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The perfect storm of free market economics

I’m pretty sure that most of us would agree that we here in the United States live in a free market economy.
Though we live in a free market economy, I find it rather interesting that there are a lot of people over on the interwebs, including our so-called politicians, that have absolutely no idea of just how a free market economy works.

A free market economy can be a thing to behold when things are running smoothly, but it can also be somewhat of a bear-cat when things aren’t.

When Covid came around, our economy was just humming right along. The impact of Covid hammered the oil industry in 2020, forcing U.S. oil prices to go negative for the first time on record. In a matter of hours on April 20, the May 2020 contract futures price for West Texas Intermediate plummeted from $18 a barrel to around -$37 a barrel.

In an effort to not putting too fine of a point on this, I’d have to say that the oil companies, at this time, were all dressed up with no place to go.

Oil producers were faced with a glut of crude oil that left them scrambling to find space to store the oversupply. Brent crude oil prices also tumbled, closing at $9.12 a barrel on April 21, a far cry from the $70 a barrel that crude oil fetched at the beginning of the year.

The plunge of U.S. oil futures into negative territory was short-lived. But the collapse in demand was so fast and volatile that it led many people to question whether oil would be able to fully recover in 2021. By the summer of 2020, oil prices began to rebound as nations came out of the Covid lock-downs and OPEC agreed to major cuts in crude oil production. West Texas Intermediate crude finished 2020 at a price of $49 per barrel, while Brent crude finished the year at a price of $51 per barrel.

People claim that Trump was responsible for keeping the price at the pump so low (2019-2020), but really, the low prices were the result of the Saudi’s and the Russian’s having their little pissey-fits over just how much to either increase or decrease production. During their little squabbles, oil tanked totally (this is the point where you would’ve had to give me $37 for every barrel of oil I wanted)

Currently, the U.S. has 129 refineries in operation. Though we might be able to get our hands on vast amounts of oil, the ability to refine it and get it to market is limited, affecting the actual supply that is available for consumption. Purchasing oil from the Saudi’s won’t make much of a difference in lowering the price of gas at the pump, even at $120 a barrel, because our refining capacity is stretched pretty thin already. Even if we pumped our oil at home, the prices would remain inflated due to the same limits on our refining capacity as it relates to the current demand.

Oil production/refining is actually up (tap or click on image to enlarge)

Jumping up and down blaming Trump or Biden for all of this is just political bullshit. Trump and Biden, at the end of the day, were just as tied to our free market economy as we are. Neither of them either in past or present capacity could do a single thing. Trying to supposedly help, either via Presidential or Congressional fiat, would only serve to muck up the natural order of our free market economy and continue the current pain for much, much longer. Besides, trying to fix all of this using socialist principles wouldn’t be too unlike putting transmission fluid into your crank case.

Demand for fuel is at an all time high, production is limited, so here goes the price through the proverbial roof. Our capacity to refine is at it’s limit. Yes boys and girls, oil production/refining is actually up. Refining rates currently are higher than when Trump was in office.

Because of the Russian/Ukraine war, the U.S. has stopped purchasing imported oil from Russia.(The U.S. had only imported about 12% of it’s domestic supply from Russia)

With keeping free market economy in mind here, I’ll now introduce you to the Federal Reserve.

To add insult to injury to what’s already going on in the oil industry, the U.S. Fed just happened to decide that it needed to print literally trillions of dollars out of thin air and it flooded the domestic economy with it.

Here we have the perfect storm of market economics paired with increased inflation.

The last time oil was up to $120 per barrel, gas prices rose to $3.80-$4.00 per gallon. This time it’s the same, but with inflation factored in. The price at the pump now, with added inflation, is $5.00-$6.00 per gallon. As demand increases as most surely it will, and with our current rising rate of inflation, the price at the pump could quite literally go much higher.

Since we all live in a free market economy, we might do well to just STFU and roll with it.

If for some reason $7-$8 gas per gallon is untenable for you and your pocket book, you might consider actually electing people to office that know a thing or two about the free market economy. The very least we can do is to not be drawn in by all of the political bullshit from either side and look at all of this for what it really is.

Are the prices going up? Of course they are.

The best we can do in the short term is to hunker down and roll with it.

Chart sourced from: https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPUS2&f=M

Loreena McKennitt – The Mummers’ Dance

Upon after years of having to listen to Country, Rock, and other main stream genre’s on the radio and the internet, I’ve found the musical style of Loreena McKennitt to be pretty refreshing.

Sometimes it’s a good thing to be able to sit down and relax with music that allows you to set the mood independent from all of the regular musical noise that’s out there.

I hope you might find this piece of music from Loreena McKennitt to be as delightful as I have found it to be. Enjoy!

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Loreena McKennitt is a Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer who writes, records, and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern influences.

