Jharrin4's Blog

Here we are, early September. However, there’s plenty of summer weather left, with fresh air options for fun still to come. The “taste of…” festivals certainly haven’t run their course. Food, rides, live music. Get out of the house and chill out. What’s not to like?

Well, sadly, some of these annual festivals have decided not to take place here in 2025. Those would especially be festivals celebrating Mexican or other racial/ethnic communities. Their reasoning to cancel is a mix of logic and emotion. This year that well-meant event’s attendees could be unwittingly setting themselves up for a “taste of detention”.  Imprisonment or deportation. Why aid ICE with an inadvertent sting operation?

In the Chicago area, there is an annual celebration of Mexican Independence Day coming up this month. Events includes the El Grito Festival in Grant Park and the Little Village 26th Street Parade. Those celebrations still intend to take place as of today, September 3. With the same ICE raids always becoming daily news, there is the additional recent threat by the Tin Pan Wannabee Dictator stating military troops will soon be sent to Chicago. Because it is a “crime-filled” city with “incompetent and corrupt leadership”. That, according to someone quite familiar with PROVEN criminal activity.

The Illinois Governor, the Chicago Mayor and many other statewide and local office holders, plus civic organizations have been blunt in their rejection of such a troop deployment. Chicago police have been told to not cooperate with any troop/ICE attempts to further create turmoil for Hispanic communities. Will confrontations turn violent? Will Chicago be the place of serious, successful, pushback? The city has as much as said, fuck off to this threat to occupy it. Labor unions (whose members are of all races and ethnicities) are defiant. Is the threat to “invade” really serious or saber rattling by the corrosive and and contemptable bully from 1600 Mar-a-Lago?

How did we get to this egregious political point in time? While racism has stained our history as a country since its founding, (white slave owners declaring “All men are created equal”) the persecution of Black and Brown people, working class people of all races, genders and ethnicities has never been as blatant as right now. But it should never have been allowed to become this ill-tasting toxic stew of fear, hate and lawlessness.

Recall, the previous Democrat administration had FOUR YEARS to hold the current wannabe-King to account for his role in the 1-9-21 deadly assault on the Capital. If that option carried a degree of difficulty beyond the Biden administration’s ability, what about 34 felony counts of falsifying business records? Or being convicted of sexual assault? Or, the virtually daily violation of the Emoluments Clause. This clause is part of the Constitution. It is meant to forbid any public officials–particularly the President–from receiving benefits that could compromise their independence and loyalty to the nation.

Clearly, what I now always refer to as Duopoly brought us our current dystopia. Referring to Democrat or Republican implies a choice. A truly terrible fake “choice”. 90 million potential voters chose not bother with the 2024 election. For many of those millions it was the failure to punish DJT for any of his criminal convictions. Many others were turned off by Democrat Party’s disgusting military/financial support of the documented bombing and killing of Palestinians, especially children. Moral bankrutpcy.

My last posting stated we needed more choices than this Duopoly. I, personally, am a member of the Green Party. However, the Duopoly goes to any length to muffle the Green messaging. People ask, “why haven’t I heard about the Greens?”.  Answer: the corporate media won’t acknowledge their presence on the political horizon. Or the political universe, galaxy or solar system.  Greens do not take corporate/Super PAC money.  Their platform seeks economic and social justice across the country and the globe. These are Green Party platforms antithetical to the Duopoly, which is wholly owned and operated by the corporate/billionaire class.

We must think past this absurd “lesser of two evils” nonsense. It’s an evil of two-lessors. We need to–and can do-–so much better. Let’s hope September in Chicago and elsewhere will prove to be a show of resistance that proves to be a harsh reality check for the destructive hate and fearmongering (now in its eight month!). Those responsible for this fascistic descent into darkness know that there are approximately 265 million Americans who did not vote for any part of it. And like the legendary Howard Beale, they may becoming more and more “mad as hell, and not going to take it anymore”.

To the ramparts. We have nothing to lose and everything good to gain.

