The impact of Bernie Sanders is becoming the topic of 2016. Folks everywhere are marvelling at the popularity of his ideas. They're so mainstream! What is this democratic socialism he's on about? This diary series will explore the outlines of Bernie's economic philosophy. We will do so using an oldie, but a goodie, the post-WWII British economist E.F. Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful (1973). It is subtitled "Economics As If People Mattered."

We will follow the four parts of the book very closely and attempt to tie it to Bernie's economics, beginning in part two and onward.
Have no fear: there's no technical language, or math, or any Marx. Well, it's a long-form essay and the language is from the 70s, but so am I :=)
Please follow me for more below for the democratic-socialist corrective to the dismal science.

This is how you stop armed fascists from destroying your constitutional right to life and liberty, as stated in the U.S. Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

From the Dallas Morning News 2 April 2016

Armed with a shotgun, Krystal Muhammad stood guard with other members of the New Black Panther Party outside a mosque Saturday in South Dallas. (Jae S. Lee/Staff Photographer)

More below:

Thank you for following the discussion to the last diary on this topic for now. If you'd like to catch up, see it in my blog. So far we have looked at a number of building blocks of the Stoic way of life.

1. What is the goal of life? Stoicism says it is to flourish.
2: What is good? Stoicism says there is a third category in the moral universe, namely “neutral.” Good and evil reside only within us. Neutrals – preferred and dispreferred – are things and events external to us.
3. What is within our power to do? We talked about what is within our power, our character.
We went over the proper use of sensory impressions. We discussed how to use new scripts to override poor thoughts brought on by neural pathways created by trauma reactions.
In this part, we discuss two last questions:
4. How should I act?
5. How should I live?
Part 1/3 is here: http://caucus99percent.com/content/stoicism-trauma-survivors-part-13

This article is Part 2 of an introduction to Stoicism for trauma survivors. In an introduction to Aristotelian virtue ethics I posted recently, I said this: Tough times calls for tough people. Personal resilience begins with toughening our minds. See, in G's take on human biology, the mind supports the spine. A weak mind causes the spine to dissolve. My major concern with progressives is the mind-spine connection. Only hard work creates a tough mind. Our minds are plastic: life will mold it for you if you don't construct it through will, hard work, perseverance. It applies everywhere.
Part 1/3 is here: http://caucus99percent.com/content/stoicism-trauma-survivors-part-13

I’m a PTSD survivor, which is just one form of anxiety disorder. So many of us a trauma survivors. In fact, methinks life is trauma survival. One of the things that help keep my nose above water is Stoicism. I have compiled a summary of Stoic ethics for my own guidance. I share it here, hoping it may also help you a bit. It’s from my viewpoint as a trauma survivor, but it’s applicable to anyone anywhere
I used the thought of the greatest Roman Stoic, Epictetus, to help myself learn. This article will look at two of five questions:
1. What is the goal of life?
2: What is good?

Tough times calls for tough people. Personal resilience begins with toughening our minds. See, in G's take on human biology, the mind supports the spine. A weak mind causes the spine to dissolve. My major concern with progressives is the mind-spine connection. Only hard work creates a tough mind. Our minds are plastic: life will mold it for you if you don't construct it through will, hard work, perseverance. OK, there's work to do. First principle: modern ethics (along with all of modern philosophy) is bullshit. Classical times was tougher than our time. It produced tough-minded people. The classical world followed virtue-based ethics. I follow them. Below is a summary I did for myself of Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics. It explains the classical world's goal of life and I organized extracts of Aristotle's words into a coherent summary for my own use.

This is a top rescue from early 215. I offer this diary in the hope that it would help you conquer your anger. It comes from my own bitterly-fought journey through anger as a PTSD survivor. In 2006 I realized that I was razor-close to losing my family and probably my life, if I did not seek help. I was fortunate to be assigned a wonderful military psychologist. One of his first priorities was to teach me to conquer the anger that was consuming me. He helped me construct a personal anger thermometer, which is a tool in cognitive behavioural therapy. It saved my marriage, preserved my family, and helped me gain a foothold on the climb towards recovery. More below.

Morning, my dear friends. There is little to no need to give your money to crooked corporations in the household cleaning department. Their products are mostly poisonous and/or ineffective - and always overpriced to the gouging (sp? ah, who cares) max. We use natural cleaning products from recipes we've kifed everywhere over the years. Below are some of ours, and of the afore-mentioned kifees.) I hope you'll add some of your homemade cleaning recipes and products. And if you do the math on these recipes, you'll be a happy camper. Oh, and a more resilient camper too :=) You'll see, it's very progressive to kick the corporations in the teeth AND make yourself more free. It's much more productive than screaming about what's bad.