13 Ways You Already Practice Witchcraft

Take Another Look

Maybe it is time to take a new look at neo-paganism. As I look to 2019 I hope for more openness and inclusiveness. Just because someone, or something is different from our previous experience doesn’t mean it is something bad or to be feared.

Be Curious

My first wish is for us all to stop being afraid, and start being curious. When we have the courage to explore the people, and the customs of those “new scary” people we quickly see little difference from ourselves. Be open. Be welcoming. You will quickly learn that understanding and friendship are only a smile and a hug away. It is only fear and ignorance that keeps us prisoners of hate.

Eat The Chow Mein

I can remember when I was very, very young I refused to eat “Chinese” food. If they had just told me it was American I would have eaten it, and loved it. It’s all about prejudice and fear of what is different from our experience. Don’t let the fear ruin your chance to make great discoveries. Open your world, eat the Chow Mein, you’ll love it.
D. S. Mitchell

Donating Triggers Good Vibes

Donating Triggers Good Vibes

By Brett Kondratiew

Giving vs Receiving

Remember back all those years when as a child, you couldn’t wait for Christmas. What marvelous presents am I going to get this time?  It was all about you, but as you mature, you realize that it’s the giving that makes you feel good. That giving makes you feel better than receiving.

Scientific fact that donating makes you feel good

Donating to your charity of choice is pretty much the same; and the reason behind it is has some scientific evidence. The reason we feel good about it, is because it activates the pleasure centers in the brain. Donating is a real “mood booster” much like the feeling that many feel when they exercise.

Helping Others in Need

Fortunately, most of us in the western world were born into favorable circumstances.  Therefore, I believe it should be an obligation of those with abundance to help those in need. Donating is not just for human beings. Animals suffer all forms of cruelty and because they are helpless and without a voice, the question of donating should be a “no brainer”. Whether it be to stop poaching of elephants or to end the clearing of the Orangutan habitat for palm oil production animals face daily victimization by humans. Only the really insensitive would not feel a need to help.

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Seasonal Cheer

Seasonal Cheer

By Ross Turner

 

Gather ‘Round The Fire

It seems to happen every year; the crisp air rolls in, the coats come out, the trees put on their show, and lo, the holidays are upon us. The holiday season is a time of celebration, togetherness, and generosity.  Starting with Thanksgiving, peaking with the December biggies of Hanukkah and Christmas, and capping off with the ever-rowdy New Year’s we give thanks, reunite with family and friends, and spread as much seasonal cheer as possible.

Fruits of our Labor

As it has for thousands of years, the cold of fall and winter tended to draw people indoors and into close proximity with one another. Huddled inside and harvest gathered, there was little to do but tell stories, play games, cook and eat together, and generally enjoy the fruits of the year’s labor. The Danish have a word for this: hygge, or “a mood of coziness and comfortable conviviality with feelings of wellness and contentment.” Though many of us don’t farm for a living anymore, we carry on this tradition symbolically in our yearly coming-together for the winter. Yet for those without a warm den to retreat to, or people to fill it, these times can feel anything but cheerful.

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Open Hearts and Closed Gates

OPEN HEARTS AND CLOSED GATES

By Trevor K. McNeil

Every Human Heart

Humans are complex creatures. What we say, and what we want, do not always dovetail with our actions. I think that we, for the most part want to do good and are essentially empathetic. Which is why I was so crushed to see what has gone on in recent days and weeks at our southern border. Quite aside from the President of the United States apparently thinking that dignity can be bought, something he is not even honest enough to admit, which is bad enough in itself, what is going on at the border, just for a moment, made me question my faith in humanity.

Not in Our Back Yard

We are all familiar with the images by now. Makeshift tents row upon row, people just trying to get through the day, children playing in spite of it all. Pretty typical in terms of refugee camps. Long panning camera shots and concerned looking correspondents being fixtures of cable television. Still, whoever would have thought that such camps would be constructed at the border of the United States? It is a mental disconnect I don’t think most of us are able to cope with, refugee camps being something that happens “over there.”

