, which will probably be quite more severe and difficult to endure, than you’re used to, from wherever you hail from outside of Sin City.

    The answer is no, to understate the case. And most times, many of these folks aren’t even armed. Make good on your word. Be a Lannister who always pays your debts, or get ready for you Red Wedding.

    If you’re a well trained libertarian, and usually well armed as well. How can it make sense, I wonder, that you get what is yours with far less efficiency, than such run of the mill road scholars and warrior industrialists.

    Sure it’s complicated, someone will say. But lets KISS this thing, and figure it out, what is needed, to get paid, when payment is due.

    Producers and value providers get to just take a moral stance. They’ve earned it. They dictate the terms of reality, IMO.

    But for my purposes, as someone mostly standing outside reality, I really want to understand each important component of the whole menagerie. I haven’t fully earned and wouldn’t want the right to deal in absolutes and have standing to dictate terms.

    Or even be part of any kind of consensus.

    I want to referee, to scorecard. To shadow from the weakest positioned black pawn, to the highest board controlling white queen. This whole issue. With no nod to tradition or sentiment, or comfort or expediency.

    But rather to what’s going to possibly bring us to greater things. And make the creators better able to do more of what they do. In more the way they want.

    And this means theories and testing. And doing the philosophies, walking the long talks. And making the field observations.

    Maybe feudal Japan is the best answer. Or a world filled with hypertechnical vending devices. Or ocean Seasteads will prove to be the best way to proceed. Or Britain, China, Mediterranean Mercantile. Gut fauna. Clouds of insectae.

    Wherever the best answers exist, is the place I want to nurture and encourage. Now back to comments on a producer’s rant.

    – – – –

    rorrt 5 months ago
    Fucking love this!

    You pay a builder what he/she is worth!

    People seem to forget when it comes to the arts, photography, writing etc. That what you’re providing isn’t strictly speaking a service, but isn’t really a product either. Its somewhere in the middle.

    Phillip Remaker 3 weeks ago
    I love this guy. Now, is he getting paid for this clip? If not, he’ll be burning down someone’s house.

    Michael E. Henderson – Novelist 11 months ago
    I could not have said it better, although I might have used more cuss words. The work of artists and writers is not valued anymore.

    And he’s right, the amateurs are killing it for everyone. They write their shit “novel” and give it away on Amazon, to the extent that people expect to get free books, although what comes at that price is crap.

    Do you know what I get for free? I get dick-point-squat. I have to pay through the nose for every fucking thing I get.

    Please, artists of all kinds. Stop giving away your work.

    Michael Jarvie 1 week ago
    I’m one of the schmucks who currently works for free. Harlan’s rant is quality.

    Cameron Stow 8 months ago
    I’m a university music student, and we get emails daily from people requesting musicians for their wedding, social event, fundraiser, etc. Usually I just scan through and if the email has the words “exposure”, “experience”, or “publicity” in it, it goes straight into the trash. I don’t want to work for experience. I’ve got plenty of that. I’m paying tuition and dedicating 5 years of my life to get a degree to become a professional in my chosen field. It boggles my mind how many people don’t seem to realize that, and are of the opinion that any service that falls under the category of “arts” should be simply given away for free.

    molly hf 1 year ago
    Damn same with art, everywhere you go it’s ‘I’ll be a great portfolio piece!’ or ‘Well you’ll get a lot of exposure!’. Fuck the lot of you, I have rent to pay.

  7. “I’m not looking for “a cool new medium through which to spur debate” anymore than a guy who is, let us say, a bricklayer, is looking to build a “cool new wall” on someone else’s property, just for the sheer fun of doing so”

    Now “THIS” is good writing!

    • Thanks, Mike!

      Maybe it’ll go viral. I’d never read Harlan Ellison’s rant, incidentally. I feel his anger – and hope mine adds to the bonfire.

  8. drei Epochen der Gordon:

    A younger Gordie tells his mates the story of “The Pie-Eating Contest” – Stand by Me (3/8) Movie CLIP (1986) HD
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK0JaEde4VI

    As a strapping Leider Geil lad
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPJlyRv_IGI

    As a Supergeil (in EDEKA with Friedrich Liechtenstein)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxVcgDMBU94

    Weird: The Man In The High Castle finale revolves around a plot to assassinate Hitler where you’re rooting for him to survive.

    Because if he doesn’t, then nuclear war will break out and wipe all the characters from the face of the Earth!

    And then, in even crazier fashion, the show actually lets viewers meet an aged Hitler. And he turns out to be a massively important character who should have huge bearing on seasons to come. It’s completely gonzo, kind of brilliant, and utterly fascinating.

    The series’ greatest masterstroke is that the vast majority of its characters, including our heroes, don’t really seem to care about the evils being done right under their noses until they’re forcibly confronted with said evils. High Castle forces viewers to see what’s human in Nazis, right down to Adolf Hitler himself.

    In so doing, it suggests that all of us live in societies where we find at least something, no matter how small, completely unacceptable. And yet we do nothing, because it is more comfortable to stay put. This is the series’ deepest, richest theme, and it pushes the show into another realm entirely.

    t’s the kind of strangeness manifested in The Man in the High Castle’s perfectly pleasant Nazi neighborhoods that has yet to fully be defined in the current prestige-TV landscape.

    Even shows with potentially rich genre settings, often favor their characters over their milieu—it’s a narrative myopia that’s to the detriment of the shows’ worlds.

    MITHC’s is the kind of world that, for all that we claim to be in a Golden Age, simply doesn’t exist on TV in nearly the levels we need to see.

