Juliana Vs. United States - Possibly The Most Consequential Court Case in U.S. History

CBS 60 Minutes aired a piece on Climate Change last night. If you have 14 minutes to spend learning a little about the history of climate science and policy in the United States it would be worthwhile to watch.

Some of the key points -

- At it's most basic level this is a case pitting young people concerned about the future of the planet against old people who are willing to gamble with young people's futures to maintain the status quo.

- Julia Olson, an Oregon lawyer, and the executive director of a non-profit legal organization called "Our Children's Trust" began constructing the case eight years ago. She represents twenty one young people who each have stories of how they have been harmed by climate change and will eventually testify at trial.

- Her team has constructed a timeline of what and when past U.S. administrations knew about the connection between fossil fuels and climate change. The timeline goes back over 50 years, beginning with the presidency of Lyndon Johnson in 1965 when the administration was made aware that climate change was a catastrophic threat. Every president since Johnson has been aware of the fact that burning fossil fuels was causing climate change.

- Fifty years of evidence has been amassed by Olson and her team, 36,000 pages in all, to be used in court.

- The legal proceedings have required the government to make some startling admissions in court filings. It now acknowledges that human activity - in particular, elevated concentrations of greenhouse gases - is likely to have been the dominant cause of observed warming since the mid-1900s… That global carbon dioxide concentrations reached levels unprecedented for at least 2.6 million years… That climate change is increasing the risk of loss of life and the extinction of many species and is associated with increases in hurricane intensity, the frequency of intense storms, heavy precipitation, the loss of sea ice and rising sea levels. And the government acknowledges that climate change's effects on agriculture will have consequences for food scarcity.

- In response to a government attempt to have the case dismissed, Judge Ann Aiken wrote, "Exercising my reasoned judgment, I have no doubt that the right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life is fundamental to a free and ordered society."

- The Trump administration, which is now defending the case, has done everything it can to keep the trial from going forward. It's appealed Judge Aiken's decision three times to the ninth circuit court in California and twice to the Supreme Court. Each time it's failed.

- Julie Olson says, "The government doesn't want the case to go to trial because they will lose on the evidence that will be presented at trial. They know that once you enter that courtroom and your witnesses take the oath to tell the truth and nothing but the truth the facts are the facts and alternative facts are perjury. And so, all of these claims and tweets about climate change not being real, that doesn't hold up in a court of law."

- The next oral arguments in Juliana v. United States are scheduled for June in Portland.

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The online after-show interviews are worth watching if you have time. James Hanson's granddaughter is part of the lawsuit. James Hanson was the NASA scientist who warned Congress about the consequences of human caused climate change over 30 years ago and who's predictions have borne out since that time.

Climate change and how society deals with it are extremely complex issues. Most people like to be able to afford to heat their homes and many people have no choice but to drive to and from work. The nations food supply is heavily dependent on the use of fossil fuels. There are legitimate concerns about causing economic upheaval with misguided attempts to stop using fossil fuels without viable plans to deal with the fallout of changing our sources of energy.

On the other hand as Julia Olson says in the 60 Minutes episode, "If we don't address climate change in this country, economists across the board say that we are in for economic crises that we have never seen before."

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We will never get anywhere if the debate doesn't include some simple ground rules -

- Agreement on a set of scientifically verifiable facts agreed to by the vast majority of scientists working in the field

- Arguments cannot include finger pointing and charges of hypocrisy aimed at the other side. We are all hypocrites and there are no "sides" when the question is if we want a planet that is habitable for future generations.

- Criticizing a plan to address climate change is not sufficient. Critics must also articulate their alternative plans to address climate change. Ignorance, hand waving, denying science or sticking your head in the sand are not considered viable alternate plans.

The United States needs a massive public service education campaign to inform citizens about what scientists have to tell us about climate change impacting the natural world and what the future will look like if we elect to do nothing. I'm not so sure human nature isn't inclined to do nothing and deal with the consequences as they occur...but at least people will be making an informed decision.