A beautiful day here in Chicagoland, August 13. Sunny and low 80s. Low humidity. Biking to a nearby park, the scene is placid, peaceful and welcoming. Squirrels dash about. People on benches eating, or laying about, one or two reading a book (yes, reading a book). A great day to be outdoors at midday. Or all day. The ambience is an antidote for the rough weather days . This type of absolutely ideal day is a gift from Mother Nature. Everyone, anywhere they may exist on our blue and green sphere, should have the same agreeable weather. After all, it’s a fair weather day that helps to sooth and smooth-out–if just for a day–the myriad externals of daily life which produce mindsets beset with crumpled, crinkled consternations.

If only this day could be bottled, canned, shrink-wrapped and thus be at one’s command. Some control. Maybe more than some. Lacking access to fair weather at will, we can still  imagine it every day, daydreaming a bright, soft and serene alternative to what now amounts to a undeniably deeply disturbing descent into political darkness.

Dark? Among other atrocities, children being perfunctorily killed, in a flash or by slow starvation, while those who could stop it simply choose not to. Minorities are being persecuted. “Taken”. “Iced”. Women are under siege: a miscarriage might be a felony in certain areas. Women’s right to vote being casually considered by some far-right voices to be taken away –a crucial right finally granted only 105 years ago. Callous, gratuitous toxicity.

While a beautiful day weather-wise can be a balm, climate chaos is more the norm than the exception. Climate action? Like Gaza, no sense of alarm with certain authorities. In fact, polluters have allies in high office. If only the powers-that-be could be neutered and unable to procreate their progeny of greedy, amoral, and ruthless offerings.

A Gallup News poll from October, 2024, resulted in 58% of respondents saying we need a 3rd party. A major 3rd party. Another poll from We, the PeopleSeptember of 2024 showed an “independent” party was preferred by 69% of respondents. Independent from that Duopoly, of course. Independent from corporate donors that would dictate their policies. That is what any 3rd party should be–ideally.

There is such an ideal 3rd party. It has been around since 1984: the Green Party. Peace. Planet. People. Local and national, the Green platform seeks to provide relief from the corporate owned and operated Frick or Frack fraud that has created the dystopia of today. A two-sides-of-the–same coin System that supports genocide, empire and constant conflict.

Give it a try. We need to do better, that is unarguable. It’s up to We, the People to unite and fight for brighter days. We all have the power to make positive change. It starts with understanding we all have that power.

Yesterday, the Guardian posted an article addressing the current state of the nuclear age we have lived in for a very long time now. The article revealed that there is a increasing number of nuclear weapons being added to what once a total of 2,636 in 1955. Today, there are approximately 15,850 “ultimate weapons”.

Of course once upon a time, the number was zero. Until 1945, when there were two. Those two atomic bombs belonged to the United states. Both of them were dropped on Japan. 80 years ago today (August 6). The first bomb, given the name of Little Boy, was dropped on Hiroshima. It killed an estimated 140,000 Japanese–mostly civilians. The intent was to force the Japanese military into complete surrender, and thus end World War Two. When that did not immediately happen, bomb number two–given the name Fat Man–was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945. It killed 74,000 people. Two bombs. 214,000 dead. 38,000 of them children.

Japan then surrendered.

In the 80 ensuing years since those two atomic bombs were dropped, a nuclear weapon has never been used in anger. And as noted above, from those initial two devasting weapons, we now have over 15,000 of them, all much more powerful than Little Boy or Fat Man.

Post-WWII brought the Cold War. The Soviet Union then created their own nukes. Fall out shelters became a thing. Duck and Cover drills took place in elementary schools. All the while the number of nukes kept growing. As did the so-called Nuclear Club beyond the U.S. and the old Soviet Union. There are now nine members of this club. The additional seven are the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. That nuclear genie will never go back into the lantern created by the terrors of science. And some of the leaders of that 9-Club membership are less than towering figures of diplomacy, politeness or even-tempered governance. Indeed a few are clearly capable of irrational decision-making.