    Having different worlds, distinct worlds, isn’t just a thing that would be nice to have—it’s a necessity of a healthy narrative ecosystem.

    The best world-building gives us a sense that there are things happening outside of the lives of the main characters. And the Man in the High Castle’s view of its heroes is a promising glimpse of a storytelling future in which characters’ lives reflect how creators can privilege different types of people.

    Game of Thrones, one of the richest worlds on TV today, takes great pains to remind us again and again that everywhere in the world, they hurt little girls.

    What would it look like to craft a world where that wasn’t the case? Maybe one day we’ll find out, without needing an alternate timeline to get there.

    • “everywhere in the world, they hurt little girls. ” I know this to be true but why just little girls? “They” hurt everybody since that’s what “they” do.

      Those bunch of identified but not publicly identified bunch of people in England who are pedophiles(still living the good life)hurt children regardless of gender.

      What those Muslim perverts do to the female gender is not to be understood for anything other than might makes right.

      What’s up with carving genitals of either sex in many cultures? Cause they can? Or they simply want to? Or both? “They” are some sorry MF’s.

      • I’d like to join this discussion as an impartial participant, 8.

        But I’ve been genitally mutilated circumcized by the Good Bookers too allegedly for my own benefit.

        And thus am not much to be trusted as an impartial party to this important discussion.

        And I’m a’feared we’re all served up on their tables in big Soylent Pea Green melting pots of soup so to speak.

        The muzzle’ems from our perspective are merely the spoon of shiite per 100 gallons, that makes it all that more delicious for them.

        But even the muzzle’ems, for the most part, are PEOPLE. We’re sustaining ourselves with soupkitchens well supplied with stew made from byproducts of me and you.

        I wander how the Arab Winter wonderland is going for those EuroProles?

        SorosKochtopus bless us all, everyone.

        It’s beginning to look a lot like the Black Jihad Friday Christ-mus.

        Barefoot Bluegrass Movement – Xmas
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57MMPylrUUA

      • Yes, Harlan Ellison, science fiction’s angry young man! Though I watched the video rant and like many of us he’s not looking so young any more, but he does still seem to have the fire in his belly. Ellison has also said, “If you put your hand in my pocket, you’ll drag back six inches of bloody stump.” I can imagine what he’d do with our resident Clover.

  9. I have to laugh. I have to cry. I have to emote. I don’t know why.

    Kim Dotcom late for court after being ‘detained’ by police
    TVNZ‎ – 22 hours ago

    Prosecution’s new evidence at Kim Dotcom hearing causes a stir
    https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/prosecutions-new-evidence-at-kim-dotcom-hearing-causes-a-stir.html

    I have to have a season for every clover activity under the heavens:

    I have to have to be born and I have to die,
    I have to plant and I have to uproot,
    I have to kill and I have to heal,
    I have to tear down and I have to to build,
    I have to weep and I have to laugh,
    I have to mourn and I have to dance,
    I have to scatter stones and I have to gather them,
    I have to embrace and I have to refrain from embracing,
    I have to search and I have to give up,
    I have to keep and I have to throw away,
    I have to tear and I have to mend,
    I have to be silent and I have to speak,
    I have to love and I have to hate,
    I have to make war and I have to for peace.

    For I am Almighty Clover. What do workers gain from their toil?

    I have seen the burden the Great Clover has laid on the human race.

    The Great Clover has made everything beautiful in its time.
    It has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what The Great Clover has done from beginning to end.

    I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of The Great Clover.

    I know that everything The Great Clover does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.

    All Knowing Clover does it so that people will fear him.

    Whatever is has already been,
    and what will be has been before;
    and All Knowing Clover will call the past to account.
    And I saw something else under the sun:

    In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
    in the place of justice—wickedness was there.
    I said to myself,

    “All Knowing Clover will bring into judgment
    both the righteous and the wicked,
    for there will be a time for every activity,
    a time to judge every deed.”

    I also said to myself, “As for humans, All Knowing Clover tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals.

    Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

    So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

    Turn Turn Turn Free Folk Music Version For Freegan Folk
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-jj4TkEIt4

    Or throw her, or throw Eric, or throw even Clover, or anybody really you schmuckbots, a buck, or a dolla, or even a heartfelt thankyou loveyou holla.

  10. I wonder if the angel investors fronting the money to develop the app are aware that their content providers aren’t receiving compensation? I wonder if the pitch they heard specifically mentioned the plan to get “free” content from bloggers? If so, did they also plan on the same model for the programmers writing the app?

    I checked out the site, it looks like a “hot or not” for politics. I doubt it took 2 or 3 programmers much more than 6 weeks to develop and work out the bugs. But I really don’t know what it is about because every few seconds a flash pop-up kept nagging me to sign in, and that got annoying fast. Since they’re likely selling advertising to pay for their “content” I guess that means I’m also the product. Even if Eric was posting content for them, I doubt I’d visit again. I have my fill of mainstream politics and don’t want to bother with anything more. And I certainly don’t need more marketing directed my way.

    But back to the point. The early film industry didn’t pay actors anything until they got agents. Even today, since most actors are paid piecemeal/day rate, non-headliner actors work for much less than the full time minimum wage unless they get a recurring role on a series. Screen writers (unless they get producer credit) generally work for scale and the studio will buy their script for a flat fee. But without actors and writers all you have to film is an empty set. So it becomes a marketplace. And that marketplace is a unique environment. There’s only one Daniel Craig, but there are thousands of actresses that can pour a cup of coffee while he sits in a restaurant. Craig’s character is likely to be the main character and, because he can bring paying customers to the film, he will likely receive a major salary just for showing up. How important that cup of coffee is to the plot determines what that actress playing a waitress is worth. And because there are agents promoting all the actors, the market determines the value of every one of them.

