Here we are again on Monday night and I have no blog post prepared. This has been one hell of a week. I wasn’t sure I could gather the strength to work today, but somehow I managed. The stress and news stemming from the Russian War of aggression against Ukraine, and the whole of Europe, NATO and the concept of liberal democracy is just too much. I’m not personally emotionally prepared for the onset of World War III and I’m not sure putting my head down and staying “on task” is a positive course of action on my part. It seems like there could be a better use of my time.

If it’s not the war you’re worried about, there’s also climate change, where the latest scientific reports indicate we are nearly out of time to take drastic action to keep our planet fit for human survival beyond the next century. This is no joke. We are already seeing increased flooding in low-lying beaches and islands across the globe, not to mention increasingly intense storms, fires and cold snaps throughout the generally temperate areas of the world. At this point, there is very little that one can do on their own; we must make radical policy decisions that support life over money and keep remaining fossil fuels in the ground.

Then there is 1/6, the insurrection where hoards of brainwashed automatons were prompted by their dear leader/narcissistic emotional abuser/mob boss to “storm the Capitol.” This was all a test. If you tell a lie long enough, people will start to believe you. This has been the M.O. for “conservative” media for a generation. Now we have people in our country who believe Fox News has gone soft so they choose to watch RT or another Russian propaganda network as though it is “news.” And at the same time, they say they are fighting for “freedom?” They have forgotten the meaning of the word.

All this and Covid really starts to look like a nothing-burger. Only a million Americans died in excess of normal over the last 2 years. The resulting restrictions and mandates have saved lives, but have also caused a great number of people to LOSE THEIR EVERLOVING MINDS, protesting having to wear masks because they don’t care or aren’t convinced that their inconvenience might save a life. My elderly neighbor said he finally caught covid last month and, according to him, it proved that masks and vaccines don’t work, because he caught the virus. He also said now that he did have it, he could see how it might’ve killed people who were weaker than him and that China owes the world bazillions of dollars for all the economic losses businesses sustained. Give me a break! This is likely not the last pandemic we’ll see this century and given our performance since March, 2020, I can’t even imagine the kind of mobilization that would be required to prepare. We’ll never be ready, or even acknowledge it when it does happen.

Hyper-capitalism, white supremacy, fascism, patriarchy, inflation, all those who care only about money and will absolutely use anyone they can for cheap labor or to dump their externalities. None of this is sustainable. We need to find a better way to live, fast. Consuming less, only what you need, “enough,” being intentional about your actions, VOTING (and not for the neo-fascist party), and remembering your human compassion for others will get you started. We have a long way to go just to begin to right the ship. Take a break if you need but come back because we need all hands on deck.