Symptoms of climate change in Australia 12/31/19

This month, January, 2020, there will be a focus on Climate Change. The book, The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells will be frequently referenced.

 

It is interesting that Mark Carney from the Bank Of England is asking financial institutions to gather information from creditors about their involvement in activities that fuel climate change. This seems to be a systemic intervention in asking corporations to become more socially conscious and not just consider their bottom line. This is a significant change in emphasizing certain values in our capitalistic economic system.

Non fiction books I read in 2019

Non fiction books I read in 2019

Nonfiction

01/05/19 White Fragility by Robin Diangelo

01/11/19 Healing: The Patient Must Minister To Himself by Kenneth Wapnick audiobook of workshop

01/17/19 Saving Faith: A Memoir of Courage, Conviction, and A Calling by Elizabeth Osta

01/17/19 On Becoming The Touches Of Sweet Harmony: The Holy Relationship In Form by Ken Wapnick

01/25/19 The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson, Blinkist

01/25/19 Reading Like A Writer by Francine Prose, Blinkist

01/25/19 On The Shortness Of Life by Seneca

01/25/19 Why Religion by Elaine Pagels, Blinkist

01/27/19 Storyworthy by Matthew Dick You can master storytelling by learning the right techniques. To tell a great story, include a meaningful element of change somewhere in the narrative, steer clear of vulgarity and unnecessary flourishes, and transport your audience by using the present tense.

02/4/19 Waiter Rant:Thanks for the Tip - Confessions of a Cynical Waiter by Steve Dublanica

Read this book over the course of a few months on the Kindle app on my phone while at the office. I enjoyed this book a great deal. Steve is a great writer. Former seminarian, lost soul, marking time while he supports himself as a waiter.

06/06/19 Barracoon: The Story Of The Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston

06/09/19 And The Pursuit Of Happiness by Maira Kalman

06/15/19 Who Was The Dali Lama by Dan Meachen Rau

06/19/  9 Who Were The Rolling Stones by Dana Meachen Rau

06/30/19 The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis

07/05/19 The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other by Gary R. Renard

07/15/19 Who Was Gandhi by Dana Meachen Rau

07/17/19 Who Was Cesar Chavez by Dana Meachen Rau

07/18/19 Recollections by Viktor Frankl

07/22/19 Really Important Stuff My Cat Has Taught Me by Cynthia Copeland

08/25/19 Moonshots by Naveen Jain and John Shroeter

08/30/19 Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

10/20/19 Regarding The Pain Of Others by Susan Sontag

10/25/19 Where There’s Smoke, There’s Dinner: Stories Of A Seared Childhood by Regi Carpenter

11/30/19 Gleanings From A Country Journal: Life on the Southern Tier of New York State in 1870 by Lewis Morris Hall

12/29/19 The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis

The five I enjoyed the most and learned the most from

1. White Fragility by Robin Diangelo
2. The books by ken Wapnick
3. On The Shortness of Life by Seneca
4. Waiter Rant by Steve Dublanica
5. The Lifetimes when Jesus and Buddha New Each Other by Gary Renard

The one book I would recommend to the general reader:

White Fragility by Robin Diangelo

Mass killings reached new high in U.S. in 2019

From 10 Things you need to know today by The Week, 12/29/19 Mass killings reached new high in U.S. in 2019

A database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today, and Northeastern University showed that there were more mass killings in the United States in 2019 than any year dating back to the 1970s despite the country's overall homicide rate dropping. In total, there were 41 mass killings — which is defined as an event in which four or more people are killed — including 33 mass shootings. More than 210 people were killed as a result of the violence. While some of the killings resounded nationally, such as mass shootings in El Paso and Odessa, Texas; Dayton, Ohio; Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Jersey City, New Jersey, many of them flew under the radar and involved people who knew each other. [The Associated Press, The Guardian] Editor's note: The Republicans refuse to do anything about the gun problem in the U.S, and need to be voted out of office at all levels of government, local, state, federal. The biggest impediment to appropriate gun legislation, which the majority of Americans favor, is Mitch McConnel, the senator from Kentucky, who is the leader of the Senate of the United States. Before you vote, check on the voting record and policy positions of the candidates on gun issues.

