Category: Illusions

Beliefs or images of reality, as distinct from reality

International Trade Emissions: Shipping and Aviation Overreach

July 2, 2016

The climate crisis will not wait for anyone. Unfortunately, the widely praised Cop 21 UN Climate Conference agreements this past winter failed to take committed action of adequate urgency. Instead, it accomplished what many thought impossible: it gained agreements from most nations to standards for voluntary actions to reduce carbon emissions by the 2%. That … More International Trade Emissions: Shipping and Aviation Overreach

Is a Left-Right Coalition Against Trump Viable?

May 13, 2016

Our national politics has fully descended into the gutter at a very perilous time. The Republicans have ostensibly nominated a narcissistic buffoon. The Democratic Party establishment continues its attempts to force the only popular candidate with genuine ideas out of the race by anointing the candidate of empire. Essentially, the rich and powerful are fighting … More Is a Left-Right Coalition Against Trump Viable?

Calculating Survival: How to Avoid Human Species Extinction

April 5, 2016

Chances for the survival of the species Homo sapiens beyond the next few decades are diminishing rapidly.  Reducing the accelerating risk of extinction will require massive intervention to change our present trajectory of the global economy and change it fast. Each week, new data are reported on rapidly accelerating impacts of global warming. Multiple positive … More Calculating Survival: How to Avoid Human Species Extinction

Individual Climate Ethics and Social Action

February 24, 2016

Climate action: can we do it ourselves? If we recycle everything we can, take shorter showers, and install some solar panels, will that prevent the looming climate chaos? We could buy an electric car and low-emissions consumer products, maybe even go “off the grid.” But would that be enough to avoid climate catastrophe? Sorry. Absolutely … More Individual Climate Ethics and Social Action

Questioning Capitalism: Goldman Sachs on Corporate Profit Margins

February 8, 2016

Bloomberg News reported on February 3, 2016, that a new report from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts wonders whether currently very high corporate profit margins can be sustained. They are at near record levels, despite a stagnant real economy characterized by record low wages and listless job growth and declining opportunity structures. Well, according to … More Questioning Capitalism: Goldman Sachs on Corporate Profit Margins

False Hopes and Disingenuous Agreements: COP21 and Climate Catastrophe

December 28, 2015

The corporate mass media were briefly all agog about the agreement reached in Paris for the world’s nations to reduce green house gas emissions and save the planet.[1] COP21 was widely declared a success, then quickly ignored. But really, what was accomplished? A very slick propaganda pitch by the world’s political elites, that’s what. Yet, … More False Hopes and Disingenuous Agreements: COP21 and Climate Catastrophe

Why Recycle? Sometimes the Necessary is Insufficient

December 18, 2015

I have been recycling for a long time. At first it was just aluminum cans and glass bottles, especially when there was a deposit to collect. Then plastic grew to dominate the world of packaging. Of course, the process has gotten more sophisticated in the last couple of decades. Remember the 5¢ redemption on glass … More Why Recycle? Sometimes the Necessary is Insufficient

Exxon’s Money or Your Life: Immoral Capital is Still in Charge

October 24, 2015

What makes the majority of politicians most uncomfortable about Bernie Sanders is not that he is a “democratic socialist” (Notice, they usually leave out the “democratic” part.) Most do not understand the concept anyway. They just find the word an easy target for the personal derision of Bernie, the disheveled outsider who has remained an … More Exxon’s Money or Your Life: Immoral Capital is Still in Charge