classroom-friendly video version of an Oatmeal comic strip*
2021-07-07T20:38−07* / at the about* post – at bit.ly/dateposted – anyone can link to this post from its date: July 7, 2021
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you either think you know the truth
or see that it’s beyond the mind
relative truth is what is thought to be
and depends on what else is thought*
2021-07-06T12:33−07* / at the about* post – at bit.ly/dateposted – anyone can link to this post from its date: July 6, 2021
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We are being lied to. Constantly, and in more ways than we realize. By
omission, by distortion, by half-truths and by outright deception. Our
minds are being actively messed with by powerful people with limitless
resources to ensure their continued domination of the planet at any
cost. Our very perception of reality is being assaulted on myriad
fronts. Until humanity finds a way to wake itself up from its
propaganda-induced coma, the abuses of the powerful will continue.*
—Caitlin Johnstone
Here’s yet another phrase for our new vocabulary in the climate era: heat dome.
The heat dome building over British Columbia this weekend is expected
to shatter records and spread east across the Prairies. Dangerous heat
has already obliterated records across the western U.S. and from eastern
Europe into Siberia.
What used to be the joyful beginning of summer has become a time of dread for those of us attuned to climate breakdown.*
2021-06-27T21:41−07* / at the about* post – at bit.ly/dateposted – anyone can link to this post from its date: June 27, 2021
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Canadian inferno: northern heat exceeds worst-case climate models*
2021-06-20T09:03−07* / at the about* post – at bit.ly/dateposted – anyone can link to this post from its date: June 20, 2021
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2021-06-17T15:23−07* / at the about* post – at bit.ly/dateposted – anyone can link to this post from its date: June 17, 2021
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Peter Schjeldahl [SHEL-dahl] started work as a reporter in 1962 at the Jersey Journal, in Jersey City:
Hudson County, New Jersey, was epically corrupt. Several Jersey City mayors have gone to jail. One day, in 1963, a reporter hung up the phone and announced, “Tony Pro is having another press conference.” Mysteriously, everybody laughed. “Let’s send the kid,” someone said.
At the Teamsters headquarters in Union City, Tony (Pro) Provenzano sat behind an immense desk, flanked by central-casting bodyguards. Other reporters lounged and smoked. Only I had a notebook ready. Tony Pro told a series of obscene jokes about Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who was crusading against the Mob. And that was that. Tony Pro stood at the door shaking hands with us. Crinkle. In my palm was the first fifty-dollar bill I had ever seen. I said thanks, but I really couldn’t. I set the bill down when he wouldn’t take it back.
Staring eyes greeted my return to the paper, and the editor-in-chief called me into his office and shut the door. He said, “I don’t know what you did or what you said, and I don’t want to know. Never do it or say it again.”
Almost every day, I learn something new about the history I thought
I knew. When I learn parts of history that were erased, I’m struck by
how well the machine that is white supremacy works to keep marginalized
people oppressed.
Because
white supremacy is deeply woven into the fabric of society regardless
of what part of the globe you live, due diligence must be taken.
Anti-racism work must be approached with eyes wide open, with deep commitment, and a knowing that this is life-long work.
There are no time-outs and days off.
2021-06-01T10:08−07* / at the about* post – at bit.ly/dateposted – anyone can link to this post from its date: June 1, 2021