Mindconnection eNL, 2018-10-21

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Item 1. Predictably enough, the nation hemorrhaged jobs under the withering economic assault conducted by Barry Soetoro for the eight years he illegally occupied the Oval Office. Two years ago, he was replaced by a lawfully serving President who has had the opposite goal.

The result? Well, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in September alone (of this year), 420,000 Americans found jobs. In fact, since our lawfully serving President took office, 3.9 million more Americans have jobs than when his illegal predecessor finally got the heck out of there.

Item 2. From Congressman Yoder:

"Thanks to the economic growth being driven by tax reform, the unemployment rate hit its lowest level in 49 years - nearly half a century. Last month, the unemployment rate fell to 3.7%, and now there are even more jobs available than the total number of unemployed Americans. The economy has averaged an increase of 208,000 jobs per month in 2018 – exceeding the average monthly jobs growth of the last two years. The last time the roaring American jobs market was this strong, astronauts were still going to the moon. I am proud to be working on policies that are creating economic opportunities for every single American."

Yes, we had 8 years of unrelenting assault on the economy and our civil liberties. The situation became almost hopeless, due to the utter lawlessness and the effects of the assault.

But things have been turning around, at least with the economy. And it's been hugely positive.

I don't think the civil liberties problem will turn around until the Supreme Court has a massive turnover. Right now, only Ginsberg and Thomas stand up for our Constitutional rights. Amazingly, they are on opposite ends of the political spectrum. The good news there is the newest Justice has a very strong record on civil rights, mostly the 1A and 2A. So now we'll at least get back to those 5-3 votes with blistering dissents. We need Roberts, Sotomeyer, etc., to decide to quit so they can pursue their riches selling on eBay or something.

Item 3. The CBO reports that federal tax revenues are up this year. This was predictable, because the Tax Reform Act removed a huge compliance cost burden from the economy. The libtards, with their poor math skills and abysmal understanding of economics, predicted the opposite would happen. If we want to see federal tax revenues increase dramatically, we just need to abolish the economy-damaging 1040 system entirely. Far more money goes into complying with that insane system than that system produces. It's counterproductive.

We can rejoice in all this good economic news, which is taking place because of actions that Libertarians have advocated for decades. Would it not make sense to just vote Libertarian in the first place? Yes, of course it would; the exception being you want to support incumbents who have helped put these Libertarian ideas into action even if those incumbents wear the name tag of one or the other wing of The Party and its gangsta government. But do this judiciously, being sure to look at actual voting records (look for an NTU rating of B or higher, at www.ntu.org) because if there's one thing politicians do well it is lying to the public. Look at their record, rather than listen to what they say.

Item 4. The bad news is the mental illness known as Trump Derangement Syndrome has gotten way out of hand. Sufferers of TDS have been attacking normal people in multiple ways, including physically. Therein lies the good news, the proverbial silver lining.

While libtards are extremely intolerant of people who do not share their delusions, normal people have been extremely tolerant of libtards. But now with the effects of TDS making libtardedness far more consequential for normal people, there's a backlash. And that's the good news. Normal people have had enough of the delusion-fueled abuse and are pushing back.

While there probably is not a cure for TDS, thinking people can mitigate the effects that TDS sufferers generate and are increasingly doing so. And that is very good news indeed.

Also, compare our economic condition after 8 years of relentless attack by that libtard icon, Barry Soetoro, to what it is now only two years after we were finally able to sigh "Good Riddance." This alone has motivated millions of normals to tell the libtards to stop spewing their idiocy at everyone else.

Item 5. Child Abuse programs such as the No Child Gets Ahead Act are coming under serious fire thanks to a new Trump appointee.

