Business Opportunity!

 OK, for some of us 1-800-GOT-JUNK is definitely not the way to go because it's not junk when we're clearing the house. I know this from having moved 4 time in the past few years. 

On the other hand, one wants to downsize, but getting a lot of stuff to a charity, or having a curbside pickup isn't an option. People would steal from the boxes I put out.

I have a fairly sizable library of books that I am going to have give up. Toss in that I haver to downsize. And there are definitely treasures in all this. Stuff that could be sold on eBay, but I don't haver the time.

I would love to see a clean out service like 1-800-GOT-JUNK that would try to see this stuff REUSED, not contributed to the trash mountain. And an estate sale isn't always a feasible choice due to time constraints.

So, I suggest setting up a clean out service with a conscience: you try to sell or give to charity what is truly unsalable. Charge a fee At this point I would pay US$500-1000 for a service like this. 

Republicans TURN AGAINST Israel In Historic Flip

"When the war ends we will not go back to the pre-October 7th Status quo..." 

 Yeah, because it's going to be a free Palestine and Israel will no longer exist in its current state.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is gone. No big loss.

You would think I would be in deep mourning about this, but you are wrong.

There hasn't been any truly public media in the US for a long time. Commercials made their way into the public broadcasting long ago in the form of "underwriting". Money owns the narrative, which is why third parties and renegades such as Bernie Sanders got little coverage. The duopoly happily owns the US media.

And US media has long been consolidated in the hands of a few. You didn't need much of a brain to figure out that there were no real dissenting opinion. That was until the internet set it free. Then Speaker's corner came to your computer instead of having to get a soap box in Hyde Park. Of course, the Internet isn't really moerated so anyone can pretty much say anything.

It's nice to have media that are moderated with varied and informed opinions, but the US doesn't have that.

People say that Trump will bring fascism to the US, but the US has never really been a truly liberal democracy. It's had its propaganda, and the US is the best in the world at doing it: see Paul Weber's Propaganda: Nobody Does It Better Than America.

After all, the US Constitution does start with the words "We the people..." despite it having been mostly written in secret!

American propaganda, however, is much cleverer. American propaganda, they patiently explained, relies entirely on emotional appeals. It doesn’t depend on a rational theory that can be disproved: it appeals to things no one can object to.

And the US's most obvious propaganda is called ADVERTISING!

But don't worry, the Internet allows access to all sorts of opinions other than those given on main stream media. And media consolidation may drive more people to those alternatives. 

Ones that are free of propaganda.

and advertising.