It’s Sad….But

Exactly where “over there” is I am not sure, but certainly not here. It is a similar case with terrorism. Up until 2001, regularly occurring, high-casualty terrorist attacks while sad, were things that happened to other people who weren’t like us, in other countries very different from ours. Which explains our surprise when a team of foreign actors, operating completely under the radar managed to murder 3,000 Americans on American soil with very non-conventional weapons. Which is probably why there were people at the time who said it was the only time America had been directly attacked. Apparently forgetting about Pearl Harbor. We simply didn’t see it coming. Sort of like how the indigenous Natives of the Americas literally could not visualize the future result of those first landings by European galleons. It was a sight so far outside their experience that their brains simply could not process it.

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Universal Basic Income: A New Future

Universal Basic Income: A Stepping Stone to the Future

By Ross Turner

 

Not a New Idea

How often it is that in times of turbulence and upheaval, ideas once thought fantastical suddenly seem quite rational.  Such is the case of Universal Basic Income (UBI), also called a “basic income guarantee” or “Social Security-for-all.”  The concept was first introduced in the  16th century, with notable advocates such as Thomas Paine and then revived in the early 20th century by Bertrand Russell, but only in the modern age has there been a true necessity and demand for it.

UBI May Be an Idea Who’s Time Has Come

The idea, at its core, is to give every citizen a regular, untaxed sum of money regardless of employment status or income.  The thought is that this will raise the poorest recipients out of poverty and help the overall economy by boosting consumers’ purchasing power and economic mobility.  Many people, however, have a negative visceral reaction to “handing out” free money, worrying that people will stop working, or worrying about how to pay for such a program in the first place.  First, let’s look at why something like Universal Basic Income will be needed in the very-near future.

A Robot Took My Job

Since the Industrial Revolution, technology has displaced workers. Machines were capable of higher productivity than their human counterparts, forcing some to take up work in these new “factories” that housed them. As industrialization spread, businesses, consumers, and workers became dependent on these machines for their livelihoods.  Though this technological boom disrupted many traditional professions, it often created new ones, shifting more and more workers from farm to factory, country to city.

Technology Today and Tomorrow

Over time, technology became even more productive, efficient, and cost-effective, shifting workers yet again from manufacturing to retail, from city to suburb.  Many economists believed that technology would continue to create enough new jobs to replace the ones it destroyed, but few predicted just how efficient technology would become.  Automation has simply become too productive and cost-efficient for businesses to not embrace.  And the more businesses automate, the more others do so to stay competitive.

An Economic Shot in the Arm

The result is the rapid and economically incentivized displacement of workers, a shrinking job market, and growing income inequality.  Technology is doing more and more of the work, while workers and consumers are less and less able to afford the goods produced.  This also hurts businesses, as too few people have money to spend on what they’re selling. A Universal Basic Income is a shot in the arm of the economy, seeking to better circulate the vast wealth captured by a small handful of big businesses and super-wealthy.

With Whose Money?

Aside from the perceived “moral” questions, the foremost concern people usually raise is the cost: how does one pay for such a massive program?  The short answer is: it depends.  The funding and need itself for a UBI depends on each individual country.  For one, it need not be fully universal, though this often helps “sell” it.  There are different payout schemes where high-earners receive less or not at all.

Income Inequality Growing

One proposal is to end current welfare programs and use that money for a Universal Basic Income.  This would free up that cash, but also eliminate many government agencies and bureaucracy.  Another, obvious way is to raise taxes on the super-rich, which is similar in effect to cutting their payouts.  Income inequality has grown steadily for 30 years, with America’s top 10% now averaging more than nine times the bottom 90%.

The Projected Price Tag

A combination of cutting redundant government programs, shifting funds from others, and taxing the rich in varying degrees could cover a large part of the roughly $3 trillion annual cost of a UBI, (assuming a $1,000 monthly payment for every adult.)  Many might still balk at that price tag, but it’s important to remember that a Universal Basic Income will actually grow the economy, by some estimates as much as $2.5 trillion over 8 years.

Good for Growth

One of the most basic principles of economics is that businesses need consumers to survive, and consumers can’t consume if they’re broke.  Giving everybody a monthly income would simply allow people to spend more.  According to the Institute for Policy Studies, every extra dollar given to low-wage workers adds about $1.21 to the national economy, while every dollar going toward high-income earners adds only 39 cents. Put another way with a UBI every poor person will spend $1,210 of the $1,000, while the wealthy will only spend $390.