McKennitt is known for her refined and clear soprano vocals.She has sold more than 14 million records worldwide.

Loreena McKennittIn 1990, McKennitt provided the music for the National Film Board of Canada documentary The Burning Times, a feminist revisionist account of the Early Modern European witchcraft trials. She and the musical team she headed would later re-record the documentary’s main theme on her album The Visit under the title “Tango to Evora”.

In 1993, she toured Europe supporting Mike Oldfield. In 1995, her version of the traditional Irish song “Bonny Portmore” was featured in the Highlander series, followed by the 1994 film Highlander 3: The Sorcerer.

You can catch up with Loreena McKennitt on her website and stay caught up on concert schedules and other updates: https://loreenamckennitt.com/

Adobe Photoshop CC Time-lapse

Photoshop has been around for years. It’s an extremely functional program that’s used all through it’s many versions since Photoshop CS2.

I still use Photoshop for even some of the most basic graphics rendering, and since I use Linux exclusively for all of my work, I run Photoshop on my local machine via WINE.
More about how to use Photoshop in Linux later. For now, here is an illustration of just how useful Photoshop can be.

Below is a time-lapse video of some of the remarkable things that Photoshop is capable of:

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This video is from Lewis Moorhead – Digital Artist

NASA-level creativity test: Modern education lowers our awareness

Any reputable grade school in the world teaches Charles Darwin’s “theory” of evolution as basic fact, yet a national poll in America has revealed that 42% of citizens are “not too” or “not at all” confident that the concept of evolution is real. 36% had serious doubts that the Earth is around 4.5 billion years old, despite numerous scientific tests that indicate this. Only 53% per cent of people were “extremely” or “very confident” that childhood vaccines are safe and effective, despite mountains and mountains of evidence that proves this.

A paltry 33% of Americans polled believe in human-induced climate change, even though the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has made it as clear as possible that it is real, it is us, and it will have catastrophic effects on humanity as a whole unless drastic and immediate action is taken to combat it. Despite mass shootings in Colorado, Texas, Virginia, Las Vegas, ad infinitum, gun control still isn’t close to the number one issue that most Americans decide their vote on, and laws and regulations continue to be watered down instead of squeezed. In fact, Georgia now has a law that enables people to carry weapons in state and local buildings, airports, churches and bars, Florida has signed a bill banning local gun regulations, and at least 12 states have made it legal for people to carry guns in schools.

Dr. George Land recently informed an audience at TEDx Tucson of his findings regarding a NASA-level creativity test that was performed on school children. Land and Beth Jarman were the ones who developed the test, and it was designed to determine where creativity comes from, and if it is inherited or learned. In total, 1,600 children between the ages of 4 and 5 were tested.

Dr. Land sums it all up nicely in this video below:

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Almost unbelievably, scientists concluded that 98% of these children were creative geniuses! However, when the same children were tested only 5 years later, merely 30% of them were creative geniuses; 5 years after that, a paltry 12% qualified. As might be expected—at least after reading the aforementioned results—only 2% of adults test as creative geniuses. Also keep in mind that this trend has been verified millions of times. The modern school system is making most children less creative, overall.

Dr. Nascimento, head scientist for the study cited above, explains that, “The reasoning for this is not too difficult to comprehend; school, as we plainly call it, is an institution that has historically been put in place to ultimately serve the wants of the ruling class, not the common people. In order for the so-called elite to maintain their lavish life styles of overt luxury—where they contribute the least but enjoy the most—they understand that children must be dumbed down and brainwashed to accept (And even serve) their rapacious system of artificial scarcity, unending exploitation, and incessant war.”

Dr. Land argues that, “actually looking inside the brain we find that neurons are fighting each other and actually diminishing the power of the brain because we’re constantly judging, criticizing, and censoring. If we operate under fear we use a smaller part of the brain, but when we use creative thinking the brain just lights up.”

George Land, Ph.D. (1932 – 2016)

In 1965 George Land, Ph.D. founded a research and consulting institute to study the enhancement of creative performance. This research ultimately led to the formulation of Transformation Theory-a theory of natural processes that integrates principles of creativity, growth, and change. From these principles, Dr. Land developed unique strategic thinking and innovation processes for organizations.

He invented the first computer-interactive approaches to group innovation, decision-making, and strategic thinking. His exceptional processes are now licensed by over 400 major corporations worldwide.

Dr. Land has also taught interdisciplinary science and creative/innovative process to the faculties of some three dozen universities. Among his articles and books is his seminal work Grow or Die: the Unifying Principle of Transformation. Originally published in 1973 by Random House, it was a main selection of the Saturday Review Book Club and was submitted Random House as its nominee in the science category for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award.

With Dr. Beth Jarman he co-authored Breakpoint Beyond: Mastering the Future – Today, published by HarperCollins in 1993 now also available in Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish and Korean.