Read the full story here: http://dailytorch.com/2018/10/devos-tackles-top-down-federal-education-regs/

Item 6. The Everyday American posted these numbers this month:

• $2,059 – Average tax cut for a typical family of four
• $2,000 – The new per-child tax credit – double the old amount
• $12,000 and $24,000 – The new standard deduction for individuals and families, respectively – nearly double the old amount
• 16 – Regulations rolled back through the Congressional Review Act process – the most in history
• $4.1 billion – Dollars saved in agency regulatory costs through Congressional Review Act rollbacks
• 4 million+ – Hours of paperwork saved by rolling back regulations
• 102 – Number of utility companies that have lowered prices in 48 states as a result of tax reform
• 727 – Companies that gave out pay raises, bonuses, or more benefits to workers, and counting
• 4 million+ – Americans who received bonuses, increased wages, or expanded benefits because of tax reform
• 90% – Americans who are receiving bigger paychecks under the new withholding tables
• 6.9 million – Job openings as of July 2018, meaning more jobs than job seekers
• 65% – Americans who say now is a good time to find a quality job
• 4.5% – Hispanic-Latino unemployment rate, the lowest on record (September 2018)
• 6.0% - Black unemployment rate, near the lowest on record (September 2018)
• 95.1% – Manufacturers that feel positive about their own company’s outlook

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Rather than voluntarily lower your IQ by 70% through sleep deprivation by pointlessly resetting your clocks, leave your clocks where they are. If you want to get in synch with the "new" time, adjust slowly over several weeks. But don't slam your brain with the stupidity-inducing abrupt sleeping schedule change.

Main brainpower tip:

During the Kavanaugh confirmation process, criminal protection advocates viciously attacked the nominee because of his track strong pro-2nd Amendment record as a judge. That was THE issue, even though they never once mentioned it.

They did manage to get many left-leaning people to believe the confirmation would be disastrous. The problem is there's nothing in Kavanaugh's record to indicate it would be. Plenty to indicate the opposite. So instead of attacking him on his actual record or any actual issues, they made stuff up and attacked his character. What they made up did not even pass the smell test and was easily debunked.

When you see this kind of substitution for factual, reasoned argument what does that tell you?

Therein lies this issue's brainpower tip. Don't be persuaded by people who push their positions using personal attacks. When they resort to that behavior, it means they could not come up with anything else. It's a last-ditch effort to bully others into accepting their claims, not an effort to honestly persuade.

Remember when the Obama birthplace issue was hotly contested? The side that claimed he was born in the USA had no evidence that either he or his mother (then a minor) was in Hawaii when he was born. And getting a birth certificate granted by your state is an easy process that can be done online if you were actually born there. Obama's people were not able to get that certificate, so they produced an obvious forgery of a hospital certificate of birth.

Obama supporters, defeated in this debate, simply resorted to attacking honest people who can reason. They called us "birthers" and insinuated that we were mentally deranged. By so doing, they simply confirmed that their position was wrong. It's a sure-fire way to tell, so always look for it. The key characteristic is it's used instead of anything substantive and in place of answering honest questions.

You have brainpower. Don't surrender it just because dishonest people resort to ad hominem attacks. In fact, that's the time to kick it into turbo mode.

Here are some actions to help you do exactly that:

• Go around your home (even if rented) and caulk openings such as those around windows and doors. The goal here is to help seal the building envelope and thus reduce wasted heating and cooling.
   
• If you drive a car, use fuel injector cleaner every few months. Look for it to be on sale, and save a few cents. If it's not on sale, it's cheap enough anyhow so just pick up some to get you started.
   
• Keep your tires properly inflated (as much as I disliked Obama, I agree with him on this suggestion).
   
• Work actively on running less water. We are running out of potable water, so reduce waste here.
   
• Use white vinegar to clean with, instead of toxic (and more costly) chemicals. I keep a spray bottle of it on my kitchen counter. But remember, it's an acid. You can't use it on, for example, a granite counter.
   
• Do not buy bottled water. This one luxury item is responsible for massive amounts of petrochemical pollution and other problems. Plus, it's insanely expensive compared to filtered tap water while rarely being filtered itself (bottled water is usually just tap water that's bottled and resold at a ridiculous price).
   