Over these 80 years since those first two bombs displayed their massively deadly power, the Cold War concept of mutual assured destruction seems to be a successful deterrent for nuclear war occurring. Also known by the spot-on acronym. M.A.D. the reality that even one deployment of even a short range nuclear weapon would trigger many others in retaliation. And goodbye, humanity. But so far so good, in spite of the few clearly dangerous leaders who have the authority to command firing that first shot since August 9, 1945.

Right now, our geopolitical reality is there are “leaders” for whom the large scale killings of perceived enemies is not a problem. They have no moral confines with which to consider. Everyday there are updates on horrific conflicts around the world: the sickening genocide taking place in Gaza;  the civil war in Sudan; senseless bloodshed in areas like Myanmar, Haiti, and the Sahel region of Africa. Syria and Yemen, and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. In the U.S. Black and Brown. poor and marginalized people in the cross-hairs of a nefarious, racist, xenophobic administration.

The history of the world is one of conflict between humans based on race, ethnicity, religion, nationalism or resources. Or even pettiness. That history precedes by several thousand years the creation and use of Little Boy and Fat Man. We continue to kill one another for factors stated above, and it seems to be virtually overlooked that we must include nuclear/atomic weapons as a means of settling a score.

Only 80 years ago. Death by thermal radiation, a blast wave, acute radiation sickness. While much of humanity rails and denounces the abhorrent ongoin killings of innocent men, women and especially children, hoping that somehow a shared sense of benevolent humanity can emerge from this current global madness, nuclear annihilation is just one impulsive act of lunacy from a global endgame.

Such a scenario seems unimaginable. However, there are still today survivors of those two bombs dropped on Japan. Ask them how unimaginable an experience that is. M.A.D is still the ultimate deterrent to another nuclear attack. But in a world gone as mad with the thirst for power, persecution and even extermination as here and now, this 80th anniversary of the nukes dropped on Japan reminds us all it could still be worse. As in, we all–instantly or semi-instantly–die in a blinding flash.

Given the increasingly dire and dystopian developments since WWII, it takes a fierce and relentless determination to choose to still fight for a brighter future. To establish an enduring light that defies the darkness. What other choice have we?

For the majority of people in the U.S., there is a now well established sense of concern for the country. We have a rogue government that since January 20, 2025, has displayed its intent to exploit the have nots, or those who have a little, or those who have more than a little but are each day wondering when they, too, may be in the crosshairs of the latest “executive order” or legislation aimed at taking more and more away from what once was a fairly secure sense of well being.

It’s no walk in the park for working-class minorities, women and even many children of those being targeted. Yes targeted. Many have been “taken”. It appears to be a vicious intent to make the U.S. as white as possible, and particularly for uber-wealthy whites. There are protests. Huge turnouts. Unfortunately, there seems to be little official pushback by any part of the government, and that is either by design or sheer cowardice.

Six months of this descent into virtually lawless governing. Seems a lot longer, though, huh? Maybe the mid-terms…

Meanwhile, in another part of the world, there is also a population living under duress. Duress: threats, violence, constraints or other action brought to bear on someone. Or, in this case, not just Brown, Black, poor Whites or women. This “other” population would very likely trade places with those of us in the U.S. who are now in the evil legislative crosshairs initiated on –1-20-2025.

Many of us feel uncertain about the future. For some others, the future is now. No past. No future. Only the waking here and now. Moment by moment. With evil ready to pounce.

Evil is nothing new, but it has various levels of intensity. And duration. For the people of Palestine, in Gaza, each and every one in that populace is plagued by an official force of Pure Evil. Its blatancy is a stain on humanity. There is not even a hint of nuance for the Palestinian plight, with each day a literal challenge to obtain food, water, medicine, or any sense of safety. Palestinians have, for generations, been the target of oppression and violence. To be born in Palestine is to have been, by birth, ethnicity and location, automatically designated as a target by the country of Israel. They have been in the crosshairs of its evil intent for decades, but at this very moment, their plight and persecution has reached a point at which we, as a human race, become less humane every day. Ignoble. Unforgivably so.

