And not to forget that Greenspan was a member of the so-called “Committee to Save the World.” What this triumvirate ultimately saved and sustained was not the prospects of ordinary Americans, but rather the fortunes of the superrich nurtured by neoliberalism.

“When the breakdown is an ongoing fact, something has to be done; it becomes impossible to ignore; the realities of a collapsing climate make themselves felt with escalating severity. Three main options remain…” Their previous book on climate change, The Overshoot, is a keeper. Reading this now.

I taught Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar for years. Although cast in a different historical context, this passage resonates with me today:

Chapter 6 The Long Term Radicalization or Entropy?

The song takes its name from a Republican propaganda poster of the time written in English and displaying a photograph of a child killed by the Nationalists, under a sky filled with bomber aircraft, with the song's titular warning written at the bottom.

It can and it did. It’s inside the Beltway and running riot across the land. Mr. Lewis, we heeded your warning for 90 years. Maybe we should have made your satire into a nice little movie. But that notion was too hot to touch at the time. Never mind that you had an instant bestseller on your hands.

Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark

The Trump regime sees enemies, internal and external, everywhere. Trump and his minions need only look in the mirror to see the real “enemy of the people.”

Douglas Rushkoff wrote a witty expose of sorts about the shared delusion of the “bunker brains” a few years ago:

This partisan vote is an especially shameful affront to the adopted hometown in which I have lived for years now. Nineteen brave men lost their lives to a wildland fire. Every time I walk around our beautiful public square, past their memorial, I am reminded again of their ultimate sacrifice.

My sons and I saw many movies together on the big screen. But two films stand out so vividly in my mind today. The boys were both teenagers, but didn’t grasp my motives then. They do now. “This German pastor paid the ultimate price for resisting evil.” “And this … this is how evil ends.”