Poverty and Human Rights in the United States of America

The 2018 Report of the U.N. Special Rapporteur - On Extreme Poverty and Human Rights in the United States of America, is interesting to consider if you are open minded. You probably didn't see much about it from corporate media but it is eye opening.

If you prefer to proclaim American Exceptionalism in all things - while refusing to consider the non-mythologized history of the U.S.A. or the current state of affairs for large segments of the population in this new Gilded Age...then the report is probably not for you.

Some people believe this report led to the U.S. discontinuing it's membership on the U.N. Human Rights Council. Criticism of the Trump administrations policy of separating children from their parents by the Human Rights Council was probably a factor in the withdrawal, as well as the official reason given - that the Council was unfair to Israel for criticizing their treatment of Palestinians.

In any event the report is sobering and serves as a good counterpoint to the tired old propaganda the Heritage Foundation has been putting out for decades.

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Here are a few samples from the U.N. Report -

"The United States is a land of stark contrasts. It is one of the world’s wealthiest societies, a global leader in many areas, and a land of unsurpassed technological and other forms of innovation. Its corporations are global trendsetters, its civil society is vibrant and sophisticated and its higher education system leads the world. But its immense wealth and expertise stand in shocking contrast with the conditions in which vast numbers of its citizens live. About 40 million live in poverty, 18.5 million in extreme poverty, and 5.3 million live in Third World conditions of absolute poverty. It has the highest youth poverty rate in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the highest infant mortality rates among comparable OECD States. Its citizens live shorter and sicker lives compared to those living in all other rich democracies, eradicable tropical diseases are increasingly prevalent, and it has the world’s highest incarceration rate, one of the lowest levels of voter registrations in among OECD countries and the highest obesity levels in the developed world." 

"The United States has the highest rate of income inequality among Western countries. The $1.5 trillion in tax cuts in December 2017 overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and worsened inequality. The consequences of neglecting poverty and promoting inequality are clear. The United States has one of the highest poverty and inequality levels among the OECD countries, and the Stanford Center on Inequality and Poverty ranks it 18th out of 21 wealthy countries in terms of labour markets, poverty rates, safety nets, wealth inequality and economic mobility."

"Defenders of the status quo point to the United States as the land of opportunity and the place where the American dream can come true because the poorest can aspire to the ranks of the richest. But today’s reality is very different. The United States now has one of the lowest rates of intergenerational social mobility of any of the rich countries. 

Zip codes, which are usually reliable proxies for race and wealth, are tragically reliable predictors of a child’s future employment and income prospects. High child and youth poverty rates perpetuate the intergenerational transmission of poverty very effectively, and ensure that the American dream is rapidly becoming the American illusion. The equality of opportunity, which is so prized in theory, is in practice a myth, especially for minorities and women, but also for many middle-class White workers."

Note: If you would like to learn more about super Zips and the resulting class divisions in American society the book Coming Apart by Charles Murray is interesting.

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The United States has swung very far to the right since the 1980's. Voodoo economics aka trickle down theory aka the Laffer curve were features of the Reagan revolution which have been carried into today's government where the GOP passed a tax bill that provided massive amounts of corporate welfare and tax breaks favoring the tippy top of the plutocrats. The party that purportedly valued fiscal responsibility did this by adding trillions of dollars to the national debt for our children to pay for. Reagan tripled the national debt fyi - so this isn't something new. 

Another feature of the Reagan revolution was an all out assault on labor unions which helped lead the United States to the conditions we see described in the 2018 U.N. report. Bill Clinton did his share to undermine the working and middle class as well by repealing Glass-Steagall which turned out to be a key factor in enabling the 2007 Great Recession. Clinton also "triangulated" with hard right wingers like Newt Gingrich to pass the welfare reform act which helped lead us to the type of poverty we see described in the U.N. report.

After a few decades of these neo-liberal unregulated free market policies where middle class families tax dollars are transferred to the defense industrial complex, and other rent-seeking entities (farm subsidies for example), we start to see the devastating effects on society today.

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You may ask yourself what the terms "right wing" and "conservative" mean in today's parlance? What does it mean to say Neil Gorsuch is a "conservative" judge?

