Crisis and Cure: Writing Both Political and Personal

 There's a piece in the current New York Review of Books that anyone with an interest in geopolitics should see. In " A Hotter Russia," Sophie Pinkham reviews Klimat: Russia in the Age of Climate Change by Thane Gustafson.  Gustafson's argument is that Russia is pretty much on the rocks, regardless of whether it wins its current war in Ukraine or not. Moscow has seen itself as a "winner" in the case of global warming. It will gain year-around shipping in the Arctic, and have access to more agricultural land...or so the Kremlin thinks. The kicker? This may not be the case. Global warming is hitting Russia hard. Its forests are declining, its permafrost is melting, and its landscape is turning into mud and desert.  None of which is good for the West, of course. We'll be suffering, too. But it is an intriguing argument, and the idea that Russia, as Russia, might cease to exist before 2030, is both fascinating and alarming. A Siberian Winter, c. 2032

Fascinating article on the The Poynter Institute’s website, “ ‘They keep threatening to arrest us.’ The obstacles facing local news in Uvalde: San Antonio Express-News editor Nora Lopez talks about her newsroom's struggle against authorities to tell the stories of Uvalde. ” According to Lopez, the Uvalde police have begun actively harassing journalists who are trying to report on the mass killings there. It gets worse. It seems the police force is being assisted in this by some sort of motorcycle clubs (Lopez calls them “gangs”) that are associated with the police themselves. All of which makes you ask, if the Uvalde police did nothing wrong on that terrible day, why are they now trying to clamp down on journalists? This has a certain Putin-in-Ukraine feel to it.  Or, worse, it feels like corruption paired with tyranny.   If you did nothing wrong?

Your future? Fascinating article over on Bloomberg, “ Larry Ellison’s Lanai Isn’t for You—or the People Who Live There. ” It seems that Billionaire Ellison bought the entire Hawaiian island of Lanai. Now, the people who have lived their for generations are getting pushed out. And, of course, the justification is that “Well, he owns the place. He can do what he wants with it.” And with the people who live there. It all seems a bit like a metaphor for life in the modern age. And you have to think that if the 1% isn’t brought to earth a little at some point, we’ll all be living in a vast Lanai…a world of oligarchs, where ordinary people have been replaced by robots and slaves, or, given new technology, maybe some combination of the two. *** #VoteBlueToSaveAmerica

  This is a powerful piece that looks at how Jack Welch personified the changes in American capitalism that ultimately led to our current dystopia.  Worth reading. And remember to #VOTE in 2022 and #VOTEBlue. Go here:  https://the.ink/p/like-capitalism-itself-business-journalism?s=r&.tsrc=372

 If you have not already watched this, please do so ASAP. You owe it to yourself, and to the nation.  We all know what happened on that horrible day, but we had no idea just how awful it really was. And please #VOTE and #VOTEBlue