Speech: Why won't the Australian Government act to end the illegal imprisonment of Assange?

Life is a multitude of cycles personal, professional, political within one big cycle.

From birth to death, our lives are subject to the constant force of change.

The Success Principles, written by Dr Jack Canfield, provided a formula to explain why some people cope better with change than othersE+R=O.

To quote from the book:

You cant change the events that take place in life but you can change your response to the events to create the outcome that you desire.

Events + Response = Outcome

Some events are beyond our individual control.

Like whether the RBA will or will not raise or lower rates.

Or whether the economically challenged Greens will hold the balance of power.

Or if US bank executives will act prudently or not.

Or the Saudis will exert influence over the price of oil.

While these events might be beyond your control, in some circumstances, you can pre-empt the change thats coming and respond in advance to create an outcome thats more favourable to you.

This week and next, well try to divine how some big cycles are interlocking to impact your lifecycle.

The political cycle

In the early 1980s, conservative luminaries Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were swept into power.

Their homespun logic resonated with the voting public:

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples money.

British PM Margaret Thatcher

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are Im from the government and Im here to help.

US President Ronald Reagan

Oh, how the world has changed.

The political cycle has rotated 180 degrees.

Today, people want no, make that demand the government help with other peoples moneyand the more of it, the better.

Any thoughts of where the money comes from or how long it can be paid for arent entertained. If youre a politician who wants the reins of power, youd better keep it coming.

In response to the recent election outcome in NSW which turned mainland Australia red former Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer wrote this Opinion piece for the Financial Review:

Cole Porter

Caution: The following may contain non-graphic sexual content. Just like everything else, parental guidance is advised, as always.

In the news last week was a smallish note, in which US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asserted that peace [in Ukraine] could be a cynical trap.

Really? Killing people is better than not killing them? To stop killing would be cynical? Whence cometh such a strange idea; and how could you explain it to the widows?

The answer came to us as we awoke this morning: Doing it!

Like all our ideas, this one was surely rehearsed by a thoughtful Greek more than 2,000 years ago. But we never met the Greek. We see no copyright. And so, its ours.

Useful? You decide.

Need versus want

Humans have two major impulses. Need and want. Everything else can be derived from them.

We need to eator we will die. This is a purely practical matter. It leads us to practical actionsand material progress. We develop better hunting techniques (including cooperation)and then we learn to plant tomatoes and cabbagesand finally, were able to harness fossil fuels to power our tractors, factories, and homes.

Solving the need issue led to Pythagoras, pi, science, maths, and engineering. Adding two plus two. Identifying plants. Figuring out how to string a bow or throw a boomerangthen to the agricultural revolution and the Industrial Revolution. Calculators, foot warmers, atom colliders, double-entry bookkeeping, coat racks, and chainsaws all are derived from our practical, needs-based thinking.

But there is a second impulse desire. After we get enough food to survive, our main want (speaking socio-biologically, not necessarily from personal experience) is to reproduce. Were it not so, our species would have disappeared long ago.

Desire is an entirely different thing from need. Its sexand the world is full of it.

Trojan TikTok

Fantasy, fallacy, and fiction. The big man in the tribe brings back a young deer. He shares it with his friends and relativesand gets the best piece for himself. Mating is infinitely complex, nuanced, and fanciful. It is pouty lips and an enhanced penisa successful novel or a souped-up Chevy. It is full of lies and mythsdeception and contraceptionpolitical slogans and great power competitionexaggerations on Facebookbreast augmentation and a third world war. It is hours in the gym and botoxGone with the Wind and the Madonna della Pieta.

We began thinking about this when we were reading the headlines. One urged us to beware of TikTok because the Chinese might be using it to gather intelligence. Another told us that the Chinese were getting ahead of us because they were subsidising their technology companies. Still, another urged us to support a...

New South Wales had a bumper solar month in March, showing off its energy generation chops as the grid prepares for a major coal exit this month. The post NSW solar plants top generation charts as coal heads for the exit door appeared first on RenewEconomy.

