“Hope is Something You Create.” Greta Thunberg’s Superpower Analysis.
Borrowing a Cup of Hope #3
The New Yorker for 2-3-25 has a cartoon by Shannon Wheeler, captioned: “Just like last time, it was Unprecedented.” That’s how Trump’s Evil Genius tricks us into giving him our attention to his new headline every day. He comes up with something even more ridiculous, like the Helicopter crashing into a Wichita airliner was caused by DEI hiring- no truth in that; or how he stopped $50 million worth of condoms going to Hamas. He Said That. And suddenly no one is talking about how stupid Cash Patel looks in front of Sen. Amy Klobuchar, or how hapless Bobby Jr. is in front of Sen. Bernie Sanders. And the Republicans will skate through with one-vote margins on a clown car of nominees, who will then go forth and disgrace themselves, get fired and trashed like Rudy Giuliani, now broke and out of work, and not being bailed out by Trump’s Billions.
This is Trump’s modes operandi, the secret to his only success, his run on The Apprentice: Brutal Blather. It was there where he showed a feral charisma in his ability to continually come up with statements that were Transgressive. He says painful things that have no truth, but he says them out loud. The hapless MAGA heads say “He tells it like it is” like a wolf who tells the sheep “I will eat you.” We can’t tear our eyes away.
But we have better things to do. Trump lost a couple rounds this week because of Pushback. And that’s what we have to put our attention to.
Enter Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate change activist who understood at the age of 8 that not enough was being done to fight climate change. Her focus and guts have been a shaming example to us all, and hopefully we can process it to turn that clarity into determination and energy. There’s a great interview with Medhi Hassan, the British newsman on Zeteo (Link below) , with her on YouTube, “Hope is something you create.” It’s what I needed to hear, and I commend it to you for a deep connection to how to move forward. The first quote that hit me was “If we decide to take action, we can create the hope that we need.”
Greta is famous around the world for fearlessness, advocating for the Palestinians as well as climate . But she is mostly ignored by the world press because she doesn’t Buy In. She doesn’t Sell Out. She cut her hair short, wears no makeup, dresses like a teenager (she’s 22 now) in anti-style. She has been diagnosed as having Selective Autism, which she described as she "only speaks when necessary”….Thunberg struggled with depression for almost four years before she began her school strike campaign. ..Thunberg does not view her Asperger's as an illness, and has instead called it her “Superpower” (Greta’s Wiki).
I’m neuro-divergent myself in other ways. I too have fought depression, for decades; I’m sober 40 years, I have a short-term memory challenge from a head injury, I’m ADD. But I listen to her and I think, “I’ll Go With What I’ve Got.” Greta says we can’t wait around for a hero to save us. I say, Don’t Wait Til You’re Ready.
For some of this, we have to just wait in the tall weeds, take notes, count up our metaphorical ammo and get ready for spring. Example: Greg Pallast is an independent investigator of repute, and he is making the YouTube Indi News rounds about his research asserting that Kamala Harris was “robbed of 3,565,000 votes.” Enough to win. He’s got the data to show a successful voter suppression effort to keep Black voters off the rolls. He has been on Thom Hartman and also featured on Secular Talk (Link below). Voters are challenged in Democratic areas only, Black voters are 400% more likely to have their mail in ballot challenged and thrown out. The US Civil Rights Commission said the chance of your vote being rejected (spoiled, challenged or ignored), are 900% higher if you are Black. Think of how many counties are in the hands of Republicans.
House Minority leader Hakim Jeffries said there are no Democratic Election Deniers; it’s the first time I have disagreed with him. He won’t listen to the news that’s too big to fit in the newspaper. Paul Krugman quit the NY Times this week because his stuff is being managed to death.
But there is nothing new about this. It’s just that Republicans are very effective at cheating, and Democrats are ineffective at fighting back. It’s because we just cannot imagine how corrupt and perverse the other team is. It’s hard to swallow some times.
Here’s another difficult statistic, from ABC News, May 2022: “COVID-19 vaccines could have prevented at least 318,000 virus-related deaths between January 2021 and April 2022, a new analysis found.” That’s low-balling Trump’s incompetence. I have seen other reports that put it at a million preventable deaths, because of Trump’s mismanagement. But that’s not under discussion. I’m hoping deep dive researchers at Mother Jones are keeping track.
Jesus said “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”Pilate said, “What is Truth?”
That is my hope, that we will know, based on knowing hard truths. They’re tough to swallow, but turning away his not allowed. That’s what the Germans did.
#30#
Greta on Zeteo:
.
Secular Talk:
Covid report on ABC: - https://abcnews.go.com/Health/300000-us-covid-deaths-averted-vaccination-analysis-finds/story?id=84753284