Month: November 2017

How’s that alt-Facebook working out for ya?

Steven Guccione

I was going to post something after a month, but it has been probably two.  Some notes:

  • I still check Facebook just about every day, and ‘like’ lots of posts.
  • I don’t comment much, but fun things like Saints games can get me posting when friends are involved.
  • I like owning my content again
  • I have gotten nice emails from old friends who have checked out these pages.  I think it is especially good for old friends who might want to check in and see what I am up to, but might not care much about my day to day trivialities.
  • I dont miss the pointless arguments or politics.  Or mainstream news (I read the news and don’t really need headlines in Facebook, too).
  • Do I miss anything about Facebook?  Not really.  The blog format is less ‘interactive’, but I never installed their IM.  Like I said earlier, I still might chime in on a good Facebook discussion.

I guess I will keep this going.

USSR Collapse

Steven Guccione

I have long wondered about the reasons collapse of the Soviet Union.  Military spending makes no sense, especially after decades of similar spending.  Ran across an article that is worth reading, if these things interest you:

Causes of the Soviet Collapse (1979-1991)

A quote from the end:

We have seen, however, that Communism, with all its failings, did not lead Russia into the economic precipice that was the result of “shock therapy” privatization, where the vast assets and industries of the Soviet state were auctioned to a few unscrupulous oligarchs, while a society that had been structured around a state-dependent economy was suddenly stripped of its publicly owned capital. This neoliberal policy stroked Western egos about the intrinsic superiority of liberal capitalism, while at the same time enabling foreign investors to profit immensely.