Author: Crimson Avenger

Let me start by saying that I know your anger is sincere. I know you’ve been wronged. I know you don’t want to be protesting, but you feel that you have to be heard.

You’re protesting for police reform, and the protests will certainly cause the police to change in some ways. A few tweaks here and there, to ease your anger and make you go away. But I also know that much greater change needs to happen for the black community, and you’re not going to make it happen, for one simple reason: You don’t know who your enemy is.

Continue reading “An open letter to black protesters from a white man”

Author’s note: This is the third chapter excerpted from How You Got Screwed, posted courtesy of The Burning Platform. (You can find the first two chapters here and here). If you liked these samples, note that there are 14 more chapters in the book, which is less than $10 on Amazon. While much of this may be old news to TBP readers, I hope you’ll agree it could serve as a good eye-opener to people who don’t frequent this site. Buy in bulk, and buy often. 🙂

Chapter 16: The End Game

The Point: No one knows for sure what the end game looks like, or when it happens. But it won’t be too long, and it won’t be a happy ending.

Let’s be clear: I don’t know how things are going to play out in the future, nor do I know when we’ll hit any sort of a breaking point that would welcome in a crisis. (No one else does, either, so be cautious of people who say they know what’s going to happen in the coming months or years.)

But I do know that we’re not on a sustainable path. All of the problems described in this book are growing and build on one another to create a sort of “pressure cooker” environment that cannot go on forever. Just think about how the trends we see today feed off each other to create the ideal conditions for some sort of economic or social disruption:

Continue reading “Final Excerpt from How You Got Screwed: The End Game”

Author’s note: Some of you may remember a booklet called “How You Got Screwed” that Jim shared here about a year and a half ago. After seeing it online, a publisher contacted me and asked if I would flesh it out so they could release it as a full book. It just came out a few days ago (you can find it here), and Jim suggested I share a few chapters through TBP. This is the first of three to be shared; I’ll release the next two over the next few weeks. Thanks to Jim for all his support!

Note also: Footnotes/sources not included here but are in the book itself.

Chapter 4: How you’re getting screwed by…Retirement Promises

The Point: Most people have an expectation that they’ll be taken care of later in life thanks to government programs like Social Security and Medicare, private or public pensions, or through their own efforts to build up their net worth. In reality, it was never possible for governments and corporations to fulfill the promises they made to you, and those assets you saved may not be worth what you think they will be, when it’s time to cash them in.

There is a predictable pattern to life: We start out as dependent children; grow to be independent adults; and, inevitably, become dependent again as we move into old age. We know this is coming; not a single person in history has avoided it. So it’s important for us to plan for that while we’re in our prime.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans are completely unprepared for the 100 percent certainty of old age. There are many reasons for this:

Continue reading “Book Excerpt: How You Got Screwed”

by Allen Marshall of Defiant Living

I’ve been a small business owner for most of my adult life. I’ve lived by the rules of capitalism and have always thought of it as the best possible economic system available, and the one most compatible with the idea of personal freedom. But as I get older, its flaws have become more glaring, to the point that I’m starting to wonder if there are other ways for us to work.

Let’s start by acknowledging its formidable benefits:

Continue reading “The downside of capitalism”

by Allen Marshall of DefiantLiving.com

The drums of war are beating again, as if they ever really stopped. Our leaders and their lapdog media partners are trying to build Iran and North Korea into imminent threats, giving us an excuse to preemptively start new military actions.

What I haven’t heard is any discussion about the costs. I suppose that when your nation is the world’s reserve currency and your central bank can literally print free money, we don’t think much about that. But in fact the costs would be enormous. And before we start charging over the hill, killing millions so we can “free” them, it’s worth considering the costs of our military adventurism since 9/11.

Continue reading “Before we go to war with Iran and North Korea…”

by Allen Marshall, Defiant Living

Years ago, I had occasion to get to know Jason Ohler, a professor at the University of Alaska and a former student and protégé of Marshall “The medium is the message” McLuhan. Like McLuhan, Jason realized that technology is more than just a tool: It represents a tradeoff. We see the things that it gives us, but we’re often not aware of the things it takes away.

As an example, think about what television gives us, and what it takes away (paraphrased from “Taming the Beast: Choice and Control in the Electronic Jungle”):

Continue reading “Credit: What do we gain, what do we give up?”

In the intro to a recent post on TBP, admin said the following:

I love Denninger’s ability to be outraged day after day and his continuous rage against the machine. I’ve lost that fire. After nine years of this, I’m burnt out. I no longer have that passion driving me. What will be will be.

I think that burnout is something a lot of us feel – we find out what’s going on in the world, get outraged, and then gradually realize that we’re like old men yelling at clouds – all of our indignant anger isn’t worth shit and it isn’t going to change shit. We slowly burn out, realizing that the world is simply unjust and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it.

Continue reading “How to deal with doom burnout”