It boils down to one thing - money. Well maybe two things money and power. There have always been plutocrats and special interest groups willing to buy politicians, but since the Citizen's United Decision dark money has invaded our political (and therefore legal) systems, unlike anything we've seen in history.

The term conservative is just about as meaningless as liberal or socialist but it doesn't take a wacko conspiracy theorist to at least wonder -

do the people in power that identify as "conservative" really care about hot button emotionally charged topics like abortion, religious freedom, freedom of speech or gun control? Or is the way they frame these topics a way to convince working and middle class American's to vote against their own self interests? I'd recommend reading What's The Matter With Kansas by Thomas Frank if you are interested in this topic. He's got plenty of unflattering things to say about liberals as well in his book Listen Liberal or Whatever Happened to the Party of the People?

So when Neil Gorsuch, who's mother Anne proudly rolled back many environmental regulations as EPA administrator under Ronald Reagan, is appointed to the Supreme Court who do you think controls our government? When Neil Gorsuch auditions for his appointment to the Supreme Court by writing the one dissenting opinion in a case where a truck driver was fired for leaving his load because he was freezing to death...who do you think controls America? 

If you are interested in how our government was taken over by far right radical libertarians the book Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean has an interesting take. One of the funny things about this book is that Nancy MacLean writes about the many corporate funded think tanks and fake grass roots movements (astroturf movements funded by dark money) that exist in America to try and sway middle Americans into voting for politicians who do not represent them. Her book resulted in literally hundreds of op-eds, online articles etc. attacking her thesis - from people paid by the very think tanks she is criticizing...which sort of proves her point.

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My generation obviously hasn't been able to solve this. We've seen things degrade over the last few decades. Younger people can swing things closer to the center by supporting candidates and policies that today are labeled - radical far left socialism - policies that would have been considered moderate during the Eisenhower administration. 

The extremely well funded right wing will use whatever propaganda they can to convince citizens that things that used to be considered standard features of American life - labor unions, public funded schools, a medical system not dominated by profit seeking corporations, sensible environmental regulations, a government that worked for the people and not the corporate military industrial complex - are somehow now the ravings of mad socialists who want to take away our hamburgers. 

I don't think American people are that stupid - I believe there are a majority of Americans who see through the smoke and mirrors. Unfortunately many of them have never, or have given up on, participating in the political system. About 50 percent of eligible voters actually vote - that's terrible for a democracy (and in some sense proves the old saw that we get the type of government we deserve). We need politicians who can energize those citizens who don't vote.

Read! Get educated! VOTE!

History Doesn't Repeat Itself But it Often Rhymes

Field of Vision - A Night at the Garden from Field of Vision on Vimeo.

The quotation "history doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes." is often attributed to Mark Twain.

It seems apt when we consider Charlottesville, Trump Rallies and closer to home here in the Pacific Northwest - the incident on campus at the UW where a MAGA supporter shot a peacemaker in the stomach.

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"The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist."  

Hannah Arendt - The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)

No Cannibalism!

Finister Alcot III was elected President of the Middle States of America in 2072. Finister, himself the beneficiary of a multi-trillion dollar trust fund provided by his late father Finister II, ran on the campaign slogan, "What About Me?"

Fin's trust fund had been earned by the pater familias Finister I who made his fortune selling feline life insurance policies. Stories were told of Fin I threatening to kill old and confused people's kittens if they didn't pay up on their premiums.

Finister was a member of the brown eye party. He roused the rabble with stories of frightening, despicable, acts by their enemies in the blue eye party.

He gathered a devoted following of brown-eyed middle Americans by bragging that he and his family had retained their inherited wealth through various criminal or otherwise corrupt activities often aimed at grifting small sums from the very middle Americans who grew to love him. His argument that "as a thief he would be uniquely qualified to recognize thievery in government" made something like sense.

Finister III won the debates by making fart sounds whenever his opponents spoke and sneaking up behind them to paste "kick me" stickers on their backs.

He went on to win the general election by constantly reinforcing in his followers what they already had been taught by the people with good hair on the screens  - blue eye bad, brown eye good.