Dr. Land has been elected a senior fellow of the University of Minnesota, a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences for his outstanding contributions to science, and a colleague and fellow of the Creative Education Foundation. In 1989, Dr. Land received the Outstanding Creative Achievement Award from the Creative Education Foundation for his lifetime achievements in creativity. In 1995, the Innovative Thinking Network created the George Land World Class Innovator Award in honor of Dr. Land. His listings include Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World. He passed away in March 2016, but his work on Transformation Theory and creativity will continue to impact the world for decades to come.

View relevant polling to this post via .PDF

List of previous Associated Press Polls: http://surveys.associatedpress.com/

The cycle that never seems to change

Sometimes I’ll get out there on the interwebs and notice it’s always the same people that complain about all of the same things over and over again. Whether it be fear induced by the modern faux news media, or another less than substantial political talking point, here they are, devolving into an ever increasing angst.

Seems that they often experience a particular problem multiple times over and wonder why we have to deal with it repeatedly. Our thoughts and feelings often create our reality and govern our lives. And sometimes they are what create problems for us.

Often, it seems, we develop such a strong negative focus that we end up attracting the same problem over and over and over again. So if you feel like you’ve been facing the same problem on a loop, think about what negative influence you are embracing intentionally or otherwise. If you are frequently facing similar problems there may be a particular behavior of yours at play.

Here are some common negative influencers that make you attract problems and even the same issues time after time.

Obsessively thinking about the problem

While worrying is an evolutionary trait that is critical for our survival, too much worrying is always a harmful thing. Worrying about our problems imprints those very issues into our brains and we soon find that we’re too deeply involved in the problem to be thinking of a solution.

My friends always seem to get after me because I might not express the same angst or worry that they’re expressing — They say that it appears to them that I don’t care. The fact of the matter here is that I do have many of the same concerns or cares that they have — I just don’t let the latest political flavor of the day rule the way I think and do things. I’m not defined by anything anybody might say about any so-called deal of the day on the internet.

I understand that controlling one’s thoughts is easier said than done, simply distracting yourself from having intentional thoughts about whatever the issue is at hand can make a world of difference in your overall handling of the situation.

For this, we can form a deliberate distraction.

For instance, one can always do something nice for someone, smile at a stranger, say hi, help someone out anonymously, and by anonymously I mean telling no one about it.

After a while of doing this sort of stuff, you’ll find that you can meet your greatly diminished angst with a bit more focus and tact.

You could call an old friend, watch a movie, or even practice an instrument you haven’t picked up in a while. As long as it helps you shift focus and create a happy distraction, practice it until you’re ready to think about things with a clear head and not ‘worry’ about it.

With enough practice, you will learn to create a distraction to the obsessive overthinking.

Acting out of fear

Our actions can affect our vibe and in turn, alter our beliefs. Our actions often mirror what’s brewing inside of us and reflect our vibe. This sort of thing can be handled by making small seemingly insignificant changes.

For instance, when we’re feeling low, simply putting on a smile can give a much needed positive emotional boost that can make us feel better overall.

Our moods and actions are often in tandem with each other, hence our actions mostly reflect how we’re feeling inside.

When we’re struggling with similar issues time and again, we tend to feel frustrated and wary about the problem repeating itself.

We start to tread with caution in fear of history repeating itself.

For instance, if you log into the internet, you might fear that you’ll get into and argument with a Trump or a Biden supporter.

You already know what you’re going to say and that might bother you a bit.

You might worry that you’re going to continue the cycle, because by now you just seem to know that your politics has already defined you.

You don’t have to be defined by the talking points of the day. You can just as easily express your concern over a matter and be done with it.

Spend the rest of your day on the net posting pictures of pretty flowers or something.

If you fear too much about what “might” happen, you are subconsciously sending a message to the universe that something is constantly on your mind and it ends up happening.

All over again.

Complaining or talking about the problem

One of the strongest reasons we tend to attract problems repeatedly is that we talk a lot about the problem and in turn, this creates a negative environment around us and attracts more and more negativity as time goes by.

Seems sometimes we just can’t even help it. It’s as if it’s almost addictive to share one’s issues just to vent or simply dump our worries on someone else.

Constantly complaining about always ending up with the wrong partner, being stuck in a boring job, or of how everyone hates your chosen lifestyle will get you accustomed to the habit of perennially complaining.

Over time, with each complaint, you add an ounce of negativity to your emotion box until one day it seems too full and it becomes your entirety — it becomes your negative state of being.

Your valid argument will become much less valid, and your credibility will become much less credible.

Soon, people might quit listening to you about things that might actually really make a difference.

The cycle that never changes, never will change, unless you make the conscious effort to change it.

Thanks for the read.

Happy Trails.