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You Are There: Experiential Theater to the Nth Degree

 

 

As a critic of the live stage, I usually make it a point to comment upon the sets. For example, in my review of Theatre 40’s recent production of John Morogiello’s The Consul, The Tramp and America’s Sweetheart, I noted that the location where the onstage action takes place - actress/movie mogul Mary Pickford’s (Melanie Chartoff) Hollywood office at the United Artists Studio - was “well-rendered by set designer Jeff G. Rack.” 

 

Mind Fogged in the Nuclear Anthropocene

Red hammer and sickle Communism logo

With the mind fogging meme of “Russian Influence,” we are avoiding a fact-based analysis of the 2016 election at our own peril.

Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason?
Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason.
Sir John Harington 1561-1612  -  (Also credited with being the inventor of the flush toilet.)

Tragedy, Comedy and Farce All Rolled Into One

The official mythic revisionism of the recent US electoral debacle now seems to be settling firmly into place: Putin did it – the outcome was a result of ‘Russian influence.’

One can see how the Russian Influence Mind Fogging Meme might be mutually convenient for the elites of both parties to unite behind. 

For the Dems it deflects attention away from their terminal corruption and incompetence.

For the GOP it deflects attention away from their gargantuan election theft apparatus, patiently assembled by the ruthless radical right-wing billionaires over the past decades . 

For the deluded and dis-informed members of the American populace it provides someone to hate besides themselves and each other. 

Allegations Against Russia Less Credible Every Day

The U.S. government has now generated numerous news stories and released multiple "reports" aimed at persuading us that Vladimir Putin is to blame for Donald Trump becoming president. U.S. media has dutifully informed us that the case has been made. What has been made is the case for writing your own news coverage. The "reports" from the "intelligence community" are no lengthier than the New York Times and Washington Post articles about them. Why not just read the reports and cut out the middle-person?

President Trump, Please Tear Down that Wall Against Mexico Before You Build It!

Wall Against Mexico discussions might be over soon; it won't be built, but we will see changes and perhaps improvements in US immigration policies. Throughout history, walls have ugly histories. Congress won't allocate monies to build the Wall Against Mexico, and nor will Mexico. Mexicans supply a large part of the labor in jobs that Americans don't want to do. WHY SHOULD THEY PAY FOR ANYTHING like a wall between our nations?President Trump, Please Tear Down that Wall Against Mexico Before You Build It!

President Ronald Reagan "Tear Down This Wall" Speech at Berlin Wall President Ronald Reagan delivers this memorable speech at the Brandenburg Gate.

What would revered Republican Ronald Reagan have to say about the Trump Mexican Border Wall? After all, Reagan's most famous utterance was his command and plea in a speech in Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate, directed to Mr. Gorbachev:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtYdjbpBk6A

Eat, Drink, and be Buried: Aspartame is a Carcinogen; California May Soon Declare It as Such

On November 15, 2016, the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Heath Hazard Assessment’s (OEHHA), Carcinogen Identification Committee (CIC) met to decide whether to list aspartame as a carcinogen. Just to be clear, no listing decisions are made at meetings such as this one; instead, the CIC members “prioritize” the substance and that then determines whether or not the substance at issue has a chance at being put on California’s “Prop 65” list of known carcinogens.

 

Remember, Proposition 65 (or “Prop 65” as it is now popularly called) was the referendum measure passed into law by California voters in November 1986, thirty years ago. Prop 65 requires, among other things, that all known carcinogens be declared (usually on food and drink labels) to consumers. It is so pervasive that even residents in other States will often see Prop-65 warnings about carcinogenicity on food and drink labels or on websites when ordering.

The CIC Voting Process

Court Rules Feds Cannot Prevent Local Governments From Banning GMO's; Hawaiians Unprotected from Egregious Corporations

The US Court of Appeals ruled back in mid December that federal laws
cannot be used to prohibit states and counties from creating laws
regulating, labeling, and even banning genetically modified crops.

This monumental decision by the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals was a
ruling regarding whether federal and Hawaii state laws supersede the
authority of individual counties to regulate the use of genetically
modified crops and pesticide use.

Because of its almost limitless growing season and its being a testing
ground for all kinds of Monsanto genetic experimentation and
modifications, Hawaii has been in the middle of the debates over Genetic
Modification for decades as Monsanto and others have used the islands for
many kinds of agricultural research and local farmers have vigorously
resisted them. This is a victory for Hawaii's farmers and for the 7000
year old history of agriculture itself.

Many of these same companies have abused the very concept of research by
spraying 20 times more insecticides and pesticides than is permitted in

Activists Disrupt Congress After Nine House Objections to Electoral Vote Count

Washington, DC – Three activists with Democracy Spring disrupted Congress today, issuing a citizens’ objection to the Electoral Vote count. They were detained and arrested by Capitol Police after standing up in the House chamber protesting massive voter suppression and Russian interference in the election. The interruption of the joint session took place after members of the House objected to nine different state vote counts.

“I will do what I must to defend our democracy.” said Tania Maduro, an organizer with Democracy Spring who took part in the protest. “I object to this Electoral Vote. Hundreds of thousands of American votes, especially those cast by people of color, were suppressed. We need a One person, One vote democracy.”

Why Release the Torture Report Now

A young man was tortured in Chicago this week. It wasn't an act of the Chicago police. It was live streamed on Facebook. And the President of the United States declared it an horrific hate crime.

The President did not advise "looking forward" rather than enforcing the law. Nor did he hold open the possibility that the crime might have served some higher purpose. In fact, he didn't excuse the crime in any way that might help recommend it for imitation by others.

Yet this same president has forbidden the prosecution of U.S. government torturers for the past 8 years and has now seen fit to keep a four-year-old Senate report on their torture secret for at least 12 years more.

Some people in the United States would maintain that environmental and climate policy should be based on facts. Some other people (there is very little overlap between the two groups) would tell you that U.S. policy toward Russia should be based on proven facts. Yet, here we are readily accepting that U.S. torture policy will be based on burying the facts.

Leaving the Age of Disconnect

It’s too easy simply to blame Donald Trump for the void that’s suddenly apparent at the center of American government — or will be on Jan. 20.

In fact, I’m utterly sick of hearing his name, let alone accounts of his latest outrage or trivial impertinence, which is the equivalent of crack cocaine in the news cycle: all Trump, all the time. It’s been that way for a year.

Trump is a symptom. But, come on, far less of a symptom — of a deep, raw social and cultural wrongness — than, for instance, the global war and terror, environmental exploitation, climate chaos, poverty, racism (old and new), infrastructure collapse, the commonness of mass murder, the limitless expansion of the security state, or the congealing of a one-party status quo that ignores all of the above.

Yes, Positivity, Pangloss, Partisanship, Propaganda, and Populism

 

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