Shortly after being elected, Finister III and his son Finister IV were accused of selling the Liberty Bell to a group of Kazakhstani oligarchs who intended to use it in a theme park being built in their home country. When accused by members of the resistance of being a traitorous crook he used the time honored schoolboy defense "I know you are but what about me?"

When videos were released of the two Fins taking a bag of money from the Kazakhs shortly before helping them load the bell into a Dodge Ram XXII pickup truck - Fin asked, "Are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?" Many chose him.

In addition to the Liberty Bell affair there were 957 other documented cases of Fin's misdeeds ranging from shooting guys on Fifth,  Sixth  and Seventh Avenue, to public endangerment - for using a can of hairspray as a flame thrower to ward off members of the fake news.

None of that mattered though. Fin early on in his administration had set the bar for defining a successful President quite low.

As long as there was "no proof I have eaten another human being", he told the Middle Americans - "you may consider Finister Alcot III the greatest President ever".

He and the billionaire talking heads on the Fin News Network answered every accusation of wrongdoing with responses like, "No Cannabilism!", "I Never Cannabilized Any Human",  "You're the Cannibal".

Some people thought they remembered a time before America split into pieces where leaders were held to a higher standard but that feeling didn't last long.

The Fin News Network now controlled public perception of current, past and future events. FNN broadcast 24/7 using drones equipped with loudspeakers and virtual reality projectors showing Fin riding a dragon in battle against the blue-eyes. The drones were programmed to enter the homes of anyone who might be exhibiting some unsanctioned memories and stay with them until those memories were erased.

In addition to the drones, and virtual reality dragons, Finister Alcot III pioneered another device that was used to ensure "*leaders" of the brown eyed party were always sufficiently obsequious to the great and mighty Fin. The device was known as the BandomaticTM. It was modeled after a manual device used by people who raised sheep in the 20th century.

The original device was a rubber band placed around the sheep's scrotum which eventually resulted in the sheep's testicles falling off. Fin III automated that device and was able to remotely control the amount of pressure it exerted. He then had it attached to every politician in his party (they were all males fyi). When people heard these politicians talk about how great Fin III had been for middle America they wondered why they spoke in high voices as if in pain. Little did they know that Fin was in the process of removing the testicles of these gutless wonders via the BandomaticTM as they spoke.

And that my friend is how in the future not being a cannibal became the threshold for being a great - many people are saying the greatest - President ever.

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*The term "leaders" in the later half of the 21st century was primarily used to describe politicians, and sometimes talking hairdos on screens, who had enough theatrical skills to fool the gullible and those who want to believe - but without sufficient acting skills to be in traditional theatre. This is why we sometimes hear critics refer to politicians and talking hairdos as "bad actors."

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Are we better than this?

Dogs

Dogs live life to the fullest because they appreciate the present moment - a ball, a friend,
a treat, a touch, a sunbeam or a nap.  

Unlike dogs, who can find great joy in the present moment - humans spend time worrying
about today, tomorrow or yesterday. We are intelligent enough to know that there is
inescapable suffering in the world. No matter how hard we try to prevent, or escape
suffering, we are left with a transient world. Nothing is permanent including our lives
and the lives of those we love.

Religious, spiritual or philosophical paths can help us accept that sorrow, loss
and suffering are inevitable and give us the wisdom to appreciate the transitory
precious things in life all the more. Misguided notions of success-theology, the
advertising industry and society in general teach that material possessions are
the key to happiness. Anyone who has loved a dog knows otherwise.

Dear God help me to be as enlightened as my dog.

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A New Meaning For Antifa

We are either in, or entering into, a new post-enlightenment dark age. This is a post-factual age where feeling and emotion trump logic and reason.

How did this happen?

America has become a nation of children.

People who stubbornly assert their freedom as Americans to believe whatever they want based on how they feel.

Adults who can't or won't grow up.

As a baby boomer I think of the generation before mine and how it felt to have adults in the room. Adults who fought a World War, survived a Great Depression, worked out a New Deal, built an interstate highway system, sent a man to the moon - and acted like - adults.

