An America dying in dictatorship is fraught with horror, denial, angst.
Countless Americans now live in terror of the totalitarian state coming at us full bore.
As a people, we’ve flirted with homegrown fascism in our literature, arts and imagination. But we’ve only briefly confronted it in real time.
Obviously, it sucks.
But on a karmic level, based on what we have done to other peoples and nations, don’t we deserve it?
And won’t this Trumpian nightmare force us to confront the faults that have powered his rise?
America’s core freedoms have been a long term assumption.
Based on gender, sexual orientation, class, race, involuntary servitude, religion, national origin, etc, for millions that freedom has been a cruel illusion.
But in the larger flow of human history, we inherited from Indigenous America a unique sense of liberty. Few North American tribes were authoritarian in nature.
From Gulf of America to mass expulsion of “illegals” (people of color) to continuing genocidal complicity in Gaza to whatever the daily news brings us , , , welcome to Trump America! Welcome to the small-minded, white nation so many long for, free once again from those large, inconvenient values – e.g., the Declaration of Independence – that keep disrupting the way things are supposed to be.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . .”
Cone on! In Trump America, those words were never meant to be taken literally. They create a sense of what I call empathic sanity, which has led to, for instance, the civil rights movement. But as Donald Trump understands, empathic sanity can’t compete politically with hatred and fear – the creation of some good, solid enemies – especially when mainstream Democrats, in their desperation for financial backing, are more than willing to shrug and minimize their values in the name of compromise.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent visit to Washington was no ordinary trip. The consensus among Israeli analysts, barring a few remaining loyalists, is that Netanyahu was not invited but, rather, summoned by US President Donald Trump.
All evidence supports this assertion. Netanyahu rarely travels to the US without extensive Israeli media fanfare, leveraging his touted relationships with various US administrations as a "hasbara" opportunity to reinforce his image as Israel's strongman.
Medical specialist DR. NANCY NIPARKO opens GREEP Zoom #220 with a direct quote from Donald Trump and a diagnostic prognosis.
Financial organizer JERRY ASHTON tells us his organizing has helped retire $45 billion in medical debt for more than 5 million people, including thousands of veterans, many of whom have thus avoided suicide.
Poet Laureate MIMI GERMAN tells us of HEIDI STRANGE-SKY LAMBERT, who was duly elected mayor of Waldport, Oregon, only to be forcefully removed by the bad bully she was duly elected to remove as mayor. Heidi’s amazing story of being bullied out of the mayor’s office is going global.
The story of Elon Musk’s pro-apartheid parents follows in sequence with our discussion of the rise of Trumpian fascism.
Long-time activist DOROTHY REIK expresses her intense dismay that the LA Dodgers went to see Trump in the White House, and calls for a general strike.
Having attended the Bernie/AOC rally in Los Angeles, MYLA RESON also references Trump’s desire to have “home growns” shipped to death camps in El Salvador.
Dr. Bob and Dan-o Dougan commemorate Earth Day with songs by and about the Earth, the world, and land and discuss climate change.
Listen live at 11pm Friday, April 18 and 25 streaming at wgrn.org or on the radio at 91.9FM
and
Monday at 2pm streaming April 21 and 28 at wcrsfm.org or on the radio at 92.7 or 98.3FM
Michelangelo’s Pieta, the larger-than-life sculpture of the crucified Christ held tenderly in Mother Mary’s lap, has attracted visitors to Rome since it was installed in the old St. Peter’s Basilica more than 500 years ago.
Contemplation of the Pieta gifts one with the powerful presence of sacrifice and divine acceptance, life summoned from stone, transcending death. Christians approach Good Friday with two powerful remembrances: Christ’s sacrifice and redemption on The Cross, and the acceptance, love and compassion expressed through The Pieta.
Countless images emerging from Gaza, of the sudden deaths of children, by bombing, shrapnel, gunshots, and grieving parents evoke modern day Pietas, occurring with terrible frequency. Unlike Michaelangelo’s crucified Christ, the dead children are seldom intact.
They are horribly mangled and disfigured, limbless, headless, often identified by a scrap of clothing. Yet, the bereaved parents, holding what is left of their child wrapped in white shroud, look to the heavens, and, resonating with divine grace and acceptance recite “Allah Akbar,” God is Great.
Good Café – a celiac safe restaurant – has joined a network of cafes in Central Ohio where customers can get their takeout drinks in stainless steel reusable cups. The borrow-based reusable cup program is an initiative of the Central Ohio Reuse Coalition (CORC), which includes coalition partners Green Bexley and the Worthington Partnership’s Green Team. Okapi Reusables out of Portland OR supplies the cups, the mobile application, and the technology platform that tracks borrows and returns.
“Why do you think Trump is racist”. This question was asked of me recently, in all seriousness as far as I could tell. Since everyone in America knows he is racist, I am unsure why I am writing this. Here goes.