Not new to me (Satyrday mornin’ ramble post)

Sitting here at the desk, coffay in hand, scanning around the webs, gettin’ mind in gear for getting out on the water(where being the difficult question) and ran across a ‘short’ on Fakebuk, posted by a fellow kayaker.

Since I won’t link FB, I have to describe it.   Young lady, mid 20’s saying, “why don’t the Representatives and Senate get paid an average of what the people in their state make?  If the average salary/pay for them is 25K/yr, than thats what the Reps should be making.”

Not new to me.   I proposed this very thing back in 2012 at the patcoms.  There were other ideas I had; like term limits on all positions, to include the ‘three letter agencies’.   In that case, the Agency can be created, but has a finite lifespan.  At the end of such, Evaluation of the effectiveness is done and if the agency is under-par, OR, more specifically, Societally disliked (coff IRS coff coff) than the whole thing is disbanded.   If it ‘passes’, it gets one more run, BUT NO MORE; two spans is the limit.    Also, Agency can not write law, by inserting rules into the federal register, as they do now.   It MUST go through the same channels as prescribed by the Constitution.   This could be done with the current Constitution in place, with an amendment that would be one paragraph in length, not these 8000 page 0mnibus bills they keep shoving down the peoples throats. 

There was a time when our representatives did NOT live in the district.  They stayed home and only asssembled for specific times within the district.  They were not Salaried, they were paid per diem for those times.   They had very short time frames to accomplish the mission, then they were tor return to their home districts and LIVE AMONGST THOSE THEY REPRESENTED.     That sort of system required them to actually “Represent”, and not make a career out of grift.  I would say they were a bit more inclined to keep thier noses clean if the people that hired them were right next door, not 1000’s of miles away.

and of course, we need to return the Senate to state chosen, not people chosen.  That change made this the ‘democracy’, not a republic, that it currently is, and that change began the downhill slide to what we now have.  (one of MANY changes that did so; Like the Federal Reserve act,,,,)

Fact is, we can clean the slate and not have to start over, but its going to take time and struggle to neutralize the beast in its current form.   Its well embedded and hidden under the shell of legalities,   The key there is “Clean the Slate”,,,    Get rid of all the agencies that are mucking things up, like the education admin that acts like children are widgets that can be made into cogs.(one of my personal gripes,,,)

One thing that keeps creeping into my head is the “Decentralized” thing.   We need to pull everything back to local local local.   Stop feeding the beasts of BIG GOV with our hard earned blood, keep it close to home with a SMALL amount of Gov at the ‘big level’ for dealing with other countries, but, as our forefathers KNEW, keep it so strapped down and limited that it can’t get out of hand.   HOW to keep it that way is the trick, and one that apparently the original founders slipped on.  Not begrudging them a thing here; they had no idea how big this country would grow, nor how much technology would change our thinking.  Seriously, who could have imagined, just 30 years ago, the dependency we have on smartphones?   Let alone that we would have computers that were fast and powerful that fit in the palms of our hands.   30 years ago, my best computer was a desk top, and the laptop was a kludge.  That factor alone has changed the world; not neccesarily for the better in some ways.  No, there was no way they could have predicted where we are, or how we would change as a society as technology grew.

Just as those of us now have no idea where or how we will change as the technology continues to evolve. (and evolve Us in the process.)

I try to hold onto the past, at least the knowledge of things past, because I fear that there will come a day when what/where we are, won’t be able to hold up.  we use more and more energy every year, not just in transport, but in processing power.  With a computer in everyones hands, the amount of wattage we pour into our days is incomprehensible: count the cars/trucks passing your place on a daily basis, think of all the computers in use, just to transact business, add in the pleasure computers, how much streaming takes place on the daily for entertainment.

and think of what happens if that energy FAILS,,,,   I don’t think it will, but I DO think we are setting ourselves up for a failure of some sort, and I think those in places obscured by legalities know it as well, and they are trying to bandaid over all the weak spots to hold on just a little longer.  They don’t have the answers, and won’t ever have the answers because they don’t have the intuition to develop anything but words on paper.

I think that is part of why we are seeing this influx of immigration, not to replace us, but to knock us down so that their ‘bandaids’ make more sense; at least to them.   I have no solutions, at least not solutions that would work large scale.  I don’t think there are any TBH,,,   I do know that using small scale renewables can work, easing the load on the large scale stuff.  Like my house, I have not tied into the grid since I built the place.  I have a backup genny, that I start once every six months, not because I need it, but make sure it still runs.  I have not needed it in eight years, not once.   I fire it up and use it to run a vacuum or some power tool, just to keep it alive for that day I MAY need it.   

Thats not to say this is for everybody.   I stripped my world to bare bones to accomplish that draw of energy reduction.   No high powered sound systems, no energy hogging Gaming computers, no smart house that has a 100Kw draw just to ‘idle’, no HVAC to keep my homes interior at a steady state.  (And I still have propane usage that requires I keep tanks full and on hand, so in that way, I am still grid tied.)(side note, I go into depth on this in my “Outside looking in” book, available in the side bar.)

I don’t think small scale renewables would work all that well in a our ‘suburban’ ways.   Rural, yes, packed like rats on small postage stamp lots, NO.   So, no, I have no real solutions.   I am just one dude with some obscure thinks on things; not some mega-brain with insight to universe laws.   There IS a solution, that I feel with my entire being, I just don’t think I am the one that is going to find it.  Same goes for how the world politics works,,, I know there is a solution, one that would work for the masses and NOT be that communist ‘utopian’ fantasy.    One that respects the individual and allows for greater differences without oppression of groups.  

But I think it will require a reboot of how we, as a species, THINKS.  Not sure I like that idea either, since there are and have been inroads into manipulating our thinking (Fakebuk, Tik-Tok, Twitter b4 X, etc)

Anywhooos,,,, thats enough for y’all to chew on today.   I’ve been chewing on it for years, so I am going to go get my butt wet in a kayak and let the soul out for a bit.

Keep on livin’