Renewable Revolution

Quote from: azozeo on April 13, 2017, 08:12:53 pm

Quote from: RE on April 13, 2017, 07:53:02 pm

Bad Newz. 

I got a second rejection on my appeal to Alaska Legal Services to get some representation for my SS Hearing.  So I am now once again left twisting in the wind.  I can make a 3rd Appeal to the Executive Director but I suspect it will be the same result.

So next week I am going to try a new tactic of walking in to a local lawyer's office for a consultaion, and not telling them what the case is until I am actually face to face with the scum sucking bottom feeder.  I'll pay for the hour of his valuable time.

If that doesn't work, it's time for the Nuclear Option.  I'll make an appointment with the Newz Editor of the Frontiersman and see if I can get them to do a story about this.  Perhaps that will get me a lawyer, and at least it will give a lot of Bad Publicity to SS, the Dimwit who took over for Colleen at Sen. Murkowski's Office and the Legal System and Bar Association of Alaska.

I'll probably lose the appeal anyhow, so there isn't much in the way of downside risk.  If I do lose the Appeal, I can still appeal again to the Federal Circuit Court.  That will drag it out another year at least.

The worst case scenario is I will have to cough up $10K to pay SS the clawback they want for "overpayments"  , and continue to live on the current reduced income until I turn 62, at which time I believe my SSI turns to SSR and I SHOULD get back to the original payment amount.  I haven't been able to verify that though, SSA doesn't respond to my queries on this sent by Snail Mail.

I'm in no danger at the moment of ending up as a Homeless Cripple  Freezing to Death on the Streets of Palmer, Alaska ©,  I have just about enough to meet my monthly bills without dipping into my savings, and so far according to both my WC lawyer and HR Block, there is no tax liability on my WC settlement. The IRS accepted my Tax Return far as I know, though it can take months and sometimes up to 3 years before they whack you with an audit.  After 3 years they can't question it long as you filed a return.  Even reduced by $10K it's a good buffer, more than I had when I went the first 7 months with no income.  So as long as the monetary system doesn't crap out, I should be OK until the Nukes start flying in.  If the monetary system does crash, everybody will be in the same deep pile of **** as me, so I don't worry about that.  I will have met my goal of lasting long enough to see it all go down in flames before I Buy My Ticket to the Great Beyond. ©

RE

Here....

http://law.freeadvice.com/government_law/social_security_law/

I've been to that site.  They don't list any lawyers handling SS cases in Alaska.

RE

What could be more important for a healthy psychology than a sense of purpose?  Without purpose what type of a life can be lived?  Purpose is not something that you can fool yourself into either.  I'm not referring to the purpose of family life.  If you are married, your purpose can be to be a good spouse, and if you have kids, your purpose can be to be a good parent to your children.  Those things are purpose with a lower case "p."  They are important, but we all have our own unique purpose for being here.  Or do we?

That statement is one of belief.  I want to believe that there is a purpose for me and everybody else on Earth.  To believe otherwise seems to be the germination of Nihilism.  If there is no purpose to my life than there is no purpose to anything else. 

The things that I am advocating for in my life are important.  Specifically I'm referring to Bamboo and Permaculture.  For me the two go hand in hand.  Both are fringe topics.  Permaculture comes from the margins of society.  My favorite principle is the 11th one: use edges and value the marginal.  Permaculture itself is marginal in our society, and within that margin, on the margin of Permaculture, bamboo is there.  Even in the Permaculture community bamboo is seen mostly as just another invasive.  It's the most useful plant to our species that grows on this planet.  How is it that it is such a hatted plant?  I believe this hatred goes directly to the root of our anti-cultures dysfunction.  That dysfunction begins with privacy fences on property lines.  Property lines being the main dysfunction (closely tied up with money of course).  Bamboo does not respect property lines.  It goes right under fences, and with enough time will cross a road bed.  It's also the most useful plant to our species!  Yet in our anti-culture it is the most hated!  Why!!!  Are we ultimately an anti-culture composed of sadist and masochist? 

Then there is Permaculture itself.  It's antithetical to the conventional suburban landscape of monocultured grass and shrubbery, just as bamboo is. 

My purpose is to advance bamboo and Permaculture into our anti-culture in an effort to do what needs to be done for a life of lower per capita energy.  Because we will eventually get that life, if they don't blow us all up with the "mother of all bombs" first.  Yet, holding that purpose I go forth with small engines to make money managing the typical suburban landscape.  The "greatest misallocation of wealth in the history of the world." 

