JW Insider

Thanks for including this link. No one should minimize the real problems in Venezuela, but many of the particular pictures are being distributed by persons who are trying to create a lie, and then hoping they will be further redistributed (as planned) by people who don't know it is based on a lie. Here's what your source (snopes) said:
The money shown lying in the gutter in this picture is Venezuela’s old currency, the Bolívar Fuerte, which was replaced by a new form of currency, the Bolivar Soberano, in August 2018. When the Bolivar Soberano was introduced, Bolívar Fuerte currency in amounts less than 1,000 ceased to be legal tender, and Bolivar Fuerte currency in all amounts was completely withdrawn on 5 December 2018. Hence the discarded money seen here was literally worthless not because it had no value, because it had been completely replaced by a newer currency and was no longer legal tender.
It reminds me of the plot of the comedy "Millions" (2004) when the Bank of England is about to move from the British Pound to the Euro and the bank is shipping the old money from banks for destruction and replacement. (Spoiler alert: If you haven't seen the move, and want to, the following hidden paragraph may spoil it for you.)
This has actually happened to large amounts of currency in several countries, including the United States in the 1860s, the Deutschmark in Germany in the 1940's. On a similar note, thousands of dollars of older paper bills are destroyed by the Federal Reserve daily to keep newer currencies in circulation.
Similar to Venezuela, Brazil ran through hyperinflation in recent decades (unrelated to socialism) and replaced many paper currencies one right after another:
Hyperinflation in Brazil was a fourteen-year period of three-to-four-digit annual inflation rates from 1980 until 1994.[1] It coincided with the period of economic crisis and political turmoil triggered by the 1970s energy crisis during the Brazilian military dictatorship until the conclusion of the main processes of the democratic transition in the country in the late-1980s/early 1990s.
The republic went through several short-lived currencies, including the cruzado, cruzado novo, cruzeiro, and cruzeiro real, before introducing the Brazilian real in 1994 which proved to be a stable currency.

Thanks for including this link. No one should minimize the real problems in Venezuela, but many of the particular pictures are being distributed by persons who are trying to create a lie, and then hoping they will be further redistributed (as planned) by people who don't know it is based on a lie. Here's what your source (snopes) said:
The money shown lying in the gutter in this picture is Venezuela’s old currency, the Bolívar Fuerte, which was replaced by a new form of currency, the Bolivar Soberano, in August 2018. When the Bolivar Soberano was introduced, Bolívar Fuerte currency in amounts less than 1,000 ceased to be legal tender, and Bolivar Fuerte currency in all amounts was completely withdrawn on 5 December 2018. Hence the discarded money seen here was literally worthless not because it had no value, because it had been completely replaced by a newer currency and was no longer legal tender.
It reminds me of the plot of the comedy "Millions" (2004) when the Bank of England is about to move from the British Pound to the Euro and the bank is shipping the old money from banks for destruction and replacement. (Spoiler alert: If you haven't seen the move, and want to, the following hidden paragraph may spoil it for you.)
This has actually happened to large amounts of currency in several countries, including the United States in the 1860s, the Deutschmark in Germany in the 1940's. On a similar note, thousands of dollars of older paper bills are destroyed by the Federal Reserve daily to keep newer currencies in circulation.
Similar to Venezuela, Brazil ran through hyperinflation in recent decades (unrelated to socialism) and replaced many paper currencies one right after another:
Hyperinflation in Brazil was a fourteen-year period of three-to-four-digit annual inflation rates from 1980 until 1994.[1] It coincided with the period of economic crisis and political turmoil triggered by the 1970s energy crisis during the Brazilian military dictatorship until the conclusion of the main processes of the democratic transition in the country in the late-1980s/early 1990s.
The republic went through several short-lived currencies, including the cruzado, cruzado novo, cruzeiro, and cruzeiro real, before introducing the Brazilian real in 1994 which proved to be a stable currency.

Also not fake. I printed all these myself, and accidentally printed so many I use them as tissues and throw them into paper bags to toss out. Point being that it's not impossible to create propaganda, especially when there's a measure of truth in it.
 
 

Also not fake. I printed all these myself, and accidentally printed so many I use them as tissues and throw them into paper bags to toss out. Point being that it's not impossible to create propaganda, especially when there's a measure of truth in it.
 
