Turning the Corner

It's Halloween, Day of the Dead, and All Saints Day rolled into one this week. After all we are midway into fall, halfway between the equinox and the solstice...one of the four corners of the year. The US election looms, and Brazil's election is today...both seem rigged to me. Central American refugees migrate north toward probable conflict and violence. Stronger and more frequent storms have become the norm. The market is falling and the dollar's international supremacy slips more every day. I jokingly suggested several months ago TPTB planned to reduce global warming with a nuclear winter...I hope I wasn't prescient...as the US withdraws from nuclear treaties and continues to increase our stockpile of destruction.

Are you scared yet? We might already be...

Another Day Older and Deeper in Debt

We may be a day older, but apparently no wiser. It is the same con again and again. The debt is too big, we have to cut public services. And people buy it? They should listen to the two part interview with Jimmy Dore and Stephanie Kelton in last week's column. They ask the question, "How can a country that prints its own currency lack capital?". We print money nilly willy for wars and tax cuts...but not for the citizenry. It is a scam plain and simple. Some of the elite even admit it. Disney heir...“So anyway, 1%-ers are doing better than they ever have been doing, and guess what? You are paying for all of it.” (article and 4.5 min video) We seem to live in a nation of scams perpetrated by the oligarchs.

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Much of this week's news cycle makes it plain that as a species we react, but we're not very good at acting today for a better tomorrow. Give me mine NOW! It isn't just the hurricane and UN climate report that drive this lesson home to me but also the WaPo journalist slaughtered in Turkey by the Saudis - where has the outrage been about the Yemeni children whose blood is on our hands too. And how about the so called correction (crash) of the market this week "caused by the tariffs"...while ignoring the over valuation caused by corporations using their tax cuts to buy their own stock (which used to be illegal). So humans seem pretty good at jumping after they've been burned, but not so good at avoiding setting the woods on fire in the first place.

Seeking Clarity

As I was washing windows this week, I reflected on this column and it's origins. I started compiling these pieces a couple of years ago trying to consolidate, summarize, and make sense of the week's news. I'm just back onto the news cycle after a month away...only Kavanaugh's genitals and T-rump's trade sanctions got coverage in the main EU news. Yet somehow it all seems the same...the same old aggression, distraction, and manipulation...some things never seem to change: Many are suggesting we prepare for a coming economic crash, we are warned of the exponential growth of our climate crisis, we see ongoing war and threats of more and more. So I'm washing windows, seeking a little literal clarity while listening to some pretty interesting interviews. I hope you'll chime in with your stories and insights as well.

Laboring to Understand

I've been struggling to understand human behavior and actions this week (maybe every week). As it's Labor Day weekend I was thinking about the current labor strikes in our prisons. Really it is a strike against inhumane conditions and out right slavery. So why is it humans are so cruel to one another, to our fellow lifeforms, to our ecosystem at large. I usually explain it as greed, but I fear it is something deeper ... a fatal flaw in the nature of our species. It seems we lack the ability to act now for our future tomorrow. The corporate media can be blamed in part, but some things have become pretty obvious. How about the wild weather we've been having world wide? But we still keep pouring carbon into the air and pushing for more fossil fuel...basing most of the worlds economy on its extraction and use...driving absurd wars in the middle east and blatant efforts at regime change in Venezuela. Is it willful ignorance, or are we truly blind?

Ninth Dimensional Distractions

American people are routinely misinformed, misled, and deceived by the lame stream media. It is no wonder that we are rushing head long toward extinction. The international media has displayed less interest in global warming and climate change throughout the last decade. For the most part, US citizens can barely keep their heads above water as they struggle with multiple jobs...or no job. Snippets of news are all people have to inform their world views.

July 3, 2017, to July 3, 2018, MSNBC dedicated zero segments to the US’s war in Yemen, but 455 segments to Stormy Daniels. … After all, Obama backed the war on Yemen—though not nearly as aggressively as Trump has—and it’s difficult to make a coherent left-wing, anti-war criticism when the current Republican in office is simply carrying out your guy’s policy, but on steroids.

https://fair.org/home/action-alert-its-been-over-a-year-since-msnbc-has-... And it isn't just US media...even in New Zealand people get the corporate spin. We face even more serious threats to independent media due to a spate of corporate censorship. Facebook and Twitter in conjunction with CIA staffed think tanks are taking down accounts of Iranians, Russians, and others they deem inappropriate. Even Telesur English was removed from Facebook for a few days until public outcry paved the way for their return https://mronline.org/2018/08/21/what-is-behind-facebook-deleting-telesur...