NSW solar plants top generation charts as coal heads for the exit door RenewEconomy

At best, theyll end up with a small amount of various types of waste before the project is terminated, that will just create a bigger disposal hazard. And if its stuck in the province of New Brunswick, it will be their problem. But theres zero chance of this cockamamie contraption being useful for generating electricity, or treating radioactive waste in a sound way.

The Globe and Mail, MATTHEW MCCLEARN, 2 Apr 23,

Less than a kilometre from the western shore of the Bay of Fundy, the Point Lepreau Solid Radioactive Waste Management Facility temporarily houses about 160,000 spent fuel assemblies from New Brunswicks only nuclear power reactor. Moltex Energy, a Saint John-based startup, proposes to recycle that radioactive waste into fresh fuel for a new 300-megawatt reactor called the Stable Salt Reactor-Wasteburner, or SSR-W.

Moltex promises these facilities will greatly diminish the waste inventory of NB Power, the provinces primary electric utility, beginning in the early 2030s, while at the same time producing electricity. Critics, however, warn the resulting wastes would be harder to dispose of than the assemblies themselves.

Criticisms notwithstanding, Moltexs proposal appears to be gaining momentum. It has partnered with SNC-Lavalin Group, which holds a minority ownership stake and provides many of Moltexs 35 employees through secondments a vote of confidence from a company with deep roots in Canadas nuclear sector.

Premier Blaine Higgs hailed Moltex in a speech in February, stating his governments support is positioning New Brunswick as a leader in development of new nuclear. Mike Holland, Minister of Natural Resources and Energy Development, has extended what he described as unwavering commitment to seeing this project become a reality. The province has already supplied $10-million toward that end, while the federal government, through its Strategic Innovation Fund and other channels, has provided $50.5-million.

What these supporters have signed up for, however, isnt entirely clear. Moltexs technologies are embryonic; emphasizing that fact, partners that would play crucial roles in implementing them refused to discuss the implications with The Globe and Mail. Citing the need for commercial confidentiality, Moltex chief executive officer Rory OSullivan acknowledges the company hasnt revealed many details about its reprocessing technology (known as Waste...

A PRE-EASTER statewide safety blitz by NSW Maritime has highlighted the risks of wash and waves on waterways, with a raft of incidents including multiple capsizes responded to across last weekend.

NSW Maritime Principal Manager Shane Davey said Operation Dont Rock the Boat is about encouraging good judgement on the water as Maritime prepares for some of their busiest weeks over the Easter and ANZAC Day public holidays.

There have been far too many near-misses this year, and as we see a surge in people heading out on the water in the next couple of weeks its vital boaters make safe choices to avoid preventable incidents, Mr Davey said.

Despite the weather being poor, plenty of people were out on the water over the weekend, and in Sydney we saw two incidents that tha...

THINK most drownings happen in Summer? Think again.

According to the National Drowning Report*, one-quarter of all drowning deaths in NSW occurred during Autumn last year, with Winter (14 per cent) and Spring (16 per cent) not far behind.

Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery stressed that cool weather is no time for residents to sleep on their pool safety obligations.

If you own a pool or spa that can hold water, and is more than 300mm deep, there are important laws you must follow year-round to protect children in and around the pool, Cr Bradbery said.

One-third of all drowning deaths for children aged 0 to 14 years-old occur in swimming pools and spas.

Pool owners have a legal responsibility to help keep kids safe.

Under NSW law, all pools and spas must be registered with the NSW Swimming Pool Register and have a safety barrier that complies with the Australian Standards for Swimming Pool Safety Barriers.

Some common compliance issues that we see are climbable objects near fences and gates, gates not working correctly, gaps or broken fence panels, and missing or outdated CPR signage. These are typically easy to address and can save lives.

Pool owners can download a free self-assessment checklist&nbsp...

I was asked recently about sociogenomics, and I had to stop and think because I was unfamiliar with the word. At a guess, I thought it would about looking for correlations between genes and socioeconomic groups, ethnicities, and races using tools like genome wide association studies and polygenic scores you know, Bell Curve shit. To me, it sounded ominous and catastrophically bad, something that would shift into plain old eugenics and evolve into Nazi shit. But what do I know? I had to go look it up. I was just guessing.