Now we are a nation of cartoon watching, video game playing, short pants wearing, plastic surgery enhanced; children - squalling and squawking because we have been victimized by some other group of children. Our debates have the intellectual quality of calling each other poop heads or fart brains.

You want to believe - yes we want to believe.

We want to and will believe anything - FEMA concentration camps (you bet), Trilateral Commission (sure why not), Soros (oh don't get me started), Vaccines Cause Autism (feels true), Obama's a Muslim and a citizen of Kenya (there's some proof somewhere) , College campuses overrun by radical leftists (for the last 60 years no less), scary black or brown people all over (oh my), contrails and black helicopters (scarrrrry), bigfoots and E.T. (I feel they exist so they do) we need our bug out bags and 30 clip magazines before the SHTF brother...

We have alternative facts baby...or no facts at all - we have truthiness which is better than truth because truth is hard (you can't handle it). Truthiness allows for simple gut-felt solutions to complex problems without all that effort that goes into actually being a free, thinking, human being.

So before we slip into a post factual and very dark world lets all join hands in the new Antifa (Anti-Fantasy) movement. You will join a group of citizens who believe the solutions to societies problems lie in science, data and facts -------- and in adults acting like adults.

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"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me."

1 Corinthians 13:11 (NIV)

From the book - "Public Opinion" written by Walter Lippmann in 1921

"For the real environment is altogether too big, too complex, and too fleeting for direct acquaintance. We are not equipped to deal with so much subtlety, so much variety, so many permutations and combinations. And although we have to act in that environment, we have to reconstruct it on a simpler model before we can manage with it." 

"Since position and contact play so big a part in determining what can be seen, heard, read, and experienced, as well as what it is permissible to see, hear, read, and know, it is no wonder that moral judgment is so much more common than constructive thought. Yet in truly effective thinking the prime necessity is to liquidate judgments, regain an innocent eye, disentangle feelings, be curious and open-hearted."  

"Theoretically, if each fact and each relation had a name that was unique, and if everyone had agreed on the names, it would be possible to communicate without misunderstanding. In the exact sciences there is an approach to this ideal, and that is part of the reason why of all forms of world-wide cooperation, scientific inquiry is the most effective." 

"Millions of those who are watching him can read hardly at all. Millions more can read the words but cannot understand them. Of those who can both read and understand, a good three quarters we may assume have some part of half an hour a day to spare for the subject. To them the words so acquired are the cue for a whole train of ideas on which ultimately a vote of untold consequences may be based." 

"The mass of absolutely illiterate, of feeble-minded, grossly neurotic, undernourished and frustrated individuals, is very considerable, much more considerable there is reason to think than we generally suppose. Thus a wide popular appeal is circulated among persons who are mentally children or barbarians, people whose lives are a morass of entanglements, people whose vitality is exhausted, shut-in people, and people whose experience has comprehended no factor in the problem under discussion. The stream of public opinion is stopped by them in little eddies of misunderstanding, where it is discolored with prejudice and far fetched analogy."

"Under modern industrialism thought goes on in a bath of noise. If its discriminations are often flat and foolish, here at least is some small part of the reason."  

"The intolerable burden of thought" is a burden when the conditions make it burdensome. It is no burden when the conditions are favorable. It is as exhilarating to think as it is to dance, and just as natural. 

From the book - "Public Opinion" written by Walter Lippmann in 1921. 

So You're Thinking of Buying a Cow?

This brochure from the University of Wyoming gives
some basics you’ll need to know.

Here’s a few basics that stand out to me.

You buy the cow in November and it weighs 700
pounds.You then feed the cow until June and it
weighs 1100 pounds. After butchering the cow you
end up with 450 pounds of beef.

For that 450 pounds of beef you’ll feed the cow 3000
pounds of hay and 1350 pounds of grain.

Your total expenditures for raising that cow are
$1,845.86. If you skip buying and raising a cow
you can go to the grocery store and buy your
450 pounds of beef for $2,081.25. Cow growers,
like all farmers, operate on very small margins.

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Actually the thing that really stands out to me is
that you will feed a cow 4,350 pounds of food to
get 450 pounds of food you can eat. Why not just
cut out the middleman(cow) and eat the hay and
grain yourself? Alfalfa hay is high in protein.