 

I referred specifically to a period of time from mid 1976 to mid-1977 when I saw drunkenness and saw persons getting in trouble for drunkenness. During that time the reasons for weekly dismissals were announced by Knorr from "morning worship" which included Knorr's comments every weekday morning after the day's text and comments. He often went into great detail about the exact reasons that persons were dismissed, and it was almost always for theft or some kind of immorality. Persons were dismissed every week, but during that time there was never an announcement of someone being dismissed for drunkenness.
It was after mid-1977 that announcements about the reasons for dismissals stopped, and this is why we could not assume to know the reasons for dismissals from that point on.
In any case it's still true then, that I saw drunkenness and misuse of alcohol by younger members at Bethel, but never heard of a case where a person was dismissed for it. I cannot say it didn't happen. Yet I did know persons who got away with repeated drunkenness who were never dismissed.
I have never seen a member of the Governing Body drunk. I never even suspected it. One of several persons who claimed that he had seen such a thing, had his own issues with alcohol in my opinion. The only member of the Governing Body I knew well was Bert Schroeder. (I saw and worked near Sydlik, Gangas and Swingle on a daily basis but never got to know them very well.) He hosted a Gilead party in his room after every graduation. Invariably, there were some very talented persons in the Gilead class musically, and a great Flamenco style Spanish guitarist at the very first "Gilead party" I attended in the Fall of 1976. Brother Schroeder served alcohol in his room, but I don't recall him drinking at all, not that it would have been a problem if he did. Everyone else also drank moderately. This was very early and memorable in my Bethel years, and it was the first Bethel "party" I attended.
But among younger Bethelites, alcohol seemed to me to be a bigger problem than I had expected. In 1978, I went to Europe for about 6 weeks, part of it with the Schroeders, and part of it to work at the Athens branch, and part of it to attend various international conventions and visit and stay at 8 European branch offices - not in any official capacity of course, just as a free hotel room. Just before the trip, my brother had just sent me a 5-gallon bottle of Seagrams 7, which I had not opened and I asked my three roommates not to open while I was gone. It was empty when I came back.
Several young brothers at Bethel had lamps that were made from these 5 gallon whiskey bottles, and I gave away the empty bottle to a brother who wanted to make a lamp out of it. Who knows? It might have been passed down to someone who is still there.

The laws governing the use of currency images. (US)
Reduce or Enlarge the Image – The image must be less than 75 percent the bill's actual length or more than 150 percent the of the currency's actual length. A dollar bill is 6.1 inches long, so it can only be used at 4.6 inches or smaller or at larger than one and a half times its actual size — at least 9.2 inches. Print One-sided Only – The printed piece cannot use the currency as a double-sided image. It can only be one-sided. You may show the front or the back but not both. Destroy Creative Materials – Scans, digital files, negatives, plates, and any other materials used in creating the currency reproductions must be destroyed, deleted or erased after final use. All complied with I am sure?  😊

Also not fake. I printed all these myself, and accidentally printed so many I use them as tissues and throw them into paper bags to toss out. Point being that it's not impossible to create propaganda, especially when there's a measure of truth in it.
 
 

I used to work on a computer every day that had a stainless steel hard drive as big as a car steering wheel, and NO monitor.
The output was on  a wide bodied dot matrix printer with holes on both sides, with paper on a continuous roll below the table.
In 1971 it cost $26,000, and was as big as a desk.

PROVING PROOF IN ALCOHOL
The word proof came about in the 18th century when sailors, unloading their ships of cargo and whiskey, had only one way to tell the strength of the liquor they were carrying: they would mix a little bit of whiskey with a pinch of gunpowder and drop a lighted match into the mixture. If it ignited with an audible “proof!”, the sailors knew at least half the content was alcohol.
Alcohol needs no lawyer – it has proof.   Audible, visible and  otherwise!
They want to say he is an alcoholic without 100% proof?   
 