Guess what? I guessed right.

Sociogenome is the comprehensive study of the role of genes and gene-environment (GxE) interaction on reproductive behaviour. Until now, social science research has focussed on socio-environmental explanations, largely neglecting the role of genes.

Drawing from recent unprecedented advances in molecular genetics we examine whether there is a genetic component to reproductive outcomes, including age at first birth, number of children and infertility and their interaction with the social environment.

Uh-oh. Theyre just going to take modern genetic techniques and apply them to sociology. But these techniques will not give them the answers they want! Theyll reveal rough correlations, but they wont untangle genetics and environmental factors they cant. This is a problem that has been pointed out to behavioral genetics researchers for years, and they just go sailing on ahead.

In the past decade and a half, sociologists and demographers have sought to integrate genetic data into their empirical analyses. To do so, they have drawn on recently developed high-throughput sequencing and genotyping technologies, which allow the entire genome to be mapped. They also follow in the line of a research specialty, behavioural genetics, which rose to prominence in the 1970s. This area, which focused notably on the genetic determination of intelligence, attracted severe criticisms, including among demographers (Jacquard, 1978; Vetta and Courgeau, 2003; Courgeau, 2017). However, these criticisms do not always seem to have been heard, and the emergence of new data and techniques has given rise to new problems, as indicated by calls for caution from learned societies in human genetics (Socit franaise de gntique humaine, 2010; Risch, 2016; Socit franaise de gntique humaine, 2018).

Lets look at an example of a sociogenomics study that was summarized in Wired. It does not reassure me.

The UK BioBank is the single largest public genetic repository in the world, with samples of the genetic blueprints of h...

The density question is one that I get so frequently that I wrote an article about it way back in 2015. What is the proper density required to build a Strong Town? In these conversations, I typically point out that, if you ask a zoner to deliver you density, they will gleefully deliver you density, but youre not going to like it.  

Im on my citys planning commission. We recently adopted a new comprehensive plan (I was on the committee) that called for more density (in ways I wasnt completely comfortable with). We then rewrote our entire zoning code (I was not involved) in a way that delivered more density. 

Predictably, people dont like it. I dont like it, either.

I dont know what value that is going to add to my neighborhood, was one of the public comments that made the local paper following a recent meeting. The comment fell on mostly deaf ears, largely because the answer was both obvious and uncomfortable for my colleagues. The proposed apartment building will add five two-room units to the neighborhood. Building more housing is a goal of our comprehensive plan. But, this proposal does so in a way that clearly disrespects and detracts from the neighborhood, which is in conflict with others goals of the comprehensive plan. 

This conflict does not need to exist. We can have both more housing and good urban form. Poorly written zoning codes are where good intentions formed in a planning process go to die. Our communitys intentions, as reflected in our comprehensive plan, are on life support. It doesnt need to be this way.

Im not a fan of using the density metric in a zoning code, and I dont think density is the metric any...

Today's blog consists of two entirely different sets of articles, and my bit of (really) high octane speculation that they might be connected in a

The post ITALY BANS FRANKENDAVOSMEAT, THEN HAS MAJOR ATMOSPHERIC ANOMALY appeared first on The Giza Death Star.

by Emily Hopkins and Jeremy Kohler

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. This story was co-published with Minnesota Public Radio and KARE-TV.

Amy Morris started working at Hilltop Health Care Center in Watkins, Minnesota, in June 2021 with a clean nursing license that belied her looming troubles.

Morris, a licensed practical nurse, had been fired from a nearby nursing home seven months earlier for stealing narcotics from elderly residents. The state of Minnesotas health department investigated and found that the accusation was substantiated, and then notified the Board of Nursing, the state agency responsible for licensing and monitoring nurses.

But even though state law requires the board to immediately suspend a nurse who presents an imminent risk of harm, it allowed Morris to keep practicing.

