1.
I saw this ad by Ron Reagan, son of you-know-who, on the TeeVee for the first time last week. It’s a short 30 second piece and was aired during three of the eleven Democratic debates. The major networks refused to run the ad except for CNN. We don’t have cable so no wonder it came as a surprise.
He’s not afraid to burn in hell by his own admission. Damn.
So he’s talking about the Freedom From Religion Foundation which is also new to me. I’m all for it. It’s set up to focus on protecting the constitutional principle of the separation of state and church. All for that.
One of the basic premises of small town Kansas church life was if you didn’t adhere and believe, you would, indeed, burn in hell. A lot for a wee mind to take on. The Riley Methodist Church is still standing as you can see.
"If you want to get together in any exclusive situation and have people love you, fine – but to hang all this desperate sociology on the idea of The Cloud-Guy who has The Big Book, who knows if you’ve been bad or good – and cares about any of it – to hang it all on that, folks, is the chimpanzee part of the brain working." – Frank Zappa
"One of his principle religions is called the Christian. It sets forth in detail in a book containing two million words, called the Old and New Testaments. Also it has another name – The Word of God. For the Christian thinks every word of it was dictated by God. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies." – Mark Twain from Letters from the Earth
And, of course, Ambrose Bierce from the Devil's Dictionary:
— Religion, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.
— Christian, n. One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor. One who follows the teachings of Christ insofar as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin.
These are just my views but I am A-OK with anybody believing whatever they want as long as it doesn’t infringe on the political, social, or personal.
2.
Speaking of Reagan, it took that Republican big screen personality to put the hatchet to renewable energy research when he took office in 1978. Jimmy Carter had pumped billions of dollars into it up to then. Because Reagan was a shill for big oil, among other corporate interests, the race to develop efficient solar cells took off in Australia. That led to China getting on board in a big way around the turn of the century.
As this article in the Guardian states, “In a quirk of history, what had begun as an American drive to wean itself off oil was eventually taken up by China, which made solar power dirt cheap in the process. The International Energy Agency now says solar is providing the cheapest energy the world has ever seen. But we’re headed towards a future of insanely cheap energy. It’s a fundamentally different world we’re moving into.”
3.
While we’re looking at the Guardian, check out the amazing work of Jean DuBuffet. A quote from the article states that, “He set out to destroy the idea that trained artists are better than untrained ones, that art is some special attainment that belongs to academies, museums and elites.”
Works for me.
4.
Since the regime change in January, I’ve been curious and baffled that, for one, Trump has not been taken to task for his many crimes, not to mention his involvement in the January 6th debacle. And what about the other crooks involved in his administration? Maybe it’s because the powerful protect the powerful.
I’ve been reading Caitlin Johnstone lately on the platform Medium and she introduces some concepts that may go against your belief systems but are worth pondering. Her focus is on attacking the narrative control of the political and media class.
In this post she lays out eleven things about her philosophy. Number four is titled "I see propaganda as the primary obstacle to ending the oligarchic empire," where she talks about "if you can control the dominant narratives in human society, you control human society itself."
She lists these false narratives which the political/media class pummels our consciousness with day in and day out (this was written in 2019 so keep that in mind):
– We live in a free and democratic society
– Your government is your friend
– Capitalism is totally working just fine
– Putin is trying to take over the world
– Maduro must go
– Assad must go
– The governments of Iran, North Korea, and every other nation which doesn’t bow to imperialist interests must go
– Assange is a rapist Nazi Russian agent who mistreated his cat so it’s good he’s locked up
– The TV would never lie to you
Just last week she addresses the concerns I stated in the first paragraph above with a post titled, “What If The Big Reveal Already Happened?” She says, “It’s really, really weird how any time there’s a major scandalous revelation about the powerful, there’s a lot of noise about it for a few days, and then essentially nothing happens. Mainstream news media might report on it for a bit (though sometimes if it’s really inconvenient for the empire they won’t even touch it), they trot out the pundits to manage the narrative in such a way that ensures nobody in power will ever face any consequences, and then it is quietly memory-holed.”
The silver lining is at the end of the article she says, “Our job is to help them see it. And the cool thing is, we can all do this. We don’t need to be a heroic whistleblower or daring investigative journalist, we just need a little creativity and a slightly different slant on things.
This is what Arundhati Roy was pointing to when she said, ‘Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness — and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe.'
It is good to be a hard-hitting journalist or an expert conspiracy analyst. But, because the Big Reveal has already happened, the real difference will be made by the artists."
5.
Ecocide [ˈēkōˌsīd, ˈekōˌsīd] NOUN: The destruction of large areas of the natural environment as a consequence of human activity. It is an umbrella term for all forms of environmental destruction from deforestation to greenhouse gas emissions.
That’s us, folks.
We all drive cars (yes, even electric cars) and use petroleum products (made from crude oil, coal, natural gas, and biomass); most plastics, glues, shampoo, rugs, paints, tape, all kinds of solvents.
Check out this list of items we use everyday that are tied to the petroleum industry. Americans alone consume petroleum products at a rate of three-and-a-half gallons of oil and more than 250 cubic feet of natural gas per day each.
It’s the world most of us were born into and the big money has been in oil since it first blew out of the ground. Click on the link for an interesting back story about the first wells being dug in Poland, a few years before Colonel Edwin Drake popped his cork in Pennsylvania in 1859.
According to Mélissa Godin writing for Time magazine, environmental advocates have championed the idea of creating an international ecocide law since the 1970s (since the 70s!!) that would be adjudicated in the International Criminal Court (ICC) and would penalize individuals responsible for environmental destruction. She says that the effort has gained significant traction over the past year, with leaders from Vanuatu, the Maldives, France, Belgium, the Netherlands—as well as influential global figures like Pope Francis and Greta Thunberg—expressing their support.
Check out more information from this article in the Guardian. What can you and I do? Here’s a website that encourages involvement.
“Believe it or not, a lot of folks on the Christian hard right around here are dead set against nature reserves. They think saving the wild environment is just an all-around bad idea. Don’t get me wrong. Most evangelicals I know are for conservation. They believe God means for us to save the Creation and God’s good green earth in general. But a few extremists are absolutely convinced God means us to do the opposite. They’re saying, ‘Use it all up, the faster the better, because Jesus is coming. The End of Days is almost here. He’ll show up as soon as the planet’s messed up a little bit more. The devil wants to keep us all here on earth, and Jesus wants to take us on up to heaven, at least He wants to take the true believers up.’ They say that’s all written in the Book of Revelation.” – “Anthill” E. O. Wilson
6.
And in a related story the Washington Post recently published an article about climate solutions; “Humanity’s greatest ally against climate change is Earth itself.” It posits that “Recovery is still possible — the kelp forests are proof. Along the California coast, marine protected areas have been established to protect kelp habitat. Fishermen are harvesting excess urchins from the barrens. Scientists are working on developing more heat-tolerant strains of giant algae, and environmental groups are restoring reefs and replanting the sea beds where kelp once grew.”
7.
I have one on order…you?
There you have it – as always, thanks for checking in!
Now, you know what…