Thursday, December 8, 2016

IT'S NOW OR NEVER



IT'S NOW OR NEVER


Have any of you noticed lately that the frequency and intensity of natural disasters has been increasing steadily for the last decade and longer. If you add up the recent onslaught of deadly tornadoes, earthquakes, and hurricanes combined with man made crisis’ like the oil spills in the gulf and the nuclear plant failure following the tsunami in Japan to name a few recent disasters,  the evidence seems irrefutable. It also gives some credence to the idea that the earth itself has it’s own “balancing” system and when that system is threatened, it fights back for it’s own survival. And if that means getting rid of the species responsible, well-so be it.

There is a lot of scientific research and evidence that’s predicts, explains and cautions us, and there is also the intuitive, gut wrenching, perhaps mystical perspective that advocates the belief in the Gaia Principle which describes the earth as a whole living organism. Many scientists have been attempting to inform us that we need to heed the effects of our way of living, for years now but they have been ridiculed (alarmists doom and gloom) discredited and ignored  by administrations and their hired media, resulting in the majority of us ignoring the writing on the wall and carrying on the business of our lives as usual.  Since our natural tendency is to resist change and remain comfortable and complacent it doesn’t take much to convince or reassure us that everything is A-OK when it fact it is not.
  
 As individuals the many cancers and other diseases we suffer from are treatable, even curable if detected early enough. I think the same principle applies to the entire global ecosystem and all it’s intricate interconnections. And if this is the case then a slow and gradual reduction of air, ground and water pollution. Oil fuels dependency, token penalties and unenforced regulations of industries and the tons of toxic wastes they spew into the environment daily will be a case of “too little, too late”.  Goals like 20% reduction of energy reliance on oil by the year 2030 isn’t going to reverse the inertia of what appears to me to be an unacknowledged catastrophe of epic proportions no longer waiting just around the corner but smack in our faces, at least to those of us whose faces are no longer buried, heads in the sand. It is very possible that we are past the point of no return. 

The same sort of shortsighted self centered compulsion for more, better, newer, faster that led to the current global economic melt down is leading us to the end of the world as we know it. We can no longer live the A-More-I-Can Dream if we want to have a future worth dreaming. It is time, it is past time to sound the alarm. 


The world itself will renew itself; only humans have been able to impact nature intensely enough to change climates and pollute and over consume natural resources. With our extinction, systems will work to bring a return to homeostasis. Ironically, it is the so called “developed countries” that have wreaked havoc on the earth; it has taken great advances in technologies to do this much damage in such a short span of time. The past 100 years have changed the way we live in extreme ways only science fiction writers could imagine. 

The freedom guaranteed us by the constitution to the “pursuit of happiness” has literally manifested. We are lost in the “pursuit” and few of us have arrived at the intended target of happiness. The vast number of drugs we of the “developed” countries have to devour in order to simply cope with our pain, exhaustion, depression and great disillusionment attests to the fact that material wealth and external comforts do not bring us health, security and serenity. We are enslaved by the very luxuries that once obtained can no longer be lived without. We are captive to the artificial “needs” promulgated by ceaseless commercial marketing. Research has found measurements of personal contentment higher among people who are living remotely and in the harshest of climates than here in  Disneyland which we tout in yet another commercial as the “happiest place on earth”. If you’ve been to Main Street then you know the best part of the day is sitting down and resting your weary feet.

The rate of speed at which we are depleting or poisoning the few essential elements that sustain life for us all does not allow us the luxury of the slow, passive gestures we are making to fix the enormity of the real issues of the day. 

You may call me an alarmist, but I’m not the only one. I hope some day (soon!) you will join us, so the world can continue to go on.

“Imagine” that. Thank you John-





Wednesday, December 7, 2016

AMERICA'S DYSFUNCTION

               Greedy Republicans, Spineless Democrats and Annoying Tea Party Folks: 
                                      Can It Get Any More Dysfunctional? 


Interesting isn’t it? Unlike us mortal individuals whose credit limits are decreased when we are late or errant on our credit card payments, the government may simply raise their limits in response to defaulting on their own loan. We mere mortals, however, when we’ve lived beyond our means and the means to pay our debt back face collection agencies, bank foreclosures, liens on our salary and so on.  

In 2001 and 2003 during the Bush administration taxes cuts were made; keep in mind that this was at a time when we were already in one war and about to start a second one-very expensive wars. Does it make sense to cut government revenue when expenses are clearly about to increase.  In 2000 the national debt was 6 trillion dollars. By the end of the Bush years and 2 years into the wars and economic toilet bowl that Obama inherited, the debt rose to 13 trillion. If those tax cuts hadn’t been made, the initial 6 trillion would have been balanced. In other words, our debt wouldn’t have risen if our revenue wasn’t decreased. As recently as last December our representatives voted to renew the tax cuts even in light of our exploding debt. Who is it that’s driving this bus? 

So now instead of increasing revenue by raising taxes back to  previous levels on those who can painlessly afford it we choose to trim a trillion dollars from our debt by cutting jobs and unemploying even more Americans during the highest unemployment rate this country has seen since the Great Depression. More unemployment results in more foreclosures and the need for more unemployment checks going out to those whose jobs we just cut.  Are the drivers of this bus qualified to drive safely? Should we continue to trust them to take us where we want to go?




Further irony; government cuts in jobs and spending result in decreased tax revenues because less people are earning money. I don’t think I’m  exaggerating when I say that whoever is driving this bus must be drunk, stupid or insane because this bus ain’t goin no where fast. The bus has been wrecked and an insurance appraiser would judge it “totaled” ; take it to the scrap yard and build a new better bus, one preferably stupid-proof so anyone can drive it.

The really bad news? Nothing is going to change. The rich are going to remain financially secure (a while longer) while the rest of us common folk will struggle more. This trend is not new.

Quite a predicament we’ve gotten ourselves into and like an antagonistic and failing marriage, our politicians refuse to collaborate on solutions because they are too busy arguing over who is right and who is wrong so that they can convince the public to vote for them, thus insuring that they will stay employed for another couple years.

If our leaders need a little help and guidance I have a few suggestions we could start with that wouldn’t inflict any more damage on our already trashed educational system, social services and entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security, all of which we pay taxes into.

First and foremost I would advise that politicians reduce their salaries (good thing they’re not paid on results) and their ridiculously generous lifetime pensions and health programs (after just two years of service). 

Secondly, I would suggest that we stop worrying about setting up unsolicited democracies in oil rich countries and invest the cost of war into domestic research creating alternative, clean, renewable energy sources.  The Oil Age like the Ice Age is ended.  

Thirdly, I would raise the frigging taxes on the obscenely rich. Period. There is no justifiable reason not to. Underneath our guise of free market economy, we are beginning to resemble feudal Europe more and more. A few kingdoms and their royal families running the show and then the rest of us working our butts off and then, paying taxes to the royalty so that they can build themselves another newer bigger palace. 

Fourth, Campaign Reform.  Take the marketing out of this altogether. Establish times and venues for candidates to all offices to show up, get interviewed by unbiased journalists and/or college professors; we just want to hear where they stand on issues. Period. Let us determine who is lies the least.

Republicans..Democrats...Tea Party...hmmm?   I remember reading once about an authentic tea party that happened back around 1776; yep-The Boston Tea Party and the beginning of an American  Revolution whose founding cry was “No taxation without representation!” Do you feel represented lately? I sure don’t.