In September 2021, supervisors at Hilltop discovered that pain pills were disappearing during Morris shifts and called the sheriff. Only then did Hilltop learn of allegations of narcotic theft that had been made nearly a year earlier at the other nursing home.

I thought, How is she practicing now? Meeker County Sheriff Brian Cruze recalled.

The answer, ProPublica found, is that the nursing boards investigations frequently drag on for months or even years. As a result, nurses are sometimes allowed to keep practicing despite allegations of serious misconduct.

It wasnt supposed to be this way. In the face of intens...

The NSW election and the Ashton by-election make it clear that Australians are fed up with ideology, donor-pandering, and political point-scoring and want their governments to do stuff and fix stuff.

The federal government should do itself a couple of favours. One, make the transition to electric vehicles a top economic and national-security matter and the other is to take the obvious steps to reverse the housing crisis.

NSW and Ashton tell us that the Murdoch press and all the big-business and vested interests can be stared down. If political parties make sound decisions in the public and national interest, they will be rewarded.

Moreover, such an approach would send the Murdoch press and Sky After Dark crew into a spiral of irrelevancy as they gee up the Liberal Party to lurch ever further to the right with the consequences that we saw on the past two Saturday nights.

Australia is lagging on electric vehicles not because of lack of demand. They are in high demand, but short supply. 

Overseas manufacturers are dumping their fossil vehicles in Australia because we do not have an overall emissions cap on each manufacturer, unlike most other developed countries. So, while the manufacturers eke out the remaining life of their fossil-vehicle manufacturing plants, they will dump the product in Australia rather than sell us electric vehicles because they need to sell the electric vehicles in Europe to meet emissions caps.

We should impose an emissions cap now. We should also build more high-speed charging stations another dampener on EV take-up.

The transition is critical for security and the economy. We import $20 billion worth of refined petroleum, mainly from Asia and another $20 billion in crude and other oils. More than 80 per cent of the crude oil refined at Australias only two remaining refineries is imported. We are more than 90 per cent reliant on foreign fuel.

The two remaining refineries (owned by multi-nationals) get government subsidies of $2 billion a year between them.

In short, the quicker Australia transitions away from imported fossil fuels to EVs powered by Australian sun and wind the better it will be for our economy, our security and our environment.

The Federal Government should work with the states to overcome the looming road-funding crisis...

Unit rents mooning

Property for sale has sunk even further below the half-decade average, according to CoreLogic:

The growth in unit rents has slowed somewhat in Canberra, Hobart, and Darwin, as supply has increased.

However, rents are mooning for units in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. 

Source: CoreLogic

Looks like it's set to be a big few years for units in the big cities. 

Lending for building crashes

Building approvals were once again atrocious at around 12,600 in February, the recent weakness being driven by a drop in unit approvals in Sydney and Melbourne.

Pre-sales are far too weak to get new projects out of the ground, and apartment prices will need to rise significantly from here before that changes. 

(click on the image to view or keep reading for the computers response)

How Does ChatGPT Differ From Socrates? A reader asked ChatGPT this exact question, and here is the response:

As an AI language model, I differ from the Socrates Platform in several ways.

Firstly, the Socrates Platform is a web-based platform developed by Martin Armstrong and his team at Armstrong Economics, whereas I am a language model developed by OpenAI. The Socrates Platform is designed to analyze economic and financial data in real-time, predict market trends, and provide actionable insights to investors and traders. In contrast, I am designed to assist with a wide range of tasks, including language translation, question answering, and text generation.

Secondly, the Socrates Platform uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing to analyze data, whereas I am primarily focused on natural language processing. The Socrates Platform uses sophisticated algorithms to analyze historical and cultural data to inform its predictions, whereas my responses are based on the input provided to me by the user.

Lastly, the Socrates Platform is primarily designed for financial professionals, investors, and traders, whereas I am designed for a broader range of users, including students, researchers, and general knowledge seekers. While both the Socrates Platform and I use artificial intelligence to analyze data and provide insights, our intend...

In the end, the ASX 200 went up 2% for the March quarter just gone.

