Feeding the Beast

Black Friday is behind us and Cyber Monday is breathing down our necks. It seemed this year that

black Friday lasted the whole month of November. I remember the days when people lined up in the freezing cold, blankets and chairs in tow, to get the best deal on a big screen TV, computer or the sought after toy of the year. It was the hunter mentality, enduring hardship to realize the exhiliation of bagging that mammoth. Not so much any more it seems. Internet shopping offers deals all year and who wants to wait for hours in front of Best Buy when you can order online in your jammies? Not me, that's for sure. Besides, do we really need more stuff? Do we really want to go on an exhausting shopping frenzy only to get something for the sake of getting something? No doubt that obligatory something will go back to the store the day after Christmas. One step forward, two steps back. Not to mention the horrific credit card bills that arrive in January. Nope, not me.

Maybe I am at that age when stuff just doesn't seem that satisfying. Maybe because we cleaned 40 years worth of accumulated stuff from a family home that "stuff" has lost its luster to me. How much "stuff" do we actually need?  Remember George Carlin's routine about stuff? What made it funny was the truth it told! I think that in this capitalistic nation we have been sold the bill of goods (pun intended!) that it is our civic duty to shop, stimulate the economy and keep America great. That is the beast I am talking about. The economy is alive and hungry and will ravage our civilization if it isn't fed.  Or so we are  told. The Economy no longer seems to be serving the people, the people are serving it. I realize it would be a difficult transition from the frenetic consumerism of today to a less stuff filled world, but I think the shift would be worth it. Benefits would include fewer products produced and discarded, and the satisfaction of repurposing goods. There would be fewer pushy commercials urging us to buy things we don't need. I can feel the peacefulness descending on me as I write this.

So Black Friday is becoming a dinosaur and cyber Monday is everyday. They are as outdated as the semi-annual sale of my childhood.  Call me the Grinch, but I can say that I am not sad to see it go.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS everyone!

Who you calling a migrant? Huh?

Can we clarify something, please! This morning a news article talked about a federal judge temporarily blocking the Trump administration from denying asylum to migrants who illegally cross the southern border. What are we talking about? This statement clearly mixes apples with oranges. 

People that cross the border to work are often called migrants and this country has had, like it or not, a symbiotic relationship with them. 

Some are legal, many are not. They have harvested our crops and we have paid them a fraction of what a US citizen would get. They have no social security numbers so any benefits they could get would be minimal if at all. They are not a drain on our economy, they support it, often at their own expense because that is better than starving. This year because of administration policy that changed and many crops rotted in the fields. Sad for everyone.

mi·grant

/ˈmīɡrənt/

noun

1.

a worker who moves from place to place to do seasonal work.

synonyms: immigrant, emigrant

A group of people, that legally seek asylum are called REFUGEES. Not migrants. Not illegal.

ref·u·gee

/ˌrefyo͝oˈjē/

noun

a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.

It is our humanitarian duty to offer refuge. It is not illegal. These people go through

channels. Can we please stop calling them migrants and respectfully call them what they are? REFUGEES.

I don't expect Trump to change his tune because he is pushing a fear based agenda that "illegal migrants" are bad people and we need to keep them out. Maybe Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric would like to go pick tomatoes? 

But I respectfully request that the media get it right and stop parroting what gets erroneously repeated. 

REFUGEES. They deserve a chance to find asylum here. 

Remember "Truth, Justice and the American Way"?

Truth, justice and the American way was the motto for Superman. While I wasn't alive when he was conceived of in 1938, I remember as a kid watching George Reeve play Superman on the TV screen doing good for all.

Benjamin Moore in a July article for The Chicago Tribune says this:

Superman was the first superhero to introduce Americans to a new role for their government. ...Superman's first appearance in 1938 showed him combating social issues. 

Delivering justice, protecting family and stopping corruption, Superman represented the newly expanded New Deal state. ...Superman vowed to use his powers only to advance the greater good and fight pervasive social ills. He had an infallible moral compass and an unquenchable desire to make the world a safer place.