• Consider repairing or repurposing items that are damaged, rather than tossing them. But don't do this with such things as electrical cords or personal protective equipment (safety gear).
   
• Take care of your tools. Wipe them clean and put them away after each use. This includes garden tools, shop tools, hand tools, power tools, and any other type of tool you can think of. Use them properly, too; there's no reason to chip a screwdriver blade (but if you do, replace that screwdriver and also buy the tool you should have been using instead of the screwdriver when you chipped it).
   
• Don't use bleach-containing dishwasher soap. This harms your dishwasher, your body, and the environment. There are many good, human-safe alternatives that are eco-friendly and work even better.
   
• Don't wash dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. This just wastes water. Do one or the other. The dishwasher doesn't "sterilize the dishes after you wash them". It washes them, thus the name.
   
• Use small hand towels instead of paper towels. Don't have any? Pick out your shabbiest T-shirt or polo shirt that you don't wear because it's shabby and cut it into strips for this purpose. You can also buy these items at most grocery stores or any store that sells housewares. Even automotive parts stores have a nice selection from which to choose for this purpose.
   
• Use coffee grounds and eggshells to fertilize, rather than throw them out. Coffee grounds are high in nitrogen, and the eggshells counteract the acidity of the grounds. Depending upon how much coffee you drink, you can forego chemical fertilizers entirely. My garden has rich black soil, and I've never used chemical fertilizer. I add compost each spring, and toss coffee grounds on it year-round. Crunched up eggshells are also good for amending acidic clay soil in large areas such as a lawn.
   
• Before buying paint for a project, consider what other items you might also use that paint for. Then instead of storing paint until you have to discard it, only to buy more for the next project what you do is schedule these projects close enough together so you can use that same can of paint.
   
• When buying groceries, sort them as you put them on the conveyor and have a dedicated bag (you do have reusable bags, right?) or two for refrigerator items. Note that women checkers and baggers instantly see the strategy, but male checkers and baggers usually do not even if you tell them three times and the bags are clearly marked. You'll have to show the guys what to do. So when you put groceries away, you open the refrigerator once and just empty the designated bag(s). That is much more energy-efficient and time efficient than picking those items out of various bags as you go.
   
• Eliminate corn products from your diet. These have zero health benefits (aside from providing calories, but in a health-damaging way) and while presenting significant health problems. Growing these requires the destruction of natural habitats and the massive use of petrochemicals and the massive use of irrigation at a time when we are heading straight into a water crisis.
   
• Reduce the meat in your diet, or eliminate it altogether. I stopped eating meat years ago. The propaganda against this claims your body needs meat and you'll waste away without it, but I am living proof that such claims are lies. Growing livestock is hugely resource-intensive and consuming livestock is costly to your personal finances. Human livestock comprise more biomass than all other mammals combined. If you research the numbers regarding the methane emitted from all the livestock, you also find it has more negative effect on the climate than all the CO2 emitted from all sources. If you want to help yourself and future generations but not give up meat, then just start making some of your daily meals meat-free; this way, you still have meat but eat much less of it. You could, for example, make meals 1 and 4 meat-free and every Monday (for example) have meat only with meal 5. Figure out something that's easily achievable for you.
   
• If you use cologne or perfume, stop. Same for room fresheners, "scented" cat litter, "scented" candles, and other sources of artificial stench that we are supposed to believe smell good. These chemicals don't improve anything, they just create a different form of stink. They cause great misery for allergy sufferers, and they degrade the health of all who breathe them in. Rather than trying to mask an unpleasant odor by using another unpleasant odor, resolve it at its source. For example, only diseased cats have a bad pooh smell; they are diseased because their custodians feed them corn. Feed these same cats grain-free food, and the stink totally disappears. So do many other problems, such as those associated with cat dander.
   
• Be mindful as you do things. You will spot many opportunities to reduce waste, eliminate sources of pollution, and take other measures to reduce your ecological footprint.

