Thanks to everyone who commented in ‘3 Birds, 1 Stone Strategy.' A pleasure to see people thinking real thoughts, and saying them well. [https://caucus99percent.com/content/use-%E2%80%9C3-birds-1-stone-strateg...
The Two Parties and the Media fail to serve our interests. Actually, work against them most of the time. If this doesn't change, and real soon, they're going to take us over a cliff. And real soon.
That these "3 Birds" are corrupt, self-serving, and divorced from reality is an assertion few "everyday people" would even try to refute. Not least because it can't be done.
Like George Carlin, I find it ironic to hear pleas to save the planet. What they are really saying is save our species. St. George suggests the Earth may have created us because it wanted plastic. It sure succeeded if that's the case. But the microbes may have the last word. The idea of plastic eating microbes (well really it is a mutant bacterial enzyme, PETase) is appealing, but it seems every time we meddle it comes out bad. The story of rabbits in Australia comes to mind. George's dream of our final fate is also worth considering. None the less, I suspect we would be better off to minimize the manufacture, use, and dispersal of plastic. https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/
What irony as T-rump's inauguration protesters (and those who were simply in the area) face years in prison for exercising their rights that old “tiny hands” wants to protect the rights of Iranian protesters. In Saudi Arabia protests are not tolerated, but they are our allies. In Israel they treat Palestinians (especially those that protest) inhumanely, but they are our ally and seemingly our foreign policy directors. Meanwhile, we circle North Korea with aircraft carriers and line up missiles on their border and then holler about their aggressiveness? And perhaps the biggest hypocrisy, T-rump calls for more global warming as cold weather descends (largely due to climate chaos). All the while the news media misleads and distracts.
Well finally some good news from an Alabama election....not all is bad in this state with such a bad reputation. There's good and bad everywhere I guess. Alabama does have cults. Have you read Salvation on Sand Mountain? I taught many children from the Holiness Church discussed in the book, but that's not the kind of cult I have in mind. It is the cult of media that Max Blumenthal talks about that we'll discuss in today's column. Then finally we'll go round and round the news cycle and end up celebrating the longest night of the year.
I think the revolution been stifled with silence, prevented by propaganda, and choked with debt and economic struggle. The important stories are not presented to “We the People”, or the stories are spun to promote more war and corporate profit. Mix in a capitalist collection of ads designed to make you eat stuff that's bad for you, ask your doctor for more drugs, take out a forward and reverse mortgage, and of course love your favorite fossil fuel company.
Public services like education, healthcare, and I would add a balanced rational press or news media, should not be operated by for-profit corporations because the real mission of helping people is lost in the quest for ever more return for investment. The Fourth Estate has been inherited (or perhaps purchased or captured?) by the elite. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Estate
Charm will make its NYC debut off Broadway on August 31 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre under the auspices of MCC Theater.
Written by Phillip Dawkins, the play is directed by Will Davis.
I'm not a fan of music award shows, so I avoided tuning in to last night's VMA awards on MTV. In fact, I don't think I've surfed to MTV since some time in the 80s.
If you are like me, then you missed that MTV invited six current or retired transgender military members to walk the red carpet.
Researchers at the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism claim the following:
Watching transgender characters on fictional TV shows has the power to influence attitudes toward transgender people and policy issues.
This chart comes from this site.