    I’ve been thinking about this in the context of the $15/hr minimum wage debate, and the “equal” pay for women debate. I realize these debates are being driven by the unions so that they can increase membership and beat up employers for hourly rate increases, but for arguments’ sake, let’s take them at face value. The politicians love to point out the disparity in income like we’re all in a Dickensian sweat shop, women and minorities toiling away for scraps of bread while (privileged) white males stand around and drink coffee and attend meetings. They’ve never worked a day in the modern workplace (those of us who do know exactly what I’m talking about), but again, let’s just take that at face value. As Tom Woods points out, if I’m an employer and can get women and minorities to do the same work for 20% off, you bet I’ll hire all the women and minorities I can. Except that isn’t what happens. The fact is, we all get a different wage. I have a few co-workers who make more than I do, and a few that make less. We all have the same job title. The reasons are numerous, including merit raises, time in job, and my ability to negotiate a salary. I might make more because I get on call pay while a co-worker in a larger office (with more people in the on-call rotation) won’t be on as often. So no-one gets the same pay. But at least we get something.

    It is interesting that the people most vocal for Bernie Sanders are the kids just starting out. I know when I was 25 and living in a cold rotting apartment I was PISSED that I couldn’t afford to live in a better place, too. I’m sure they want to get away from their parents and get out on their own (or maybe not, who knows?). But they also don’t see the disconnect between all the “free” content they are consuming and the fact they can’t find work. Over the years I’ve bought thousands of magazines and hundreds of books, most of them are packed up in boxes or have gone to the dump, but the point is I paid for them. I though enough of the product to put a few bucks in the pool to read it. When I was young I’d get kicked out of bookstores for reading, and I’ve used my share of public libraries, but most of what I read up until the Internet revolution was paid for. Even now, I contribute to content I enjoy if they ask (and that includes EricPetersAutos.com). But the millennials have never lived in that world, except for maybe when buying textbooks or video games. A real shame, given what should be happening to mass media.

    Anyway, this turned into a mess. I’m headed out to work, where I’ll work alongside someone who performs “equal” work for unequal pay.

    • And all those minorities are eager to do anything it takes to make a living. Just like all us muchachos out there in 30 degree weather with 40 mph N wind like last Sat., they’re all eager to don those FR clothes(killer in the heat) and sand blast, paint, weld, x-ray, dig ditches, digging holes, setting posts, mixing concrete and every other sorry chore that has to be done to get the job done including mine out there on an open backhoe eating dirt, loading a truck and hauling those loads and try to not run over or otherwise screw up people/equipment/pipeline. Down there at the Santa Rita where it’s only bust-ass work right now, they don’t seem to have any women……or blacks. It’s good money for the most part compared to flippin burgers, esp since there’s so much OT…..even when you’d scream for a day off.

      But we make the best of it. Set a pile of wood on fire that needs to be burned, cook some good grub for lunch without a cook or anyone doing much more than their real job.

      But wait till it’s nice and level and straightened out with “offices” that are warm right now and cool in the summer and you’ll see those women walking around with a clipboard even though their job description is the same as everyone else.

      I go to load something, maybe anything, huge pumping units, 15′ tall transformers, pump jacks, dozers, trackhoes, skyjacks, large vessels of various sorts that have to be chained and boomed and strapped and scotched. I look over at little Sasquatch and she’s just watching……clutching her clipboard. Well, it’s easy to see somebody’s got to climb up there and get that chain over the top or ride the skyjack boom and throw it over but miss “anything you can do I can do better” will continue to watch from the inside of a pickup. If anyone suggested she be the one to crawl up on that load she’d be off to find a ladder till the chore was done and the truck was gone. But she’s out there getting paid as much as anyone and producing nothing. Equal pay for equal work. I’d like to see THAT!

      Blistering out there in that blazing Tx. desert sun there is no person whose ancestors lived in that type of environment. It’s a strange world.

      • Everyone but a Han Chinese is a minority in this world.

        Not trying to be some shitbird lecturing an eagle on how to fly of course. This is really for some of the rest of this phlock of phlying phish.

        But the beginning of wisdom. Is every hangman’s harpie, was once a little girl.
        http://blog-cdn.tattoodo.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Jamie-Alexander-full-view-blindspot-tattoos.jpg?89c56e

        This doesn’t mean you let your guard down among any Anonymous Jane, Daphne, or Harriet of course. She will kill you to feed her young, if she needs to.

        But even Bin Ladins, Bushes, Putins, and Pelosis, were once someone’s little bouncing baby boys.

        No one is born an evil psychopath. There’s nothing in the genetic code or elsewhere biologically or even sub-particle-ly that programs this into us.

        It has to be downloaded into every single newborn each time. By rote and deed that takes great time and effort. And I can see and smell the foul ink of this dark bar coding on everyone of you here.

        I see it in the things you accept as valid and real. Even though they are nothing more than repeated UPC-UniversalPeopleCoding incantation spells.

        Which is great news. This can all end in a single generation. Not some koch-a-mamie kumbaya fantasy. But something which functions and fits our needs.