The Superman generation had ideals and a sturdy moral compass. My parents willingly did their civic duty, cared about justice, fought for the little guy and believed that government cared about and for us. Maybe it was naive and idealistic, but it got this country through the depression and two World Wars. It wasn't perfect, we disagreed a lot, but we also listened and worked at solutions to problems. 

What happened to us? Truth, justice and the American way seems to have been forgotten. As a country, those ideals which have truly made America great, have been assaulted, mocked or forgotten completely. My greatest fear right now is that ideals (truth, courage, goodness, compassion, justice and mercy) do not matter anymore. We are bombarded with lies, propaganda, and misinformation on a daily basis. It's a lot of work and sometimes impossible to uncover what is actually true. It's enough to make heads spin and hearts break. The latest episode transforming Brett Kavanaugh from an alleged perp into a poor victim is just the tip of the iceberg. 

I'm searching for the silver lining in this mess. The only one I can come up with is that things have to get bad before we take action. Maybe things need to come apart before they can change. We have recognized that our country, and perhaps the world, is off course and heading into a ditch. Our chant for years has been "CHANGE!". Obama ran on change. Sarah Palin mocked change. Now we have a version of change. Our prayer has been answered, but maybe not in the way we were hoping for. Last night my husband and I were watching Empire Games on Netflix. The Roman Empire was a bloody time filled with conspiracy, power grabs, mentally ill sadistic kings and assassinations. I said "Whew, makes me feel a little better about what's going on today."  Maybe we are the tiniest bit more civilized than ancient times, or maybe we are just more sophisticated in our cruelty. 

History is cyclical, a spiral, actually. Empires come and go, we war and fight, and power changes hands. There are moments of peace and times of brutality. Patterns repeat, but always from the higher ground of greater awareness. We are slow learners. Robert Thurman, a worldwide authority on Buddhism and spirituality, told us that even though things seem to never change we are steadily moving forward in a positive direction, albeit slowly.  We may not see it in our lifetime, but he believes we are progressing and I hope he is right. 

So here's the silver lining: Times like this teach us the greatest lessons. We have power and authority over how we relate to everything that comes at us. Do not let social media, pundits or politicians disturb our peace! When we can find peace in turbulent times, we learn that our true nature is goodness. Anyone can get swept away at a rally. But who are we really? What do we believe in? John A. Shedd said, “A ship in harbor is safe — but that is not what ships are built for.” Marianne Williamson reminds us that we were made for these times. It's up to each one of us! We have the ability to choose our path and courage to navigate rough waters.  So take heart, learn everything, and let us be the best humans we can be. While we are at it, hug the kids, mow the lawn, run for office, eat a cookie, volunteer our time, and VOTE our conscience. We are all in this together.

FYI...

Center for Action and Contemplation
Valarie Kaur Revolutionary Love

Make Those S##thole Countries Great Again

Dear Mr. President.
We are a nation of immigrants. Your family is not Native American, sir, and immigrated to the United States in the 1800's, seeking a better life, as many did. They all came from what you now refer to as s##thole countries...Ireland, Italy, Poland, Russia, Germany. Yes, we have heard the story of your grandfather Friedrich. Sadly he did not add to the quality of life here in the US, but instead took

Friedrich Trump

advantage of the Gold Rush and "pursued a colorful career providing food, liquor and women to miners". After making his fortune, he came to settle in Queens, NY. When he married a Bavarian woman and she became homesick, he tried to reinstate himself as a Bavarian citizen. But because he had avoided military service, a familiar Trump story, he was denied and deported.

Friedrich said in his pleading letter:

We were confronted all at once, as if by a lightning strike from fair skies, with the news that the High Royal State Ministry had decided that we must leave our residence in the Kingdom of Bavaria. We were paralyzed with fright; our happy family life was tarnished. My wife has been overcome by anxiety, and my lovely child has become sick.

Why should we be deported? This is very, very hard for a family. What will our fellow citizens think if honest subjects are faced with such a decree — not to mention the great material losses it would incur. I would like to become a Bavarian citizen again.