Nothing specific enough to be of interest to anyone looking for gossip. I think most people know that young Bethelites got in all sorts of trouble. For a few months under Knorr, there seemed to be someone sent home for 'conduct unbecoming a Bethelite' every week, sometimes two or three on the same day, and sometimes more than once in the same week. But this was when Knorr was handling the "morning worship" every day in 1976 and a bit of 1977. After Knorr was too sick, the daily text "morning worship" rotated and I never remember anyone else announcing dismissals, except maybe Milton Henschel when he wanted to make a point about the specific type of misconduct. Knorr was always very specific and it became counsel for the rest of the family, even if it took the form of a long rant that could even make you late for work.
So what I meant was that I never remember Knorr berating anyone for drunkenness or dismissing anyone for it. The dismissals that came afterward were not announced to the whole family so I have no idea what most of them were for, unless there was a clear rumor to go with it.
Back in those years almost everyone could still drink at age 19, and there were only a few 18 year olds on construction and painting crews mostly. It wasn't until 1984 that all states went to 21. But there was a time when it was easier to buy liquor in NJ (and they moved the age down from 19 to 18 in 1980). Some Bethelites would take trips from NY to NJ to stock up and then bring it back to share (or resell) to others.
Drinking was much more common than I expected, but I am not trying to give the impression that there was rampant drunkenness. It's just that you could tell that some young brothers were away from their families for the first time, had a measure of independence and privacy at Bethel, and there were several obvious mistakes made. The parties in some rooms made worldly neighbors complain from a couple of the buildings nestled in between apartments that the Society did not own. I knew a Bethelite who got in trouble for this, but he was not sent home.
The rumor about "higher-ups" is not directly related, but it was related to the "gifts" of prime cut steaks that were sent periodically from Watchtower Farms to Brooklyn. These were never served to the Bethel family, but I knew one of the cooks who was sworn to secrecy about who got them and how often. There are always perks in any organization for those at a certain level of responsibility, and this was not a "Governing Body" thing. It was more of a long time seniority thing, which will necessarily (sometimes) overlap. Since these steaks were served semi-privately as specially cooked meals, they could be served with alcohol, but some brothers were said to have already served themselves alcohol before coming down to get their meal. Certain brothers became known for this behavior, even to the point of using very foul language to the cooks and waiters. If you want to keep a secret the last thing you want to do is curse out a cook or a waiter.
Anyway, the basic idea, which I could not say because I don't know, was that Knorr knew that some high-seniority people had been known to misbehave in this area, and it might have produced some leniency when younger ones had this trouble.

Nothing specific enough to be of interest to anyone looking for gossip. I think most people know that young Bethelites got in all sorts of trouble. For a few months under Knorr, there seemed to be someone sent home for 'conduct unbecoming a Bethelite' every week, sometimes two or three on the same day, and sometimes more than once in the same week. But this was when Knorr was handling the "morning worship" every day in 1976 and a bit of 1977. After Knorr was too sick, the daily text "morning worship" rotated and I never remember anyone else announcing dismissals, except maybe Milton Henschel when he wanted to make a point about the specific type of misconduct. Knorr was always very specific and it became counsel for the rest of the family, even if it took the form of a long rant that could even make you late for work.
So what I meant was that I never remember Knorr berating anyone for drunkenness or dismissing anyone for it. The dismissals that came afterward were not announced to the whole family so I have no idea what most of them were for, unless there was a clear rumor to go with it.
Back in those years almost everyone could still drink at age 19, and there were only a few 18 year olds on construction and painting crews mostly. It wasn't until 1984 that all states went to 21. But there was a time when it was easier to buy liquor in NJ (and they moved the age down from 19 to 18 in 1980). Some Bethelites would take trips from NY to NJ to stock up and then bring it back to share (or resell) to others.
Drinking was much more common than I expected, but I am not trying to give the impression that there was rampant drunkenness. It's just that you could tell that some young brothers were away from their families for the first time, had a measure of independence and privacy at Bethel, and there were several obvious mistakes made. The parties in some rooms made worldly neighbors complain from a couple of the buildings nestled in between apartments that the Society did not own. I knew a Bethelite who got in trouble for this, but he was not sent home.
The rumor about "higher-ups" is not directly related, but it was related to the "gifts" of prime cut steaks that were sent periodically from Watchtower Farms to Brooklyn. These were never served to the Bethel family, but I knew one of the cooks who was sworn to secrecy about who got them and how often. There are always perks in any organization for those at a certain level of responsibility, and this was not a "Governing Body" thing. It was more of a long time seniority thing, which will necessarily (sometimes) overlap. Since these steaks were served semi-privately as specially cooked meals, they could be served with alcohol, but some brothers were said to have already served themselves alcohol before coming down to get their meal. Certain brothers became known for this behavior, even to the point of using very foul language to the cooks and waiters. If you want to keep a secret the last thing you want to do is curse out a cook or a waiter.
Anyway, the basic idea, which I could not say because I don't know, was that Knorr knew that some high-seniority people had been known to misbehave in this area, and it might have produced some leniency when younger ones had this trouble.

