It's a Slippery Slope
When the Empire Falls

Across the country and world symptoms of the collapse are evident. Our self centered “for profit” mentality is driving us to the brink of extinction. We have created the forever war on terror by droning our way to ever more terrorists. All the while bowing to the god of profit by selling weapons to both sides of most conflicts. On a large scale we have promoted environmental degradation, climate chaos, and the sixth mass extinction event largely for the profit of a few fossil fuel giants. On another scale we see the public sphere privatized “for profit” from schools to prisons to hospitals to parks to... a for profit system enforced by militarized police. And yet another obvious symptom of the fall of the empire is the crony corporate economy designed for the elite with the current tax cut as a prime example.

The Weekly Has Gone on Holiday!

What follows is my brief take on the weeks news and a few interesting pieces I encountered. In the meantime, I hope you will share your important stories which I can catch up on tonight.

Grassroots?

Can the grassroots crumble the corporate culture? Roots do break apart rock. This week's edition features some stories of efforts to change the system. As usual we'll look at the whirlwind of news from Alabama to Asia, from Saudi Arabia to Russiagate, from armistice day to veterans day, from war to peace and prosperity, and more....

The Situation is Revolting...
So Where's the Revolution?

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

We face two great existential threats today... nuclear war and climate chaos. Hopefully we can keep those tiny hands off the red button, but there is no guarantee. Global warming is so problematic because of our denial combined with the rush to extract as much profit as possible from the fossil fuel industry before its inevitable collapse. Before we despair, it might be wise to reflect on the advice of the fine historian, Howard Zinn:

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness."
"What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction."
"And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

I guess I have a problem with greatness. Great at what? Great perpetrator of violence? Great extractor of resources? Great polluter and destroyer of the environment? Great military power? Great imprisoners? Great torturers? Great liars? If those are the categories...
then America is G R E A T !

If we're talking about the best country in which to live, then the US is way down the list. I'm not a magic mirror so I can't really say which country is best...probably depends on your lifestyle, but my money would be on one of the Scandinavian countries...or maybe New Zealand...or Bhutan...or...? Regardless of which country is best, many other countries offer their citizens better opportunities and lives than the US offers its citizens. The entire concept of being great is a farce.

It's 1, 2, 3 What Are We Fighting 4?

I keep waiting for some group to promote a people's platform. Since I haven't seen one, I decided to produce a wish list myself. Over four decades ago my partner worked with Paul Torrance http://stateofcreativity.com/dr-e-paul-torrance/ I learned through their work that in order to accomplish things we need to develop a positive future image (which is why Paul developed a future problem solving competition for children). So what follows is my list of goals for a positive future in the US and world. Of course there will also be the usual summary of this week's news.

Looking for Allies in the Calm Before the Storm

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You guys know what this represents? Maybe it’s the calm before the storm.
REPORTER 1: What’s the storm, Mr. President?
REPORTER 2: What does that mean?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Could be, the calm, the calm before the storm.
REPORTER 2: What storm, Mr. President?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We have the world’s great military people in this room. I will tell you that. And we’re going to have a great evening. Thank you all for coming. Thank you.”
REPORTER 2: What storm, Mr. President?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You’ll find out.

Nate is heading my way...and it literally is the calm before the storm.

The disaster of capitalism has been on display this week
...and is insidious, hidden and obscured

As if it isn't obvious with our corporation-in-chief and oligarchy cabinet, our democracy has devolved to a corporate controlled society. All is geared toward making the rich ever richer at the expense of the poor and disadvantaged. It all happens so fast we get lost and numb. Think about this week alone...from the proposed tax plan that is a give away to the wealthy...to the vultures taking advantage of the destruction of Puerto Rico...to the failed T-rumpcare designed for profit and tax relief..to the privilege of the oligarchs chartering planes at tax payer expense for convenience. Yes it is obvious the system is failing.

History is Written by the Victors
and
... the microbes will have the last word

Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters.
African Proverb

Napoleon once said, "What is history, but a fable agreed upon?”
(paraphrasing ~François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694–1778), "Jeannot et Colin”)

People are trapped in history, and history is trapped in them.
James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

The obscurest epoch is today.
Robert Louis Stevenson, Across the Plains