        Men In High Castles Partition America. (But like mobile tattoos on Jane in the TV Show “Blindspot” which we all carry with us. Such geographic partitions are mere transient ink, and not part of flesh and bone reality.)
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=namF3emHYes

        If we will only stop looking at our tattoos we all have, but don’t remember getting.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTjlNALfJM4

        Then we will all witness our fellow decent men’s needs emerge and become open-souurced apparent. And things will be good enough and bring better health to us all.

    • I wonder whether Gordon provided his services as communications director for freeeeeeeeee?

      There are very few people, I imagine, who would expect a communications director to labor for freeeeeeee.

      Is he working for freeeeeeee! over at Staance? Just for “fun”? I expect not.

      But writers are field niggers, expected to pick ‘dat cotton and smile and sing while they do. What could be better than being “one of earliest voices driving political conversation on a fun app”?

      Now, I get that maybe this Staance deal is a start-up and lacking funds right now. Fine. Offer me a cut of potential future earnings, then. This is what AOL did, back in the day. People took a chance, worked for little or no money – but it was understood they might make a great deal of money if their work paid off.

      Today, we’re supposed to just work.

      For freeeeeeeee!

      So that someone else can get rich.

      • I have not looked into this ‘stance’ and have no idea how it is set up so what follows is my general impression of start ups. I even worked at a start up once upon a time and that helps form my impression.

        Depends on what sort of start up it is. One guy toiling in his basement or something funded through venture capital or whatever. Then what they do with it. Some are set up with the goal of changing the world or at least making something customers want. However, IMO many are set up such that the executives and principles get paid. A lot. I suspect in some cases they are simply a vehicle to attract investment money and turn it into salaries for them. Of course there is continuum between the states. They are not mutually exclusive.

        • Hi Brent,

          The start-up thing is cool – as such. I’m 100 percent open to being involved in such, provided there is the prospect, at least, of partaking of the success, if any. I understand there are no guarantees with a venture; you can’t expect profit-sharing when there’s no profit… yet.

          But – damn – it’s pretty obnoxious to expect someone to help you build a potentially profit-making venture (to be a key player, as here) without any chance of sharing in the profit, if any.

          This is why – in my darker moments – I sometimes lose faith in the practical feasibility of a non-coercive society. Too many people are simply takers. If there is no law against it (and even if there is) they will just snatch what they want – and feel no compunction about it.

          The Internet has made it so easy that it has become expected. This Gordon dude probably figures that since other sites just snatch my work, then why should he have to pay for it?

          And this is why a guy like me – who 15 years ago could sell a 2,000 word article for $2,000 to a magazine – now is damned lucky to get $100 for the same work. Because – 15 years ago – it was hard to get your hands on the article unless you bought the magazine. Which made advertisers want to buy advertising in the magazine. If some other magazine just recopied the article, the writer (and the first magazine) could sue the pants off the magazine that recopied the article. Thus, it rarely happened. Magazines and newspapers made money – and writers could make a living.

          Now, it’s SOP to just recopy articles as soon as they’re posted. So who wants to be the sucker who pays for the thing?

          • I have to laugh at that. Some people are just takers. Sounds exactly like you. You do not want to pay for roads or anything else. You just want to use what others pay for. You do not want mandatory insurance because if you or someone else can not pay then you want OTHERS to donate. One of the main reasons for bankruptcies over the past few decades is hospital bills or car accident bills that people could not pay for because they chose not have insurance. That means that I was forced to pay for part of their bills. Eric you are no different than the people you complain about. You seem to like to have electricity, gasoline, food and roads but you want others to get them to you.Clover

            • Imbecile (and that’s just what you are, what follows having been explained to you carefully and repeatedly over the years):

              I and others who use the roads pay the motor fuels taxes that support the roads; we do so willingly – and have never, ever, asserted that roads should just be conjured into existence for our use, gratis. What’s been objected to, imbecile, is the use of eminent domain to steal people’s land when they are not willing to freely sell their land (or sell right of way) for the sake of a road that others want. And, of course, forcing people to pay for roads they do not use.

              I object to mandatory insurance because, you got-damned imbecile, it makes me pay out money for harms I have not caused.

              I do not expect others to pay for damages I incur; I merely object to paying for damages I have not incurred.

              You, wretched imbecile, believe it’s ok to force people to pay for harms you feel they might incur – even if they never actually do. An endless conga line of “what ifs?” and “someone mights” addle your brain, or what passes for it.

              • I do hope this being with an IP from
                Le Roy, is finally being civil, it was too-long-didn’t-read for me after the letters: c-l-o-v-e-r

                City in Illinois
                Le Roy is a city in McLean County, Illinois, United States.

                The population was 3,560 at the 2010 census.

                Weather: 37°F (3°C), Wind W at 11 mph (18 km/h), 74% Humidity

                Getting there: 5 h 18 min flight, around $310. View flights

                Population: 3,615 (2013)

                Local time: Monday 10:53 AM

                Area code: 309

                Postal code: 61752

              • So Eric when you fail to have enough money to pay for that hospital bill or accident you cause then you want to force me to pay. If you declare bankruptcy then I pay. It has happened hundreds of thousands of time over the past few decades. I am fine with no mandatory insurance as long as you agree to make up any difference when someone can not pay. Where do you want your bill sent? You say that you do not want to pay if you have not caused an accident. Well Eric you do pay or someone else does if someone gets into an accident and they can not pay. An imbecile would not understand that.Clover

                Then you say there should be no eminent domain. OK Eric because most all roads were put in with eminent domain you should refuse to use them. Are you going to do that?
                Since you are against eminent domain that was used put your power lines into place are you going to refuse to use electricity?
                Since you are against eminent domain you would not use gasoline because the pipelines went in with eminent domain. Are you gong to refuse to use gasoline?
                Since you are against eminent domain you would not go to the grocery store because the roads that were used to transport it and the gasoline to power the trucks were only possible because of eminent domain. Are you going to refuse to buy groceries?
                So Eric you either stay home and turn off the electricity or you are a huge hypocrite.