The Israeli government (and its military), over the past 21 months, has killed estimates of over one hundred-thousand men, women and children. The catalyst was a Hamas attack on Israel that killed about 1200 Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023. Simple math would clearly indicate that attack has been used to declare a “war” on Hamas. Hamas is not the people of Palestine. It is not a war that is absurdly asserted by many news outlets. It is a genocide. No other conclusion can be drawn! The International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court have both designated it as such. Sadly, and incredulously, those conclusions are not enough for seemingly any other country to intercede, to say enough! Enough!

The indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, the well documented cost of human life via cellphone video capture, have made these attacks an endless horror story. underscoring an evil that now connotes an incomprehensible, numbing sense of business-as-usual. That food, water, medicine and more that the people of Palestine need so desperately has been turned into a twisted, venal, heartless and hateful game of “beat the clock”. That is, four aid supply areas have been set up. The supplies are made available in the dead-of-night, and a report in today’s Guardian profiles a young Palestinian who tried to get his hands on some of those supplies before Israeli tanks start firing on him and so many others rushing desperately to do the same. The article estimates there might be about a 10-minute window for those who risk their lives to get there, get some supplies, then safely make the sometimes very long trek back to their families, many of whom are on the brink of starvation, dehydration, and other life-threatening conditions. And each day, dozens die in the effort. Every. Day. Day after day. After day. A genocide graphically documented. Without consequence to those committing the atrocities. Again, where is our humanity?

Where are those that have the power to stop this? They are out there, but without the moral courage to step in and step up to this abominable reality, their power is solely symbolic. Shamefully so.

What is Eviller than firing upon a starving, defenseless, dying people seeking to survive, if only for one more day? Where is the goodness of humanity that is capable of stopping this? It becomes less perceptible every day.

Here in the US of A, we do enjoy our French fries. And our French toast. You can get your fill of those two “French” inspired foods at your nearby you-name-it-drive-thru fast-food emporium or at just about any casual diner serving breakfast chow. In either venue, these culinary delights will fill you up and up as they go down very easily.

Then there are much more authentic French delights to be had such as quiche lorraine, ratatouille, bouillabaisse, crepes, escargot, coq au vin, foie gras, charcuterie, beef bourguignon, or creme brulee. And so many more dishes in which to indulge when the Franco Jones hunger pangs hit. Of course most of the above loftier dishes are enjoyed at a restaurant. Perhaps at a very expensive destination. Special occasions destinations. The priciest place to indulge in very elegantly prepared French delights in Chicago is Alinea. Want tiny portions and a huge tab? Then it’s Alinea that beckons: $500 per person. That does not include drinks. Wow. How exclusive. Must be the hedge fund barons or uber-mojo investment bankers who don’t think twice about dining there. They don’t need a special occasion. Maybe not even a reservation.

What would be a special occasion that specifically connotes things French? Special in what context? Well, how about today, July 14, 2025? Can you say Bastille Day? Okay, that’s the Americanized moniker for what the French refer to as “La fete nationale” or 14 juilliet.  On July 14, 1789, French peasants, craftsmen, shop owners all banded together and literally stormed the Bastille, a royal fortress and prison that symbolized the French monarchy’s oppressive power. The goal was to seize weapons and ammunition and free the unjustly incarcerated. Three years and two days after the Bastille was attacked, the monarchy fell. By 1799 the French Revolution was complete.

Liberte, egalite, fraternite!

The U.S. revolutionary war was taking place at about the same time (1775-1783). France today is a republican state and a parliamentary democracy. Meaning it has an elected President who then appoints a Prime Minister. Today, we here in the USA have an elected President, an elected congress and a congressionally appointed Supreme Court. Until about 5 months ago, this system of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial provided a “checks and balances” function as proscribed in our Constitution, wanting each branch to ensure that no individual branch could become more powerful than the other two. I say until about five months ago, because, well folks, neither the congress nor the Supreme Court show any interest in reigning-in the current President-who-would-be King. Perhaps you have noticed?

