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Why I Don’t Have a Mobile Phone
In the late 1990’s I bought an early model Ericsson mobile phone. Travelling around the UK countryside visiting farmers, it seemed quite useful, in spite of the very intermittent signal availability of that time. However, I found the masts which transmitted the...
Violence is as Violence Does
Anyone remember the line from the film Forest Gump: ' Stupid is as stupid does' ? Well, now we have, each and every passing day, the bastard children of our violent empire. Yes, violence has always been with us, this the frailty and flaw of humanity. One would think...
Water Water Everywhere……
In April I interviewed former World Bank staff member and geopolitical analyst Peter Koenig via telephone at his home in Geneva. Koenig had just returned from South America , a place where he has travelled to many times . One of the issues that he is very passionate...
Peak Hubris
“Hubris” is defined as rash and foolish pride, a dangerous overconfidence, manifested with arrogance. The Deep State vaunts our “exceptionalism”, and since Reagan’s “City on a HIll” trope Americans have been assured by all succeeding Presidents that ours is the...
Homeland Insecurity. “Perpetual War”
Well, once again we have Veterans Day upon us. With it comes the preponderance of overt militarism and military propaganda. Tune into any sporting event on the boob tube and you get the camouflaged soldiers and ROTC students (if a college game) staring into the...
The Circus Never Left!
Remember, those who can, the utter joy of going to the circus as a child? It was quite an experience to walk through the sideshow, watching the clowns or viewing the main acts on center stage. This writer sat there, mesmerized by all this for the two hours running....
Spectators and Pragmatists… At Their Own Execution
The Military Industrial Empire has succeeded, ever since WW2. Our education system has incrementally been ' dumbed down' over these past decades. Our mainstream media is now a colorful prism of those terrible times during the Nazi and Stalinist eras. The use of ' fake...
Never had a Chance
It was 1956, Brooklyn , NYC, the year after our beloved Dodgers had finally won a World Series from those Damn Yankees. We kids on Dahill Road were ' The Children of Howdy Doody' , for that was the show that all five, six and seven year olds cherished each afternoon....
Apocalypse Now?
Every high school and college student, and all their parents and grandparents should watch Francis Ford Cappola's Apocalypse Now Redux. This is the 2001 re-cut and extended version of his 1979 classic of the same name. Set in Vietnam at the height of that war ( in...
The Recipe for Disaster
I tune into many cooking shows lately. They all have lots of recipes for just about any kind of dish one can imagine. Well, from our 21st Century Military Industrial Empire's Cookbook the most popular recipe is this one: Take the Two Party/One Party food fight and add...
At the Foot of Mammon. What is the Cold Truth?
At the Foot of Mammon. What is the Cold Truth? Remember the Illegal US Invasion of Iraq? Some say the following quote came from journalist John Swinton (1829-1901), but it matters not who actually said it. The cold hard truth is that it was spoken by someone who...
Baby You’re a (Super) Rich Man! Mega Millionaires Run Our Corporations and our Politics
Baby You’re a Rich ManThe Beatles How does it feel to beOne of the beautiful peopleNow that you know who you areWhat do you want to beAnd have you traveled very farFar as the eye can see How does it feel to beOne of the beautiful peopleHow often have you been...
My America: Raised by the Perpetual War Empire
One must surmise that any ‘thinking’ citizen of ancient Rome probably felt as this writer does concerning my America, the Empire. Perpetual wars, invasions, occupations and colonization of foreign lands either were greeted with a cheerleading feeling, or with apathy...
Understanding Racism and Social Inequality in America … The Rot Runs Down
We have a president who has taken the term ‘Low Base’ to a new level. When he did a ‘pass’ on the Charlottesville white supremacy, Neo Nazi march and street battles that ensued the next day, he gave indirect legitimacy to such a mindset. The ‘rot’ from such passive...
Deliver Us From “Evil People”: The “Crazy Evils” and the “Caring Evils”
To this writer there are in reality but two classifications of evil people: A) The crazy or deranged evil ones and B) The rational, without empathy or caring evil ones. Just viewed Alan Parker’s great 2000 film Angela’s Ashes for perhaps the umpteenth time. The film...
You Don’t Need a Weatherman… Junior Bush On the Morning of 9/11
Taken from one of Bob Dylan’s songs, Subterranean Homesick Blues, this lyric “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows” is fitting for what went down on 9/11/01 in that classroom in Sarasota, Florida. If you recall, Junior Bush was on a scheduled...
Mona from the Corner: Set Aside Political Differences, Converge in Harmony for Truth and Justice
She’s a little lady, 70 something, with this cute, addictive smile. Drives an old bomb of a car, replete with Peace and End the Occupation type stickers on it. She’s a nurse, still works, doing home care for very ill folks with that special Mona type TLC. I first met...
‘It’s My Party….’
Borrowing from the 1963 Lesley Gore song I’ll Cry If I Want to: “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to, you would cry too if it happened to you.” Well, if you still subscribe to this phony Two Party/One Party system, as they say in the world of commerce ‘ Buyer...
America 2019: A Woody Allen Film? “Waking Up in the Future to Learn Civilization Was Destroyed”
In Woody Allen’s 1973 film, Sleeper, a character wakes up in the future to learn that civilization was destroyed when “a man by the name of Albert Shanker got hold of a nuclear warhead.” Shanker was condemned by many when he shut down the New York City school system...
Hurricane Wars. Awaiting Another Deadly Storm
As we in Florida await in our (hopefully) boarded up and sandbagged homes the arrival of but another deadly storm, one has time to sit and ponder things. This writer lived through a major hurricane assault, when Mathew trampled through Port Orange, Florida in October...
What About Me … I Feel The Future Trembling, Like a Stranger In the Land Where I was Born
Just about 50 years ago the West Coast rock group Quicksilver Messenger Service recorded “What About Me”. Sadly, in this America 2019 the lyrics are more relevant. Fifty years later! Let’s analyze certain parts of the song: What About Me You poisoned my sweet...