                • Clover,

                  What is it you do not grok about my objection to your insistence that people be forced to pay for harm they haven’t caused?

                  Are you truly that dull?

                  Or just relying as usual on misdirection?

                  By all means, send me the bill – compel me to make up your loss. If I cause you a loss. But otherwise? You have no right to dip your hand in my pocket – or put a gun to my head. Which is what mandatory insurance is. The money is taken, under duress, for the profit of a private corporation. Sugar coat, evade and quibble all you like. That is the bottom line.

                  As regards the rest: The fact that eminent domain has been used before (and I had no say in the matter) does not make me a hypocrite for driving on roads built using eminent domain. Your “argument” – such as it is – amounts to criticizing a prisoner for objecting to the prison he lives in, because he uses it.

                  You support eminent domain – that is, stealing land from people now and in the future if they will not freely sell. That makes you a cretin – in addition to an imbecile.

                  • Pre- mandatory insurance, I recall uninsured motorist cost something like a dollar or two, very little anyway. My agent knew to include it on everything. The only difference mandatory insurance made for me was a big price increase. I actually owned a thing or two and never considered not having liability at the very least. But seems like even older cars and pickups we had we still had complete coverage since they were never “beaters”.

                    • Certainly.

                      It’s axiomatic that when people are forced to buy something, the price of that something necessarily increases. This is a concept Clover does not grok.

                  • Eric what you fail to get is if someone does not have insurance and they have a bill they can not pay then we all have to pay. My costs go up because you and others say that you have the right to force ME to pay if you can not cover your expenses. You want ME to pay for the expenses of others.Clover

                    I see Eric. You say that if someone steals something, in your own words, you have the right to benefit from that stolen property. If someone steals from a bank and you go over to their house and they tell you it is stolen money and they give you some then you say you have the right to spend it because you did not steal it. You are a nice person aren’t you.

                    • Clover,

                      You can’t possibly be this stupid… can you?

                      “..what you fail to get is if someone does not have insurance and they have a bill they can not pay then we all have to pay.”

                      How many different ways must I put it?

                      If someone does not have a bill, has not caused damage, then they owe nothing to anyone – and it’s wrong to force people to pay money for harms they’ve not caused.

                      When have I ever argued that you should cover costs for damage I cause? I have argued – sigh – that I am not obliged to hand over money to some got-damned private mafia because you feel I might cause harm and might not be able to “cover” it.

                      Why not force people to buy Murder Insurance, you got-damned imbecile? After all, any of us might commit murder. It’s the exact same “logic” (such as it is). But you’re an imbecile – and so do not grok.

                      You know why your costs go up, Clover?

                      It’s not because of people like me – who’ve incurred not one cent of damage to anyone else’s property. It’s because of people like you, who support forcing everyone to hand over money to the for-profit mafia that is the insurance business.

                      What happens to the price of a thing, Clover, when you are compelled to buy it? When you can’t say – no thanks, your price is too high for me?

                      What do you suppose would happen to the cost of a fast food burger if we were all required by law to buy one every day? Why does this same principle not apply to insurance? Please – “tell me” (as you style it).

                      As regards the rest:

                      “You say that if someone steals something, in your own words, you have the right to benefit from that stolen property.”

                      I don’t even begin to understand what you are attempting to convey with this illiterate gibberish. Whatever it is, I certainly never “said” it.

                    • Why not force people to have a savings account? Force them to save a portion of their income every year. To create an all purpose buffer for various things. After all since you’re forcing people to do something to be responsible financially why not force them to do it in a way that benefits them?

                      But no, Clover, you want to enrich the insurance cartel. Is that where you invested your savings back in 1980?

                      And since we are talking about forcing, why force everyone to pay when someone doesn’t have insurance? Furthermore, how is not having insurance fundamentally different than when the insurance company chooses not to pay? The insurance company can still deny the claim and they’ll find any reason to do so.

                    • I can’t tell if Clover is really as stupid as she seems, or if she’s being deliberately obtuse.
                      She may just be baiting us, trying to provoke us into saying something w/o thinking it through first. Good luck w/this group. We didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.

                    • Let me put this simply for you Eric by giving you an example of what happened thousands of times over. Let us say no one has insurance. There are people with very little assets driving on our roads and let us say that I am one of them. I am driving a 25,000 vehicle down the road which is half of my net worth. One of those people that has little assets hits me hard. My car is totaled. I am hurt and go to the hospital. My car is totaled so I am out $25,000 because the guy that hit me has no assets. I have a $100,000 bill at the hospital and I can not pay so I declare bankruptcy plus I am out an extra $25,000 which is the rest of my net worth. Clover
                      So Eric I am an innocent person driving down the road and through no fault of my own I lost everything I own which is $50,000 plus I can not get a loan for many years. To go along with that the people that go into the hospital also have to pay more to make up for the $75,000 bill that I could not pay in which the hospital was stuck with. Eric examples like that are why insurance is now required. Innocent people should not lose everything they have just because you choose not to be responsible.