Then and now…

…Bastille Day, July 14, 1789. 236 years later, the French have that above noted President/Prime Minister/parliamentary democracy. 242 years after the U.S. Revolution we have a pseudo, quasi, crypto, ersatz, virtually unchecked President, along with a very unbalanced three branches of government. The U.S. just again observed its Independence Day of July 4, 1776. As usual, fireworks. backyard barbeques, NASCAR, apple pie and baseball, and an annual hot dog eating contest (the winner of which this year ate 70.5 “tube steaks” in 5 minutes!). And Old Glory flapping high on a flagpole, on lapels, buttons, T-shirts, coffee mugs, even a tattoo or two.

Well, for the majority of the country it’s now not as usual as it usually has been. Did you pig-out or protest? I know there were protests but no prisons were stormed. No beheadings. But the momentum may be building. Remember, July 4, 1776 and July 14th, 1789. Long held grievances between the haves and have nots simmering, kindled with the firewood of oppression and injustice, heated by flames that sucked the air from gasping commoners, causing the pot to boil over and stain the floor of history forever! (with kudos to the writers of the 1970 film Start the Revolution Without Me).

Okay. Revolution is not a laughing matter, but I, for one, cling to my snarky sense of humor. And an appetite for justice. It’s as simple as eating French fries and plotting a reply to our disappointments. To the ramparts! Storm that Bastille. And when we emerge victorious, we can all have a big belly laugh at the expense of the vanquished.

And we celebrate with French fries, French toast or an all-American hotdog or two. Or 70.5. Damn straight! The American way.

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The dog days of summer are upon us. Here in the northern hemisphere July has some really hot days. Yesterday (July 9) Phoenix set a record when it hit 118 degrees (but it’s a dry heat). Ol’ sol still climbs way up in the sky and its rays are intense. So, yesterday was indeed a “dog day” of summer for that desert city. Lots of daylight. Plenty of heat.

However! Yesterday was not a long as usual, according to scientists who measure the particulars of Mother Earth spinning on its axis as it orbits along. While the Phoenix area set that heat record, it did so on a day that was not as long as usual. Really.

What’s this, you ask? According to those scientists keeping close watch on our spinning sphere, yesterday it spun around faster than it usually does to complete its standard 24 hour go-around. Seriously.

Did you feel it? It what?, you now ask. Earth spun around yesterday with a little more mojo, clocking its quotidian go-around by 1.3 to 1.6 milliseconds faster than the usual 24 hours. That may not sound like much but it was the shortest day since such modern scientific measuring began. I must admit there were a few moments yesterday when my equilibrium faltered enough to bump against a wall on the way to rid myself of the waste product left over after digestion does its thing (otherwise known as using The Euphemism).

Or was it just a not so infrequent bit of dizziness brought on by having been around for about 27,000 24 hour days, or that many spins of the axis of the planet below my feet? But I digress…

The scientists also have reported that yesterday wasn’t a one-off. Mark your calendars, boys and girls, because on July 22nd and August 5, the daily rotation of this planet will again be shorter by that 1.3-1.6 millisecond measure. How do they postulate these future faster-than-ever spins? It has to do with the moon. “Tidal bulges”. “Gravitational interaction”. Look it up. Or don’t. But you now know what is coming and when. It’s not fake news, it’s science. Go with it.

Therefore, whatever you may have planned for July 22 or August 5 of this year, keep in mind it will be a shorter than usual day. A millisecond here, a millisecond there. It adds up. So maybe make sure that you take care of some business you’ve been putting off for far too long on each of those upcoming “shorties”. You know, some odious matter that becomes drudgery. But you’ll finally get rid of what you have been stalling on for far too long, knowing those two upcoming days will be done before you can say tidal bulge, baby.

You’re welcome.

Here in the USA, for many of us, we wake up everyday and assume more feces has been flung at   the fan. Choas, confusion. Fear and loathing. Who voted for his? Well, we know who did but still…why? As the guy who considers the default setting for the human race to be selfish, greedy and too often deadly in order to secure power over one another, I want to offer a possibly plausible explanation for our behavior.