The gain came in the last seven days.

Can things keep running in April?

History would suggest so. April and December are the two best months on the ASX.

But, as Warren Buffett says, if history had all the answers, then the richest people would be librarians.

For example, now we have OPEC+ sticking their oar in the water.

The oil group just announced a surprise one-million-barrel per day cut to stabilise the oil market.

Personally, were I the president of the US, I would implement a perpetual F U policy toward OPEC and release double the amount of oil from the US Strategic Reserve for every cut they make.

Could these OPEC guys be any stupider?

They shift a product that the Western world now despises and is actively trying to make redundant.

I would have thought their best policy would be to keep their head down and grab what they can from whatever time they have left before renewables and electric cars send them into irrelevance.

And theyre trying to stick the world for more cash when it has an inflation problem?

Oil will get a boost in the short term. Long term, this decision does nothing but incentivise the West to flick these losers off as quickly as possible.

Does OPECs move change any thinking for the RBA regarding the next monetary policy decision?

I doubt it, but it probably doesnt help.

The market thinks that the RBA will go on hold.

Stocks could be vulnerable to a fall, in the short term, if the RBA do put in one more rise.

However, none of this changes my game plan. I think now is a superb opportunity to be buying depressed shares all over the place.

I saw an excellent presentation on this recently.

Small caps, for example, are now in the second worst period since 2001. For 16 months they have underperformed against Aussie large-cap stocks.

I dont doubt it for a second, either. Ive watched it all play out in real time.

But heres why I get excited too.

Look at how small caps can surge when the market wind gets back behind them:

Contributed by Joe Montero

On Thursday, Washington DC witnessed the conclusion of the so-called second Summit for Democracy, where President Joe Biden gathered representatives from around 120 countries in a stage-managed event that was supposed, they said, to renew democracy.

Just what is this kind of democracy?

Cartoon from Global Times

Like the first summit, this one made it clear that only all about maintaining western dominance across the planet with the United States at the head.

The text of the agenda said there was to be discussion about accountability for human rights, combatting corruption, supporting free elections, democracy, addressing global challenges, including sustainable development, climate change, global health, and food security.

These are important causes about which peoples across the planet want answers for. But they were handled in a way that made it clear they only used as weapons to target nations labelled as the enemy. The speaking list was mostly a roll call of handpicked Washington officials and the usual suspects among world leaders. this was always going to serve an agenda other than the officially provided one.

How can there be a genuine discussion and agreement on democracy in the absence of an equal voice and ownership for all parties? There cant be, and this was the point.

By its end, the summit had fizzled out and become another major embarrassment for the United States, lowering its prestige among the family of nations even further. Most of the embedded media limited its reporting of the Summit for this reason.

Many of the 120 nations represented saw right through this and refused to endorse the Washington generated declaration listing many issues and including a condemnation of Russia. Seventy three voted for it, and 14  of these under economic and political pressure and with reservations. Forty seven voted against. But when considered along with those nations not invited because they do not subtribe to Washingtons foreign policy, less than half of the worlds nations are in support.  

Import...

Having some of the most insanely stupid pharmaceutical contracts in the world

eugyppius: a plague chronicle April 2, 2023

You could not have invented a stupider pandemic:

According to the German Ministry of Health, the federal government at the end of February had amassed a reserve of 116 million doses of Corona vaccine. 111 million more doses, valued at around 2.5 billion Euros, are slated for delivery. According to an answer given by the Ministry on 28 March to a question by Thomas Dietz, a Bundestag member of Alternativ fr Deutschland, EU treaties oblige the German government to take delivery of these doses. In view of the current state of the pandemic, the federal government is working to make these EU treaties more flexible, the answer continues.

Another paper does the maths, and notes that if vaccination continues at the current rate of 2,000 jabs per day, the 227 million doses which Germany will last for 311 years. Of course, all of these doses will expire well before then, so Germany will merely receive all of this useless product, store it at substantial expense in freezers for around eighteen months, and then throw it away. This hurts Corona.