                    • Clover,

                      You keep presuming harm, a priori (look it up) to justify mandatory car insurance. Well, why not – on the same basis – require mandatory Murder Insurance? Or Rape Insurance? Or insurance for – well – anything that might happen? Or for harms others have caused?

                      Why limit it to car insurance? Seriously.

                      Others murder and rape and do all sorts of things that result in harm. Why not – as with mandatory car insurance – presume everyone will commit such harms – and require that everyone indemnify before the harm is actually caused… and even if it never is (by them)? To, you know, spread the cost of murder around… .

                      This is called logic, Clover. The application of a principle to a particular thing.

                      But you are a subjectivist and a particularist; an emoter. Reason is foreign to you – and principles anathema.

                      Next item:

                      Have I ever argued that an “innocent person should lose everything”? You lie about your opponents’ views – and then denounce them for things they never said!

                      For the umpteenth time: I have argued that people who cause harm be held accountable – but that those who do not cause harm be left in peace. That group guilt is a moral wrong. That only individuals are responsible for what they do. What others do is immaterial, insofar as punishing or controlling individuals who had nothing to do with it.

                      Again, logic. Principles.

                      Two things not grokked by Clovers.

                    • So Clover, say you’re hit by someone with one of these low incomes and no assets of significance who has his state mandated $35,000 minimum coverage from the Dewy, Cheatem, and Howe Automobile Insurance corporation. You’ve got a $125K in damages. They say because it was tuesday and a full moon section 137.9.13 says they don’t have honor the claim.

                      What are you going to do Clover? You can sue the insurance company and get about 22K after the cost of your lawyer, maybe, if they don’t just close up and move away. Then you have to go after the guy who hit you for the rest. Remember he’s low income no asset by your own definition.

                      What are you going to do Clover?

                    • As you stated Brent 35 thousand dollars is not enough anymore but at least 35k goes toward the injured party. Brent car insurance is a competitive business. Insurance companies do not make thousands of dollars off of you. If Libertarians were right that car insurance companies make a fortune off of you then wouldn’t you think Brent would open his own insurance company and make millions of dollars? Brent my insurance for my car is about $580 per year with $300k coverage. Only a fraction of that bill goes toward liability. Brent that is far from getting rich off of me due to the costs that insurance companies have but as Eric says, an imbecile never did understand finances. I also pay extra so that I am covered up to a million dollars if I cause harm to others. I am not like a libertarian and make the innocent go bankrupt and lose everything when you hit them. If we had your world a guy can be stopped at a stop light and lose everything he has. Brent that is why I do not want a libertarian society. I know, you enjoy harming the innocent.Clover

                    • Clover,

                      A “competitive business” does not need to force people to do business with it.

                      When you cannot say no to a transaction, you have almost no negotiating power. Geico and Progressive are like the Lucchessi and Gambino families. Maybe you can choose to pay tribute to one of them rather than the other; but you will pay, regardless. So – by definition – you pay more (when you would have preferred to pay nothing to these bastards) and what you pay will necessarily be more, regardless, precisely because there in no option to say “no.”

                      Do you really maintain, imbecile, that the cost of a thing is lower when people are required to buy it – provided they are allowed to buy it from more than one government-backed mafia? That the cost of a hamburger would be less if government required everyone to buy one each week, but allowed us to buy it from either McDonalds or Wendy’s?

                      The insurance mafia is one of the most profitable government-backed cartels in existence; a fact.

                      If insurance is so fabulous, so desirable, why, pray, must the mafia force people to buy it?

                      Clover writes: “Insurance companies do not make thousands of dollars off of you.”

                      Really, imbecile? Let’s see. I have been forced to pay the mafia on average $1,000 annually to “cover” all my vehicles. I’ve been doing so for decades and have yet to cost them a cent in losses. But being forced to buy insurance has cost me tens of thousands of dollars. I would literally have at least $30,000 in my bank account right now – and that’s not factoring in the lost opportunity cost of that money. I could have used it to buy property, imbecile. Property that might have tripled the initial investment.

                      So, in fact, the insurance mafia has made a small fortune off of me.

                      Clover writes: “If Libertarians were right that car insurance companies make a fortune off of you then wouldn’t you think Brent would open his own insurance company and make millions of dollars?”

                      No, imbecile, because Libertarians do not believe in thuggery. Do not use violence to steal people’s money – as insurance companies do.

                • Clover, did you know that when a driver has insurance, the state will do _nothing_ to make the insurance company pay? Did you know that when driver does not have insurance it only extracts a fine from the driver but does not make him pay? But the state will go to various lengths to enforce the mandatory insurance law but it will never enforce actual responsibility to pay. Even after you win a lawsuit the insurance company or individual may not pay at it’s still up to you to collect.

                  Once you grasp these concepts you’ll figure out that mandatory insurance law has exactly zero to do with responsibility for harm caused. It is what the state is best at doing, creating a racket and enforcing that racket on most everyone. That’s all it is designed to do and all it does. The only reason an insurance company will actually pay out is market forces. The only reason an individual will pay out is social & market forces. The state doesn’t do squat.

                  • I can attest to Brent’s statement. Recently a black driver with no insurance, no tag (drive out tag from tote the note lot) & no driver’s license (suspended), hit the rear of my 2004 Honda Civic VP. I had let my uninsured motorist coverage collapse since the state of Tennessee has mandatory insurance for all drivers. The cop wrote the cretin a ticket but did nothing else.

                    We contacted an attorney to try and obtain restitution for the damages to the car. The attorney’s statement was you could get a judgement against the driver for damages but it would be next to impossible to collect. In this case, I might go after the car lot that sold him the car. After all, by way of analogy, you can sue a bar for selling drinks when they should not have (sic). Why not sue the dealer for selling a car to a person with no insurance, no driver’s license?