Sounds familiar to the plight of many that you, Mr. President are seeking to cruelly deport back to their s##thole countries on grounds of little more than a parking ticket. You would prefer immigrants from Norway. The United States of America has been a sanctuary  since the very first immigrants set foot on this land, escaping religious persecution, taxation without representation, famine, war, poverty and death. People do not leave their beloved homes, their cultures, their families on a whim. They do so to find a way to survive, to live safely and freely,  to have an education and a better life. THAT, Mr. President is why we have always been a country that welcomes those less fortunate from s##thole countries. THAT is why we are an amazingly innovative, ingenious, hard working and creative melting pot of cultures and beliefs, skills and talents. Or in the words of Emma Lazarus immortalized on The Statue of Liberty gracing New York Harbor: 

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

People don't leave countries that care for them, provide healthcare, safety, and a sound quality of life, such as Norway does. Why you would think that anyone would leave their home in Norway to come here and face the violence, bigotry, discord, and disregard we are now known for is beyond me. You want to make America Great? Perhaps you could rethink what that exactly means. It does not mean going back to the 1950's. It's not about lucrative deals. It's not about coal or oil. It's about caring for people and the quality of life we live. It's about healthcare and education. The way this country is going I can imagine refugees fleeing it in the years to come to gain access to a better way of life elsewhere. We hope that we would be welcomed and make helpful contributions. Maybe you could use executive time to do some research, read, listen to people other than Fox and Friends, open your mind. Because right now Mr. President, the only person I would like to deport is you.

Have a MAGA day.

Reference:
https://www.snopes.com/trumps-grandfather-bavaria-deport/

FAKE News Primer

All I am hearing from the Trump White House is Fake this and Fake that. The media are liars, the news is fake. But not all the news! The news that Trump agrees with, he says that is real. There is also the concern about fake news stories that have been deliberately planted to influence us. It gets very confusing. So I decided to see if I could make it simple.

FAKE NEWS

1. Fake News has been around forever. Remember standing in line at the grocery store, pre internet days? Right at eye level were magazines with sensational headlines designed to entice you to buy them. Sometimes it was just too tempting to resist and I took the bait.  Most of the time I couldn't find the article that was on the front page. Other times it would be there but was something totally different from the sensational title. Fake News. Entertaining. No harm done.

2. Clickbait. This is another form of fake news. I saw them on Facebook all the time, not so much lately, thankfully. It's usually a sensational headline on a suggested post that gets you to click on it. A popular one was about a dead celebrity that you thought was alive. "Oh my God, they died?" CLICK. It turns out to be a major disappointment, a flim flam, bait and switch scam designed just to get your click so the advertiser can make money. Not nice. Pretty tacky. A little frustrating, not so entertaining, but still no real harm done.

3. Disinformation and Misinformation.  Distortions, fabrications, and other amusements. 

This is the stuff that SNOPES was created to combat. The ever circulating rumors and urban legends that are not true, yet people seem to believe them and pass them around and around on social media for years. No, you can't protect your privacy on Facebook by "cutting and pasting" a disclaimer. There is no couple trying to hack into your computer and drain its contents by friending you on facebook. And a bunch of others. They are annoying. Most are harmless. Do us all a service and fact check your stuff if it looks at all suspicious. Sometime people throw around stats that have no actual information behind them, like Trumps unemployment rate. The purpose of this misinformation is to make the person look more informed than they are. Very important for all of us to fact check and be discerning. If it seems crazy, it just might be.

4. Lies. Damn Lies. More Lies. I think most of us presume in this country that people tell the truth. Yes, of course there is wiggle room, interpretation, and perception issues, but basically we expect people, media, government to pretty much tell a version of the truth as Jack Nicholson would say.  Unless they don't. Famous lies include Nixon telling us he is not a crook and Bill Clinton's "I did not have sexual relations with that woman".  But now we are in a whole new ball game, where truth has become "alternative facts".


