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“Enough!” Does anyone have any idea what can be done to create public policy that supports “enough”.
I think the Iroquois had a society that came very close to one that honored the concept of enough. I think we should study how they arrived at that state. Unfortunately what I can infer from what Thom says the manner in which the Iroquois attained that state was best described by AIW’s fridge magnet:
AIW -- Love the fridge magnet - c8
I had no idea that only Pacifica had Pacifica stations in the bay area. Is that where the Pacifica stations came up with their name? My sister-in-law and my brother, before his passing, lived in Pacifica. My impression of Pacifica was that it was a fog bank.
I think we should use global warming to educate people about science. I was inspired to say this by some climate change denier who challenged Thom to prove that climate change is happening. Science does not try to prove anything; that is what math does. What science does is show the probabiltiy that something is causal. For climate change that probability is now at least 97% (more likely 99.9%). Personally, any number greater than 10% would motivate me to make adjustments, even if it meant risking the global economy.
I should mention, I have no problem with what we are currently doing; that is, using science to inform us about global warming and climate change.
Even police don't bother to match middle names.
My brother once got a notice for failing to pay child support when he did not have a child. The actual father had a different middle name.
A parole officer came to my workplace looking for a friend that had been a coworker for a while. I knew my friend had never been in prison and didn't have a parole officer. The officer had a picture to show me of the parolee and his car, but they hadn't bothered to check his middle name. They just looked for the first person they could find with the same first and last name.
I thought this was an area for open discussion. The question is kind of like "Do you still beat your wife?". What about, we have more important issues than dealing with this, and it was no more illegal than the Obama drone strikes. That is why we have elections.
I was very surprised to see JEBush doing an ad for Cory Gardner here in Colorado. Apparently, the Republican Party thinks he has some clout, but I've never heard anyone admit to admiring him, and I do know some Republican voters.
(I write JEBush instead of Jeb Bush because his name is actually John Ellis Bush.)
Right on, AnneMarie! I think "Enough" says it all. What a beautiful , novel concept!
I agree; It seems obvious that this is happening, and that our "American Way Of Life" with its emphasis on consumerism is causing it, and causing the world to want to follow in our footsteps. It's time for the entire world to shift it's paradigm to "Enough." It means the assurance of basics for all people and only the extras for the rich.
Very interesting read - nice to see such indepth opinions.
domestic cleaner exeter
AMEN to the previous comment by Aliceinwonderland!
Anybody old enough to remember Walter Cronkite is certainly old enough to remember the late Mike Wallace (and, Edward R. Murrow, Eric Sevareid, Bill Downs, and Dan Rather, too...). What we have today pales in comparison to their work. The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas (my spouse's alma mater) has a wonderful collection of substantive television available as streaming video, audio, and as transcripts from The Mike Wallace Interview interviews from 1957 and 1958. Available free here: http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/film/holdings/wallace/
The breath, depth, and scope of the interviews is beyond anything I've seen or heard since David Frost's interview with RMN. The subjects of Mr. Wallace's penetrating interviews run the gamut from Margaret Sanger and Eleanor Roosevelt to leading political figures (both at home and abroad), KKK leaders to noted authors, physicians, theologians, and movie stars.
The level of preparation that Mr. Wallace evidences is nothing short of a trial attorney deposing a witness - he knows what to ask, how to ask, when to ask, and does not let the subject "off the hook". This is what we've lost. Check out these incredible interviews.
Turning to the "fear" topic: Churchill has been quoted enough - he was correct then, when the Nazi Blitz was pounding London - and he's correct now when we have sneak-thieves and power-brokers manipulating the whole planet. Fear paralyzes. Doing something positive is always an option.
You may not yet have the skills to best the useful idiots - but, if you keep at it - you can learn them. Mr. Hartmann has the civil discussion mastered - and his steady adherence to that practice keeps his opponents willing to come back for more.
I can literally destroy a human being's credibility with a well crafted question at trial - but, it usually takes two years of discovery and motion practice before I get the chance to ask that question - two years to frame the argument, create my theme, and deliver the goods for my client: a jury verdict in their favor. That's an entirely different skill set - but it, like Mr. Hartman's debates - I must pay incredibly close attention to exactly what the witness says.
