I was just reading a Medium essay about a man who felt he had “lost his mother” to FOX News. His story paralleled that told in the excellent documentary by Amy Jaffe, “The Brainwashing of My Dad.”

I have also lost a few friends to Fox News (national) over the last five years; and also to very unprofessional (and sometimes, highly produced) websites, and social media-based and YouTube videos, in which people have claimed all sorts of things, such as: Western wildfires were started by Antifa arsonists, BLM is a fundraising scheme for the DNC, and Bill Gates is the…

Do you mean the “menace” of racism? I do a lot of educational work via Medium and on my new YouTube channel (Heart of America) and at my radio show. We need to dialogue with others, self educate and educate others. A lot of white people are afraid to face our real history, and their underlying shame. I am half white, so I understand this. It is easier to ignore history and say: There is no racism! ... There is also fear of retribution, which is just projection, actually. This fear is unfounded. We need to help white folks see that they can learn our real history and understand racism and come out the other side as better, more expanded people. We need to do this to heal our nation. IMHO. Will try to check out your website if I get some time. Thank you!

I’ve been researching a book project, as well as hosting a YouTube podcast and local radio show, each in part exploring the topic of great wealth and greed in the United States, and globally. It’s been surprising to hear that many top executives in multi-million and billion dollar corporations themselves feel stuck in a system that keeps them “on the run” to generate greater profits for their companies and themselves, year over year, quarter by quarter. Many such people (still mostly men) are not particularly happy, contented nor living in states of profound well-being due to their wealth.

In the…

Perhaps if they shifted gears to focus on helping all of us, they too would stand a better chance

I hear stories from time to time, beyond the headlines which have already alerted us to the fact that Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are hoping to possibly build second, third, fourth homes —bubbles? colonies? mining operations? biospheres? — on Mars*. I hear stories about other, very wealthy people buying up vast tracts of land in Montana and Wyoming, or buying second homes on acerage in Canada, or building impenetrable bunkers in New Zealand.

What’s the earthly use of putting a…

Rest well, friends, but get ready, too

I understand there are times on a battlefield when everyone is exhausted and demoralized. Maybe the fighting has been very intense for a long time. Maybe there has been a break in the fighting and it feels nearly inconceivable to have to get up and fight again. … And yet, the enemy is on the march. Here they come. The stakes are just as high as before. You have made significant advances, but the battle has not been won.

In a little over a year, we face mid-term elections here in the U.S…

There are many comments here in agreement with this article, and many of us are still totally alarmed and watching all of this unfold with bated breath. Many here are asking: But what can we DO? I believe it is worth our further efforts to protect our democracy--as influential as it is globally--and the lives of women, POC, transgendered, Jews, Muslims and others. I suggest donating to Democratic campaigns and phonebanking again as we did in 2020. Getting out the POC vote. Getting out the blue vote. Also, donate and volunter with People's Action and Swing Left. I suppose, get ready to hit the streets too. We are all exhausted, but these next two and four years are our tipping point. We will succeed or fail at the "American Experiment." The time is now.

Thank you for this essay. I have recently been invited to co-host a radio show at the Monterey Bay and Santa Cruz radio station, KSQD (!) and my first show, this Friday (May 21) will be about this. I came up with the same title as you for this essay. The show will be at 3 pm Pacific Time, if you want to join in. www.KSQD.org ...

“Seriousness, like life, is a thought … and this thought creates a feeling. And if you create the feeling of seriousness, then you are in a very serious state …

“You are very liable to have stress, strain, sickness and unhappiness and jealousy and everything else … Now, seriousness doesn’t help you do anything in life, but destroy yourself.” — Sydney Banks

In hindsight, I don’t think I quite knew what was coming.

For many years, I cared about climate change. Probably since before Al Gore’s first movie put to rest much of the misinformation that had been flying around…