Believe and Stop Being Scared

You can't do what you can't believe.

But. if you have a plan to reach your goal, you can reach your goal.

Here's the plan. Believe. Stop being scared. Now, let's do this!

A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The Intercept
Published on Apr 17, 2019

What if we actually pulled off a Green New Deal? What would the future look like? The Intercept presents a film narrated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and illustrated by Molly Crabapple.

Set a couple of decades from now, the film is a flat-out rejection of the idea that a dystopian future is a forgone conclusion. Instead, it offers a thought experiment: What if we decided not to drive off the climate cliff? What if we chose to radically change course and save both our habitat and ourselves?

We realized that the biggest obstacle to the kind of transformative change the Green New Deal envisions is overcoming the skepticism that humanity could ever pull off something at this scale and speed. That’s the message we’ve been hearing from the “serious” center for four months straight: that it’s too big, too ambitious, that our Twitter-addled brains are incapable of it, and that we are destined to just watch walruses fall to their deaths on Netflix until it’s too late.

This film flips the script. It’s about how, in the nick of time, a critical mass of humanity in the largest economy on earth came to believe that we were actually worth saving. Because, as Ocasio-Cortez says in the film, our future has not been written yet and “we can be whatever we have the courage to see.”

More about the video here.

Reboot?

I'm all for new technology, research, discovery, etc., especially when it works. When it doesn't, not so much.

This latest advance has me thinking, "I'm really happy not to be among the first users".

Here's the story...

CRISPR used to build dual-core computers inside human cells, Michael Irving, newatlas.com, 17 Apr 2019

Shania Twain - That Don't Impress Me Much (Official Music Video) - 1997 

By Degrees

Growing up in northeast Ohio I never thought much about how people made a living. Most people I knew worked for the tire companies. The factories were just down the road a few miles from our parent’s home in Akron.

But, as I grew up, most of those jobs faded away, little by little… by degrees, you might say.

Later came the draft. Having little choice, most every male I knew was drafted or volunteered for the military. Nobody I knew, “evaded the draft”. Back then, as I saw it, we had no choice. We all went, one way or the other… but, individually, you might say… by degrees.

Most of us just accepted the draft and the loss of jobs because, we thought, “There’s nothing we can do about it. That’s just the way it is”. We went along. Accepting.

Flash forward to today. We’re still accepting. But now it's continuous war, poor healthcare, wealth inequality, deteriorating infrastructure, loss of our rights, hatred of everyone save white Republicans, welfare for the corporations and the .01%, predatory capitalism for the rest of us… and gun violence for our kids… all this by degrees, of course.

We can move away from this, you know. It does not have to be this way.

We don’t have to accept the way things are today… by degrees, of course. By degrees.

Consider the Green New Deal... by degrees, of course.

By Degrees

Mark Erelli

Published on Oct 19, 2018

ROSANNE CASH, SHERYL CROW, LORI MCKENNA, ANAIS MITCHELL, JOSH RITTER, and MARK ERELLI join forces to benefit Giffords: Courage To Fight Gun Violence. Pay what you want for the song & learn more about the project at https://www.bydegreessong.com

Written by Mark Erelli, Hillbilly Pilgrim Music/ASCAP

Don't Be Raw Meat for the Trumpists

This past weekend and today, Mr. Trump once again played his famous misdirection trick.

This time it’s:

“Looky here at what Congresswoman Omar said about terrorists and 9/11”... which he took out of context and mixed in with some 9/11 video... and then offered up, like so much raw meat, to his famished supporters and the media, so they wouldn’t notice that he was trying to end overtime pay for low-earning Americans and cut billions from Social Security and Medicare.

If you are a Trump supporter, you best watch what your man is doing with his other hand when he tosses you that raw meat. If you're not a Trumpist, then don't let Trump make you his raw meat treat. You earned that overtime and your Social Security and Medicare, too.

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son -1969

Something Smells Rotten in the White House

So, according to Mr. Trump’s Department of Justice, it’s O.K. that Mr. Trump’s hotel and golf resort businesses take payments for rooms, etc., from foreign governments, lobbyists and loyalists.

According to the DOJ guys it’s not wrong to take payoffs, maintain ownership while President of the USA and, by the way, not show his income tax either.

If that is not smelly, I guess the smell of rotten garbage is the new Republican perfume.

Something Rotten "Bottom's Gonna Be on Top" at 54 Below

Something Rotten! Performs “Hard To Be The Bard” at “Broadway In The White House”

Mine! All Mine!

Dr. Reich explains The Truth... as I see it, too... how the wealthy and corporations receive billions in corporate welfare; plus, Seven Economic Fundamentals in under 90 seconds.

Robert Reich: Socialism For The Rich, Capitalism For The Rest

Robert Reich: 7 Economic Fundamentals

Looking for More... Hope, Freedom from Violence

Chicago PD

Looking for something to watch the other day, I waded through Netflix and then Amazon Prime. We long ago gave up watching “network” TV and cable programming.

I absolutely hate commercials, especially those local newscast car dealer, roof repair, realtor, and law firm commercials. Next on my “instantly-mute-them” list are every one of those disgusting drug commercials that appear on the network newscasts.

Searching… looking for something that appeared to be "Not", as in, not about cops beating people or stealing from them; not about sex crimes; not about murders; not about drugs; not about psychos; not about betrayal; not about monsters, vampires, etc. You get the idea.

After about an hour of looking and finding a ton of the above, but zero interesting programming, I went back to research a little about our love of “violence entertainment”.

I found this comment from Dr. Emanuel Tanay, MD, retired Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State University:

“Violence in the media has been increasing and reaching proportions that are dangerous.”

“You turn on the television, and violence is there. You go to a movie, and violence is there,” Tanay told Psychiatric Times. “Reality is distorted. If you live in a fictional world, then the fictional world becomes your reality.”

"The average American watches nearly 5 hours of video each day, 98% of which is watched on a traditional television set, according to Nielsen Company. Nearly two-thirds of TV programs contain some physical violence. Most self-involving video games contain some violent content, even those for children."

Tanay noted, “Anything that promotes something can be called propaganda.” What we call entertainment is really propaganda for violence. If you manufacture guns, you don’t need to advertise, because it is done by our entertainment industry.”

"In reality, the number of violent crimes has been falling, but the public’s perception is that violence has increased. According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, the overall violent victimization rate (eg, rape and assaults) decreased by 40% from 2001 to 2010. Similarly, the murder rate in the US has dropped by almost half, from 9.8 per 100,000 people in 1991 to 5.0 in 2009."

Yet the propaganda, Tanay said, makes people feel that crime is everywhere and that guns are needed for protection.

That, I thought, explains everything: "... (our) entertainment is really propaganda for violence."

George Harrison - Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) - 1973