Active listening, good preparation, and a predetermined goal will always stand you in good stead. Go watch/listen to Mike Wallace give a master class fifty-six years on - most interviews are still highly relevant today - and, they present a master class in the fine art of interrogation.
RIP Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Susan Stamberg should have been readying her cranberry-horseradish relish recipe right about now.
Richinfolsom, excellent post! Your initial comment rang a bell with me. I’ve often compared media coverage of elections to how sports announcers keep score. Yeah, non-issues are part of the package these corporate shills dole out to we the public. The most crazy-making thing of it is how much of the public eats that shit up.
Sounds like you’re from my era. How I miss Cronkite. They just don’t make ‘em like that anymore, do they? Now all we get is blowdried, coiffured fascist fluff. You do a good job portraying the lie; lying by diversion is one of their tactics to mislead and distract. Well, like the old saying goes, ya can’t fool all the people all the time. Especially us old Boomers, those of us who haven’t drunk the proverbial “Kool Aid”, who've managed to get by without having sold out to the Big Lie. Yep; those pundits will do anything to keep the sheeple under their spell, handily distracted from what the master predators are doing to us. I’m talking about the banksters, the CEOs, the payday pirates, the oil barons, the healthcare extortionists... whatever their stripes. Not to mention the death & destruction inflicted on people of smaller, weaker countries by this USian Fourth Reich, on our nickle and in our names! And let's not forget how uninhabitable Planet Earth is soon to be if we don’t collectively mend our ways. “Too big to jail” is just one of various tactics used by plutocrats & psychopaths to keep themselves immune to the consequences of their actions. It’s what they do.
Yeah I can see some religious nuts framing the climate issue as a 21st Century Armageddon. God punishing us for our sins… Abortion, homosexuality, athiesm, socialism... Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
I’ve got this really cool magnet on our fridge with the photo of a Native American man's weathered face. Under this elegant portrait is the following quote: “Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.” Yeah Rich, while back in Pundit Land, lies continue gushing from the mouths of "babes", those blond-haired Aryan bimbos… and let’s not forget the almighty empty suits behind the curtain, calliing the shots.
Be very scared. We're in deep do-do, folks. - AIW
The command of our nations media by the Rightwing is massive and total. That our national radio and television outlets are controlled by the Rightwing is not news as I've watched the destruction of US media for over 50 years.
America is a Rightwing nation of fools and stooges---------and these are our good points!
What do the poor countries think of this? Wealth accumulation is ultimately a threat to the future economy. I just can see trouble ahead of us.
It seems ever more difficult to find an informed perspective or finding a path out of the Ground Hog Day syndrome. I recently returned to NPR after gagging on the dried up, re-run music stations. They cover the elections like a horse race over non issues and ever mentioning what candidates histories and assertions. Reporter questions are posed as cute, trivial, nuance, "some might say," or just stupid.
I reflect on the greats of my era, the authoritative voice of Cronkite helping us make sense of incredible social change in an era of incredible change - whether we would land the moon or destroy the planet in a momentary fireball. Civil rights. Riots. An endless war with over 58,000 American deaths and a million Vietnamese dead.
The lie must be preserved at all costs. Ebola. ISIS. Al Quada. Beheaded worker in Missouri. School children killing children at school. Whacko so called Islamic, brutal attacks on the streets of America, England, and Canada. American workers pushed overboard to fend for themselves. Unaffordable healthcare. Dying from preventable disease. Two deputy sheriffs shot and killed here the Sacramento by Mexican immigrant with an AR-15.
The lie must be denied as banks are too big to fail or jail. We used to watch Chevrolet car sales now replaced by Boeing -billion - dollar weapons systems and the "modern and safe drilling techniques (code for fracking) makes for a better economy.
Perhaps the human species thinks of climate change like the second coming of Christ... "yeah, it's going to get ugly, but things will sort themselves, like what happened to the dinosaurs....
The lie must must continue until the last drop of oil is burned and the clouds rain acidic water turning the mid-west into an arid desert. The lie must reign from the empty skyscrapers, empty monuments partially submerged by the Atlantic Ocean.