Many Voice Concern

Experimental Universal Basic Income programs have found that many spent their extra money on furthering education, finding a better job, or starting their own business, all of which help the individual and society at large.  Still, many are concerned that giving free money will make people lazy, or that they’ll just spend it on drugs or alcohol.  On the contrary, drug and alcohol usage went down when people were given a UBI, likely due to reduction of stress and gaining of opportunity.

What Studies Tell Us

As far as laziness, a Canadian UBI study in the 1970’s found that less than 1 percent of recipients stopped working, mainly to take care of children.  In the same study, recipients reduced their working hours on average by less than 10 percent.  This is in part because Universal Basic Income doesn’t discourage work in the way that welfare programs can.  In many cases, earning even a penny over the welfare cap – say, $1,000 –  results in a loss of benefits.

 A Better Way?

Combined with taxes, bills, and transport expenses, someone earning $1,200 may only come home with $800.  For many, it becomes financially rational to stay on welfare and not work.  With a Universal Basic Income, working can only improve one’s money situation.  Furthermore, welfare often forces people to take poorly paying jobs, keeping them in poverty.  A UBI gives people the money and time to search for better opportunities.

No Silver Bullets

Of course, some people will have a moral or ideological opposition to the idea of handing out “free” anything, and the idea of people not necessarily having to work.  Yet, this is money that in many ways the working classes have earned many, many times over and have been denied through decades of wage suppression, tax evasion, and countless types of financial trickery on part of the wealthy.  People who make their living solely through and inheritance and financial manipulation can hardly be said to work for a living, either. At any rate, a Universal Basic Income is not even an attempted fix to income inequality.

A Financial Floor For the Most Vulnerable

In an economy such as ours, inequality is a feature.  A UBI rather is trying to provide a financial floor for the most vulnerable citizens and even the playing field, giving workers leverage for better pay, better representation, and better benefits.  However, a UBI won’t address the problem of infinite growth on a finite planet and the unsustainable strain that capitalism puts on the environment.  It could, in fact, exacerbate it, with increased demand resulting in increased pollution and resource overshoot.  A Universal Basic Income, in this sense, is not a total fix or permanent solution.

Check, Please

In any society, there will always be a small number of people who simply hitch a free ride if they can.  But anyone who has been unemployed for long can attest that doing nothing gets boring fast.  The majority of people are driven by accomplishment, whether through a job or own their own, and a UBI empowers people to better their situations in the ways that make sense for them.  For some, this will just mean getting a better job.  For others, it will mean starting a business.  And yet others, who may be financially secure already, can pool and invest their UBI into non-profits, political organizations, or charities.  It’s a program that can help people survive, thrive, and organize the transition to the next socioeconomic phase of civilization.  It’s an acknowledgment, for the first time in a long time, that we are in fact a society, that we have contributed to this wealth over generations, and that we are entitled to a fair and reasonable slice of that wealth by birth.  Indeed, that realization itself may be the catalyst for change and the true legacy of a universal basic income.

 

 

https://archive.intereconomics.eu/year/2017/2/on-the-economics-of-a-universal-basic-income/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income
https://academic.oup.com/wbro/article/32/2/155/4098285
https://buildthefloor.org/
https://ips-dc.org/wall_street_bonuses_and_the_minimum_wage/
https://www.marketplace.org/2016/12/20/world/dauphin
https://web.archive.org/web/20080621140909/http://www.basicincome.org/bien/aboutbasicincome.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGMO78A7YJU

Introducing Ross Turner

Introducing Ross Turner

Ross Turner is a writer, artist, and sustainability activist. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Ross received a BFA in Illustration from Massachusetts College of Art and Design before relocating to the magical land of Oregon. Now 31, he lives in Portland with a very special cat, and enjoys drawing, running, learning languages, retro games, and of course, writing.

Mr. Turner’s first piece for Calamity Politics is “Universal Basic Income: A Stepping Stone To The Future” and will be available 12/16/18

Russell Means: Native American Warrior

Russell Means-Native American Warrior

by D.S. Mitchell

Russell Means & Dennis Banks Prominent Militant Native American Activists Talk to Press

Champion of Native American Rights

Russell Means was a champion of Native American civil rights. Means drew public attention to the mistreatment of native people “with audacious and controversial actions that were equal parts protest and theater,” said biographer Michael Ray.