The Trump administration has taken lying to whole level never seen before.
Take for instance the nonexistent Bowling Green Massacre and the crowd size at Trumps inauguration. Side by side photos proved to our own eyes that Trumps crowd was not the biggest ever, yet the lies were repeated by Trump, Spicer and Kellyanne Conway.

Repeating what is not true until people start to second guess themselves is called gaslighting. It is a tactic designed to disempower and confuse.  As Chico Marx said, "who you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?". It is stunning to see Spicer, or Conway repeat the lies in the face of abundant and opposing evidence. But this is not to be dismissed as stupidity or craziness. Whether intentional, or incidental, it keeps people off balance, second guessing themselves, confused, bewildered and ineffectual.  It is also exhausting which may be the purpose, to wear the opposition down. John Podesta urges Americans to "maintain a heightened vigilance" and be wary of everything we read on social media. But also be wary of any effort, particularly from the White House, to disorient or discredit reliable information."

We all must continue to fact check and keep truth alive and visible! 

5. Propaganda. This is the malignant version of lies and fake news. Propaganda is information that may or may not be true, is generally biased or misleading and is used to promote a political cause or point of view. The master manipulator of propaganda was Joseph Goebbels. He could spin anything and get you to believe exactly what he wanted you to believe. The current administration is using propaganda to promote an agenda of fear. The repeated message is that we are not safe, people different from us, immigrants (of which most of us are) are dangerous and that he alone can save us. This is untrue and needs to be challenged on every front.

UPDATE: After a disorganized and rambling press conference recently, Trump silenced a Jewish reporter for asking a question about anti-semitism. After telling him to shut up and sit down, Trump responded that he was the least anti semitic person ever. Propaganda.  When Trump tells us repeatedly we are not safe and that he will make us safe: Propaganda. When we are told Muslims and immigrants are dangerous: Propaganda. What is most important is that we see through this rhetoric, support our journalists in their courageous job of reporting the truth and that we do not become too exhausted to stand our ground.


So that's my primer. Fake news of all kinds. Do know this: The truth is always the truth.  Our media is not perfect, but it is an important part of the fabric of our democracy! Media is not the enemy of the American people, it is its saving grace.

Alfred Worm. Journalist.

The Eve of Destruction

Sometimes it is hard to remember that posting on social media is like yelling down a well. What we get back is an echo of our own voices. Consequently, it can seem as if the whole universe is in agreement. I recently joined Twitter (@HillOat)so that I could get current news and headlines from a variety of major news outlets, senators, congressmen and a few writers that I esteem. I am following Fox news as well as Breitbart. It is eye opening!

Trump's approval rating, just updated, is 44%. In spite of my obvious shock that our country is being driven on the fast track toward fascism, it seems a lot of people approve of Trump's actions. In contrast, "before Hitler seized power (in 1933) only 850,000 out of 66 million Germans were card-carrying Nazis. After the Nazi seizure of power, there was a big surge in membership. At its peak, Party membership reached 8 million out of 80 million Germans in 'Greater Germany' or about ten percent of the population." (historyplace.com) We all know the impact that Nazi Germany had on the world.

So what does this mean? It means we need to listen to more than just our own voices. It means we need to start looking at the bigger picture. It means we need to channel our anger and outrage away from destruction. How do liberal, democracy loving, "snowflakes" survive in this climate? Perhaps, and we talked a bit about this in our mediation group last night, it is by answering the questions posed in the Hopi Elder's Prophecy:
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for your leader.

What is happening in the US is representative of what is going on in the world. It is a phenomenon, one that I believe has a greater meaning that just election disatisfaction or sour grapes. Fear is rampant. War, anger and hatred is everywhere and escalating as I write this. I wonder if there isn't some greater

process going on. Is it the human condition? Has the population reached a certain point where we lose our collective minds like lemmings running off a cliff? Is it the pervasive electromagnetic radiation our brains and nervous systems are bathed in causing a short circuit of reason? Is it Monsanto poisoning our kibble? Or is it entropy, we just get restless with order and need to destroy it. Steve Bannon (I never thought I would be quoting him!) believes that all dynasties fall, and he's right. Maybe it is our time.