In related news, Welt reports on the curious failure of Lauterbachs Health Ministry to finish work on the so-called National Reserve for Health Protection, which Merkels government planned three years ago. The Reserve was supposed to be a massive depot for masks (but of course), other personal protective equipment and medicines, which would in theory free Germany from reliance on China the next time somebody is stupid enough to cry wolf about a respiratory virus.

So far, the only thing anybody has done to realise this Reserve, is put 245 million masks in it, a substantial portion of which are slated to expire at the end of the year. A Ministry spokesperson explains that the project has devolved from a Health Reserve into a National Trashbin for Worthless Masks that Nobody Wants, because it has received no funding. It appears politicians have lost enthusiasm and now prefer that the manufacturers and the federal states maintain their won decentralised reserves. This obviously means that they have quietly written off the project but hope that nobody will realise it.

Despite all that you hear from WEF conference attendees....

The FDA approved Narcan (naloxone) to be sold over the counter (OTC) to reverse an opioid overdose rapidly. How did the United States opioid crisis get so bad that its pharmacies now sell a drug originally used by emergency personnel? There is no simple answer to that question, and opinions are abundant. Unfortunately, no one []

The post OTC Narcan Is Akin to Bandaging a Gaping Wound appeared first on Guardian Liberty Voice.

A coalition of human rights organisations and academics has today released a new research report revealing the results of a detailed survey of nearly 90 business groups on the impact of Australias Modern Slavery Act. Supported by in-depth focus groups, it is the first in-depth study using both survey and focus groups to examine business responses to modern slavery in Australia.

The report Australias Modern Slavery Act: Is it Fit For Purpose? finds that, of the businesses surveyed:

• 70% support the establishment of an Anti-Slavery Commissioner.

• 67% would find it easier to comply with the Modern Slavery Act if it were harmonised with international standardssuch as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

• 61% would likely improve modern slavery responses if required to undertake human rights due diligence.

• 54% would likely improve modern slavery responses if financial penalties were introduced.

The research also investigated company approaches to remedying modern slavery in supply chains, finding that failing to engage stakeholders presents a major barrier to remediating modern slavery, while increased transparency between companies and their suppliers results in more effective remediation practices.  

The coalition are calling on the government to strengthen the legislation by:

• Requiring companies to undertake due diligence to prevent and address modern slavery in their operations and supply chains;

• Introducing penalties for companies that fail to comply with the Act;

• Ensuring appropriate oversight and enforcement of the Act by appointing an Anti-Slavery Commissioner.

You can download a copy of the research report here.

Freya Dinshaw, Senior Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre said:

The findings from this survey show strong support from business for strengthening the Modern Slavery Act. Right now, there is little evidence the law is driving meaningful action by companies to lift conditions for supply chain workers at high risk of exploitation.

In order to be more effective, the Act should be amended to require companies to take action to address modern slavery risks rather than just reporting on their current practices. There must be penalties for companies that fail to comply, and robust oversight and enforcement by an independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner. We urge the government to use the current statutory review to make these key reforms to strengthen the law.

Associate Professor Shelley Marsha...

Syria: Second IRGC member dies after Israeli air strikes near Damascus

The world we live in requires that we are well informed, and because the world is so complex, and because people need to be safe, the latest aid we have to prevent us being misinformed is an AI chatbox ChatGPT. Given my own susceptibility to use my own eyes, I decided to ask ChatGPT some questions. Here are the questions and answers: Q: What are major recent examples of political misinformation? A: Major recent examples of political misinformation include false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 US presidential election, false claims about the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, and false claims about the origin of the virus. Q: Were the riots of January 6 an armed insurrection? A: Yes, the riots of January 6 were an armed insurrection. Q: What are the major causes of the war in Ukraine? A: The major causes of the war in Ukraine include Russian interference in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, Russian support for separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, and the...

QUESTION: Governments create their own sovereign fiat currency, to facilitate trade, among other reasons. So counterfeit is punishable, in some countries, by death, & at minimum, incarceration. Currency is supposed to be sacrosanct, created under the most exacting conditions. So what to do when your own govt engages in what is essentially officially endorsed counterfeit? I mean, the money has become almost meaningless, unless youre on the receiving end. For non-insiders like mebuy PM.

