Vermont Will Pay You to Colonize It

Vermont will pay you $10,000 to move there and work from home

On Wednesday, Quartz reports, Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed a bill into law that will pay people $10,000 if they move to Vermont and work remotely for an employer out of state. The Remote Worker Grant Program will take effect on January 1, 2019, and will help cover moving, living and working expenses. Grants can be used for relocation, computer software and hardware, broadband internet and access to a co-working space.

Currently, Vermont has budgeted funds to support 100 grants for the first three years and 20 additional workers each year from then on. Grant recipients will receive $10,000 over two years that will be distributed on a first-come, fist-served basis.

Not a lot of money. Also, your role here is similar to that of someone receiving an all expense paid vacation to a remote castle in Transylvania.

On the other hand, if you wanted to take over a state, this one is ripe for the taking. Right-wingers need to figure out a policy that makes progressive flee though, otherwise it'll turn to crap in a generation or two following its conquest.

Return of the King

The Strange Places the “God of the Gaps” Takes You via This Week In Reaction (2018/05/27)

What I am saying is that we are at some point probably going to prove pretty much all of the this-worldy, pragmatic (moral, sociological, psychological etc.) aspect of Catholicism correct by something like evolutionary psychology.

And I am saying that while it will dramatically increase our respect for religion, this will also be probably a huge blow to theism. I don’t want that to happen, but I think it will. Because eliminating God from the gaps of natural science does not hurt faith much. But eliminating God from the gaps of the humanities and yes, religion itself?

OK it is also possible that all we prove is that God was actually giving people good advice and it does not disprove Him the slightest. But look. It would still disprove most everything about people imagine and think about God. Because pretty much all of that would be programming – making people grasp, adopt and stick to good pragmatic humanities ideas.

So it would mean at least a very mysterious God we know nothing about, not the one we feel is familiar.

...But if you strip away everything, really everything that is potentially instrumental, you have a God you really know nothing about. What does belief, faith mean then?

Everything. We see through a glass darkly. When you have removed everything else, the only thing left is faith.

All we about God is what he has revealed. Even then, what he has revealed is rather limited. The Trinity doesn't limit God. God is not 3 in 1, he's infinity in one. He's only revealed 3. People struggle with the divinity of Jesus and that's only 2 in 1. If you can understand 3 in 1, you have the concept down and that's the important thing. If you tried showing 4, 5, 6, 10 in 1 then you're going to end up doing string theory. Reason is a hindrance in the modern age because we rely on it for everything. Sometimes people suffer a loss of faith, but I'd wager most people reason their way out of faith these days.

The faithful already believe all of the Bible's instructions on human nature are true. Science confirming it would be the culmination of several centuries of Doubting Thomases running experiments. Theism would expand because it would become a much larger part of what remains of religion. Similar to what Spotted Toad predicted for a society run by algorithms. As more and more of what can be controlled is controlled, then by exclusion the "surprises" will increasingly be random. Bad luck will become a far more common explanation for accidents in a "perfect" world. Religion will become more mysterious, not less, as the non-mysterious parts of the Bible are proven true.

Wheels Coming Off the Cathedral: Deutsche Bank Back in Trouble

We mentioned Deutsche Bank a few times in 2016 such as here and here. It's the most important bank in Europe because it combines financial heft with political risk. Greece, Italy and Spain are the pathetic debtors punished by the responsible Germans. An open confrontation between debtors and lenders is underway again and this time the debtors (Italians) look like they won't go away quietly. Meanwhile, German moral authority is blown to smithereens if they in turn have to bail out their biggest bank, given that they made life miserable for Greece, Italy and Spain when they faced similar situations.

Deutsche Bank To Fire 10,000 Employees: 1 In Every 10

Deutsche Bank isn't at a new low, yet.

At the same time, Italian bond yields are soaring and the Turkish lira is collapsing. Italy has threatened deportation of 500,000 migrants. Turkey has threatened to send migrants into Europe if it isn't paid off.

Germany's chickens are coming home to roost, but it will also be a treacherous period for the U.S. economy. In a way, Trump is lucky that the greatest political scandal in American history is unfolding because it may be the only thing that will distract voters from a recession heading into the 2020 election.