I am still under my own self-imposed gag order with respect to joining in discussions of anything controversial that might affect anyone's view of Witness doctrine and Watchtower practices, past and present.
Also, I have not listened to Lloyd Evans for more than 5 minutes, total. I heard he did a fair job on the Montana CSA trial, but I have only read the court documents. I know nothing of this liquor store picture/video, and am embarrassed to comment in a topic with this name. I go into a liquor store almost weekly myself because the owner lets me take about 30 strong cardboard boxes every Saturday night or Sunday morning. Once every month or so, I'll feel bad about taking advantage, so I buy a bottle of wine. I need the boxes because I'm in the middle of culling out literally thousands of books from my shelves and storage, and other things from my garage and basement, that I've been donating and tossing. Hundreds of these books were given to my wife when she was the school district's Director of Second Languages, ESL, and Curriculum. They lavished sets of books on her because she made decisions that would mean tens of thousands of dollars for these vendors. I have no direct knowledge of Knorr's gifts or offers from vendors, if any, but I've heard about similar rumors.
Drinking stories were always rampant at Bethel. There were always stories of higher-ups getting drunk, but this was likely fueled by younger Bethelites who were looking for excuses for their own behavior. The cooks who worked an after-dinner late shift only available to "higher ups" had the most consistent stories, but I still saw signs of exaggeration. But I have seen young Bethelites get drunk, and it was shameful and embarrassing. (For some 19 and 20 year olds, Bethel would have been their first real experience with alcohol.) I have seen housekeepers gathering liquor bottles from rooms and the sum total would have surprised anyone. I was sometimes surprised that people were periodically sent home for stealing and immorality, but never (that I knew of) for excessive drinking.
This does not mean that excessive drinking was ever condoned. I heard plenty of good scriptural counsel against excessive drinking from the Bethel "morning worship" following the discussion of the day's text. 

I just watched the video from the last post. Very creepy. Seems it should be illegal to post a video like this. GB TMZ. Easily misinterpreted, too.

I have driven in traffic, in Lima Peru.
It is like  a hive of bees flying combat. They have traffic lights only because other countries have them.
This sprinting accomplishment reminds me of the Texan who once bragged "It takes THREE DAYS to drive across Texas."
The other guy said " Yeah .... I used to have a car like that".

I just watched the video from the last post. Very creepy. Seems it should be illegal to post a video like this. GB TMZ. Easily misinterpreted, too.

I just watched the video from the last post. Very creepy. Seems it should be illegal to post a video like this. GB TMZ. Easily misinterpreted, too.

Maybe there were shades of dictatorship, maybe someone was frightened of something. But the reason I share all of this is because we need to know that people will have the same problems now as they had for thousands of years.
Think about what you might have done if you lived in the reign of King Manasseh or had knowledge of David's immorality before it was put in CONTEXT by the rest of the Bible. Of what about being stumbled by the way men from James, and also John and Peter were acting with respect to the Judaizers mentioned in Galatians 1 and 2. Or if you knew that the "Governing Body" had given a decree including not eating meat sacrificed to idols and then you heard the apostle Paul preach that it was OK to eat meat sacrificed to idols? Or what if you had heard Jesus say you have to eat his body and drink his blood? Or what about all those superfine apostles that attracted followers of men in first-century congregations? What if you heard that Peter had killed 2 contributors to the early congregation for holding back some of their claimed contribution.
These might have seemed causes for stumbling, and we could easily conceive of many brothers backing away from their congregations in doubt or even defiance of false understandings. But what was the correct response? If some might have known better, or saw that something was not really handled Biblically, would merely running from it have been the loving thing to do?
I think some have too high an opinion of what the GB represent, even higher than what the GB are claiming themselves. For those persons, it's good to review the record. For others, too, it's good not to place too high of expectations on humans, but appreciate the truths themselves. The message outweighs the messenger.