Charismatic Leader 

From the 1970’s thru the early 2000’s Russell Means was as famous as Sitting Bull. Means, tall and ruggedly  handsome with long traditional braids was a charismatic Native American actor, activist, painter, politician, musician and writer. Means was born in 1939 on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation. His Lakota name “Wanbli Ohitika” means “Brave Eagle.” His mother was a Yankton Dakota Sioux and his father an Oglala Lakota Sioux.

A Harsh Life

His parents left the reservation in 1942 at the beginning of WWII to escape the poverty and depression of the reservation. They settled in the San Francisco Bay Area where his father worked in the shipyards. In his 1995 autobiography Russell Means described a harsh life with his alcoholic father and abused mother. He himself describes how he fell into “years of truancy, crime and drugs”, before finding purpose in the American Indian Movement.

In 1964 Means Joined His Father And Other Indians To Occupy Alcatraz for 24 hours

1964 Alcatraz Occupation

Means and his father joined a protest occupation of Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay, CA. in 1964. The protest lasted a mere 24 hours. Native Americans were protesting against the U.S. government for treaty violations. In his autobiography Russell Means remembered the 1964 Alcatraz event as the catalyst for a life time of activism for protecting the rights of Native Americans.

The American Indian Movement

In 1968 Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, Eddie Benton Banai, and George Mitchell came together to form the American Indian Movement. AIM was a militant American Indian civil rights organization.  The goals expanded quickly, broadening to “turn the attention of Indian people toward a renewal of spirituality which would impart the strength of resolve needed to reverse the ruinous policies of the United States, Canada, and other colonialist governments of Central and South America.” AIM’s goals were economic independence, revitalization of traditional culture, protection of legal rights, and most especially, autonomy over tribal areas and the restoration of lands that they believed had been seized illegally.

Dennis Banks, Russell Means, and Clyde Bellecourt in 1971 the Heart of AIM

Dennis Banks, Russell Means, and Clyde Bellecourt in 1971 the Heart of AIM

A New Voice
Into a violent and turbulent times Russell Means emerged as the voice of AIM. In 1970 he became the first National Director of the American Indian Movement. Aim became involved in many violent and highly publicized protests in reaction to abhorrent government policies toward American Indians during this time.

Modern Day Warriors

Means’ and other AIM members cultivated a tough persona which they felt was necessary to face the “dark violence of police brutality and the voiceless despair of Indian people.” The view of these activists as “warriors” was essential to the movement.

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The Long, Hard Fall Of Julian Assange

The Long, Hard Fall of Julian Assange

by T.K. McNeil

 

Julian Assange Has Been Living At The Ecuadorian Embassy In London

Rogue Hacker Julian Assange Has Been Living At The Ecuadorian Embassy in London

It Is All In The Perspective

The difference between a “terrorist” and a “freedom-fighter” is essentially one of goals. One area where terms make a difference is the world of hacking. Used freely, and inclusively by the mainstream news media, “hacker” is little more than a general descriptor. All it really means, is someone who uses non-standard means to enhance their experience with technology.

They Wear Hats

If you have ever used a video-game cheat code or made non-factory improvements to your computer, congratulations, you are a hacker. The hacker world is diverse. The simplest distinction is between so-called “Black Hat” and “White Hat” hackers. Also known as “the criminal minority and the rest of us.” Though just as very few in the hacker community are nefarious, shadowy criminal types, equally few are virtuous, “White Hat” “Hacktivists.”

I Said It Was All Relative

Julian Assange Computer Programmer, Hacker, Activist and Wikileaks Founder

Computer Programmer, Hacker, & Founder of Wikileaks

As with the rest of humanity most are somewhere in-between. For most, hacking is surfing. Experimenting and testing to see what can be done with no particular goal in mind. Julian Assange is a “White Hat”. At least until recently. “Recently” being 2016 but like I said, everything is relative. Rather than being “done” as many have suggested Julian Assange and his notorious info-dumps are back in the news and not in a way many could have imagined.

Gray Hat

Assange is a lightning rod for controversy. Can you truly be controversial and popular?  Assange has never achieved popularity, but he has reached world-wide fame. I’d wager that even the most news ignorant of the populace have at least heard his name. His closest associates have said he is barely tolerable, and they continue to engage with him only because they believe in the importance of the work. Bringing truth to the world and bringing light to the dark places. Apparently forgetting that Lucifer was the bearer of light before the Fall.