If your a human, with only one stomach and a weak
set of chompers, eating hay is not a good
choice for feeding yourself. We grow alfalfa
to feed cows not people - silly.

What if instead of alfalfa we used that land to grow
peas, lentils or soybeans? That means we’d miss
the smell of fresh cut alfalfa (if you’ve never smelled
it that’s a pity) but the upsides when it comes to
saving our planet probably outweigh the downsides.

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I’m not going to bore you and myself with a lot of
facts and figures to make a point of why not eating,
or cutting back on eating, beef is good for the
environment. Just think about it...we use petroleum
powered machines to grow and transport crops to
use as food for cows. If instead of growing and
transporting cow food, we grow and transport
human food, it reduces the amount of CO2 we are
putting into atmosphere. Right?

How much CO2 you ask? I don’t know and neither do
you - partly because we live in a society where cows
are sacred. Not Hindu sacred but McDonald’s
sacred. Talking about the negative impact of beef on
health or the environment is a bit of a taboo in the
good old US of A.

I kept reading interesting stories in the Guardian
(an independent non-US newspaper) about how
cutting back on beef consumption reduces our
carbon footprint and is an important element in
combating climate change, but wasn’t
seeing much of anything like that coverage in
the New York Times or Washington Post.

If you would like to confirm for yourself that there
is some bias when it comes to beef and climate
change - search The Guardian, New York Times
and Washington Post using the search term
“beef climate change”.

Here I did it for you…

The Guardian

The New York Times
Washington Post

See what I’m talking about?

The Post has some relevant articles relegated to
the food or wonkblog section, the Times not much
and The Guardian puts articles on the front page.

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Yes for sure it’s complicated - lots of people are
employed in raising, selling, transporting and
cooking cows. If we all turn into Tofu heads what
are all the people employed by Burger King,
McDonalds, Wendy’s, Carl Juniors going to do?
Good question but they’ll be replaced by robots
soon enough anyway so not exactly a convincing
argument for continuing to eat dead cows.

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Here’s a small science lesson about the carbon cycle
before I go.

Plants absorb sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow.
In that growth cycle they output oxygen. Plants
absorb carbon. Petroleum is a super-concentrated
form of plant matter. There’s a lot of dead plants
(carbon) in that gallon of gas. When the gas
combusts in our internal combustion engines
we release a whole bunch of carbon dioxide,
a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.

Scientists have known for over a hundred years that
one way to warm up a planet is to create
greenhouse gases like CO2. James Hansen testified
before Congress over thirty years ago how humans
use of fossil fuels was causing the climate to change.
Ronald Reagan pulled the solar panels off the White
House roof, installed by Jimmy Carter, and
for good measure rolled back the EPA CAFE
standards. Money talked then as now, and people
wanted to believe in myths provided to them by a
Hollywood actor, so they did, but I'm not really
interested in assigning blame - we are all culpable.
I can't help but think we all want future generations
to live in a world that includes the Monarch butterfly.

Did you know water vapor is a potent greenhouse
gas?

It is indeed which leads us to one of the vexing
challenges of studying our climate and how it’s
changing. Changes to the climate are non-linear.
There are feedback loops all over the place that
we don’t understand completely because we can’t
model them accurately. Here’s what I mean -

As the oceans, rivers and lakes warm - more
water evaporates which means we have more
of that strong greenhouse gas, water vapor,
in the atmosphere. This warmer air is able to hold
more water vapor than colder air which only
exacerbates the problem.
See how this works?

Water evaporates, causing higher temperatures,
causing more water to evaporate causing even
higher temperatures. That’s what’s known as a
positive feedback loop in control theory.

Enough for now - whatever food you choose to use
to power your body, be good to each other.

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Real Men Don't Punch Down

I was in Montana last summer and saw a young father with his family. He was wearing a t-shirt that said "Trump Strong".

I felt pity for that young man with his t-shirt praising a man-child bully and entitled spoiled brat, who's demonstrations of being "strong" included making fun of a disabled reporter.