I agree, so far, with everything else in that last post except this claim that there is nothing we can do but watch. I think that, as Witnesses, we should have faith that these problems will be completely resolved by the end of the thousand year reign. I don't think it is the responsibility of Witnesses to be climate activists, but we should be aware of the science and do our best to understand it ourselves, or find trustworthy sources to inform us on the topic. I'm sure you feel this is what you have done.
It is difficult to be fully informed on our own, and this is true of most subjects. Fortunately, my son graduated with his degree in physics and he teaches physics and math. He also stays in contact with classmates (former roommates) who have already gone on to work in areas of physics that have a bearing on the topic.
I still need to do a lot more work on the claims about water vapor being the only greenhouse gas that has any significance. From what I have seen so far, this has been a common claim of those who deny the consensus of climate scientists. However . . .
Water vapor is a completely different kind of greenhouse gas that doesn't trap heat in the same way as methane and CO2. Besides, even though it does trap heat to some extent, it also releases it, cools it, dissipates it, and because clouds are white, it even manages to reflect a lot of solar heat back out away from the earth. There may be a lot of water vapor, but within our current atmosphere, it has surprisingly little effect on the question of why we are seeing a rise global warming and the melting of polar ice. (Except to the extent that water vapor protects us from runaway effects of those greenhouse gases that are much more efficient at trapping heat.)
But I also see another point worth mentioning, I think. Climate science consensus deniers (yes, it's a prejudicial term, but you know what I mean) they have written as if this is something that climate scientists have ignored, as if it's something brand new to them that they have never factored in. I found that implication (or explicit claim in one case) to be totally without basis. So far I haven't seen any treatments of climate change by "consensus" climate scientists who have in any way ignored the actual "numbers" and effects of water vapor. But I will admit to needing a bit more of my own research on this topic.

I agree, so far, with everything else in that last post except this claim that there is nothing we can do but watch. I think that, as Witnesses, we should have faith that these problems will be completely resolved by the end of the thousand year reign. I don't think it is the responsibility of Witnesses to be climate activists, but we should be aware of the science and do our best to understand it ourselves, or find trustworthy sources to inform us on the topic. I'm sure you feel this is what you have done.
It is difficult to be fully informed on our own, and this is true of most subjects. Fortunately, my son graduated with his degree in physics and he teaches physics and math. He also stays in contact with classmates (former roommates) who have already gone on to work in areas of physics that have a bearing on the topic.
I still need to do a lot more work on the claims about water vapor being the only greenhouse gas that has any significance. From what I have seen so far, this has been a common claim of those who deny the consensus of climate scientists. However . . .
Water vapor is a completely different kind of greenhouse gas that doesn't trap heat in the same way as methane and CO2. Besides, even though it does trap heat to some extent, it also releases it, cools it, dissipates it, and because clouds are white, it even manages to reflect a lot of solar heat back out away from the earth. There may be a lot of water vapor, but within our current atmosphere, it has surprisingly little effect on the question of why we are seeing a rise global warming and the melting of polar ice. (Except to the extent that water vapor protects us from runaway effects of those greenhouse gases that are much more efficient at trapping heat.)
But I also see another point worth mentioning, I think. Climate science consensus deniers (yes, it's a prejudicial term, but you know what I mean) they have written as if this is something that climate scientists have ignored, as if it's something brand new to them that they have never factored in. I found that implication (or explicit claim in one case) to be totally without basis. So far I haven't seen any treatments of climate change by "consensus" climate scientists who have in any way ignored the actual "numbers" and effects of water vapor. But I will admit to needing a bit more of my own research on this topic.