How the legalization of Cannabis is being rigged for the 1%

“Sinclair Stole My Stash: A right-wing media mogul cashes in on weed legalization” by Barynard Woods, Baffler, Nov/Dec 19, #48, pp.16-22

Describes how Sinclair Broadcasting has taken over local TV stations even with different affiliates and then mandates the insertion of prescribed content into their local programming. The article then goes on to describe how the 1% is taking over the legalized cannabis business with all sorts of legislative regulations to favor their ownership. This left me to think that even with the legalization of production, processing, and marketing of cannabis there will still be a viable and vibrant black market.

Tags: Cannabis, How the System Works, Media

Good news - Smoke detector saves woman's life just before Christmas

Protecting the truth in the age of misinformation

This is part #1 in a series on Media Literacy In The Age Of Misinformation and Propaganda

Trump administration policy cripples workers' rights.

The Trump administration has crippled worker's rights. Rather than help workers the Trump administration has taken actions to cripple worker's to advocate for their rights.

For more click here.

Republican congress people sell out to campign contributors and lobbyists

From What the Roman senate’s grovelling before emperors explains about GOP senators’ support for Trump December 10, 2019 8.55am EST by Timothy Joseph

Trump has appointed a number of acting secretaries, bypassing the usual Senate confirmation vote. He has circumvented Congress’ power of the purse by using emergency powers to get money to build his border wall. He has evaded the requirement for congressional approval of arms sales to foreign states, and vetoed Congress’ attempt to block the sales.

In June he asserted that he does not need congressional support for war against Iran – much less to withdraw troops from northern Syria, as he did unilaterally this fall.

While we may chalk up senatorial inaction – in the first or 21st century – to fear of an individual leader’s powers, there is another underlying factor that may align political figures from these two periods: The rise of an autocrat was personally good for them.

New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie recently described this as the “simplest explanation” behind the motivations of many Republican lawmakers. He notes that their independence still emerges in, for example, opposition to the withdrawal from Syria.

But since Trump has pushed for policies long wanted by Republicans, such as lower taxes on the wealthy and minimal regulations, as well as a conservative judiciary, Bouie asks, “Why would any of them stand against a president who has delivered on each count?”

Editor's note: I added the bolding.

I have been wondering for sometime  how Republican congresspeople can be so disengenuous when it come's to supporting President Trump rather than the constitution and the welfare of the American People?

These Republican Congress people are beholden to their corporate donors who fund their election campaigns and support many of their congressional activities with the goals of decreasing taxes on corporations and the 1%, decreasing regulations put in place to protect the public from their mercenary products and services, and place conservative, pro business judges on the courts.

Republican congresspeople aren't afraid of their voters and constituents, they are afraid of their donors, and their donors are pro-Trump who has placed many of them into cabinet offices and in other roles as "special advisors."

Our U.S, democracy has been turned into a plutocracy run by and for the rich. If you want to understand the operation and functioning of our current government, follow the money.

Could Viginia finally be the state that passes the ERA admendment?

From The Nation, 12/2-129/19

THE CONSTITUTION A New ERA?

Once the new class of legislators is sworn in to the Virginia General Assembly in January, Democrats will control both its chambers for the first time in almost 25 years. The change may herald a national progressive victory: the passage, at long last, of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Conceived nearly a century ago to end legal distinctions based on sex, the ERA was first sent to state legislatures for ratification in 1972. Within five years, it was ratified by 35 of the 38 states required to adopt it as part of the US Constitution.

But then the ERA entered a limbo that it has not been able to escape. In 1979 a congressionally determined deadline came and went; President Jimmy Carter signed a joint resolution extending it to 1982, though scholars disagree as to whether these cutoffs are constitutional.

Then a series of legislatures in more conservative states voted to revoke their ratifications—moves that may be unconstitutional. In the 21st century, Nevada and Illinois became the 36th and 37th states, respectively, to ratify the ERA.

This February, as Republicans clung to a slim majority in the state’s House of Delegates, Virginia tried and failed to become No. 38.

While the ERA’s adoption is by no means assured (particularly with a conservative majority on the Supreme Court), the Democratic victories in Virginia will almost certainly relaunch the decades-long fight to enshrine equal rights for women in the Constitution.

—Spencer Green

Key Federal Programs Lift Millions Out of Poverty in U.S.

History of violent anti-abortion terrorism

What's the deal with Medicare For All?