“The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

The title should make it clear what’s on my mind today. As for my soul, that’s a topic for another day…

Let’s jump right into this content without delay. There’s a lot to cover, and I won’t waste time on pleasantries.

As William Shakespeare wrote in Henry the 5th, “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our American dead.”

I paraphrased this quote slightly to emphasize our plight as I see it. I changed the reference from ‘English dead’ to the more appropriate ‘American dead’. In this case, it refers to giving up on fixing our internal problems and living with the status quo.

Shakespeare’s line “Once more unto the breach” is a famous rallying cry from Henry V, meaning to try again, continue fighting, or return to a difficult, dangerous, or tedious task despite previous failures or exhaustion. It encourages courage and persistence when facing a tough challenge and is often used metaphorically to describe tackling hard work. America has rolled over, letting the misleadership we’ve elected do as they please.

It dawned on me this morning that if we could harness the awesome power of congressional bullshit, we could easily solve America’s energy crisis many times over. If we redirected our time and money toward philanthropic and humanitarian efforts, America could become the paradise we’re told it is. We could solve every problem we face and create solutions to problems we can only imagine. So for now, let’s focus our energy on the situations at hand.

Philanthropic humanitarian efforts grounded in Effective Altruism (doing what’s best for all people) are often supported by the concept of altruistic arbitrage. This principle advocates using evidence and reason to identify the most effective ways to benefit others, which often yields significant positive externalities and high returns on investment. In short, everyone wins because everyone benefits.

* Effective Altruism: This movement focuses on “doing the most good” by directing our efforts toward identifying neglected problems where resources can have the greatest impact, rather than simply doing what feels emotionally satisfying.

* Altruistic Arbitrage: This concept suggests that when “supply curves slope upwards,” the most profitable and impactful opportunities to do good lie in areas you value but that others (the market) do not.

Anyone in business or involved in negotiations will recognize this as the “Win – Win” scenario, where the goal is to create conditions that benefit everyone. Everyone wins, and no one loses. Yes, this is possible. We’ve just forgotten that the best possible agreement favors both parties… but I digress.

Recommendation:
Read: “The Art of the Deal” – by Donald J Trump (1987)

– Yes, it remains relevant even after nearly 40 years. Not only does it explain the basics of negotiation and its tactics, but it is also the foundation of Trump’s approach to everything he does.

Alternative: Ask AI to search for – Basic Negotiation Tactics and Principles

If we could combine or compost the colossal chunks of crap cascading from just a few information outlets, we could eliminate fossil fuels forever. If only there were a way to capture and convert that massive mountain of meadow-muffins into a useful product, we could save this republic. That would give us more time to invent things that need our attention and to find more to bitch about.

Face it, mankind, especially Americans, is never happy for long; in fact, we’re ranked 62nd in the global happiness index; Finland is #1, and Afghanistan is last. America is in the lower half… Look at what the mainstream media pumps out for clues. What do you see? It’s all contention, anger, hate, and divisive rhetoric. The politics of the source are unimportant because these media outlets thrive on negativity, and capturing all that energy is part of the solution I propose. It’s all bullshit.

There are some people we call dreamers – those people with great ideas. You can reach out your hand and touch one right now. Look at what they’ve created and what we’ve done with it.

We have pocket communicators with worldwide access to information. We can see billions of light-years into the cosmos. We’ve harnessed the atom for power and use it to lay waste to entire cities and to check the world’s power through “mutually assured destruction”.

We’ve perfected the bamboozle to swindle each other for profit and control. We’ve corrupted an administrative concept into a weapon against the people who elect them to office and to destroy the republic they swear to serve and protect. We call this one, politics…

We even created a protective surgical mask with an eating hole. – Think about that for a moment…

This gave rise to the title of this piece, Fecal Fusion – The Awesome Power of Bullshit!