Information, Misinformation, Disinformation and Just Plain Crap

When a can of worms is opened, it stirs things up. Never one to shy away from the controversial, I am opening a can of worms today that I am pretty sure will stir things up. Remember the X-Files: The truth is out there? (I think they also said "trust no one") Well let's start talking truth instead of sharing crap, over and over and over again. Yes, Facebook, I am talking about you. I realize that I have become the Truth and Justice League on Facebook, and while I feel strongly about correcting false information, I also hate being the one to do it. I know I am that friend who is the pain in your posterior. I mean no disrespect, but I really cannot tolerate the spread of fertilizer over the internet, as some of it is downright dangerous. 

In June 2016 several alternative health and conspiracy blogs published posts claiming that a Berkeley doctor had "blown the whistle" on chemotherapy as a treatment for cancer, revealing that it doesn't work 97% of the time and is only recommended due to practitioner greed (i.e., oncologists get kickbacks from suppliers). YIKES!

People, really? How many of you out there have been helped by chemotherapy? How many of you know someone who is alive today because of chemotherapy? I know many. Is it perfect? No. Does it also have risks and side effects? Yes, of course it does because it's designed to kill cells. Consider how many people die from not being treated. Consider what it's like to die from untreated (or treated, because that happens too) cancer. Not pretty or kind. AND consider how many people live!

But wait Hill, you say. What about alternative treatments? Aren't they useful. Aren't you a holistic healer? Yes. I believe in holistic care in combination (key word: INTEGRATIVE) with traditional medical care, I think they are amazing for supporting health and wellness as the difficult battle against cancer is waged. Do I believe in some super supplement sold without research or regulation on the internet to be the magic bullet and only treatment needed? Absolutely not. Do I believe people have a right to decide for themselves what kind of care and treatment they choose and believe in? Absolutely. But let's make that an informed choice, based on facts and not fiction. 

David Gorski in Chemotherapy versus Death from Cancer tells it like this:

"Chemotherapy can be rough. Very rough. But what is often forgotten is that it can also be life-saving, particularly in the case of hematologic malignancies, where it is the primary therapy. What is also often ignored by promoters of unscientific medicine is that doctors don’t use chemotherapy because they have some perverted love of “torturing” patients, because they’re in the pockets of big pharma and looking for cash, or because they are too lazy to find another way. They do it because, at least right now, it’s the best therapy science-based medicine has to offer, and in the case of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, for example, it’s life-saving. 

Yes, chemotherapy can make you feel nauseated and make you throw up. It can make your hair fall out. It can temporarily depress the immune system. It can cause bleeding complications, such as GI bleeding. It can cause kidney damage. It can cause heart damage. It can cause lung damage. It can cause nerve damage. It can make you lose weight. It can even result in your death from complications. In short, it is not something to be used lightly. Unfortunately, the disease it’s meant to fight is a formidable foe indeed. It is your own cells, and all too often the difference between the toxicity of chemotherapy against the cancer and against normal cells is not that large.

But what does cancer do? How do cancer patients die? They suffer and die in protean ways. Cancer can do everything chemotherapy can do (with the exception of hair loss) and more. I’ve seen more patients than I care to know suffer and die from cancer. 

One of the most frequent claims of cancer patients who opt for quackery alternatives (my edit) instead of chemotherapy and effective science-based therapies is that they want to remain healthy. Some, as Abraham Cherrix did, state that, even if they end up dying, they want to “die healthy.” It’s a dangerous delusion. There is nothing “healthy” about dying from cancer." 

Click on the link if you want to know all the ways cancer kills. 

Blaming medicine, doctors and life saving treatments, labeling them as "bad", greedy and self serving, is dangerous in my estimation. Does capitalism have its greedy hands in our medical system? Yes, and we need to address that. But let us not throw the life saving baby out with the bathwater! I know someone right now who is probably dying because he has opted for an internet silver bullet special. Doctors are not out to hurt us, all allopathic medicine isn't bad and each of us has the responsibility to choose our doctors and health care wisely. End of rant. 

May we all be healthy.