I felt shame, that some segment of the population of our country, could be so ignorant.

Saddened that people in this country are hurting so badly that they are willing to give allegiance to a dangerous despot who will use their pain to ensure his (and his cronies) gain.

That level of ignorance brings to mind something Walter Lippmann wrote in 1921 -

"The mass of absolutely illiterate, of feeble-minded, grossly neurotic, undernourished and frustrated individuals, is very considerable, much more considerable there is reason to think than we generally suppose. Thus a wide popular appeal is circulated among persons who are mentally children or barbarians, people whose lives are a morass of entanglements, people whose vitality is exhausted, shut-in people, and people whose experience has comprehended no factor in the problem under discussion. The stream of public opinion is stopped by them in little eddies of misunderstanding, where it is discolored with prejudice and far fetched analogy."

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It's shameful and frightening, how some American's - who legitimately feel that their interests have not been served by the government for decades, are willing to suspend disbelief and live in a fantasy world where the current president is not a complete and total embarrassment, but rather someone to be praised and honored. Particularly when we consider what people in other countries have to say about Individual-1. 

Refusing to Step Down from the Bridge

Losing the ratings war and having your show cancelled is tough for some fantasy figures. I anticipate that in 2020 when the fantasy figure occupying the White House is asked to step down we will see a similar inability to deal with reality.

In Politics - Young People Are Our Future

In the 2016 presidential election Donald Trump lost the vote by wide margins for voters under the age of 45.

For those who were 18-29 years old Trump received 36 percent of the vote.

For those who were 30-44 years old Trump received 41 percent of the vote.

Why was Trump so unpopular with voters under 45?

Fox News and Right Wing Hate Radio are not particularly popular with the younger crowd.

Younger people are less fearful than older people in general. The two most significant issues for older people who voted for Trump were immigration and terrorism - which Fox News and Right Wing Hate Radio has taught them to fear.

Younger people have the technological savvy to pick whatever media sources they want and don't have to wait for Hannity or Carlson or Fox and Friends to come on cable TV to tell them who to hate and what to be afraid of.

I heard Bernie say that he won more votes from that younger cohort in 2016 than both Clinton and Trump combined - so there is hope.

Louis Armstrong - What A Wonderful World

Blessed Be The Peacemakers

In 1967 Dr. Martin Luther King nominated Thich Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize with the statement,

"Thich Nhat Hanh is a holy man, for he is humble and devout. He is a scholar of immense intellectual capacity. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument of ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity."

In his book "Living Buddha Living Christ" Thich Nhat Hanh writes,

"To take good care of yourself and to take good care of living beings and of the environment is the best way to love God."

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That sentiment seems uncontroversial but...

You will find any number of professed Christian people who want to show by their theology that Thich Nhat Hanh a Buddhist has little or nothing to teach them since they have the way, the truth and the light all to themselves.

Believing the only way to God is through Jesus Christ shuts down dialogue with people of other faiths or no faith at all and opens the door to all sorts of human calamities. Any fundamentalist belief in concepts we arrive at through faith is insanity - as we see from so many insane wars, driven by insane hate and insane fear of our fellow human beings.

Christianity like any religion is a human construct and being so is ultimately corruptible. We have mega-churches where mega-pastors teach the prosperity gospel which has nothing to do with anything Jesus ever taught. In the political realm we have evangelicals (whatever that means) a majority of whom think lying, being unfaithful, cheating and being cruel are acceptable characteristics for a leader. We have Catholic priests and bishops who apparently can't stop sexually abusing other human beings.

What Jesus taught was radical compassionate anarchism but that doesn't fit into our consumerist war mongering society.

You want radical?

Here's what Dorothy Day the Catholic Anarchist has to tell us -

"if you have two coats, you have stolen one from the poor."

In our fake free market capitalist randian libertarian society that's radical.

Happy to Be Here

What a nice day to be alive walking in the sunshine.

It's good to think about how kindly fortune has treated those of us who have our health, family, freedom and faith.

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If you like Joan Baez's music or are just curious about a major 1960's folksinger there's an hour long Joan Baez performance from 1965 on BBC. She's so young and so sincere. This particular song from the performance is called "There But For Fortune".