Before The Fall

Julian Assange Was Accused Of Espionage And Theft In His Native Australia

Personal failings aside, Julian Assange was, and likely still is, a brilliant hacker. One of the best. This is after-all, the guy who figured out how to use and decode government data wires while still in his teens. He was however, “ratted out” and was charged with espionage (originally treason) and was tried in 1996 in a Melbourne, Australia.

Intellectual Inquisitiveness

He was convicted of 24 counts of “hacking” for crimes dating back nearly a decade. He received  leniency. The judge speaking to the matter said Assange’s “intellectual inquisitiveness” was extremely dangerous, however he “did not seek personal gain” and that was given weight. Assange was unique. He was a kid who had attended 37 different schools, lived in a cult with his restless mother and faced daily unpredictable circumstances growing up. But by the age of 15 he was sophisticated and expert enough to attack military computers, at a time before most Americans didn’t even have a personal computer.

Dr. Alina Polyakova Believes The Russian Government Is In Fact Using Wikileaks

Dr. Alina Polyakova

Motive

Another thing that was never at question was Julian Assange’s motives. The biography website Biography.com lists him as a “Computer Programmer, Hacker and Activist”. This was not to last long however, his uncompromising drive and near-pathological hatred of government (nearly being charged with treason will do that), shaded that white hat a distinctive shade of gray. Alina Polyakova, Director of the Eurasia Center volunteered this, “In his attempt to bring ‘transparency’, he ends up siding with the very regimes that deny transparency and human rights. That’s the irony of my enemy’s enemy is my friend.”

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Trust In Government In Trump’s America

Trust in Government in Trump’s America 

Just My Opinion: By Brett Kondratiew

From The Outside Looking In

At the outset, I am not an American, instead I live in Australia but I have an interest in American Politics. Pretty much because its brutality is unlike anything I have ever seen. However under Donald Trump, it has reached unprecedented ferocity. Is trust in government a victim of Trump intention and rhetoric? Or, a reaction to five decades of government disregard for a growing disgruntled and distrustful electorate?

Controversy And Division

To witness a presidential candidate, openly condone the physical and often violent behavior by his supporters, certainly piqued my interest. Yes, the battlegrounds of immigration and race will always cause controversy and division but when used as an explicit, electoral “plan of attack”, was extraordinary to watch. So here we sit, some two years into the Trump Administration and the question is, “Has Trump’s America altered our trust in government”?

Statistics May Have The Answer

As an observer I would say yes, America has lost faith and trust in her government. Statisticians examining and correlating their numbers all have reached a somewhat different conclusion. Fewer than three-in-ten Americans express faith that their government will do the “right thing.” This distrust in government has been consistent in survey after survey since 2007. So, increased distrust in government is not just a phenomenon of Trump. Perhaps Trump’s election was more about the lack of trust in government than we will ever understand.

How Low Can We Go

Confidence and trust in Trump, the man, is also staggeringly low. Eugene Scott, a writer for The Fix and the Washington Post, presents the following figures.  In Sept 2018, only 36% of people approved of Trump’s job performance. When questioned further, less than 30% believed that Trump would do the “right thing”.  This is the lowest figure seen over the earlier 10 months. Factor in the following stats; more than 50% of men believe that the media have more credibility than the government. It is significant that only 8% of African-Americans  trust Trump. His trust numbers among women are dropping so fast it is hard to get an exact number. Taking all groups together the average of expressed trust in government is at an all time low of 19%.

Is Trust in Trump a Ship that has already sailed?

I like to have a bet on horses but there is no way that I would put any of my hard-earned on someone with so little support. When I decided to write this editorial, I was given a copy of Bob Woodward’s new book “Fear- Trump in the White House.” I did not expect that so early into the read, I would find a man so ill-informed and totally unsuitable to be the “world’s most powerful individual”. Bob Woodward is a highly respected journalist and his book is based on many hours of interviews with multiple firsthand sources. The material presented doesn’t surprise me. Nor, does it surprise me that Trump has refused to comment, other than to call Woodward a “liar” and his book a pack of “lies.”

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