We were watching and listening aghast as thousands of Parents in the US could not find bottled Baby Milk to feed their children, especially those babies who need Hypo-Allergenic Formulas. Imagine that! The US runs out of Baby Milk! How embarrassing! It seemed to me that the TV News anchors were breathlessly updating us on that story every five minutes as the Military Aircraft took off from Ramstein Air Base in Germany en route to the US transporting bottles of milk! Better that than more Military Hardware, I would think!! Anyway, perhaps they should have contracted with NORAD’s (North American Aerospace Defense Command) website and tracked the airplanes with their precious cargo using the same feature which tracks Santa Claus every Christmas from his North Pole Workshop to distribute gifts to the anticipating, excited children? And wouldn’t our talking heads have been gaga goo-goo over that? Hilarious thought!
Otherwise, nothing hilarious about our situation as these past two weeks have found me despondent and, frankly, reluctant to write and have some of my friends tell me that I am being Pessimistic, which, by nature, I am not. However, in observing our Planet and the tumultuous state of affairs that it is in, do I want to be imitating the superficial, artificial anchors especially those on our local news channels who are giggling, upbeat, jumping around and pretending that all is bright and right with the world, being that their only objective is to keep the wheels of Runaway Capitalism churning? Not really! That’s not my objective in life!
That’s why I was happy to hear that the new Chief Executive, David Zaslav, wants more hard News and less Views on CNN. Well, that’s refreshing! It is high time for an updated formula! Let’s see where that goes with the so-called journalists, pundits, experts and anchors who are so full of themselves and of their Opinions! 24/7 hours to fill with mostly repetitiveness and superficiality are what has most Humans tuning off! Good luck. Zaslav!
It is also high time for the war in Ukraine to END! Enough of this dangerous brinkmanship! C-Span had two interesting talks that I listened to on May 21st. regarding this subject. The first was with Mary Sarotte, who wrote Not One Inch, and the second was with Harlan Ullman (he of the Shock and Awe Iraq War strategy that was so terrible!) who wrote The Fifth Horseman and the New MAD (Massive Attacks of Disruption). Their talks calling for a new and comprehensive approach to our domestic, as well as foreign policy made me replay my Memory Reel of our history since WWII, and to how very few nations – if any – in our world have managed to conduct themselves with Wisdom, A Sense of Justice and Equality, Compassion and Foresight. To the contrary, we have been building on the same defunct approaches, mindsets, outlooks and militarism – especially! – that have brought on so much agony and catastrophes to millions upon millions of Humans, while not succeeding in bringing any Peaceful Coexistence to our World! I wish everyone would listen to these authors and so many – so many! – others who are practically begging Political Leaders and American Citizens to heed their warnings lest we not only lose our Democracy, but also doom ourselves and the World as we know it. Scary? Pessimistic? No! It is the Dismal Reality, and we cannot continue to be the ostrich hiding its head in the sand thinking that the predators won’t see it!!
In A Nutshell, and the cause of all our Problems – Domestic and Foreign – all across the World are three things in my opinion:
Misunderstandings. Mistrust. Misinformation.
This applies to relationships, families, countries and everything in between. It is also . . . Oh, wait! Wait! My thoughts and writing are suddenly interrupted by yet another News Bulletin of a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas!!! No! No! No! Not again! For God’s sake, not again! I feel sick, nauseated and enraged! I am mesmerized and shocked by the news, and yet I don’t want to hear another corrupt, useless, immoral, unethical, irresponsible Politician telling us how saddened they feel! Not one more! Disgraceful! Shameful! The Only Country in the World that has become a Slaughterhouse, a crime infested, arrogant, caricature that boasts about being a Country Of Laws! What Laws? Whose Laws? Which Interpretation of these effing Laws are applicable? Whose Version? We decry Corruption in our forums and on our Congressional floors and yet we are proving to be the Prime World Suspect in Corruption! How tragic! How unnecessary! How fixable, but no one wants to fix it! We have become the laughing stock of the entire World! And, across the World, in Ally, as well as Foe Territory, especially those places where we have disrupted, uprooted, pillaged, invaded and meddled – which is most of the world – Ordinary People are saying: You got What Your Arrogance and Militarism Have Been Sowing, America! For us, first generation immigrants to hear, or sense this is so tormenting! How Tragic that we should come to this point due to our Misunderstandings, Mistrust and Misinformation regarding each other as citizens, and regarding our perceptions of the rest of the World!! Not that the rest of the World is any better in this regard, either, and that’s why we are all in the terrible predicament that we are currently suffering from!
In A Nutshell: Vote All The Scumbags who are fomenting Divisiveness amongst us OUT! OUT! OUT! Vote Out Every Single Fossilized, Doddering Political Leader – and his/her Fiefdoms – on the Radical, Extremist, Demented Right Wing of the Republican Party seeking to Talibanize this Fragile Democracy and take us back to the Dark Ages! That’s where our so-called journalists and anchors should be focusing all their energies on, rather than preaching to the choir! Meanwhile Wake Up, America! Wake up! How the hell can all this be acceptable, or tolerable? This country is falling apart at the seams! All our Political Class, Media Corporations, Institutions, Infrastructure are in total and absolute disarray! End this Insanity, Embarrassment and Disgrace! Not tomorrow!
My Seventy Year Old Eyes 