This is not a polite post

A wee rant to get my blood running a bit hotter

Ahem. What’s wrong with only 2 dolls rather than 30? How much is enough… dolls, really? (Or cars, clothes, houses, untaxable income and wealth?)

What’s wrong with cutting off our access to Temu and Shein that only encourages fast fashion and plastic pollution?

What’s wrong (except that tariffs might not be the right tool) with manufacturing - a symbol of shared prosperity - returning to the USA?

What’s wrong with refocusing on states being empowered to express their population’s values, which do differ from state to state as the melting pot is resorting itself into sub-cultures? I’ve focused on relocalization for years, knowing that debt-based money and globalization is chipping away at ecological abundance.

What’s wrong with local communities, and bioregions having to hash out what to invest in through public meetings and citizen juries and participatory budgets and other social processes?

I’ll tell you what’s wrong.

The USA has abandoned shared pain and shared gain, like we had with good old tools like progressive income tax.

When the Grifter in Chief can make billions through his businesses only nominally outsourced to his sons, with the very same “money” we the people use to pay our bills, that puts a lie to Make America Great Again. L’etat c’est moi… eh?

When the Supreme Court cannot be held to ethical standards and justices will not recuse themselves (thank you Amy Coney Barrett for recently recusing yourself to not appear to have a conflict of interest) in cases where their buddies (and even wives) put a finger on the scale, that crashes the social contract.

When carefully litigated rights - voting, women, former enslaved, immigrants, children - can be erased at the stroke of a pen, that makes America frightening - not great - again. If you are not a little afraid, you are not paying attention.

Here’s a suggestion:

Divvy up tax dollars according to each state’s population and distribute all but what’s necessary for national defense and supporting the conditions set in the constitution and Bill of Rights, to states so every citizen has an equal chance at the national pot.

Yes, send decisions and spending for health/education/welfare back to the states via block grants determined by populations these grants serve, and see what happens. But you have to give states enough money to form their own Department of Ecology, Consumer Protection Bureau, FDA for food safety, NOAA, and protect already authorized collective treasured - like the National Parks, and public lands and endangered species for pity sake.

If the current President is going to withhold tax dollars from institutions they disagree with, and the institutions figure out how to release $ from their endowments to keep the research going, heck, will they own the rights to the fruits of their research? Ahem, do you really want that Mr 45-47?

We need to get our wits about us. To see that we can neither knee-jerk hate the T-admin or knee-jerk love it, but evaluate it according to the shared values of this nation. You remember:

• Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

• Liberty and Justice for all… remember?

• We the people

• More perfect union - not a see saw between warring parties with citizens as the always losers.

• Bill of Rights

• Articles of the Constitution

And, the shared ethical value of the Golden Rule.

And I want to point out that the current President, when sworn in, did NOT PUT HIS HAND ON THE BIBLE. He knows the power of images. Was it a dog-whistle to Project 2025 and MAGA that he’s the boss, not the constitution. L’etat c’est moi?

When Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and all the rest set their total compensation at no more than, say, 100 times their lowest wage workers and lobby to pass laws stipulating such, well, maybe we’ll have a bit of the shared prosperity and rising tide lifts all boats we had before Justice Lewis Powell wrote the Powell Memo, alerting his fellow Republicans that they needed to get busy as their privilege was being eroded by.. we-the-people. That was in 1971 - right about the time that shared prosperity started to unravel.

One-Doll Living

According to the Ecological Footprint - a total measure of human impact on the planet - we are far into overshoot of Earth’s carrying capacity. The data is expressed another way: if everyone consumed like Americans, we’d need five planets to survive. When I saw the graph below, I said, “Holy Shit” and it changed my life. My motto (one of them) for decades became “living well together within the means of the earth.” How far we still are from that goal… and going in the wrong direction.

But Drill Baby Drill. Bring Back Beautiful Coal. It’s insane.

But, folks, I refuse to be!

photo from T45.

OK, returning to your regular programming by a woman aspiring to serve her community as the ship springs leaks. A board member of the organization that delivers Meals on Wheels looking at whether Congress will reauthorize programs that protect and serve seniors and the vulnerable. Growing a big garden to feed self and neighbors. Working on a novel approach to affordable rentals based in, perish the thought, the intelligence of the sharing economy.