Just imagine what we could do with all that limitless energy. We could easily end the energy crisis, halt global warming, refreeze the polar ice caps, save the polar bears, add countless new icebergs to the North Atlantic, and save the coastal cities facing inundation. I seriously hope you realize that every event listed in that last sentence was a ‘bullshit’ invention and a hoax meant to deceive us. If they can convince us of these imaginary problems, just think of what they could do if they used their creativity for good. But… knowing this country as I do, we’d misuse this power in partisan political warfare.

The authors of these bodacious bamboozles invest immeasurable energy and our money in their creations. Imagine the possibilities of using these investments for good?

There’s honestly no limit to what we could do; we could conquer cancer and all the other man-made maladies we face.

Feces (or fecal matter) are the solid or semi-solid waste products left after food is digested, containing undigested food residue, bacteria, mucus, and dead cells. Passed through the rectum and anus during defecation, feces are a vital indicator of digestive health. The average person produces about 4.9 pounds of municipal solid waste per day. With 342 million people in America, that’s 1.675 billion pounds per day, or 305,833,500 tons per year.

I could easily regale you with loads of confusing scientific data explaining my theory, but I give you the simplified version. I’ve included a fusion tutorial and data at the end of this article.

Based on the physics of nuclear fusion, 306,000,000 tons of matter, when converted to fusion fuel (deuterium-tritium), could produce an astronomical amount of energy. Fusion converts roughly 0.7% of the fuel’s mass into energy. This amount of energy is roughly equivalent to 1,000,000 times the world’s total annual electricity consumption.

– I’ve provided supporting information at the end of this article.

Rather than searching the planet for new sources of the required fissionable elements and raping the planet for fossil fuels, our very own Congress, ‘the opposite of progress’, could actually start contributing to the well-being of the Republic rather than to its stagnation and ultimate demise. This would obviously nullify the entertainment value of many members of Congress, ‘the opposite of progress’. Their antics and theatrics are the stuff that keeps the mainstream media and the internet blogosphere fed.

I suppose it would be unfair to deny these entertainers their sources of content. So to sustain this process, Congress, ‘the opposite of progress’, would need to stay in session indefinitely. We’d need to curtail their license to enact changes, though. This, coupled with the negativity coming from the media, would fuel the new fusion engines of progress.

Voilà – Fecal Fusion – The Awesome Power of Bullshit!

Now, I’m forced to admit I was wrong… Congress, ‘the opposite of progress,’ is useful here. In fact, it’s crucial to its success. Let’s turn all that bullshit into something more useful than verbal fertilizer and fodder for the mainstream media outlets.

Look around this republic for signs of sanity… There are too few, if any!

It doesn’t matter what you call it or how you dress it up, or the idiotic promises attached. It’s all bullshit, and we’re so enamored by the buttons and bows, and all the ribbons and promises, we miss that this is a pig in a bonnet wearing lipstick.

This is all meant to start you thinking that following the same steps and processes that got us here is lunacy, and doing the same things the same way, expecting different results, is insane – and folks, we have been doing this since the beginning of this country.

YES! From the very beginning in 1620. Those who wanted to lead fought to maintain their position. Our hubris convinced us we had dominion over everything in view. Only those directly involved know the truth about how this country was founded, but I imagine our European audacity sanctioned our claims. Not much has changed since then. We assume that everything in our sight is ours… that’s our power, and it extends over one another as well.

Read your history about the power struggles in the early colonies and how we took early America. It’s full of the same bullshit we’re going through today; we simply renamed and redefined it into a more palatable form.

Look before you leap.

There’s a huckster, a snake oil salesman, a flimflam artist, a confidence trickster, a rain-maker, a politician, promising everything you could possibly want or need or even dream; and America is the sucker!

Recommendation:
Read Aesop’s fable about the fox and the crow. The fox uses his power of flattery, or praise, to trick someone in an insincere way and to devise a plan to get the crow’s dinner out of his mouth. It’s also about the company we keep and our associates.

