Why Bernie Is Better

In response to a diary, I was asked “What will a President Bernie do that President Obama hasn’t done and by extension, what a President Hillary wouldn’t do?” Fair question and I decided that the topic was worth a diary of its own.

Bernie Sanders on Cover Of Time Magazine

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Worse than Ignorance – The GOP’s Refutation of Reality

Image taken from http://www.deviantart.com/art/The-Fact-Free-Zone-507267804

“You can have your own opinions, just not your own facts”

There is so much misinformation on TV that most of us rarely get factual information [esp. in context] — as can be seen from a post I had written a while ago:   Al jazeera English News vs. US Corporate Media Infotainment.  Consequently, if one doesn’t watch TV, it simply means that one is unburdened by the “negative knowledge” that many others carry.

The 2015 GOP clown car vs. Bernie Sanders.

Here is an interesting summary of the 2015 GOP candidates (dubbed clown car) and their message of “Fear and Loathing” of the ‘other’.  To sum up their message is: “We hate the Mexicans (immigrants), Muslims, Gays, etc… they’re all coming to rape / kill us or in the case of homosexuals maybe force us to marry them?… If by any chance though you are a woman who is raped and now pregnant, you are duty bound to carry the pregnancy to term, because the GOP is “Pro Life” (in other words anti choice for women) and will defund Planned Parenthood even though Planned Parenthood already cannot use federal funds to cover abortions.

Tale as old as time: ‘Ending Ignorance and Want’.

Recently, I saw Respect: A Musical Journey of Women where excerpts of 60 songs, from “I Will Follow Him” to “These Boots are Made for Walking”  were sung by a cast of four women accompanied by a live band. The show chronicles the progress of women through the 20th century, against the backdrop of songs of each era.

While it is easy to celebrate women’s milestones– “We’ve come a long way baby”, we cannot ignore that in many ways progress has been stymied.  Promoting women as sex objects continues today — witness Britney Spears, the modern day Betty Boop / Marilyn Monroe. Today’s laws are a rollback on women’s protection —  from the numerous anti-choice regulations designed to prevent women from getting birth control pills or abortions to budget cuts  for programs assisting domestic violence / rape survivors.

We Cannot Eat Money

“Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.”

–Nineteenth century Nēhilawē (Cree) proverb

In a society where junk food, such as a twinkie is cheaper than a nutrient dense carrot, we can clearly see that our food system is broken.

In the video below, Michael Pollan explains why schools feed children ‘junk’…

Dark Snow Project, Miami & Our Fragile Planet

“There is no place on earth that’s changing faster – and no place where that change matters more – than Greenland”, wrote Bill McKibben in a Rolling Stone Magazine article. The Dark-Snow Project is the first-ever Greenland expedition relying on crowd-source funding; the project aims to answer the ‘burning question’: How much does wildfire and industrial soot darken the ice, increasing the melt rate? It’s unconscionable that scientists have to beg for funds to study such critical planetary issues. Please donate to the project if you can.