In the immortal words of Tony Montana, otherwise know as Scarface, first you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the woman. That “woman” can be any other object of desire, but I do believe that money is always the catalyst that creates that power. Money–also known variously as cash, coin, bucks, dough, moolah, chips, change, loot, shekels, green, lucre, pelf, wampum, tender, bread, scratch, cabbage, capital–makes the world go round.

That monetary momentum our our spinning sphere started around 3,000 B.C. in Mesopotamia, in the form of clay tablets. In the 7th century  the first standardized coins were minted. Paper money came along in the 8th century, in China. In the 17th century modern banking emerged. Hey, what’s in your wallet?

That poop that is propelled toward the fan blades on a daily–dispiriting–basis has to do with money. It’s a distraction. Pay no attention to man behind that curtain. Look, over there. squirrel! This has been the modus operandi for close to five months now. Our current administration just passed a budget bill that blatantly takes food off some people’s tables, or takes their federal healthcare programs away. Among other cruel parts of the legislation. It literally will kill people. Never mind, as one of the administration’s flunkies recently stated “Well, we’re all going to die.” in response to accusations of the budget bill’s taking away of life-saving programs. Cold, dispassionate, and spewed out of her sewer mouth in defense of the sinister exploitation of the working class while billiionaires get an uneeded bundle of even more MONEY.

Which leads to…

I recently re-watched a scene from a 1976 film named Network. The narrative is a raging satire about the power of the media, and its influence on its viewers/consumers. It focuses on a character named Howard Beale, a network news anchor. Howard, nearing the end of his career at the fictional network, decides to use his last broadcast to denounce what he sees1 as the packaged bullshit being fed to his audience. At first, the network brass wants him fired. Until, that is, they realize his rant garnered millions of additional viewers. Those eyeballs equate to ratings. Ratings eqate to how much a network can charge an advertiser to run an ad. As a result, the network cynically exploits Beal’s popularity. That is, until Howard gets wind of a huge business deal having to do with a Saudi Arabian conglomerate buying the network for which Beal works. It’s not a hostile takeover but a smelly, wink-wink, nod-nod arrangement, as Beale sees it. His ranting to his huge and fawning audience result in the deal being quashed. A lot of money coming our way was thus made to remain in Saudi Arabia. Calling out bullshit. Before it hits the fan, huh?

In the scene I allude to, the boss of the network has Beale delivered to his office. The boss wants to explain why what Beale accomplished was so very wrong from the network’s (and international, monetary wheeling and dealings) point-of-view.

Here is the bulk of that scene, transcribed, which shows Beale at one end of a very long , empty, conference table and the network boss standing at the other end:

You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr Beale! You think you have merely stopped a business deal but that is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of our country and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow tidal gravity; it is ecological balance. You are an old man who thinks of nations and peoples. There re no nations. There no peoples. There are no Russians or Arabs, there are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast interwoven, interacting, multivariant, multinational dominion of dollars! Petro dollars, electric dollars, reichmarks, rims, rubles, pounds and shekels. It is the international system of currency, which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and sub-atomic and galactic structure of things today!

That screed was written 50 years ago (by the brilliant Paddy Chayefsky). And everyting that The Boss said to Beale back then could easily apply to what is going on in that geo-political monetary system of systems right now.  The blantant differnce is that the worship of money today is not just a matter of a quid-pro-quo, “tidal ebb and flow”. Today it is fully dreanged in its calculus of avarice, not aimed at any kind of “balance” but an absolute winner takes all mentality regardless of any collateral damage incurred in its brutally applied calculus.

Paddy Chayefsky is no longer with us to satirize our sickening descent into authoritarianism and rule by the billionaire class. What is still with us, however, is the possibility of a Howard Beale avatar who can arouse the exploited masses in need of a voice for coalescing their disppointment and siapproval as did Howard: I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!

Are you mad enough yet?