I wonder what the lie will be then?
"... and that's the way it is. I am Walter Cronkite. Good night."
What do the poor countries think of this? Wealth accumulation is ultimately a threat to the future economy. I just can see trouble ahead of us.
Aliceinwonderland ~ Well said! I agree!! Your analogy is spot on. I too as a child attempted to capture and incubate a caterpillar in its cocoon to see it turn into a butterfly. Not a very easy task to perform. Personally, you've had much more success than I. However, your assessment of the Koch brothers is very appropriate.
Even now as we s;peak I am watching the news. Despite the festivities in San Francisco at the present the police are moving in on the revelers. There is a mobile command center set up and arrests have been reported. I have no idea why there is a mobile command center dispatched to the seen of a bunch of revelers; however, it is most disconcerting.
At present there are thousands of Giants fans in the streets of San Francisco who are peaceably celebrating their victory. It will be interesting to see what becomes of this. We are so rapidly moving toward a police state that I worry for the revelers.
Marc, the shit you describe going on with S.F. Bay Area radio stations scares the bajeezus out of me. It’s a definite symptom of encroaching fascism, when all media representing certain points of view gets wiped out by whatever means. Kinda frightens me, how corporations keep taking up more and more space in our lives. Media is the eyes and ears of a society. When media such as radio, TV and various publications get hijacked by corporate power, we’ve nothing connecting us to each other or the world beyond our borders except kleptofascist propaganda. This is dangerous. It concerns me. - AIW
P.S. Oh m'gawd... I just read zephyrr's post. Didn't know the Kochs were on NPR's Board of Directors. R.I.P., NPR... In a funny way NPR's fate reminds me of the fate of some tiger swallowtail caterpillars I used to "raise" in captivity, and observe as they transitioned into butterflies. Mysteriously, my caterpillars began to shrivel up and die, at various stages of growth. I began noticing something resembling a tiny white (or pale yellow?) egg attached to the side of each caterpillar. To solve the mystery, I put one of the dying caterpillars in a jar and sealed the lid, just to keep it under observation. I was curious to see what would hatch out of that microscopic egg. What finally emerged from the egg was the tiniest wasp I'd ever seen. The larvae of that wasp had hatched from the egg, burrowed into the caterpillar and eaten it from the inside. And that's what the Kochs and their ilk have done to NPR; invaded it from the outside, destroyed it from the inside. Jeez… I thought things were bad when we had the Vietnam War going on and all those riots and assassinations… I look back through the last several decades and see how much worse it’s gotten in this country, as well as the harm this country continues inflicting on the rest of the world. And it all resembles a dreary, tiresome movie I would never elect to watch, let alone live through in "real life".
Repeat
chuckle8 ~ Pacifica has some Pacifica stations on the radio. However, because it is isolated below a mountain and fog bank it is pretty much a Pacifica thing. If it isn't transmitted from San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Hayward, or San Jose, it might as well be transmitted from Mars.
Aliceinwonderland ~ Sorry Alice. I just lost my cool because of the World Series; but, you are so right. I wish I could just turn on the radio again and listen to Thom. It is such a hassle to have to turn into the internet. I used to be able to do my listening at work. Now I have to use my free time, the internet; and, I just don't have that much free time to spare. The corporatist fascists are winning. However, I do believe We the People will prevail in the long run.
Doesn't the bay area have some Pacifica stations on the FM dial?
Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooo GIANTS!!!!!!!!!!!
Aliceinwonderland ~ At least you get Thom Hartmann in your area. Several months ago the last AM station that carried his show here in the SF Bay Area sold out. Imagine my surprise while riding to work in the morning and hearing Glenn Beck where Stephanie Miller used to be. At first, I thought my radio was broken. (After about 15 minutes I wished my radio was broken.) Now I have to listen to soft rock in the morning. Not that it is a bad thing. The corporations are having a field day with the media. Imagine that in a progressive community like the Bay Area we have lost every single progressive radio station we had. NPR simply has not stepped up to the plate as far as I am concerned.