(Please don’t read this if you’re already as morose as I am. I don’t like the phrase ‘trigger warning’ but I’ve got a few here. Please remember I’m the guy who showed you this picture about the upcoming election).

and we come full circle.

Wow! An interesting if less-than-productive summer, with Labor Day approaching like a woman scorned. 

I’m tired. Like Sisyphus, the man in Greek mythology condemned to roll a stone up a hill for eternity, I feel like I’m fighting all these old battles. From race relations to war to… the basics of finding and holding a job in this economy, I feel tired. I thought we already fought the battle for human rights for people of color. I thought we fought (and won) the debate over endless war and nuclear weapons. It should be clear by now (even to the most obstinate) that human population overshoot plus love of cars, air conditioning and other fossil fuel toys dooms us to extinction in  a few short years. I’d go to a therapist, but thanks to the marvels of the way ACA changed my insurance, that’s out of pocket for me. 

This morning, I was about to post on Facebook about some new and recent conundrum. But there’s really no point. New evidence about the depth of Hillary Clinton’s involvement in voter suppression in the Primary impresses NO ONE. I’m distressed with how so many of Clinton’s supporters are aware of the problems of this campaign and are looking the other way. The ‘it’s our turn‘ mantra that has many women rooting for the first female president seems to also accept the notion that a female politician can and should be just as ruthless and underhanded as her male counterparts. All I can say is ‘remember how well the ‘first woman’ meme worked out with a certain Maggie Thatcher‘.

Hostile sentiment in much of the UK at the passing of the Iron Lady. You shoulda seen the graphics I DIDN’T post.

I was gonna write about this great NY TIMES op-ed article about the dumbing down of the electorate. I was going to wax indignant on the idea that (per Civics 101) Americans owe it to each other to understand what’s going on and be informed, and CAST AN INFORMED VOTE when elections come up. Except that (thanks to Consortium News), the Times itself used their article to throw BS out about the Russian ‘invasion’ of Ukraine. Umm, no. There was a Western-sponsored coup in Ukraine, Russians moved in, there’s a sort of Civil war going on… it’s complicated. But the US is not a benign actor in this, and this sort of propagandizing has reminded me of the Judith Miller case where the Times let Dick Cheney lie us into the Iraq war. I DO NOT LIKE THE DRUMBEAT FOR WAR WITH RUSSIA that seems to be coming around from the punditocracy that let us be lied into Iraq. But we’d rather talk about whether a San Francisco 49ers football player should stand for the National Anthem.

About that global warming thing… I just pulled out Planet Hospice, my play about climate and human extinction coming in a decade or so, and did a read of it. And I HAVE TO UPDATE. In a play that attempts to lay out just how bad our prospects are, I was actually too optimistic when I put it to bed prior to the Ithaca Fringe Festival. So a bit more bad news, but lots of new jokes and funny songs and puppetry must be inserted before you all get to see it at the UNITED SOLO FESTIVAL in New York on November 6. You are coming, right? You won’t be disappointed.

And mostly I’m here waiting to see what my school assignments are going to be for what passes for my day job. The ‘enrichment’ education business is going along well, primarily because schools have done away with lots of art, music and theater programs (interferes with the testing regimen that now decides whether teachers keep their jobs). But layoffs happen even at the sorts of minimum-wage tasks ‘proto-teachers’ like me take on. So I’m hopeful but not confident. 

I leave you with this. I don’t consider it hopeful, but it’s how I feel lately.I tried to find a version involving kitties, but wasn’t able to.

I hear you. I’ll be there soon as I can.