Or perhaps read Aesop’s fable The Fox and the Goat. A fox falls into a deep well and tricks a thirsty goat into jumping in to take a drink. The fox uses the goat’s back and horns to climb out, leaving the goat trapped inside, and advises, “Look before you leap.”

The decisions we make and condone are anything but sane, yet our leadership assures us that America is on the right path. Too few have the foresight to ask what that path is and where it leads. From my seat in the bleachers, I can see the entire extravaganza unfolding on the playing field of American Partisan Politics, and I see America chasing the promise of security in a kleptocracy that views Socialism as the solution to all of America’s ills.

Here’s a simple research assignment: Find a country where pure socialism actually works as intended. Ask AI if you need help. I checked and was not surprised by its response. “Based on traditional definitions, there is no country currently practicing “pure socialism” (defined as full state ownership of the means of production and a planned economy) that is widely considered to be economically successful.” Every country that has tried socialism has failed or become totalitarian, autocratic, or despotic.

– Cuba: Often cited as the closest example of an “undiluted” experiment in socialism, with the state employing over half the workforce. However, it still faces severe economic difficulties. How can Cuba fund the social programs that everyone relies on? There’s very little money, so taxation is out of the question. The answer is to rely on outsourcing professional services (mainly healthcare), tourism, remittances from abroad, and state-run enterprises.

– North Korea: Maintains a highly centralized planned economy, but it is not widely regarded as a successful model. North Korea funds its government through a unique mix of state-controlled formal trade and a massive, state-sponsored shadow economy. As of 2025–2026, the regime has increasingly pivoted toward cybercrime and arms sales to Russia to offset the impact of international sanctions.

– China, Vietnam, and Laos: These countries are ruled by Communist parties but have adopted market-oriented reforms (e.g., “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics“) that incorporate private enterprise, thereby driving their economic growth.

I won’t delve into why socialism and its variants don’t work; I’ll spare you. The main reason for its failure is the absence of a free-market price system. In a capitalist economy, prices are not just numbers on a tag; they form a highly complex communication network. They instantly tell everyone how scarce a resource is and how badly people want it. When a government abolishes the free market and sets its own fixed prices, that communication network is destroyed.

Who’s the fool? Is it the person on the path to perdition, or those who recognize it, close their eyes, and follow it anyway?

Will our leaders accept responsibility for their choice, or will they find someone else to blame?

I’ll guarantee the person blamed will be ‘you’ for not being a true believer. If you truly believed and put your heart and soul into it, it wouldn’t have failed. It’s your fault… Or it’s the other party’s fault for blocking progress… and the list goes on… It’s never the idea or the person in charge; there’s always an excuse. That’s how it always goes.

Here’s the obvious question:

If Socialism, Marxism, or Communism are the solutions to all of society’s problems, why don’t they work as designed without authoritarian or totalitarian government backing? Wouldn’t people immediately embrace and actively support them without coercion? Why would any government need to force people to accept them? Why would our leadership need to lie to convince us?

The leaders pushing these failed ideologies are the very definition of cowards. They blame us for their bad decisions and failures. They are the boss who faults the sales staff for not selling overpriced products or old, wilted produce, insisting that the staff lie and deceive the customers to make the sale. This is what we accept as leadership in America, and this is precisely why we’re swimming in a pool of bullshit.

The theoretical purpose of communism is to establish a classless, stateless society with common ownership of the means of production, aiming for equality and resource distribution based on need, rather than to take control of the people. However, in practice, communist regimes often establish centralized control, abolish private property, and concentrate power, leading to authoritarian, top-down governance.

Centralized, single-party control replaces public ownership, creating a “dictatorship of the proletariat” that rarely results in the planned “withering away” of the state. Rights to private property, inheritance, free speech, and personal dissent are often abolished or severely repressed by the state. Instead of people controlling their own lives, the state often dictates economic activity, employment, and resource allocation. While the ideology proposes a system of shared community power, historical and practical implementation has generally led to state power overriding individual autonomy.