                    By the way, I did take the car to a Geico Insurance (who is my so called insurance carrier) authorized repair facility. They took a look at the car and told me the repair would be more than the car was worth. Totaled! I can still drive the car. i drive it to work and back but don’t use it for any other function, the trunk lid is next to impossible to close since the body is warped and I have a bungee cord holding on the fascia for the rear bumper.

                    Mandatory Insurance Laws are written by the Insurance Mafia and for Insurance Mafia, As Brent so astutely points out, It is a state protected racket.

                    David Ward
                    Guitarman6052
                    Memphis, Tennessee

                    P.S. Eric, how do I change my donation to 20 bucks?

                    • Hi David,

                      Yup!

                      I can “third” what Brent wrote. Years ago, I owned another Trans-Am, a black one. Guy ran a light, classic T-bone ensued; TA was totaled; he had no insurance. I got left holding the bag.

                      The Law notwithstanding.

                      On the $20: I’ll check and see whether I can figure PayPal’s controls out. I assume it’s simple – but prolly not!

                    • I had a guy head-on me in a town where he had some pull. The cops didn’t even ticket him and the DPS I knew drove by never slowing down. I ate that car. To add insult to injury, I was coming back from installing a new engine in it, a custom-built engine. Sorry MF’s.

                  • Insurance companies hire 2 kinds of people – agents who will sell policies to people unlikely to ever file a claim, and adjusters who will deny any claims that are filed.

            • PS: You’d like to discuss freeloaders? You visit (troll) this site daily; you read the articles – and yet you pay nothing for it. You expect to be allowed to post your poorly-reasoned, semi-literate, deliberately untruthful/evasive comments on my nickel.

              You are a freeloader here, Clover. Someone who takes and uses but does not pay for what he takes and uses.

              Unlike me.

              Your low-wattage little brain (giving you the benefit of the doubt, assuming you’re simply stupid) seems unable to discern the difference between someone who might (in a theoretical sense) cause harm and someone who actually has. There is also the usual issue of your deliberately evasive language, your constant to resort to group guilt.

              You will “say” (as you like to put it) that because some people wreck and then fail to compensate those they’ve harmed, everyone must be presumed to have actually wrecked (or will, inevitably) and that everyone would fail to compensate in that event, therefore justifying mandatory insurance for all.

              • Eric, let me know if you have issues with the PayPal deduction. It may be better just to cancel the current 10 bucks and let me start a new deduction for 20.

                Also, let me add, 20 bucks a month, is in my opinion cheap for a subscription to good quality content. I agree with the Harlan Ellison rant 100%. I do not work for nothing and no one else should either. That doesn’t mean I don’t shop for bargains. This applies to labor as well as merchandise! I am all for getting the highest quality product I can for the amount I am willing to pay. This is as it should be!

                BTW, I am a musician, hence the moniker of Guitarman6052, that no longer plays professionally but if I did you can bet your ass I’d be charging appropriately!

                David Ward
                Guitarman6052
                Memphis, Tennessee

                P.S. Friday is my birthday. I will be 63. Okay folks time to fork over the presents! 😉

          • According to evolutionary biology, if we were to spend all our time outdoors like the original First Peoples / Native Americans, in some finite number of generations, we too would be dark red redskins, toiling for tribe and chief, with little to no pocket wampum to show for it.

            Or even more incredible to believe and grok.

            If we went native and moved to the deserts of China, and lived mainly outdoors, we’d soon have eyelid folds that kept out the relentlessly blowing sands.

            Or the craziest notion, funnest factoid.

            If we all relocated our families to Africa, and lived mainly outdoors, in some finite number of generations, we’d be just as black as the original black “slaves” that the Dutch slave traders once brought to the Americans, not so long ago.

            UNESCO: Culture: Transatlantic Slave Trade
            http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/dialogue/the-slave-route/transatlantic-slave-trade/

            Not just a movie, this could actually become real for your great, great… n ^ x great(x) grandchildren

            The Jerk – Talking to Staance Financial Consultants. “Sir, you are talking to a negro!”As seen on movieclips for freeeee.
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBJDz4ylQO0

            I don’t need this blog anymore…
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSWBuZws30g

          • Eric, keep the faith. You are building your brand. Your work will pay off. The media appearances, the professional and straight shootin’ auto reviews, and the boys here on EPA all are parts of a whole.

            PS- is there any way to lose my green mr yuck avatar? I am a paying fan after all.

          • Yes, many/most people are takers but non-coercive society strips them of their primary tool and method, the state. The state codifies the taking and strips people of the ability to defend themselves against it. The state also makes it expensive to do anything about a copier.

            The corporate state has been traditionally abusive of all creative people. It goes back to the sheet music days and likely beyond.

            What to do about it? I don’t know. The internet (like previous computer networks) grew up on a sharing and participation model. Commerce came later. People didn’t make a living via the internet, a person put in X and took out Y. There was a balance to be struck and that’s how it worked. So the backbone was never set up for publishing.

            Any attempt to set it up for publishing now requires destroying the old model entirely. So long as people have the tools to freely share what they create they’ll also have the tools to share things they copied. It’s also easier to maintain one’s participatory burden by paying for a membership somewhere and then sharing copied materials. That’s the big problem. Someone will generally pay the subscription and then turn around and distribute the material for free.