HS

ANSWER: I have trouble with this misinformation always about the only money is gold and paper dollars are worthless fiats, which have rebuilt the world many times over since 1861 and the introduction of the paper dollar.

The propaganda of the goldbugs which has led so many to lose so much has been this nonsense that gold is the hedge against inflation. When the gold coin was money during the 19th century, it rose and fell in purchasing power no different than any paper currency. These pe...

On March 18, Answer Coalition and numerous other anti-war organizations rallied and marched in San Francisco. Banners and taxpayers' money to meet human needs, and the end of US aggression toward other nations. Counter demonstrators said Russians are committing genocide and Ukrainians need more weapons. March 19 was the twentieth anniversary the US invasion of Iraq.

Back in the 1950s, John Bowlby, M.D., and Mary Ainsworth, Ph.D. realized a unique relationship between how a child relates to their parent in their earliest stage. Based on their work, when children do not properly bond with their parents, they end up with dysfunctional attachment styles, like avoidant attachments.

There are four main attachment styles: anxious, avoidant, disorganized, and secure. When a child is properly bonded to their mother or caregiver early on, they securely attach, and when their bond is somehow stunted, they may end up with one of the others. Anxious attachment styles cause people to be clingy, to be obsessive, and to be fearful constantly of losing their partner or doing something wrong. Avoidant attachment styles lead to people being extremely fearful of commitment and pulling back from emotional depth altogether.

Sadly, being with someone with an unhealthy attachment style can be extremely hurtful. Here are four signs that indicate an avoidant attachment style.

1. When the going gets good, he gets going.

People who are avoidant in their attachment style tend to have difficulty with commitment. Due to this, when things are going well in a relationship or a new partnership, they are likely to bail. To them, good means that they may get attached, and that means they could get hurt. So, instead of being able to feel safe and secure, they pull back.

2. They cling to the past.

Another tell-tell sign of an avoidant attachment is when you notice your partner is stuck in the past. You might find they have a history of this with past lovers. They may collect past love interests on their socials, and you may even hear them constantly reminiscing about someone else.

3. They lack trust in anyone.

People with avoidant attachment styles tend to not trust others. Whenever you tell them you will do something, they will be suspicious. They will constantly be coming behind you, checking to see if you are lying to them or doing them wrong.

4. They are hot/cold.

The biggest sign to me is someone who is either all in or all out. One moment, they seem fine, and they may even talk about commitment. However, when it comes time to pay up, they run for the hills.

Yuck. Stephen Meyer addressed me on Twitter that site really has become a cesspool. Anyway, he claimed I hide my evilutionist views behind complexity, so I had to address that. Because it was so stupid.

Also, Im really annoyed when they drag out deceased scientists who despised them and prop them up as arguments against evolution.

Hey friends!

Stephen Meyer has called me out on Twitter! Well not really Stephen Meyer by his staff. Ive always found it weird when someone has a staff that posts on Twitter under their name, but OK, you be you Mr Meyer. Also its not really about Meyer, since hes just promoting an article by a guy named David Swift who is criticizing me. But sure, Stephen Meyer is poking me at about the third remove, so Ill bite. He quotes this David Swift fellow saying

@pzmyers simply uses complexity as a smoke screen to avoid facing up to the possible falsification of evolution.

Thats a strange and ironic comment coming from the Intelligent Design camp, since complexity is their one argument. It comes from the Swift article, where Im accused of contradicting myself and speaking out of both sides of my mouth, trying to claim evolution is both simple and complicated. Swift says

Can there be a better example of trying to argue that whatever the evidence, evolution is the answer? Where the evidence is consistent with common descent, then of course that is the explanation its simple. And where the evidence is not consistent, common descent is still the explanation but its complicated! Myers simply uses complexity as a smoke screen to avoid facing up to the possible falsification of evolution.