Standing by and seeing our urgent problems but not acting on it is being complicit with whatever you are witnessing that is clearly wrong. Have you made your disappointment and disapproval known? Called your local, state and national representatives? If so, have you heard back? Have you donated money? Did that make a difference?

I’m guessing not. Those reps are receptacles of desires to make the world a better place. That donated money leaves your account in hope of it helping bring about that better world. Good on you! Sit back and wait for better days…

However, at this point keep in mind that you might feel you are taking positive action, but think again. Are you recycling? That’s a feel good, eh? Except 90% of that what goes in that recycle bin ends up in a landfill anyway. Maybe more than 90% Donating money? It left your account, but how is it actually used? Maybe it just pays for a flunky to answer your phone call expressing your being fed-up. Or it is used to buy pizzas for that rep’s staff? You can’t trace that money’s final destination, anymore than the recycle bin’s bounty. Do you donate “gently used clothes”? As with bottles, cans and plastic and paper, the vast majority of those sartorial donations will eventually go on to reside in a landfill. There are documentaries (find them and check out their sources, of course) that reveal these modern-life realities.

Oh, and did I mention plastics up there? By now you may have heard that the oceans are a subterranean junk yard with plastic everywhere. Many fish species have dangerous levels of plastic in them. But avoiding fish won’t help. Find the documentary about micro-plastics being literally in every bit of any food we eat. Or what we imbibe. We all have plastic in our bodies. It is currently literally impossible not to ingest micro-plastics.

However, one possible comforting reality about how your efforts to make the world a better place while countless of your fellow humans, over a century or two, have made it pretty messed up, is that those who ignore your call, waste your well-intended monitary gift, and who may aid and abet the polluting corporations, they are all going down with this now clearly sinking ship. We all have an experation date. You know, this too shall pass. I, personally, would enjoy reading obituaries of any number of people who are making life miserable for those who are wanting to make things better.

Well, of course I am being very darkly ironic. I might still live to know some of those who are complicit will be held to account. But I doubt that. I’m an unrelenting realist. And cursed with critical thinking skills, and thus the ability to recognize a blatant lie from an inference, from a stone-cold fact.

Be one an angel or a demon, we are all complicit in our sad state of current affairs. Of course we are. We are humans. Humans have proven to be a bloody, belligerent species inclined to ultimamtely self-destruct. You may be trying to do the right thing, but we are all guilty by association. Seriously, what other species is so speciously deadly?

I am self-aware of my implicit duplicity in this matter. It’s a raw deal to be born human when your species is trying to kill you for the most innoble reasons. I have personally tried many times to locate the office where I–or anyone–can resign from the human race, but it is nowhere to be found.

Alas.

You’ve heard the joke: someone says memory is the second thing to go. The person on the receiving end of that statement responds with “what’s the first thing?” . Then the response to that response is “Hmm. I can’t remember”.

Losing one’s memory is no joking matter, of course. Losing one’s sense of humor is also no joking matter. Lose that, and you have a major deficiency as far as coping goes. We all have to cope now and then. Without a sense of humor, you have a serious deficiency. You are left with nothing but seriousness. So, try to see the humor in our human folly. The folly is always there to be seen or heard.

Not that all folly is funny. Some of it is quite disconcerting. Possibly frightening. But the casual and fleeting good times provide a sort of equilibrium between the peaks and valleys. with the sedating, hypnotic and altogether forgettable middle being the flat roads of most days, full of immensely forgettable moments.

Allow me to utilize a sporting metaphor: for certain there will be curve balls, change-ups and heaters thrown at us. At times even some nasty chin music. Brushed back. Whoa! That was close! Other times you get beaned. The noodle gets knocked on hard. All at once that smack to the brain bucket is something one would rather forget about, but maybe it was too much of a whack and that bad memory is determined to hang around and around.  Time, of course, will eventually make it forgotten, but that loss is usually many, many decades down that flat road portion of life, with little of interest on either side of it. Which is why the better and badder stuff have more room to occupy in your head.