            So what can really work? Dialup services worked because people had to dial in and have username and password. In the early 90s I got angry messages from people telling me about how they paid for what I was doing and expected better service. And I had to carefully explain to them that what I was doing was free and I didn’t get a dime from their local BBS or AOL or however they found their way to my little corner of the net.

            ISPs in the USA also way overcharge. They hold a corporate gateway, basically sucking the monies that should go to the content creation on the internet. So much like a cable channel drop. The money from the cable TV bill that goes to the channels. It’s a few pennies per subscriber per channel. But people are forced to pay for a lot of channels they don’t watch.

            Somewhere there is a technical solution but my guess only the little guys are interested in it.

          • Problem is, most people are SELFISH, though not evil.
            They’ll take what others have made, or know, for as low a price as they can.
            And they’ll pay another person to make it cheaper still (through threat of violence, usually; or sometimes, just through violence.)

            But they usually don’t have the balls to get their hands dirty…

      • I think the time for the real garage tech and social media startup is largely over. I think most are being crowded out by the established players.

        I am guessing Gordon is making a six figure salary. I have seen enough of these “startups” to know how that works out for most. If its any comfort, he will likely not be working there in five years as these types of companies burn out fast. He undoubtable has far better connections they we do.

        Back in the day, one of my friends worked at some startup. They had a gorgeous office with beautiful (think real cherry wood etc) furniture etc in a very expensive location. A game room and free food etc. A space even a company that made good money would probably not really afford.

        But that company never made one cent. Not one cent in profit, ever. One day it just shut down. I guess the investors got tired of paying for all the luxuries.

  11. At Politico Website…

    By ISAAC ARNSDORF 10/28/15

    Gordon Neal left his job as communications director for Rep. Rob Wittman to become manager of strategic partnerships for politics at Staance, an app featuring very brief photos videos, and statements from people around the world.

    Global Rank Staance
    Global rank icon 2,100,176
    298,762 Rank in United States

    – –
    Gordo’s former employer…

    – –

    Send Me An Email

    I value all feedback from residents of my district. I am here to serve you, and so is my staff. If you live in the First District of Virginia, please enter your zip code to continue. If you are in need of immediate assistance or are seeking help with a federal agency, please call my office at (202) 225-4261.
    http://wittman.house.gov/contact/

    BIOGRAPHY

    Rob Wittman was first elected to serve the First Congressional District of Virginia – America’s First District – in December of 2007. He was re-elected for his fourth full term in the House of Representatives in November 2014. For more than 20 years, Rob has served in several levels of government, from Montross Town Council to United States Congress. Rob won his first campaign for public office in 1986 when he was elected to the Montross Town Council, where he served for 10 years, four of them as Mayor. In 1995, Rob was elected to the Westmoreland County Board of Supervisors and was elected its Chairman in 2003. In 2005, voters in the 99th Legislative District elected Rob to the Virginia House of Delegates, where he served until he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2007.

    http://wittman.house.gov/about/biography.htm

      • There’s this whole creepy world I imagine where some page or befreckled lackey scratches a politico’s back, and then this “great man” bestows knowing appreciative glances or other valued things back to them in return.

        I just puked a little typing that.

        Thing is. Not all consideration is purely monetary. If you meditate and visualize your life. You’ll see that many kinds of money both tangible and intangible are needed to buy you love happiness and the pursuit of security and property.

        The way you smile. And glow. And gleefully go Full Hunter Thompson Gonzo about something, that is often larger than the dollars and cents to others.

        I get where Asian cultures often come from, and don’t disagree, that in some cases, for some people, the most loving and rewarding relationships might blossom being initially based on value and compatibility, rather than animal attraction and personality affection.

        If I could just buy a mate, or rent one for 15 minutes, I might do so. Or more likely, I might expend considerable effort and skill in an attempt to quarry some favor or exchange some pro quo in hopes of some Agora Action from one of their quids.
        http://www.motorsport.com/btcc/photos/main-gallery/?r=6499&e=46615

        I mean that only in the classiest and most third way progressively feminist manner, of course.

        Well at least hypothetically speaking, back in the younger day.

        As a contrarian, I usually gush and make eye contact during my lowest food chain personal transactions. And am aloof and distant, during my highest and most prized transactions.

        At least whenever I’m comfortable, and things are reasonably to my liking.

        You get up every morning. From your ‘larm clock’s warning. Take the 8:15 into the city.

        There’s a whistle up above. And people pushin’, people shovin’. And the girls who try to look pretty.

        And if your train’s on time. You can get to work by .
        And start your slaving job to get your pay.

        If you ever get annoyed. Look at me I’m self-employed (not me actually, it’s just a lyric) I love to work at nothing all day.

        And I’ll be Taking care of business (every day) Taking care of business (every way) I’ve been taking care of business (it’s all mine) Taking care of business and working overtime. Work out.

        If it were easy as fishin’. You could be a musician. If you could make sounds loud or mellow. Get a second-hand guitar. Chances are you’ll go far. If you get in with the right bunch of fellows.

        People see you having fun. Just a-lying in the sun. Tell them that you like it this way. It’s the work that we avoid.
        And we’re all self-employed. We love to work at nothing all day.

        And we be taking care of bidness (lesson 1)
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcDpeFQLjnM

        Definitely go this route, cause I’m a pee-annist prodigy from age 2 or 3, and I never got much of anything out of it really. (might be my quasi-autism not the instrument, and well okay, I got one wedding singer who was divorced and 38 and I was, well I was on only my second or third encounter when she took care of my business, IIRC.)

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