Communism in all of its forms ignores the win-win scenario I mentioned above. It is, in fact, the exact opposite. A few benefit from the changes rather than everyone else. As you read the paragraph above, you can imagine the appeal. It promises that everyone wins by transferring everything to state control, unfortunately the real winners are those who control the state. It’s the same with all state-administered programs. The real winners are the administrators.

* Note: This entire article is a follow-through on my promise to offer plausible solutions to any issues I surface. Albeit tongue-in-cheek, there’s merit in my rebukes and suggestions, especially those about Fecal Fusion. Mankind has the amazing capacity to create solutions to the most vexing problems when we focus on solving them rather than on how they can be monetized.

“Behind it all is surely an idea so simple, so beautiful, that when we grasp it – in a decade, a century, or a millennium – we will all say to each other, how could it have been otherwise? How could we have been so stupid?” ~ John Archibald Wheeler ~ Physicist

Supporting Data:

Based on the physics of nuclear fusion, approximately 306 million tons of waste, when converted to hydrogen fusion fuel (deuterium-tritium), could produce an astronomical amount of energy. Waste matter is converted into hydrogen fusion fuel primarily through plasma gasification, a process that uses extreme heat (over 5,000°C or 9,032 F) to break down organic trash into syngas, which is then refined into hydrogen. This hydrogen can be used directly or, in experimental approaches, to create tritium for nuclear fusion.

Fusion converts roughly 0.7% of the fuel’s mass into energy.

* Total Energy Output: Approximately Joules. 1 Joule [J] = 1 Watt-second [Ws] = 1 V A s = 1 N m = 1 kg m2s−2.

* Comparison: This is roughly half of the total energy the Sun produces every second by fusing 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium.

* Earth Context: This amount of energy is roughly equivalent to 1,000,000 times the world’s total annual electricity consumption (assuming ~160,000 TWh (total watt-hour) global energy consumption).

Nuclear fusion is the process in which two light atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, releasing vast amounts of energy. This reaction, which powers the sun and stars, occurs in a hot, ionized gas called plasma. Scientists are working to harness this process on Earth as a clean, sustainable energy source.

Nuclear fusion is scientifically feasible and has been achieved in laboratory settings. Scientists have demonstrated “break-even” (ignition), in which a reaction produces more energy than it consumes. While it powers stars naturally, creating sustainable, commercial fusion energy on Earth requires overcoming immense engineering challenges to heat and confine plasma at temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius (slightly over 180 million degrees Fahrenheit).

AI can provide much more data if you’re interested.

The devil you say?

For the Amalgamated Heavy…

 

 

May 29, 2026

~ the Author ~
Charles R. Dickens Was Born in 1951, Is a Veteran of the Vietnam War, for Which He Volunteered, and the Great-Great Grandson of the Noted Author, Whose Name He Shares.

He Is a Fiercely Proud American, Who Still Believes This Is the Greatest Country on the Planet, With Which We’ve Lost Control and Certainly Our Direction. He Grew Up in Moderate Financial Surrounding; We’re Not Rich by Any Stretch, but Didn’t Go Hungry – His Incredibly Hard Working Father Saw to That. As Most From That Era, He Learned About Life From His Father, Whose Story Would Take Too Long to Tell, Other Than to Say That, He Is Also a Fiercely Proud American; A WWII and Korean War, Veteran Marine.

Charlie Was Educated in the Parochial System Which, Demanded That You Actually Learn Something, and Have Capability to Retain It Before You Advance. He Attended Several Universities in Pursuit of a Bachelor’s Degree, and Chased the Goose Further to a Master’s, and Has Retained Some Very Definite Ideas About Education in This Country.

in Addition, Charlie Is a Retired Blues Guitar and Vocalist – a Musician. This Was His Therapy Career. Nothing Brings Him as Much Joy as Playing Music, and He Wishes That He Could Make a Living at It… but Alas… Life Goes on!