When the government is owned and controlled by corporate oligarchs (like some sort of feudal lord and master), how can politics offer a path to social and economic reclamation and restoration of the ecosystem? Add in the distortion of corporate media and it seems like checkmate.
I hope you're all well fed and have many reasons to give thanks. As el, JtC, and Wendy pointed out this week, the mythology surrounding the holiday is farcical....celebrating the genocide of first nations peoples and the colonization and occupation of their lands...makes America great? Overeating, hyper-consumerism, and football are also typical of the celebration. In my corner of the world huntin' is another part of the tradition. This week we'll take a quick look at the holiday before delving into the news. (6 min)
Floods and droughts, droughts and floods...It was odd this week watching California burn as over four inches of rain fell here in the SE. We seem to be in an age of extremes - with our weather, wealth, war mongering, and welfare. Our political system is owned and controlled by the very agencies driving us down the path of extinction. Real information on foreign interference (by Israel and Saudi Arabia) is ignored as election theater designed to entertain and distract continues in my neighboring states of Georgia and Florida. What made me think of the title under water is the debt load with which we burden our young citizens...locking them into a life of indentured servitude. So let's jump in and see if we can keep our head above the flood waters of this week's news....
And then they stopped, at 11:00 in the morning, one century ago. They stopped, on schedule. It wasn’t that they’d gotten tired or come to their senses. Both before and after 11 o’clock they were simply following orders. The Armistice agreement that ended World War I had set 11 o’clock as quitting time.
Do you find it odd that we only spend four months on Standard Time and eight months on daylight saving time? What a con. No daylight is saved. The idea behind the changing of time was to save energy, but it doesn't. In fact DST seems to use more energy. Matthew Kotchen, a Yale economist, found a 1 percent increase in electricity use after Indiana introduced daylight saving statewide in 2006, estimating a cost of $9 million per year for consumers. No, it is about shopping...more shopping hours. Extra daylight means extra time to spend money. And if you’re in the United States, you’re probably going to get in your car to go spend that money. “Americans really do leave their homes when there is more sunlight at the end of the day,” said Michael Downing. “We go to the parks, and we go to the mall, but we don’t walk there,” he said. “Daylight saving increases gasoline consumption.” No one is more aware of that than gas stations, which is why the Association for Convenience and Fuel Retailing, a lobbying group for convenience stores, has pushed to start daylight saving time earlier in the year. This 1917 poster declares victory...a victory for capitalism and retailers.
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...
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.
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.
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.
I'm back home now...where crickets chirp and the forests drip with rain. In last week's essay I was in the North and West of Switzerland. This week we'll look South and East. I want to try to give my take on the local people rather than the tourists. The title of this essay describes much about the country...it runs like a Swiss watch...with precision. However there are strong regional differences...much like the US (despite it's smaller size). I'm no Rick Steves, but I'll also give you few of my travel tips. So if you would like, join in and take this last ride though Switzerland with me.