It would have to be a small star sized chunk of iron .... probably not something you could get at an automobile scrap yard.
Further, when a star collapses, it can go Nova, or Supernova, which is how we get elements heavier than iron.  This is the natural life cycles of Stars, and there is NOTHING we can to to speed it up, slow it down, or ANYTHING ... except watch.
I suspect in the New System, with perfect people, and 10,000 years of scientific advancement, this will STILL be true.
Same with "Climate Change", AKA "Global Warming.
There is nothing we can do except watch .....
and perhaps move to the mountains, or buy a boat.

I think it can be misleading to look at the ability of the atmosphere to absorb billions of tons of elements in the form of gases and particulates outside of the "normal" levels of Carbon Dioxide, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Dihydrogen Monoxide 😉, Methane, Ozone, etc. But the theory of global warming is really about "tipping points." It's not "linear." The atmosphere can absorb tons of "pollutants, but only up to a certain point when new effects can be measured.
It's also an attempt to explain why we have been able to measure the gasses trapped in ice for thousands of years based on deep core samples and see a very stable rise and fall in "greenhouse gases" up until the last few decades. These are evidently natural cycles. You can think of distortion, interference or spikes in an otherwise smooth sine wave on an oscilloscope. These "spikes" could be from oceanic or volcanic disruptions over the last thousands of years, and we can't really correlate these with global temperatures since there was no one there to measure prior to the last few decades. So the threshold line is theoretically arbitrary. Still, if we could hypothesize a "tipping point" threshold line, it's easy to see that spikes that occur below the threshold line would be meaningless. But to test the theory we would want to watch for possible additional effects over the line. But now we have a new spike that hasn't abated, and it's 10 times taller than the last spike on the chart below (not shown).
Why a huge spike now? Is there more volcanic activity now? NO. Is there more methane and CO2  released now? YES. So this is where and why we would start looking for cause and effect.

It's not fully analogous, but some TV Science channel once ran a special about how you could kill the Sun with a chunk of iron. Completely false, but it turns out that there are stars of certain sizes that would not survive an influx of iron. More accurately, stars fuse hydrogen to helium -- and the core of the star, through real alchemy, can "fuse" elements all the way up to iron, but no further. If it starts trying to fuse iron, it means its energy will quickly be lost and the star will quickly collapse. The point is that it might be surprising that a star (depending on mass/gravity) that has a certain level of iron in it could be fine, but just a tiny bit more and the whole star just collapses.

Yes. It would. Every penny that we spend determines not only matters of climate change, but all of reality.  

Coincidence is not causality.
That's the thing about WDS ... it makes you see things that are not there .... a theocratic hallucination.  A mirage. The remembrance of a favorite cartoon that was never actually made.

Americans in the United States are close enough to 50/50. But to be fair, you weren't speaking about Americans. I only responded to your claim about "the world."
Measuring stats from Gallup-style surveys can be very misleading, too, especially on a topic that varies so much by demographic (education, age and political ideology). 17 year old HS students in rural areas will have a different outlook than 18 year old college students in cities. Lack of worry can be a positive measure among some and a negative outlook of total despair among others. 
It's to be expected, in my opinion too, but it does not necessarily follow that these additional resources are due to climate change. There might have been a decision to devote more resources due to several other factors. And if funds for these purposes were to run out, it would also not follow that climate change disasters had diminished. 

I'll keep this going . . .
About a dozen GRAMMY-winning artists and producers. Attended a couple Grammy Awards with meetings throughout the "Grammy week" that precede the live Sunday broadcast, meeting various artists and songwriters, and attended one "afterparty." I never got up the nerve to "meet" the most famous artists, but did meet several of the most famous producers and record label owners. [Names removed on purpose.]
I once worked at the headquarters of a religious organization/publisher where Michael Jackson and most of his entire family toured in 1976. Also never "met" any of them but did say hello when they passed near my desk. I did briefly meet a performing artist named George Benson (singer/guitarist) at the same headquarters in 1979.
Similarly, in an IT job with an international financial services company that I kept from 1987 to 2015, I "met" technical leaders like Steve Jobs, Steve Chase, Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates, and other CEOs, etc.,  who sometimes gave the opening addresses at trade shows and seminars I attended at NYC's Jacob Javitz, San Francisco, Boston, San Diego and Las Vegas convention centers, etc. I heard Richard Branson speak in San Diego, but I never actually talked to any of these people for more than 5 seconds. Most of them, none at all.