Shorter work week is a good idea
Category Archives: Opinions
See me then
Ranked Choice Voting – a Fair Method!
Socialism the democratic way
After Math Class
I just wanna live
By Keedran Bryant
He shouldn’t have to sing this song. But he did and we thank him.
It’s going to be a long hot summer – more Twitter mourning
A morning on Twitter in middle of Pandemic – is he obsefecating again?
My hero never shirks from real language
Published on
by
Chomsky Says Trump a ‘Sociopathic Megalomaniac’ Who Made US ‘Singularly Unprepared’ for Pandemic
New comments from the renowned academic come after he accused Trump of wanting “to destroy the prospects for all organized human life… in the near future.”
We need to bring back the Unions
Wanted: No War
The longer other countries, such as Iran and North Korea, are not allowed to have nuclear energy, the longer they are dependent on oil!
As The Guardian said “The establishment assumes that Iran can never possess nuclear weapons, yet the United States lives with nuclear-armed adversaries like Russia and China and aligns with the nuclear-armed military dictatorship in Pakistan.”
The Climate Crisis almost demands that we enable the building of more nuclear power plants. We have learned from our mistakes how to build them safely now. We should offer to build nuclear facilities for any country that wants them! Especially Iran and North Korea.
But Big Oil, with their fossil fuels lobby, holds tremendous economic power and influence on politics, particularly in the United States. They continue to scare the public over anything nuclear.
We need to fear Climate Crisis more than War. Iran having the ability to build a nuclear warhead is not nearly as dangerous as Trump having control of the US arsenals.
Data matters:
If you are running in a group, perhaps it is a race. Otherwise it’s not.
Perhaps the cause of our greatest problems
Go here for some good data displays
https://inequality.stanford.edu/publications/20-facts-about-us-inequality-everyone-should-know
Define Conundrum
a question asked for amusement, typically one with a pun in its answer.
No Is Not Enough – the book
The new book “No Is Not Enough” by Naomi Klein should be read by all. It was rushed out in reaction to Donald Trump, but includes important comments about climate change and the anthropocene.
Because one of the most unjust aspects of climate disruption is that our actions as adults today will have their most severe impact on the lives of generations yet to come, as well as kids alive today who are too young to impact policy — kids like Toma (her son) and his friends, and their generation the world over. These children have done nothing to create the crisis, but they are the ones who will deal with the most extreme weather — the storms and droughts and fires and rising seas — and all the social and economic stresses that will flow as a result. They are the ones growing up amidst a mass extinction, robbed of so much beauty and so much of the companionship that comes from being surrounded by other life forms.
The above quote from the book is how I feel about my grandchildren (aged 12-19). Global warming, climate change, neoliberalsim, the USA oligarchy, Trumpism, all of these things are not their fault. The adults of the “western world” have effed up society and the planet so bad that I feel revolution will be the only way out. And these kids will be fighting the wars, unless we can help wake people up to the dangers.
Get a copy of the book, buy it, library it, borrow it. And learn more at
“I’m not looking to overthrow the American government, the corporate state already has..” – John Trudell
States that Discriminate
I love my state — California. We have an Assembly Bill AB 1887 that prohibits state sponsored travel to 8 states that have passed laws discriminating against various classes of people. I think more states should follow suit, to put pressure on these backward, mean state governments.
This list is here to help me remember to not vacation in these states and to minimize travel time if we must travel through them on the way to somewhere else.
• Alabama
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Mississippi
• North Carolina
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
Some day, hopefully, these states will change their laws and support all people.
Noam Chomsky Interviewed at Google
Noam Chomsky appeared at Google in Cambridge May 23, 2017, to speak to an audience of primarily Google staff. The video of the “Google Talks” event was published to YouTube June 5.
This discussion seemed to be more personal than I have heard Chomsky before. Usually Professor Chomsky is “on topic” all the time. The interviewer did a great job, acting like a student sincerely interested in Chomsky’s early life and how he became an activist.
Later in the talk, the word “internet” came up, more and more. Chomsky obviously uses Google products, but only mentioned Google Translate specifically.
He warned about using Artificial Intelligence for more than just data mining. AI should be used for more humanistic endeavors. Understanding ourselves, our species, should be the focus of our prime directive.
I enjoyed it and recommend that you take an hour to listen to a very open discussion: human existence should be our number one priority.
You can watch it by clicking here
or by going to www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C-zWrhFqpM directly.
You can also just search in YouTube.
Solving big problems is easier than solving little problems. – Sergei Brin
Good Books
Here are two of my recent favorite books, both written by Yuval Noah Harari. Both are well marked, they are very thought provoking. “Sapiens” was written first, it is a full history of our planet, and should be read first. “Homo Deus” is a description of one possible future. For open minded people…
Real Patriotism
‘Real Americans’ have always been rebels: a guide for progressive patriotism
by Micah White in The Guardian newspaper March 2017
to see the full article Click Here
Thomas Jefferson, an author of the Declaration of Independence, once wrote in a letter to James Madison, architect of the US constitution and bill of rights, that “a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical”.
Jefferson also advocated only mild punishment for rebellions so as to avoid discouraging them too much. And, in a wakeup call to today’s Americans, Jefferson famously advocated revolutions every two decades, writing in 1787: “God forbid we should be 20 years without a rebellion … What country can preserve its liberties if the rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?”
Abraham Lincoln echoed Jefferson during his inaugural address in 1861 when he said: “This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember, or overthrow it.”
And so too did Ulysses S Grant in 1885 when he declared: “The right of revolution is an inherent one. When people are oppressed by their government, it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve themselves of the oppression if they are strong enough, either by withdrawing from it, or by overthrowing it and substituting a government more acceptable.”
and
Nowadays, the right of revolution is as inalienable as ever, yet it is rarely acknowledged by those in power. Unlike presidents Jefferson, Lincoln and Grant today’s leaders are loathe to concede that if their government is oppressive, then the people have a duty to revolt. Notice how Barack Obama is fond of praising protesters’s right of assembly but stops far short of celebrating the right of revolution.
All this leads to the final epiphany that we, the people, have a patriotic duty to defend our country whenever our governments conflicts with a higher, democratic ideal.
