An attempt to summarize why the organization of the United States is both dependent on and outside the control of individuals, by looking at how organizations have stayed together in a couple of smaller contexts. 

Life Itself (Ebert documentary - evidently there's a completely different drama movie, as well)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2382298/

It's currently available as part of Amazon's Prime Video on Demand offering.

Los Angeles is in Widespread status so churches can only have outdoor services.

Orange County is Substantial, so churches can have indoor services for up to 100 people or 25% capacity, whichever is smaller. 

https://covid19.ca.gov/safer-economy/

This was definitely too short to get into transaction cost economics, which is what really drives my view of organization. Here's a starting point:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transaction_cost

You'll probably want to dig into Williamson as well.

This year's Halloween inspires random thoughts tied together by considerations of mortality.

The previously mentioned episode that references Highlander and immortality is Ep. 43 Lost Boys and Golden Girls, recorded in 2019. 

(You can imagine, I'm sure, how often I'm double-checking that I've spelled "immortality" correctly here.)

Yes, nine months is the usually accepted length of a human pregnancy, but if you count from the actual date of conception it's really eight and a half months, which is the duration from St. Valentine's Day to Halloween. Don't know if it means anything...

The particular place I heard of Hamlet's calendar setting is Steve Roth's "Hamlet: The Undiscovered Country," which is fine place to understand the Dane better. The associated website is http://princehamlet.com

What is your dream for what the world looks like, after all this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Final_Cut_(album)

“A place to stay, enough to eat, somewhere old heroes shuffle safely down the street

Where you can speak out loud about your doubts and fears

And what’s more

No-one ever disappears 

You never hear their standard issue

Kicking in your door

You can relax

On both sides of the tracks

And maniacs 

don’t blow holes

In bandsman by remote control

And everyone has recourse to the law

And no-one kills the children anymore.”

Turns out a video was made for it, but let me recommend listening to the song on its own, if not the album, at least the first time or two.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSE7qdjy3Q0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States

Recapitulating how anger is the primary impetus behind the Fourth Turning. Because that's the kind of week it has been.

The downside of trying to do this quickly is that sometimes you don't have time to figure why your laptop is running the fan on full, making your podcast sound fuzzy in a way that can't be avoided because It's Coming From Inside The Computer. Hope to get it fixed by the next episode, thought.

Is time passing by differently than it has in other periods of history .... which is to say, about the same as in other periods like this one?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Chicago_disaster

(My original goal with these quick Countdown mini-casts was maybe 2 minutes per - pretty sure this turned out to be the first one that was less than 3 minutes. Best laid plans...)

Maybe it makes sense to lock up the losers in our election battles, or at least to lock them up more than we do. This one is more partisan than I like to be, but only because the Republicans have more obvious and memorable scandals of government abuse. 

This article by Nicholas Grossman had some influence here, primarily because it's an excellent summary of what's been happening in the judicial branch:

https://arcdigital.media/against-the-judicial-wars-26baf22f3994

Everyone sees what they want in the nomination and confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, so here's a Fourth Turning POV on it.

Incidental find on how changing the court is practically a tradition during 4th Turnings. (Note the year...)

https://www.scotusblog.com/2013/07/the-first-court-packing-plan/

The days remaining until the 2020 Presidential Election are in single digits now, but it's been a long time since it started, and it may be worth considering shortening it up a bit.

Bernie Sanders started his presidential campaign on February 19; Elizabeth Warren on February 9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries]

One of my ongoing projects has to do with looking day-by-day at EVERYTHING happening during the months between V-E and V-J day. One of the events was the election in the UK, but there was also Trinity, the departure of the USS Indianapolis with the Hiroshima bomb, the sinking of the USS Indianapolis after it was delivered, the Potsdam conference...and that's just July.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1945_United_Kingdom_general_election

When ordinary everyday events start becoming indications of how out-of-balance our fundamental governmental structures have become.

The 1790 census:

https://www.census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/fast_facts/1790_fast_facts.html

The 2010 census, although of course the population has grown since then.

https://www.census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/fast_facts/2010_fast_facts.html

Yes, the video in this tweet is at least part of the reason the size of moose is on my mind

https://twitter.com/TeslaChillMode/status/1318394790531141633

Thoughts on a Friday night late in October, when Homecoming should be happening, but isn't.