I'm all the time fighting to advance the usefulness of bamboo and permaculture all while pouring gasoline into my hemi and mower and plethora of other small engines.  I burn gasoline everyday to make money.  We all do this in the working first world.  We have to.  I have no choice.  But why?  You never end up with enough money either.  Everybody works because they need money, and we all come up short and use credit.  Extend and pretend goes all the way to the lowest level of poverty that's just above mailbox money.  Many times in the recent past I have said "what's the **** point in working so hard?"  My efforts are met by more financial obligations, and there is never enough money no matter how much I make.  Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up and just being a shitbag in line for some mailbox money. 

I'm told that what I am doing is of the utmost importance.  "The world needs you," my mentor says.  The world needs me because of my unique understanding and knowledge on bamboo.  Apparently the world is hungry for bamboo experts.  It's a similar story with permaculture.  The world needs me for that as well...to advance that sanity.  This must be a tired old story that has always been throughout all of the ages.  That which is most important gets pushed to the margins, and hated...or at the very least ignored.  Money is repelled by importance.  The more important something is the less money is available for it. 

I'm struck lately by how this works.  What I'm doing is so important and yet I have to spend the majority of my time worried about acquiring money.  It seems to me that if what I'm doing is so important then I should not be worried about money.  If it's so important then where is all of the money that should be helping to advance these causes?  It makes my life feel like a delusion. 

I have been struggling lately to maintain a belief in purpose.  My destiny is bamboo, and I'm starting to wonder if that's a good thing?  My destiny is hated by the majority of our anti-culture.  Out here on the furthest reaches of the margins, where even the marginal argue my cause...it is lonely.  I've begun developing a hatred for my species and it's ignorance and stupidity.  My vital energy has been declining.  I'm growing tired of the fight. 

justification for everything you do that is good

Quote from: RE on April 25, 2017, 10:04:05 pm

Quote from: agelbert on April 25, 2017, 06:33:31 pm

RE didn't make that contract, so he has, technically speaking, a lower threshold of physical requirements that he must meet to continue respecting himself.

Actually, it's a higher threshold.  A monast has nobody else to blame his shortcomings on, and nobody to comfort him and love him when he makes mistakes.  Married people share these burdens, they don't have to bear them alone.  It's why solitary individuals are far more likely to commit suicide.  It's a much higher calling and more difficult path to follow than marriage.

RE

The perceived ability to pass the buck on perceived lack of success in marriage and family is an illusion. Yes, some people certainly do that. But single people can do that too with their peer group, society, etc.
Honest people, be they married or single, have the same principles.

I do agree with you that single people are more likely to off themselves. But this stat is unrelated to the ease, or lack of it, of providing food, shelter and clothing. It is simply due to the fact that humans are social beings wired to live, care for, and depend on, each other in social groups. Your ability to remain stable and at peace with your accomplishments or lack of them in your life is certainly more challenging when you rely only on yourself for assessing your value as a human.

All that said, the fact that you are single, does NOT mean you are not dependent on others for peer group acceptance. For you to claim that you need no moral support, or feel you are independent of the need to provide any, just ain't so. You HELPED LD because you CARE. That means you are LINKED emotionally to LD's success in life. You are, in effect, a PART of that social group, even though you live by yourself.

I'll go further. I'll say that, despite your claim to have an ego the size of Mount Everest, you would suffer from depression and lack of self esteem if LD failed in life. Your skin ain't all that thick, RE. And that is one of the reasons I remain your friend after having some heavy duty arguments with your over the years.   

You hide it pretty well most of the time, but you are as much a slave of ethical behavior and the responsibility to treat others with respect as I have ever been. GOOD FOR YOU! 

Quote from: agelbert on May 17, 2017, 04:39:15 pm

May God Bless you and your family and heal you of your afflictions, my friend.

Thank you very much for your sentiments.  God has already blessed me greatly.  I count well over 1000 people praying for me.  I am also blessed, for now, to have health insurance that nominally pays 80% of my costs and in actuality is cutting my costs well over 95%.   I am also blessed to live where I can get cancer treatment within daily commuting distance.  I am also very blessed to have an extremely supportive family, especially my wife.  I am also blessed to currently live in a functioning global economy where I can buy products like organic coconut oil to speed my healing. My afflictions pale in comparison.