Eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), female, dark color form
Ice Age National Scientific Reserve Unit, Wisconsin, USA
2018-08-10 154aaa2
“Climate is changing too quickly for the Sierra Nevada's 'zombie forests'”
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Another reason to break up the too big to fail banks:
“Too-Big-to-Fail Lenders Rake In Deposits After Three Banks Fail”
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“How the Fed’s interest rate hikes endangered the banking sector, leading to SVB’s collapse
It wanted to slow down the economy, but not by starting a banking crisis.”
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“Republicans in several states try to make child labor great again
The Labor Department’s top attorney is concerned about efforts to weaken child labor laws. There are plenty of such bills to worry about.”
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America’s joke of a judiciary:
“Texas Judge Sought to Hide Abortion Pill Hearing From Public to Prevent Protests
The highly unusual move is the latest in far right judges’ current streak of judicial activism.”
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America’s Dark Ages are on steroids:
“21 South Caroline GOP lawmakers propose death penalty for women who have abortions”
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“A Run on the Planet
There's more ways than one for a bank to fail”
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“RETREAT IN RODANTHE
Along three blocks in a North Carolina beach town, severe erosion is upending life, forcing hard choices and offering a glimpse of the dilemmas other coastal communities will face”
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“Silicon Valley Was Unstoppable. Now It’s Just a House of Cards.
The bank debacle is exposing the myth of tech exceptionalism.”
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“California cancels salmon fishing season”
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Radio Free Europe is blocked on FB:
Evidence has been revealed that America specifically wanted to bring Russia into a war in Ukraine THIS IS AMERICA’S ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER:
“Satellite images reveal how russia’s invasion has devasted the environment in Ukraine”
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“The Chris Hedges Report Podcast with Seymour Hersh on how the U.S. blew up the Nord Stream pipelines and why the press has ignored what is arguably an act of war against Russia.”
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America is a failed state:
“Two faces of the same political party
~Both political parties Care primarily about party preservation
~Are highly influenced by the donor class
~Serve corporations and capital investors
~Work together in controlled opposition
~Stage political theatre to appease masses
~Support a bloated military and its budget
~Provide tax cuts for the wealthy
~Favor privatization of core human services
~Thwart democracy with fraudulent elections
~Place profits over people
~Are the problem, not the solution
“Human Reform Politics
Hear me out.... I'm not saying one party doesn't appear to be somewhat more concerned about the quality of people's lives than the other. I'm simply pointing out that, upon weighing their most important attributes, both parties have fundamentally more in common with one another than they have differences. And all we need to do is examine the United States' trajectory over the past five decades to understand this truth.
A 2014 Princeton University study confirmed that the general population in the United States has nearly no impact on political decisions and policy-making, while corporations have significant influence. The United States has also been downgraded to a "flawed democracy" by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research division of the Economist Group, largely because corporations have been given the freedom to purchase government favor.
Corporations own both dominant political parties in the United States. According to OpenSecrets, the FIRE sector of our economy (finance, insurance and real-estate) is comprised of 438 Political Action Committees, and together contributed $996 million dollars to political campaigns during the 2019-2020 election cycle and another $560 million dollars to political campaigns during the 2021-2022 election cycle. That's $1.5 billion dollars in political campaign contributions over the two most recent election cycles. The contributions are about as evenly distributed between political parties as they can get, with 50.7% going to Democrats and 49.3% to Republicans. All of this to purchase political favor, influence legislation and laws, and ultimately shape our nation's social values to transfer the burden of civilization costs from themselves to communities and taxpayers.
Imagine being tasked to create a scorecard that describes how our government is performing. What government performance ratings would you assign to issues that are important to you? Issues such as 1) a living minimum wage, 2) affordable entry-level housing, 3) universal healthcare, 4) quality public education, 5) tuition-free trade school and college, 6) worker’s benefits, 7) social security, 8} busting monopolies, 9) controlling inflation, 10) our nation’s deteriorating infrastructure, 11) flawed democracy, 12) overblown military spending, 13) irresponsible mainstream media, 14) climate concerns, and others. If we were to calculate the average rating of all these factors, what would be our government’s aggregate score? How is our government doing? Is it meeting the requirements of its citizen stakeholders by establishing the policies and services that improve our lives? Or does government serve someone else instead?
Clearly, our government is performing poorly. Reliable data confirms that the quality of life is getting worse for average Americans. The gap between the results and our expectations is staggering. In addition, our elected officials have proven to be untrustworthy. We can no longer afford to accept the empty words of politicians who consistently fall short of fulfilling their vacant promises.
As you see, it really doesn't matter which party has control of congress, because every active political class has performed poorly over the past five decades. No party has substantially improved our lives. None have even come close to meeting our minimum requirements. The system is performing precisely as designed— a design that serves a capitalist investment donor class because, at the end of the day, the greatest motivation in U.S. politics is self-preservation and self-promotion. For all members of every political class, both Democrats and Republicans, it's all about winning their next elections and remaining career politicians.
Of course, these are my personal truths based on observations and research. If you disagree, please provide your most compelling and convincing counter-arguments using reason, logic and reliable facts. And thanks in advance for adding value to the discussion.”
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Write your congressperson website:
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“Deregulate banks and they fail.
Deregulate the rail industry and trains derail.
It’s almost as if regulations are necessary to protect capitalism from capitalists and capitalist from themselves”
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