contemplation through the crucible of crisis As unlikely as it may seem, the contemplative moment can be found at the very center of such ontological crises . . . during the Middle Passage in the holds…

    Present incarnations of an unfazed and empowered far right increasingly demand the presence of a real, radical left. In the coming months and years, the left and left-leaning constituencies of the United States will need to make clear distinctions between potentially counterproductive symbolic progress, and actual material progress. Liberalism and party politics have…

Quite a thought-provoking discussion with Director Michael Moore, author Anand Giridharadas and professor Eddie Glaude Jr. This episode picks up a conversation on the President and his impact on the country that first began on November 11, 2016. I agree – this President is that bad.  

Anand Giridharadas Interview “I sit on a man’s back choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am sorry for him and wish to lighten his load by all means possible … except by getting off his back.” —Leo Tolstoy Anand Giridharadas, whose latest book is “Winners Take…

While the Trump administration swirls around in a vortex of Tweets, lies and Russiagate, one thing is for certain, while we are all distracted and perplexed by the daily mayhem, Trump and his fossil fuel buddies are getting away with environmental plunder. It’s not a surprise, really, given that Trump believes man-made climate change is…

Excluding institutions such as Blackrock and Vanguard, which are composed of multiple investors, the largest single players in global equity markets are now thought to be central banks themselves. An estimated 30 to 40 central banks are invested in the stock market, either directly or through their investment vehicles (sovereign wealth funds). According to David Haggith on Zero Hedge: Central banks…

Our society should’ve collapsed by now. You know that, right? No society should function with this level of inequality (with the possible exception of one of those prison planets in a “Star Wars” movie). Sixty-three percent of Americans can’t afford a $500 emergency. Yet Amazon head Jeff Bezos is now worth a record $141 billion. He could…

This… might be a problem.

This is deep….  

Mr. Fish / Truthdig The only way to end slavery is to stop being a slave. Hundreds of men and women in prisons in some 17 states are refusing to carry out prison labor, conducting hunger strikes or boycotting for-profit commissaries in an effort to abolish the last redoubt of legalized slavery in America. The…

Excellent film on  Injustice /prison system in England but it could be describing what’s going on in America and elsewhere. Connect the dots & see the “man behind the curtain” for yourself.

  Environmentally, socially and psychologically our society is unsustainable. If consumption continues to increase at current rates, by 2050 we will need 3 Earths to sustain us (United Nations, 2015). Socially, income inequality is at the highest level in 50 years in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries. Psychologically, according to the latest…

. Great interview with two of the finest public intellectuals of our time, Derrick Jensen & Chris Hedges. If you have not done so already, pick up a copy of Derrick Jensen’s powerful book, “The Culture of Make Believe“. It will change ya! I’ve read most of Chis Hedges books & look forward to picking…

. Who holds the purse strings to the majority of the world’s wealth? There is a new global elite at the controls of our economic future, and in this book, Giants: The Global Power Elite“, Peter Phillips unveils for the general reader just who these players are. The book includes such power players as Larry…

Sales of George Orwell’s utopian novel 1984 (1949) have spiked twice recently, both times in response to political events. In early 2017, the idea of ‘alternative facts’ called to mind Winston Smith, the book’s protagonist and, as a clerk in the Ministry of Truth, a professional alternator of facts. And in 2013, the US National Security Agency…

Ralph Nader spends an hour with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author, Chris Hedges, discussing his book “America: The Farewell Tour.  

The spectacular rise of human civilization—its agrarian societies, cities, states, empires and industrial and technological advances ranging from irrigation and the use of metals to nuclear fusion—took place during the last 10,000 years, after the last ice age. Much of North America was buried, before the ice retreated, under sheets eight times the height of…

“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face–forever.”  ~ George Orwell  ~ 1984 A system whereby you must obey whatever nonsense is presented to you in order to just etch out an existence, is still a system of nonsense, fascism, and totalitarianism. We might like to cast its…

Aretha Franklin’s music was a constant in my household growing up. My mother was heavy into the soul classics – Robera Flack, Dionne Warwick, Otis Redding, Arthur Prysock Curtis Mayfield, Al Green amongst others. But Aretha was her girl! When I became a man & understood life a little better, I became more aware of…

Aldous Huxley on the dangers of being ‘caught by surprise by our own advancing technology’ This episode of PBS’s animated series Blank on Blank features an audio excerpt from a 1950 interview with the UK writer Aldous Huxley by the US reporter Mike Wallace. Using his landmark dystopian novel Brave New World (1932) as a starting point, Huxley warns of…

There is a shadowy group of Plutocrats running multinational corporations, controlling the media narrative, manipulating the money supply, influencing governments, generating chaos, and provoking wars in order to further their agendas. These people are very real and extremely dangerous. They operate in the shadows, safely out of the light of public scrutiny. They manage by…

  It’s a strange world of newspeak we live in. What was once a society devoted to logic and progress is now being herded in echo chambers of thought control and anti-critical thinking. Without the ability to examine an issue impartially and completely there is little hope of maintaining liberty and freedom, as history repeatedly demonstrated. Today,…

This meditation by Rupert Spira explores the empty, loving and unconditionally fulfilled aspects of our true nature.

There is almost unanimous agreement among climate scientists and organizations – that is, 97% of over 10,000 climate scientists and the various scientific organizations engaged in climate science research – that human beings have caused a dramatic increase in the amount of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide released into Earth’s atmosphere since the pre-industrial…

Last night a host of nonhuman neighbors paid me a visit. First, two gray foxes sauntered up, including an older female who lost her tail to a leghold trap six or seven years ago. They trotted back into a thicker part of the forest, and a few minutes later a raccoon ambled forward. After he…

Put down your phone and wake up!

Climate scientist Michael Mann says that, under a business-as-usual scenario, the mass displacement of billions could trigger an unprecedented national security crisis. Why isn’t this considered a top news item in the mainstream media? It blows my mind that folks are being distracted & hoodwinked by a clown in the White House & corporate news…

  To grasp what is going on in the world right now, we need to reflect on two things. One is that we are in a phase of trial runs. The other is that what is being trialled is fascism – a word that should be used carefully but not shirked when it is so…

Historian Lilian Calles Barger explores the legacy of liberation theology – as a critique of Christianity under capitalism, a challenge to the conditions of inequality and oppression faced by poor and working class people, and as a resurgent movement with the power to propel social movements today and tomorrow. “People have a very strong sense…

Political power—armed central authority, with states and war— is it part of human nature? Is it necessary for human community? Or is it a tool that ruling elites use to live at the community’s expense? A tool that does violence to human nature and the world? Engines of Domination offers a theory of political power…