No News is Good News

I've been taking a news break for the last week.

What a relief.

I highly recommend it.

__________________


I'm sort of a broken record I guess. I was writing about the idea of letting go of the news 15 years ago here. In some ways I wish I would of followed my own advice. I've jokingly told a few people that the last 3 years have been the perfect hell for me as I tried to learn and understand what was happening in our country. Somewhat foolishly I thought I could dip into the stream of information, find the explanation and then hop out without impacting my psyche.

I subscribed to the local paper, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Guardian, read quite a few books, read lots of political websites, subscribed and read various magazines, listened to right and left wing talk radio and podcasts, watched Fox News, MSNBC, CSPAN and CNN. Some was very educational and I think I have a pretty good idea what happened and what continues to happen...but mostly I found myself depressed, angry and anxious.

I didn't have time to do that level of self-directed research while I was working. My interest was piqued when our current president announced his candidacy shortly after I retired. Trying to understand what happened to our country became a bit of an obsession and wasn't good for me physically or mentally.

Was it worth it? i think so. Being a citizen in a democratic republic requires a certain level of knowledge about current events, politics, law, business, economics, media, religion, philosophy and history. If you give up on being an informed citizen and take refuge in your tribe, hobby, or other diversions then we can't have a democracy. We end up with various forms of propaganda that; steer people into voting for candidates or parties that don't represent their interests, divide people to minimize their collective power or demoralize people to the point they opt out.

It's all fascinating and frustrating. I know I can reduce the frustration and anxiety by steering away from current events depicted in newspapers (radio/TV) and still learn from books, selected magazines and websites without going off the deep end.

I've been reading some books by the Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard and he writes about reading the newspaper and feeling like he dumped a trashcan over his head...yeah something like that.

So I'm taking a break from the 24 hour news cycle.

Andrew Weill calls it a news fast.

Desiderata (written by Max Ehrmann in 1926)

“Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others,

even to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Walking in This Moment

 “The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.”

Thich Nhat Hanh 

(from his book How to Walk)

It's All Right Here

I’m unhappy – the world is unhappy. No God, no love, no joy, no choice, no freedom. No self.

I think therefore I am. But thinking is hard, so being lazy, I decided to stop. I instead let people tell me what to think, who to blame, who to hate, what to fear and who and what to love.

I escape the hard work of examining my life to consider what I have done right, what I could do better, and to atone for wrongs I have done others and to my self.

Rather than coming to terms with the inevitable - sickness, old age and death; I chase something, anything as long as it allows me to forget who and what I am.

I have no desire to spend time thinking and rethinking how to live a a good life. I gave up my individuality to escape from the anxieties, uncertainties and personal responsibilities of freedom. I take the path of least resistance and allow propagandists, advertisers, televangelists, self-help gurus and various snake oil salesman to sell me a life. They whisper in my ear that life isn’t hard, all I really need is this car, this soap, this political party, these clothes, that house, these pharmaceuticals and my wildest dreams will come true.

Having jettisoned religion I no longer have a ready source of stories about loving one’s neighbor, helping those less fortunate, or the interconnectedness of all things. I have no time or need to ponder the mysteries of the universe, the world, and the people in it. Instead I am left with the fake certitudes of ideologies I’ve neither studied nor understand and am left with no rock to anchor to in a harsh and ever coarsening world.

How do I avoid squandering my incredible, wild and unique life?

There is no answer. If someone tells you only he/she has the answer – run fast and far.

Life is a journey not a destination. It is difficult and will take honesty and courage to be truly alive. I have only the hard work of confronting my self, my God(s), my shortcomings, my failures and asking for forgiveness and strength to do better.

If I have the courage to accept that life is hard, often sad and sometimes tragic - I will have the emotional range to experience the joys of love, compassion, and the wonder-filled appreciation that I am alive on this earth. If you put in the work you’ll realize that this is it – where you are now, these people, this room, this air, this earth – right here right now – this is it.

Conscious Culture Festival

Photos From Montana - Spring 2014

Link to Flickr Set