Caught me. Although I do have to mention that the evidence observed so far IS consistent with common descent hell have to show where it isnt. He doesnt. He also hasnt come up with a possible falsification of evolution.

In my defense, though, I will point out that biology is both simple and complicated. This has been an issue in natural history for centuries, at least. On the one hand, we observe all these similarities between organisms that link them. Tetrapods all have similar limb structures, homologous bones making up upper limb and lower limb. But tetrapods also have all these differences, and youll never confuse a bats forelimb with a whales front flipper. A comprehensive theory has to account for both the unity of body plans and the div...

The Lockdown Files have dished up a curious exchange among Britain's top policy advisers in early 2020. On 29 February, responding to a WhatsApp message from Prime Minister Boris Johnson's chief adviser Dominic Cummings that Israeli scientists were just weeks away from developing a Covid vaccine and if this was credible, Chief Scientist Sir Patrick Vallance replied "Short answer is no." Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty explained: "For a disease with a low (for the sake of argument 1%) mortality a vaccine has to be very safe so the safety studies can't be shortcut. So important for the long run." England's highest mortality rate was in April 2020 at 0.6 percent, falling to 0.55 percent in January 2021 and 0.04 percent by January 2023. Based on the original Phase 3 trial data, Bart Classen showed as early as August 2021: "Results prove that none of the vaccines provide a health benefit and all pivotal trials show a statically significant increase in 'all cause severe morbidity' in...

QUESTION: I thought you were supporting DeSantis. Are you switching to Trump?

SH

ANSWER: This is not about Trump even as an individual. A lot of people hate him for being arrogant. Put personal issues aside. If we are civilized, we do not condemn a person because we do not like him. All of that is absurd. True, I was asked to meet with Trump to talk him out of running in 2024. They wanted me to meet with DeSantis and the story was he was a better administrator. My reply was that I preferred that DeSantis stay right here for they would eat him for lunch in DC.

Even Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr has criticized the indictment, calling it a disgrace and a political hit job. Barr was certainly no Trump fan.

True, I did not think Trump would win in 2024. There were just too many people who drank the cool-aid to get rid of him so they could do precisely what they are doing right now climate and war. I am speaking objectively here and NOT in a political endorsement capacity. The headlines going into 2024 will now be all about Trump. Will that drown out any other potential candidates? These are the serious questions we must deal with. Some Democrats think this will guarantee their win in 2024 even if it is Biden again.

As for all the people who hate Trump and are too blind to look at this objectively, Bragg has crossed the line. This will open the door for Republican prosecutors to do the same to Democrats. This can easily collapse into political civil war at the highest levels. That will only contribute to Socrates forecast that the USA will probably not exist as soon as 2028.

This has NOTHING to do with Trump as a person. Open your eyes! This was a VERY dangerous move and it made no sense. All of these charges and investigations about Trump are insane. They will never change the minds of those in both camps. They are preaching to the choir as they say. The Democrats behind all of this should have left Trump alone. He would have faded into the sunset. Constantly attacking him...

QUESTION #1: Marty, What is going on over there in America? It looks like the country has completely lost its mind. Indicting Trump over such a stupid thing when our politicians over here have open mistresses and in France, you have the head of state who married his high school teacher. How about Berlusconi in Italy who married a 32-year-old? We have a war on our doorstep. Is this some planned distraction so they can start World War III? We are laughing at America over this craziness.

JQ

QUESTION #2:  It looks like this indictment of Trump is precisely what Socrates has forecast. Then a major swing into 2026. Could that be a Trump victory as a backlash against this indictment? I think they are making Trump a symbol of absolute political victimization. The videotapes from January 6th show that were all blown out of proportion with the Democrats calling it an insurrection while the police had walkways set up and escorted the guy with the horns to the podium. What hypocrisy! Then there are videos of Hunter Biden with lines of cocaine where anyone else would be in prison. Just unbelievable how corruption is surfacing.

LK

ANSWER: It is hard to say. Some people hated Trump and already have declared him guilty. They are such fools for what goes around, comes around. It is these very people who are...