What Makes Us Free?

|

Capitalism: What Makes Us Free? 💵 🆓

7/1/21 by NPR

Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/125161338
Episode: https://play.podtrac.com/npr-510333/edge1.pod.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/throughline/2021/07/20210701_throughline_final_mix_neolib_wads_lw_63021.mp3

What’s the role of government in society? What do we mean when we talk about individual responsibility? What makes us free? ‘Neoliberalism’ might feel like a squishy term that’s hard to define and understand. But this ideology, founded by a group of men in the Swiss Alps, is a political project that has dominated our economic system for decades. In the name of free market fundamentals, the forces behind neoliberalism act like an invisible hand, shaping almost every aspect of our lives.

NPR

|

Supreme Court Throws Out California Nonprofit Donor Disclosure Law : NPR

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday sided with rich donors and their desire to remain anonymous against a state law aimed at policing the finances of charities and other nonprofits.

By a 6-3 vote along ideological lines, the court struck down California's law requiring nonprofits to file a list of their large donors with the state. The court said the law subjected donors to potential harassment, chilling their speech in violation of the 1st Amendment

Under the California law, the tax-exempt groups were to attach to their filings with the state a copy of their IRS form reporting the names and addresses of all donors who gave more than $5,000 or 2% of the organization's total donations.

NPR

|

Trump Organization, CFO Allen Weisselberg Are Charged With Tax Crimes : NPR

Former President Donald Trump's family business and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, have been charged by the Manhattan district attorney's office in a case involving an array of alleged tax-related crimes.

In an indictment unsealed Thursday, prosecutors allege that starting from as early as 2005 and up until last month, the Trump Organization and Weisselberg have committed tax fraud and falsified business records as part of a scheme to compensate executives at the Trump Organization "off the books." The goal, prosecutors claim, was to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes by compensating employees with lavish perks in addition to their regular pay.

Weisselberg allegedly received indirect compensation — including housing expenses, home furnishings and leases for two Mercedes-Benz automobiles — with a total value of around $1.76 million and is accused of evading more than $901,000 in federal, state and local taxes combined. Private school tuition for two of Weisselberg's family members, according to the indictment, was paid with personal checks signed by Trump. Weisselberg, an employee of the Trump Organization since 1973, is also alleged to have arranged for various Trump businesses to make payments to him and to other executives as independent contractors, conferring tax benefits on retirement accounts.

I decided to quit for now

|

I decided to quit for now …

At $100 or four sessions I had planned to re-evaluate whether or not my current pyschotherapy plan was right for me. I ended up going for five sessions, but deciding maybe it’s time to put a pause on things. My next scheduled session was for a week from Friday, but I called to cancel that appointment and not reschedule at this time — with the thought maybe I’ll reevaluate come the autumn when I have more free time and things are back closer to normal at work.

It became a drag on my life with no real plan

It came down to the fact it became a drag on my budget and time-off from work — five hours of sick time and $125 in co-pays over 2 1/2 months isn’t the end of world, but I didn’t like how it was always on Fridays when I wanted to get out of town. While I was getting some good advice out of each sessions, things were moving slowly and there was no real plan on how to move forward. It’s nice to say, we’ll explore it further in future, but I didn’t like how putting things off while sessions were filibustered on stupid things, like talking politics while ignoring my problems. I tried to get things back on focus, but I felt like I was doing more prompting of my counselor then what he was doing for me.

A failure to communicate clearly

Part of the problem was I had no real idea what I wanted to talk about or what where my concerns. I don’t think me and my therapist quite clicked, we couldn’t see eye to eye or understand what my concerns were. There was a failure to communicate on my thoughts, explain my concerns clearly, but also communication requires both parties listen, which I don’t think ever happened. The problems in my life might not be acute as some people seeking psychotherapy, but I do wish I would have been listened to more. After all, I am the paying customer. Sometimes I didn’t have all the answers or even known where to start, but I feel like in a session when I am working on my own problems in my life, I should be doing much of the talking and being asked questions to be more introspective.

I also didn’t like the anything goes attitude of my counselor. If you not assaulting little old ladies or shooting up heroin in the parking lot, that’s fine with the counselor. You should have any moral qualms about your actions if they are bad. But I would have rather had a more introspective look — why do I feel the way I do about things? Where do my values come from? While I get the benefit of a straight on comparison of the pros-and-cons of any one action, what happens if I look at it from other way? Just because something is relatively low-risk and unlikely to come out to be particularly bad, doesn’t mean you should continue that way.

What’s next?

For one I want to spend some more time this summer thinking about what I want to talk about, whether or not I go back to that therapist or somebody else. I feel like I’ve overcome a lot of the anxiety I had in the spring and I want to spend some more time trying to meet new people and learn new things this summer. But I think there is more I do need to address in the future like my pyromania, and maybe as a more prepared individual, knowing what I can expect and get out of counseling I can go back in the autumn and find ways to address my remaining concerns in my life not already addressed.

When I Had Long Hair

I have off from the work the last week of July

|

I have off from the work the last week of July … 🏊‍♀️ ⛺ 🛶 🚶‍♀️

I am thinking I will probably head out to the Finger Lakes National Forest and do the normal circuit of state parks and other places I like to visit out in the Finger Lakes, a mixture of swimming, cooling off in gorges, sightseeing, kayaking, fishing, hiking and camping on long summer nights. I might end up spending a few nights in Pennsylvania, but I’m not set on it, as I kind of like the simplicity of just setting up a good campsite and staying there all week.

Vacation means lazy afternoons

NASA satellites see upper atmosphere cooling and contracting due to climate change

|

NASA satellites see upper atmosphere cooling and contracting due to climate change

The sky isn't falling, but scientists have found that parts of the upper atmosphere are gradually contracting in response to rising human-made greenhouse gas emissions.

Combined data from three NASA satellites have produced a long-term record that reveals the mesosphere, the layer of the atmosphere 30 to 50 miles above the surface, is cooling and contracting. Scientists have long predicted this effect of human-driven climate change, but it has been difficult to observe the trends over time.

"You need several decades to get a handle on these trends and isolate what's happening due to greenhouse gas emissions, solar cycle changes, and other effects," said Scott Bailey, an atmospheric scientist at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, and lead of the study, published in the Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics. "We had to put together three satellites' worth of data."

Together, the satellites provided about 30 years of observations, indicating that the summer mesosphere over Earth's poles is cooling four to five degrees Fahrenheit and contracting 500 to 650 feet per decade. Without changes in human carbon dioxide emissions, the researchers expect these rates to continue.