We hope to keep our mental and physical health fit as long as possible. And that valuable sense of humor. Which, in Monde 2025, can be much the challenge. Lots of cringe-worthy situations out there. Coping mechanisms needed! Read a book that transports you. Listen to music that does the same, with sound waves soothing the psyche. Or other indulgences in the creative world of art. Or indulgence with nature. That walk in the woods. Stroll the shoreline. Stop and smell those roses. Or indulge nature in laid back, very chill recreational ways, now very less edgy a business with pot dispensaries formalizing the once much more hush hush and carefully executed experience of just wanting to score that nickel bag. And THC dispensaries are getting larger in number. But they’ll never outnumber liquor stores. Well, never say never?

We are in a moment in which an approach-avoidance of the daily “news” is probably making for a brisk business in the world of shrinks. You know, wig-tappers. Right. This condition is on a continuum that includes the bad news junkies causing self-inflicted gaper’s block as their brain gradually self-destructs and control of the wheel is lost, or a fastidious and rigid resolve to not look at it anymore, The memory bank may currently need some deleting of one of the most forgettable and regrettable moments in human history. Ugh. But how? Everyday there is more gunk. Until there is a crummy waking landscape full of gunk scattered in otherwise littered empty lots.Who’s going to clean up this mess?!

Depending on one’s age, there’s not even the ability to understand reality (that being very young or very old). Until then, reality has plenty of other space to park itself in the middle ground as we grow up, and older and ever older.

Oh bloody damn hell! Keep the faith and pass the gravy. Or the bottle or that joint or whatever gets you through the night. Time, if nothing else, will see this madness rendered non-existent. This too shall pass. The author’s name of that phrase escapes me. Memory, you know? The second thing to go.

Today is June 6, 2025. Eighty-one years ago on this date, 160,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches of northern France. Thousands of ships and aircraft were involved in the operation. Known as D-Day, it represents the largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare. This massive military operation’s objective was to push into the interior of the country and begin liberating Western Europe from Nazi occupation. The invasion was ultimately a success and a crucial turning point in WWII.

Eight decades later, on this June day, there is another amphibious operation that seeks to push back on another country’s siege of a foreign territory: the Gaza Strip. It does not involve thousands of vessels and tens of thousands of troops. It is a single sailboat, named Madleen. It has twelve people on board. Its objective is not to engage in battle with the country that has been relentlessly attacking the civilian population in Gaza for the past 20 months. The Madleen is not carrying weapons. It seeks to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. Its cargo consists of medical supplies, flour, rice, baby formula, nappies, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, crutches and childrens prosthetics.

The Madleen will reach its destination on June 9. The blockade by Israel, a nuclear power, has threatened the Madleen. Whether or not any of the humanitarian supplies can be delivered will soon play out. Unlike D-Day, this is a well-publicized amphibious strategy, and the whole world is likely aware of the situation. This flotilla of a single ship ought not have to be putting its crew’s lives in harm’s way. Sadly, what is happening in Gaza has been clearly documented as a genocide, and international courts have labelled it as such. Why it has not been stopped by other countries, especially the United States, is a sickening indictment upon their duplicity in the bombing of hospitals, schools, shelters and refuge areas.

D-Day and the Allied defeat of fascism made for a saner, safer world. Eighty-one years later, the massive casualties incurred that day are remembered for such sacrifice. History now clearly is repeating itself, with authoritarian governments acting out their nefarious agendas that victimize people unjustly, cruelly. It is the same evil that was crushed by the end of WWII. It took unimaginable courage on the part of those Allied troops as they hit the beaches of Normandy, with Nazi firepower awaiting them. The twelve people aboard the Madleen have a similar courageous sense of purpose as they approach their “target” on what they refer to as a “freedom flotilla”.

We will soon find out what awaits them. One way or another, it will be a barometer of a different kind of global encounter of good versus evil.

The human race seems intent on self-destruction when viewed through a historical lens. Current events, such as the Madleen’s choice to say enough already, provide at least a modicum of faith in humanity.

For those with their eyes wide open, it is inspirational. One way or another, it will be a wake-up call as another chapter of history unfolds.