Many people believe that the current rate of excess consumption means we are borrowing from future generations. As Jane Goodall famously pointed out, borrowing is when there's an expectation you'll pay it back. This isn't borrowing, it's stealing. You can take many small steps NOW to reduce your cost of living without reducing your quality of living, and at the same time you'll be reducing the massive theft from future generations.

Many people refer to any type of malware as a "virus" but that is not only incorrect it prevents you from understanding what to do about malware. Here is an article that helps explain what malware is and what to do about it: https://www.malwarebytes.com/malware/

If you look and listen a bit, you can come across all kinds of opinions about diet and training. The problem with these opinions is they have several fatal flaws. For example:

• By definition, they are not fact-based.
• Confirmation bias by the opinion holder prevents maturation of the opinion into something that can be factually substantiated.
• They substitute for knowledge, and thus may be of negative practical value.

I'm a quant by training, experience, and disposition. I don't like opinion for the reasons mentioned already and because I am interested in positive results instead of negative results.

Let's consider an example progression of opinion. People who reach the correct conclusion that wine and other liquors are incompatible with human health will usually seek a substitute. That is typically the soft drink.

Soft drinks are also incompatible with human health, directly causing (by three different mechanisms) loss of calcium in the bones and other damage to the body. Tooth decay, adrenal malfunction, endocrine malfunction, and even esophageal cancer are some of these effects.

Photo taken about one week before 40th High School Class Reunion

It's a bad choice. Fruit juices are not compatible with human health, either. They are strong endocrine modifiers. If you ask any competent endocrinologist, "Are fruit juices safe to drink?" the answer will be a resounding no. In a subsequent (but brief) discussion, the endocrinologist tells you eating whole fruit is what you want to do rather than juicing. You get the benefits of the juice without the damage that juices cause. And you get additional benefits from the fruit that are not provided by the juice.

OK, so now you understand that this trail of opinions has been wrong. An expert just explained the solution. So you go to the store and you buy a pineapple,  a bunch of grapes, some dried figs, some dried prunes, and a few bananas. What can possibly go wrong?

Something did go wrong. The endocrinologist was correct in the explanation, but not complete. All of these fruits are very high in fruit sugars. Grapes, especially, have been bred for centuries to be high in sugar, namely the highly potent grape sugar. You could have a handful of grapes mixed in a salad, not much of a problem. You could have a few pieces of pineapple, same thing. But you can't just chow down on high-sugar fruits without serious endocrine modification taking place. The same goes for dried fruits. Fresh prunes, for example, don't stimulate nearly the insulin response that their far more commonly available dried counterparts do.

When evaluating food choices, a critical consideration is the effect of that food on the endocrine system. You don't want to stimulate an insulin response, because that causes several problems such as decreased testosterone, increased fat storage, and increased risk of adult onset diabetes.

With this consideration in mind, it's not mere "opinion" when a health-knowledgeable person excludes endocrine modifiers from his or her diet. It's a knowledge-based, rational decision rather than the irrational one that the less-informed might mischaracterize it as being.

When I'm criticized for my dietary choices, the criticism is given with a strong element of "you are being irrational". Yet the person who believes I'm being irrational for this choice arrives at that belief in an irrational way (totally not fact-based).

This kind of criticism is why many people who would otherwise consistently make rational food choices sometimes (or often) don't. Yet, rational choices are the only ones that you can rely upon to produce the positive outcome you desire. So don't succumb to pressure or give irrational criticism any credence. Instead, either ignore the pressure or engage the other person(s) in a rational discussion of endocrine disruption and why you choose to avoid it.

An opener for such a conversation could be, "Have you ever seen what happens to a diabetic's toes when things start to go wrong? Yep, chop chop." And then talk about the endocrine system, if they care to have that discussion. If they don't want to talk about it, fine. You've made your point.

• The best workouts are short and intense.
• A good diet contains far more flavors and satisfaction than the typical American diet.

After Monday and Tuesday, even the calendar says W T F.