We start GREEP zoom #213 with KANI XULUM and a fascinating exploration of the repression of some 50 million Kurdish citizens.

The great JENNIFER ROBERTS of the Carter Center updates us on a terrifying NC challenge to election integrity.

With TATANKA BRICCA we celebrate the return of LEONARD PELTIER to his people after FIFTY YEARS in unjust captivity.

A boycott of major corporations for Friday, February 28, is announced by DANIELA GIOSEFFI.

DC Home Rule is now under attack, & we get a first-hand report from MIKE HERSH.

The big attacks on the Big 3 of MEDICAID, SOCIAL SECURITY & MEDICAID get a new look from Prof. ERIC KINGSON.

We then examine the realities of MARTIAL LAW and what may soon be coming to the US.

The new EPA Chief’s attacks on funding for renewable energy elicits a question of what will happen with nuke power.

For a deep deep dive into the world of computerization, we then hear from the legendary LEE FELSENSTEIN.

As founder of the Earth-changing Homebrew Club that pioneered the digital revolution, Lee’s genius is now focussed on democratizing information.

Sunday, February 23, 2025 was a cold, wintry day in Central Ohio, but concerned citizens gathered at Rickenbacker International Airport to challenge the wisdom of building a $1 billion weapons factory in Columbus Ohio. The project, called Arsenal-1, would build numerous types of weapons, including flying drones, underwater vessels, and surveillance towers, for government agencies and the military.

“The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible.”

The words are from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (where else?), explaining the root causes of a dystopian world. The book may be a work of fiction, but his words are deeply embedded in reality – we need enemies, the worse the better! This certainty may well be humanity’s most profound existential threat. I fear it could be “the meteor” that hits Planet Earth, ultimately spelling extinction for the dominant species.

Mostly what we do is prepare for – and wage – war. We always wage it in self-defense, even when in retrospect its motivating factor is colonial conquest. When it comes to the manifestation of power, at its core are the words “us vs. them.” That captures the public spirit so much more fully than cooperation, connection, understanding . . . or, groan, love.

As far as I’m concerned, this is humanity’s primary challenge of the moment. It’s time to transcend war, the meteor of our own making.