We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, September 2, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Thursday, September 2, 2021

Note: Monday after I completed my posts, I watched on TV the tennis matches at the US Open. I realized how much I enjoyed watching tennis matches by expert players. So, I decided to wait until the 13th of September to take off on my road trips east from my home in southern Minnesota. I will go as far as New York state and possibly up into Vermont and across to Massachusetts.

I won't patronize any businesses that require papers to prove that I have been vaccinated because I haven't been. (I have enjoyed the longest streak of good health that I can remember, that is, outside of my balance problems I experienced in April.) Thus, I can't visit people into Canada and I won't go into New York City because authorities in both places require proof of vaccination. I promise that I will not patronize any businesses that require such papers.

Yesterday I received an email from someone who is living in Albuquerque (New Mexico) who has followed my website for over six years! However, I'm not going in that direction. But I could use more volunteers of regular readers of my website to meet along the way to the east coast. Hopefully, more will respond (goatmeal36@yahoo.com) before the 13th of September. I want to meet some of my regular readers over coffee, tea, or beer to get acquainted with them.

  • Scott Armstrong Interview – How Employers Are Quietly Removing The Non-Compliant featuring Ryan Cristián interviewing (about 48 minutes) Armstrong who resides in Oregon whose residents are under pressure from mandates by state authorities to take the new injections and/or PCR tests. The post is from The Last American Vagabond. My reaction: Armstrong and Cristián commiserate and offer some advice to people facing the same pressures and mandates. For details of the Oregon mandates, see this.
  • Red Alert: False Flag Incoming! featuring a video (12:52m) James Corbett explaining what this subject is all about from his weblog. (Note: I thank an activist for sending me this post.) My reaction: Corbett warns us about ruling class authorities: that they will activate false-flag terrorist events near or on the anniversary of 9/11, but you should not take these events seriously as reported by their media corporations.)
The legislature passed an incredibly draconian law that essentially turns every Texan into a little anti-abortion Stasi. The law allows private misogynist busybodies to sue anyone who “aids and abets” an abortion — as if abortion were a crime and not a fundamental right — after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which happens at roughly six weeks of pregnancy. The state then pays these misogynist snitches $10,000 and covers their legal fees if they win. It does not cover the legal fees of the person who has to defend themselves in court, which means that clinic owners, doctors, nurses, counselors, and anyone else even tangentially involved in abortion care could be quickly bankrupted. The definition of “aiding and abetting” is broad enough to cover not only doctors and clinic workers, but anyone who, say, loans a woman money for the procedure, goes with her to get it, or drives her to a clinic in their taxi or Uber. It applies to insurance companies that cover abortion. There is no exception for rape or incest.
  • Science Update: Humans "Guilty as Hell" featuring the views and analysis of Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist (via his YouTube channel--08:46m), who has fearlessly focused his attention throughout his career on the climate crisis. My reaction: Notice how the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and media corporations have shifted the blame for extreme weather, which we are now experiencing, on "humanity", instead of the capitalist ruling classes.
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